A Clockwork Crow

Day 183: Baddiwad villains you want, oh my brothers, my little malchicks and devotchkas? I give you the horrorshow and dorogoy baboochka of our droogy little Alex, she who taught him well the flick of the britva and sang to him the Ninth, the glorious Ninth, Joy-joy-joy, as he lay spatting in his crib. Viddy well, oh my brothers, and go boo-hoo-hoo for her mercies should she find you out walking some fine nochy and all on your oddy-nocky.

If you have not read or seen Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange," the above paragraph will make no sense to you at all. Set in a future London, Burgess' villains speak a "slanguage" which combines Cockney with Russian and is narrated from the opening page by Alex, the ringleader of a gang of teenaged thugs. The reader feels somewhat at sea at first, but soon absorbs the peculiar idioms. The writing is brilliant in my opinion, even moreso because although the reader hates Alex passionately, a sympathy develops for him as he is badly "done" by the system.

Stanley Kubrick's film version of the book adheres beautifully to the storyline. The visuals are powerful and disturbing. Definitely not a family film, I feel it pushes "1984" and "Brave New World" into the background of futuristic visions.

This photo was created for a "villains" assignment, by the way. Just thought I'd better offer a little reassurance to my readers who might think I'd gone 'round the twist.