I don’t think the film suffers at all from excluding the final chapter.
spoiler
The redemptive ending of the book involves alex growing up and becoming bored of being evil without outside intervention, while the sort of ambiguous but sinister - “I was cured, all right” back-to-being-evil ending better fits the bleak tone of the film
So if I could go back I’d rather see the film first, and notice what is additional in the book rather than what was removed from the film. Still I like both so either way will be good.
I don’t plan on sticking this one on my reading list, but what exactly does chapter 21 cover? Pretty interesting that they left an entire final chapter out of a release.
Okay, so Clockwork was Anthony Burgess’ least favorite book. In the same way that Sir Alec Guinness hated his role as Obi-Wan in Star Wars, he felt it was populist schlock unworthy of himself as an artist. I think that we have to lay that aside. Although intuitively we might think the artists know their own work best, it’s not always the case.
Clockwork is about a youth becoming an adult. It’s also about mind control and the culture of violence, but the main theme is about growing up. There are 21 chapters because 21 is considered the age of maturity.
In chapter 21, Alex has been “reset” to his old violent ways in the previous chapter, but is now looking back on his violent youth and realizing he’s outgrown it. He’s thinking of getting a job and having a family. The problem was that the American publisher completely missed the point of the book and thought the last chapter was a cop out and that American readers could handle the ending on the down note of Alex becoming violent again. Burgess wanted the money, so he agreed and the US version was published with only 20 chapters.
Kubrick chose to go with the American version of the book because he’s just that kind of guy, but it’s left tens of millions of people completely misunderstanding the story. This alone makes me sympathetic to Burgess’ opinion of his own book.
I agree with you, but it’s generally not too far off. The prefrontal cortex is the most recent part of the brain to evolve, and it’s the most “human” part of the brain. The PFC continues to develop over adolescence, only finishing in the early-mid 20s.
That’s the part of your brain responsible for pushing back on emotion driven reactions and doing more strategic planning, among other things.
Not just that, but he runs into a member of his old gang who had pretty much just disappeared from the book. Got married, became an accountant or something, and that leads the main character, Alex, to re-think his life.
Given that the US is usually regarded as more optimistic than the UK, Burgess said something like he was the rare victim of ‘American Pessimism’ regarding the decision of the American publishers to leave out the final chapter. Unlike the UK version, the US one also had translations for all the Nadsat slang (it’s arguable whether it’s better to pick it all up from context or not)
The US version that I read lacked chapter 21 for the stupid reason that the US versions lack chapter 21, but it did not have any translations of Nadsat. All of it had to be picked up from context, as was intended. It actually helped me learn Russian about a decade later when I got into intel.
Yes, same name and the book and the film largely follow each other, there’s some noticeable differences throughout, but mostly matches up. One of the biggest differences though, and the one that I believe I’d read irked the author, was that Kubrick left out the last chapter/epilogue, which kind of changes the overall message of the book in some ways. I still think the movie is good and worth a watch on its own (definitely not with kids around), but the movie ends a little earlier than the book.
I’d sit down with the book first. There’s an extra chapter at the end which wasn’t published in the US at the time the film was made.
The book you want has 21 chapters, not 20.
I don’t think the film suffers at all from excluding the final chapter.
spoiler
The redemptive ending of the book involves alex growing up and becoming bored of being evil without outside intervention, while the sort of ambiguous but sinister - “I was cured, all right” back-to-being-evil ending better fits the bleak tone of the film
So if I could go back I’d rather see the film first, and notice what is additional in the book rather than what was removed from the film. Still I like both so either way will be good.
Burgess’s thought’s on the exclusion of the 21st chapter are in the foreword, here is the full book + some nice extras(pdf): https://usuaris.tinet.cat/palonso/llibres/a_clockwork_orange.pdf
I don’t plan on sticking this one on my reading list, but what exactly does chapter 21 cover? Pretty interesting that they left an entire final chapter out of a release.
Spoiler warning
Okay, so Clockwork was Anthony Burgess’ least favorite book. In the same way that Sir Alec Guinness hated his role as Obi-Wan in Star Wars, he felt it was populist schlock unworthy of himself as an artist. I think that we have to lay that aside. Although intuitively we might think the artists know their own work best, it’s not always the case.
Clockwork is about a youth becoming an adult. It’s also about mind control and the culture of violence, but the main theme is about growing up. There are 21 chapters because 21 is considered the age of maturity.
In chapter 21, Alex has been “reset” to his old violent ways in the previous chapter, but is now looking back on his violent youth and realizing he’s outgrown it. He’s thinking of getting a job and having a family. The problem was that the American publisher completely missed the point of the book and thought the last chapter was a cop out and that American readers could handle the ending on the down note of Alex becoming violent again. Burgess wanted the money, so he agreed and the US version was published with only 20 chapters.
Kubrick chose to go with the American version of the book because he’s just that kind of guy, but it’s left tens of millions of people completely misunderstanding the story. This alone makes me sympathetic to Burgess’ opinion of his own book.
Anyway, that’s the story of chapter 21.
Well put like that, it sounds a bit dumb to put an arbitrary number like 21 to some profound sense of “it’s time to adult, now”
I agree with you, but it’s generally not too far off. The prefrontal cortex is the most recent part of the brain to evolve, and it’s the most “human” part of the brain. The PFC continues to develop over adolescence, only finishing in the early-mid 20s.
That’s the part of your brain responsible for pushing back on emotion driven reactions and doing more strategic planning, among other things.
Not just that, but he runs into a member of his old gang who had pretty much just disappeared from the book. Got married, became an accountant or something, and that leads the main character, Alex, to re-think his life.
Given that the US is usually regarded as more optimistic than the UK, Burgess said something like he was the rare victim of ‘American Pessimism’ regarding the decision of the American publishers to leave out the final chapter. Unlike the UK version, the US one also had translations for all the Nadsat slang (it’s arguable whether it’s better to pick it all up from context or not)
The US version that I read lacked chapter 21 for the stupid reason that the US versions lack chapter 21, but it did not have any translations of Nadsat. All of it had to be picked up from context, as was intended. It actually helped me learn Russian about a decade later when I got into intel.
The book has the same name i assume ?
Yes, same name and the book and the film largely follow each other, there’s some noticeable differences throughout, but mostly matches up. One of the biggest differences though, and the one that I believe I’d read irked the author, was that Kubrick left out the last chapter/epilogue, which kind of changes the overall message of the book in some ways. I still think the movie is good and worth a watch on its own (definitely not with kids around), but the movie ends a little earlier than the book.