Line #26 WMG/AClockworkOrange


1	[[AC:Literature/AClockworkOrange]]
2
3	[[WMG: The Ludovico treatment didn't work.]]
4	Alex knows the treatment doesn't work, and was pretending to be sick to get out of prison at the demonstration. He then pretended to be sick whenever it suited him. An example is when he playfully "punches" his father and then flat out intimidates him, but only gets sick when it looks like he'll have to fight the athletic-appearing lodger. His getting "beat up" by the homeless is an attempt to shame his parents into bringing him back, until Dim and (Billyboy/George) find him and rough him up. His attempt to "snuff it" is him retconning jumping out of the window of a place he had never been to and filled with people who wanted him dead.
5
6	[[WMG: The wine was not poisoned.]]
7	It was the spaghetti that the writer poisoned.
8
9	[[WMG: Every character in all fiction is in all universes: Alex is...]]
10	ComicBook/TheJoker. Yes, Joker. Murder, rape, insanity. Sounds good to me.
11
12	[[WMG:''A Clockwork Orange'' takes place in the Prole Sector of Airstrip One, in an AlternateContinuity of ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]''.]]
13	The difference is that, since Alex is a prole, he is prosecuted by the prole's more lenient justice system rather than the Ministry of Love, since "Only the Proles and the animals are free."
14	* Ah, but what about the woman he kills? And the guy in the HOME house? They are both rich, privileged types. If this is based on the proles of 1984, they would all be equally poor. And if they were members of the Inner/Outer party, they still wouldn't have any nice things.
15	* And there's no way in hell the author could get away with writing a book like the one he was writing.
16	** Who says he did? As long as the book itself somehow escaped the memory hole, it doesn't matter what happened to the author after it was written.
17	** It is said by the Int Inf Min that he was taken away for wanting to kill Alex, although it was heavily implied that that was the cover story for him to be eliminated for his political beliefs
18	* The Britain A Clockwork Orange takes place in is not yet 1984's Airstrip One, but is in the process of becoming Airstrip One.
19	** While the government talks of rounding up political offenders en masse and the Ludovico Technique is an obvious attempt at large-scale mind control, the prison guard and police still have the crown as part of their uniform insignia, and the government official seems genuinely concerned about potentially losing an election (Also, government officials wear suits or uniforms rather than blue or black boiler suits). In addition, although much of the area Alex lives in is heavily vandalized, there does not seem to be any of the chronic shortages or war-damaged buildings and landscape of 1984.
20	*** Also, religion is freely practiced, and the world is hyper-sexualized compared to the atheistic and anti-sex Airstrip One.
21
22	[[WMG: Alex will eventually become Norman Stansfield in ''Film/TheProfessional''.]]
23	Both of them have a pronounced love of drugs, violence and classical music; if you listen carefully, you can hear Norman's accent slipping into a distinctive English one (though that's also due to Creator/GaryOldman's performance).
24
25	At the end of the original novel, Alex ends up in a high-paying job as compensation for his treatment. However, at some point between ''Clockwork Orange'' and ''Leon'', his crimes become too serious for the government to tolerate; Alex only just avoids being arrested. He changes his name, his face, and his accent, and immigrates to America. There, he eventually manages to become a DEA agent and, after ingratiating himself with local crime syndicates, finds a new high in those mysterious yellow and green pills, accompanied by fits of shotgun-wielding ultraviolence against shifty drug holders.
26
27	[[WMG: The story takes place in the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' universe.]]
28	The book's use of Russian as the basis for slang was possibly meant to suggest the new influence of Eastern (communist) culture, as does the use of Chinese slang in ''Firefly.'' Alex's world is a terraformed planet made to resemble London (albeit with fashions and such of the future.) Alex was an early victim of the Alliance experiments done on River, though they were not yet quite as horrific; the same brutality was used to change personality - first of a sadistic boy into a harmless one, and later an innocent girl into a crazed killer.
29
30	Alex himself grew up to be 'psychotic lowlife' Badger. He kept his bowler hat.
31
32	* That explains the needles-in-the-eyes-ask-me-what-I-see thing... and considering what we've heard of prison life in the ''Firefly'' universe, those scenes at least match up. [[PrisonRape How delightful.]] Since the outer planets seem to have the Old West culture thing going on, and the inner ones are more advanced, the London-esque settlements that produced Badger could produce someone like Alex.
