A Clockwork Orange (novel)/WMG

A Clockwork Orange

Every character in all fiction is in all universes: Alex is...

Joker. Yes, Joker. Murder, rape, insanity. Sounds good to me.

A Clockwork Orange takes place in the Prole Sector of Airstrip One, in an Alternate Continuity of 1984.

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."

• 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.
• And there's no way in hell the author could get away with writing a book like the one he was writing.
  • 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.
  • 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

Alex will eventually become Norman Stansfield in Leon.

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 Gary Oldman's performance).

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.

The story takes place in the Firefly universe.

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.

Alex himself grew up to be 'psychotic lowlife' Badger. He kept his bowler hat.

• 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. 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.
  • Firefly does have a Core World called Londinium.

Alex grows up to be V in V for Vendetta.

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.

• 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.
  • 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.
    • 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.

A Clockwork Orange takes place a few years after V for Vendetta.

The chaotic, crime-ridden London is the result of everyone taking advantage of the fall of Norsefire.

The narrator of "The Rake's Song" by the Decemberists is an alternate-universe Alex.

• 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...

A Clockwork Orange is set in the same continuity as 1984

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.

The film takes place in the late 1970s or early 80s, in a possible alternate timeline

Most of the fashions the young people wear are based on the punk rock movement. That explains why type writers, cassette tapes, and vinyls 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.

The film takes place during the events of 2001: A Space Odyssey

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.

In another life, Alex was Caligula

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 Malcolm Mcdowell, meaning they also look alike (in movies, anyway).

Alex's (real) full name is...

Aleksi Velikii (Great Alexi). Its a referance 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 panhandle.

Alex is Medium Aware.

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. This does not, however, make him any more Genre Savvy than anyone else.

• 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

One day, A Clockwork Orange will be remade with a urban twist and the main characters will be black.

This troper got the idea from comparing the activities of the crips and Alex's droogs, how the Honeymooners movie was made, and if the movie was eventually remade and had to do a allegory involving black gang violence. I was surprised that some things can be easily altered to fit the mood... Rap will replace Alex's love for Beethoven, the music would be remixed with a rap beat, Nadsat will be replaced with slang (i.e. instead of droogs it's "niggas" and instead of "devotchka" it's "bitch") but the hard part is how to replace the scene with Alex singing "singing in the rain" since I doubt they would actually sing that.

Then I picture the dialogue would be altered to match the slang, so instead of "There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence." it would be changed to "I'm Alex D. Large and these here are my niggas Pete, Georgie, and Dim. We all sat in this here bar drinkin' malt liquors as we is makin' up our minds on what to do, the shit they put in our malt liquor is gonna make us bust a cap on someone's nigga ass tonight!" Then they cue the beating of the old man and the fight with Billy Boy's gang.

Now the problem is some people will find this a tad racist unless it becomes some sort of a symbolic allegory for the life and times of Stanley Tookie Williams or something. And if it did cause any controversial outcry due to racist changes then remember one thing... the original A Clockwork Orange was very controversial at first and it never got released in Britain until Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999.

• Well, apart from the fact that Burgess used nadsat specifically because he knew tying the book to a particular slang would make it really, really dated within a few years. Also the fact that it's racist. Why "black gang violence" rather than "gang violence", for a start?
• A tad racist? A TAD racist?!?

Theory Related to the Firefly Theory Above: the Ludovico Technique is a Precursor to the Pax.

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.)

The wine was not poisoned.

It was the spaghetti that the writer poisoned.

The Ludovico treatment didn't work.

Alex was pretending to be sick whenever it suited him (i.e. he playfully "punches" his father, but gets sick when it looks like he'll have to fight the athletic-appearing lodger) or when he absolutely had to act like it (the stage demonstration).