A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orance - Anthony Burgess

10.01.07


The novel is quite violent. Graphic, too. I find to to be basically filled to the brim with gratuitous violence; I was very much infuriated by the first half of the book. I saw it to be pointless and anarchistic - I found myself vehemently disagreeing with the protagonist's whims and decisions.

The second part, however, decreased a bit on the violent part, but I still disagreed with it on a different level.

It provides us with a dichotomy - "free" agents freely willing evil or restricted agents forced to do the good? The novel seems to indicate that the former is "good", but I wholly disagree, for it begs the question that "freedom", as popularly understood, is intrinsically good, but I do not concur. Freedom is desirable, true, but it should not be so desirable as to override the security of others. To elevate it in such a manner would be making murder legal because it is done in the interest of freedom of expression. In short, the effect or utility of any action should be the focus of moral judgment, for I see the intention to be of little or no consequence; at best, the intention should be part of a different investigation other than ethics, such as psychology.

I still think it's too violent. I'll tolchock every last one of the characters in this thing if they existed.