33	** Firefly ''does'' have a Core World called Londinium.
34
35	[[WMG: Alex grows up to be V in ''Comicbook/VForVendetta''.]]
36	By the time Alex is an adult, Norsefire has arisen, replacing the British government of Alex's youth (the 1970's, as imagined from 1962). Alex develops a political conscience. After being sent to the Larkhill Resettlement Camp by the Party, Alex's old files from the Staja are discovered, and he is subjected to Delia Surridge's experiments. After Larkhill, Alex dons a Guy Fawkes mask and becomes the professional anarchist with his reservoir of horrorshow ultraviolence. Again, extremely violent, with a penchant for sophisticated tastes in music and culture. He loses the nadsat, but compensates by taking up the mannerisms of a literature professor while fighting corruption.
37	* Do you really think they would want to experiment on him AGAIN? He got a lot of attention after what happened, which was bad for the government. Surely they would just want to make sure he stays happy so everyone forgets all about him? He should become a police officer, or be working for the Ministry of Love.
38	** Yes, but the old government giving him a reprieve in both cases would be seen as a sign of weakness by Norsefire; so, they arrest him - a move justified, at least in the propaganda of the Mouth, by his frequent misdemeanors - and use him a convenient guinea pig while in custody.
39	*** Alex would never develop a social conscience. Remember (in the book at least), he stopped the old ultraviolence cause he got ''bored'' with it. Besides, the violence V enacts is politically oriented and not derived from a sadistic enjoyment of torturing a victim.
40	*** Ah, but that's where another reading of the book becomes necessary— Alex ''did'' tire of thuggery, but upon seeing Pete (who had begun to reform on a deeper level), he realized that he wanted more from life. He wanted a family. He began to grow up. He genuinely outgrew violence-for-the-sake-of-violence. As Burgess himself stated, he'd grow up to realize there's no point in tolchocking poor malchicks and devotchkas who were at the mercy of an oppressive government. However, that doesn't mean he'd never lose his sadistic taste. Oh no— should someone have taken away his new-found maturity and want for a better life for himself, he'd not only return to violence, but also ''hone'' it in a bloody maelstrom of vengeance. In other words, Alex becoming V makes perfect sense!
41	*** Still not buying it. V is almost the polar opposite Chaotic Good to Alex’s Chaotic Evil. Everything V does is motivated by his empathy for those not in power. You put them both in the same room and V would probably kill Alex just on principle. His rescuing Evy, collecting keep sakes of other victims, and extreme focus on neutralizing what he proactively views as corruption... I mean, basically at every turn Alex is the guy V throws daggers at.
42
43	[[WMG: ''A Clockwork Orange'' takes place a few years after ''Comicbook/VForVendetta''.]]
44	The chaotic, crime-ridden London is the result of everyone taking advantage of the fall of Norsefire.
45
46
47	[[WMG: ''Film/TheWarriors'', ''A Clockwork Orange'', and ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' all take place in the same universe]]
48	Gangs in ''The Warriors'' have a very similar appearance to those in ''A Clockwork Orange''. In both America and Britain, gang violence forces the increasingly authoritarian governments of Britain and the U.S. to take extremely radical steps to curb gang violence: one turns Manhattan into a prison colony, while the other experiments with thought control.
49
50	[[WMG:The narrator of "The Rake's Song" by Music/TheDecemberists is an alternate-universe Alex.]]
51	* 19th century Alex, to be precise. Somewhat less disaffected due to his wealthy birth, he is still remarkably callous and apathetic, as well as a criminally-minded, horny bastard. He vaguely tries to follow social norms by marrying, and having lots of sex, but he just plain gets bored after a while...
52
53	[[WMG:''A Clockwork Orange'' is set in the same continuity as ''1984'']]
54	* The government of ACO continued on into a totalitarian police state, developing its Pavlovian methods of brainwashing. The white building in the Staja eventually becomes the Ministry of Love.
55	** This has been discussed above.
