It’s a neat reminder of our ability to quickly adapt to new language via the context in which words are used. Whilst there are online glossaries, I would encourage you to try to work it out for yourself by noting the context in which the words are used. It baffled critics and readers alike upon its release, as the initial publications did not include the glossary of later editions. It’s a mixture of Russian and Slavic slang which Burgess labelled ‘ nadsat’. There’s no denying that, initially at least, the language makes this a difficult book. “Odd bits of old rhyming slang” said Dr Branom, who did not look so much like a friend anymore. Alex is imprisoned and subjected to an experimental behavioural modification process, the Ludovico Technique, which involves him consuming nausea-inducing drugs before being shown violent films, the idea being that he will associate the violence with feelings of nausea.ĭoes it work? I won’t give it away, suffice that to say there are some surprising twists. And me still only fifteen’Īlex is the leader of a gang of teenage misfits - ‘droogs’ – who drink drug-laced milk ( ‘the old moloko’) before committing a range of crimes, from assault, to burglary, to rape, to eventual murder.

That last sentence says it all: ‘money isn’t everything’. But, as they say, money isn’t everything’. ‘Our pockets were full of money, so there was no real need from the point of view of stealing anymore moneyor hit some old man in an ally and see him swim in his blood while we counted the takings and divided by four, nor to be violent to some shivering old grey-haired girl in a shop and go laughing off with the till’s guts. To translate the above quote into modern English: Burgess would not be surprised by today’s video game culture. It’s telling that it is obscured by the slang, as that is the whole point: the desensitizing of violence. The really significant word in the above quote is ‘ultra-violent’. It’s completely baffling at first, but it’s a key component of the book. This is the language of A Clockwork Orange, the infamous (thanks to the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation) 1962 novel by the English writer Anthony Burgess.

‘Our pockets were full of deng, so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting anymore pretty polly or tolchock some old veck in an ally and viddy him swim in his blood while we counted the takings and divided by four, nor to do the ultra-violent on some shivering starry grey-haired ptitsa in a shop and go smecking off with the till’s guts.

Anthony a clockwork orange author