56
57	[[WMG: The film takes place in the late 1970s or early 80s, in a possible alternate timeline]]
58	Most of the fashions the young people wear are based on the punk rock movement. That explains why type writers, cassette tapes, and vinyl records are still used, but fashion is a little weird. Alex and his friends stop at random people's houses under the pretense they need to use the phone, since cell phones don't exist yet. Also the brainwashing techniques are advanced, hence why it's in a timeline where science has advanced.
59	** The car they steal is called a Durango 95, implying that it's set some time after 1995.
60	*** The Movie was made in the 70s...
61	*** Not necessarily; after all, the Nintendo 64 wasn't made in 1964, and the Mercedes 220 wasn't built in the year 220...
62	[[WMG: The film takes place during the events of ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'']]
63	* Both were directed by Stanley Kubrick and take place in the future. The events seen here are what is going on when the Monolith is discovered.
64	** The homeless man does mention "men on the moon, and men spinning around the earth"...
65	* {{Jossed}} by the appearance of a ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' movie poster during a scene.
66
67	[[WMG: In another life, Alex was UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}]]
68	They both believe they're in complete control (And are for a time), they both partake in acts of (ultra?)violence, they're both sexual deviants, and they're both, shall I say, a few eggiweggs short of a smashed nest. Although I may have been swayed even further by the fact that they're both played by Creator/MalcolmMcDowell, meaning they also look alike (in movies, anyway).
69
70	[[WMG: Alex's (real) full name is...]]
71	Aleksi Velikii (Great Alexi). It's a reference to Alexander the Great, and in the Russian influenced world most of the other characters have western-ized Russian names (Georgie to Georgi,) (Dim to Dimitri), (Dr. Brodsky). Alex [=DeLarge=] is just his referance to his [[FutureSlang panhandle]].
72
73	[[WMG: Alex is [[MediumAwareness Medium Aware]].]]
74	He knows he's in his movie, as evidenced by his staring into the camera and toasting to the viewer, along with whistling along to the background music. [[GenreBlindness This does not, however, make him any more]] savvy than anyone else.
75	* Well in the book he addresses the reader multiple times, as it is told as though he was recounting it to a long friend or something. Take from that what you will.
76
77	[[WMG: If the movie is remade and "Americanized", it will take place in TheFifties, or in a {{VideoGame/Fallout}}-esque {{Zeerust}} setting]]
78	And the themes of government control will be a parody of TheRedScare, complete with them accusing Alex's [[BilingualBonus Slavic-based nadsat]] as "[[DevelopmentGag influenced by Russians and/or Eastern Europeans]]", and [[HistoricalInJoke using MK-Ultra stand-ins]] [[CaptiveAudience for when they "correct" Alex]]. The setting would also create a nice, CrapsaccharineWorld contrast between Alex's good-old Ultraviolence, and the cheesy, ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'' sitcom-style suburbias he tears through. While Alex and his gang will likely retain their more sophisticated traits (a love of Beethoven, wearing all-white one-pieces and Hats, etc.), and assert these traits as being better than the other, uncultured Americans, the rival gang they fight may become a parody of either GreaserDelinquents and/or [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks 40s-50s-era American Military uniforms]], with merely a taste of the UsefulNotes/NaziGermany [[PuttingOnTheReich military uniforms left over]] (or, if they are still full-on Nazis, they'll counter Alex's Slavic-based nadsat with a Germanic-based equivalent, using GratuitousGerman phrases ("Über", "Soldat", etc.), especially phrases related to Nazi ideology ("Übermensch", "Lebensraum", "Führer", etc.).
79
80	And for the record, I'm putting it here as a counterpoint to the previous WMG, as a way to give a theory of how A Clockwork Orange can be "Americanized" '''[[DudeNotFunny without being a blatantly racist look at African-American gang culture]].'''
81
82	[[WMG: Theory Related to the Firefly Theory Above: the Ludovico Technique is a Precursor to the Pax.]]
83	After Alex successfully ditched his conditioning, they tweaked the formula and method and tried again on Miranda. And we all know how that turned out. (In other words, we are damn lucky Alex didn't become a Reaver.)
84
85	[[WMG: Alex is [[Manga/DeathNote Light Yagami]]]]
86	They're both WickedCultured FauxAffablyEvil [[TheSociopath violent criminals]] who are seventeen years old for the bulk of the story, kill people, and [[SharpDressedMan wear nice suits]].
87
88	[[WMG: Pete was not really reformed at all.]]
89	He just let on that he had gotten away from crime to discourage Alex taking an interest in him. In RealLife, a person who's that criminal, that young, is very unlikely to just "get better," and we have no text evidence that Pete was ever even caught, much less subjected to therapy or otherwise "treated" for his criminal tendencies.
90	* Interestingly enough, one of the last times we see Pete, he is retreating as Alex beats up Georgie and Dim. It's possible he decided to just high-tail it out of there and just came along for the Cat Lady segment as OneLastJob.
91
92	[[WMG: Alex ends up killing the people who beat him up while under influence of the Ludovico Technique]]
93	At the end we see that he's back to his old self again, which means that the homeless men and his former droogs' days were numbered. And now being a VillainWithGoodPublicity, it makes getting away with the crimes so much easier. Frank Alexander will likely also end up becoming one of his victims. Following the events of the film, he incorporates a lot of bloody and gory [[EyeScream eye-related torture]].
94
95	[[WMG: Alex's gang and Billyboy's gang belong to different youth factions.]]
96	During TheSixties, British youth culture saw conflicts, sometimes erupting into large-scale violence, between [[ScooterRidingMod the Mods]] and [[GreaserDelinquents the Rockers.]] Alex's gang is shown as being one of several, at least, that share the same style, and we see another such in the film clips from the Ludovico Treatment. Billyboy's gang affects a very different look, and the instant hostility between Alex's group and Billyboy's could be an outbreak of the same sort of antagonism.
97
98	[[WMG: Alex has a good FreudianExcuse.]]
99	Considering the CrapsackWorld he's living in, how young he is, how his friends are and how absent his parents are, what are the chances he doesn't have a FreudianExcuse? Sure, he might believe he does it ForTheEvulz, and he might be right about it, but the world he lives in made him that way.
100
101	[[WMG: Frank Alexander's wife's death has even more hidden implications.]]
102	Frank states that his wife died a few months after the attack. So Alex isn't really her murderer and can't be technically said to have been directly responsible for her death. According to Frank, the doctors said pneumonia but "I know what it really was!". He is convinced that she died of a sexually transmitted disease that she got from her rapist on that fateful night. However, little Alex would have been checked and cleared of any [=STD=]s upon entry to the prison (the head guard asking if he's ever had any was a mere formality). He would have most certainly been checked before the Ludovico treatment. [=STD=]s stays in the system a long time and it would have been in his records if he had any such diseases. So this means that Mrs. Alexander could not have gotten it from little Alex. But that she had been fooling around behind Frank's back with other men.
103
104	[[WMG: Alex is a {{sadist}} but not a {{sociopath}}.]]
105	In the original novel at least where he got redeemed at the end. Psychopaths are born not made, but the condition can't be treated and they have shallow emotions, which does not seem to be the case for Alex. Sociopaths are made, but they also have quite shallow emotions and can't feel love. And if he truly were a sociopath how would It's heavily implied that Alex does actually love his parents or at least wishes a strong bond with them. In the last chapter he gets redeemed after seeing that Pete redeemed with a family of his own and Alex follows his example. A sociopath would not be redeemed that easily.\
106	This includes the theory that he has a FreudianExcuse. He UsedToBeASweetKid but got traumatized by the CrapsackWorld he's living in and didn't have very good role models. Because of this he felt the need to let his anger out by lashing out at others through violence. Maybe it all started after he took drugs or simply snapped and used violence.However, he realized he was hurting innocent people, even though he knows it's wrong and because he doesn't fully understand how his subconscious mind works and AdultsAreUseless, he came to the conclusion that he is an irredeemable monster. His parents, while not mean towards him, are quite neglectful, yet they are called decent. The other adults are either neglectful themselves or us force instead of trying to help young people solve their emotional issues. Alex knows he lives in a CrapsackWorld, so he probably found SafetyInIndifference and gave up trying to be a good person. He does have a love for culture, because deep down he likes order, and deep down he admires Beethoven for bringing joy to the world. He did say himself that Beethoven didn't do evil acts and only created music. The Ludovico treatment didn't work, because pain and force are not what can convince him to want to change. Seeing Pete being redeemed is what redeemed him too, because what he truly needed was hope for better change both in the world and within himself.

Context WMG / AClockworkOrange