Tony Mulka

This is a picture of me and Tom at the OU library when he had his awesome mustache so count this for him too. Finding criticisms was surprisingly really easy after we asked the librarian how to search for them. I spent probably an hour or two trying to find my criticisms and Tom had to wait for me. I feel like a lot of people probably had the same problem I did which was find articles about the MOVIE version of the book. If I put the authors name in the search there were less of these, but a lot of the things I found compared the book and the movie. I ended up getting 4 criticisms and choosing between two of them at home because I wanted to leave, but it was more because I had plenty to choose from not because I couldn't find anything.

By the time Alex somehow accidentally stumbles to the door of yet another person he had wronged years ago, I pretty much stopped questioning the ridiculous odds. I guess Alex beat, raped, or killed pretty much everyone in the general area that he lived in. A still suicidal Alex is taken in by F. Alexander, whose wife was killed by Alex years before. Somehow I am not shocked that the man conveniently does not recognize Alex. The man wants to use Alex’s case for some campaign against the government. Eventually Alex’s medication causes him to become sick and pass out, when he wakes he is tortured with classical music until he attempts suicide, a tactic by F. Alexander to demonstrate the horrors of the government. Alex survives the fall, and is once again capable of his old violent thoughts. The sometimes omitted final chapter has Alex back with a new gang only to find that he doesn't care much for violence or classical music. Having outgrown his childish tendencies without the Ludovico medication active, Alex imagines starting a family. The final chapter serves almost as a way of saying “It all works out in the end,” but not in a cliche way. I think this is where Burgess makes his strongest stance against limiting free will with Alex as the ultimate example. Rather than having Alex return to his old self, which is what every reader wants, he has Alex change on his own. Alex giving up violence willingly reinforces the fact that taking away one’s will to live, even the most horrible person, deprives them of their chance of moral growth.

By the time Alex was finally able to leave prison, I was certain that he wished he had chosen to stay. The two week “Ludovico’s Technique” treatment tormented Alex by forcing him to watch violent films while a medication created negative connotations with all of the things Alex once found pleasurable. The goal of the treatment was to transform Alex into an upstanding citizen, but along with giving Alex horrible sickness every time he thinks of committing some kind of violent act, the medication takes away Alex’s ability to listen to classical music, or do anything that he used to associate with his violent tendencies. Even after everything Alex has done, I still feel bad when he decides he must kill himself only because he is unable to do something horrible to someone else, apparently the only thing that gave him any will to live. Honestly at this point in the book I am morally confused. While I know that Alex deserves everything he gets, I can’t help but feel sympathetic. I want him to be able to feel passionate about the things he loves, but the things he loves most are rape and murder. Possibly the most important question in the book is raised by the Ludovico Technique. Is it acceptable to deprive a person of their ability to make choices of their own free will, even if those choices will hurt others? Burgess makes a strong argument for the answer no.

One of the most fascinating parts of the book for me was when Alex goes to prison. He was set up by his closest friends and convicted of murdering an old lady. The cruelty that Alex and his friends are capable of not only toward strangers, but toward each other baffled me. I honestly thought several times throughout my reading that I couldn't have imagined such horrifying characters if I tried. Once Alex was inside, he was first able to find comfort only in the memories of past acts of violence he committed. Later Alex is given a bible to read and is particularly moved by the parts where Jesus was viciously beaten. Despite the obvious deep love of violence and crime, Burgess still manages to make Alex appear to be very intelligent. It wasn't until Alex agreed to be part of an experimental treatment in order to be set free that I realized something else about Alex: he really isn't as smart as I thought he was. Time after time he makes decisions based on what ever he wants in that very moment. Not only has this impulsive decision making already landed him in jail, but it then causes him to become extremely sick and lose his passion for what he loves.

Alex goes home after his eventful, but completely ordinary night, and goes right up to his room in his parents’ apartment and starts listening to classical music on his stereo. Right away this reminds me of Hannibal Lector, a serial killer (who somehow seems much more sane than Alex), because he had a love for classical music along with murder. The fact that Alex is 15, but goes on committing these horrendous acts is disgusting, but also incredibly fascinating and entertaining. When he wakes up in the morning, he goes to the record store to buy another piece of classical music, then lures two young girls back to his parents home, gets them drunk and rapes them. He then goes to his room and falls asleep to his new record, dreaming about more violent things he wishes he had done to them. 

I started reading the book and it was so non-stop that I didn't even stop to think about what was going on until the end of chapter three. I was simply amazed by everything that happened in the first night. Alex and his gang or “droogs” as he calls them get into a gang fight, mug an old man, break into a house to beat a man then rape and kill his wife, and rob a store. They also steal a car and drive it into a lake. All of these events back to back almost seemed unthinkable to me, except they were written down right on the pages. What was even more unthinkable to me was the fact that the boys showed no remorse for these actions, and showed nothing but pleasure, especially Alex.

When I first started reading A Clockwork Orange, I expected it to be very weird and somewhat sickening after seeing the movie. Despite being a short book, I soon learned that it would be a challenge to get through at least at first. On the first page alone I counted 13 words that are not part of the English language, or any real language for that matter. Anthony Burgess created a language for the book that the young protagonist Alex slides in and out of. Just in the first couple of chapters Alex and his friends commit a number of violent and horrific crimes, but I was not really able to grasp how sick a person Alex really was until I was able to pick up the language used.

When I was watching the Oscars a few weeks ago I have to say I was rather moved by this song, seeing everyone crying in their seats. In the acceptance speech, John Legend quotes Nina Simone saying “It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times in which we live.” I have only heard one of her songs, and from listening to it I would never have guessed that she was a civil rights activist. After learning a little about her I would say every artist owes something to Simone, by reflecting their world into their music. I can't say for certain if Simone's sound was revolutionary or paved the way for new musicians, but the idea of spreading a positive message and reaching people through music has reached John Legend, Common, and any other artist who is inspired by a cause.

In our class discussion, Nanny's decision to marry off Janie was one of the primary focuses. Some seemed to think that in the heat of the moment, Nanny punished Janie by forcing her to marry Logan. I think that even though the writing makes it appear as though it is a punishment, it is obvious that Nanny only wants what is best for Janie. She legitimately thinks that doing this protects Janie from making mistakes with foolish young men. What she doesn't realize is that forcing her to marry a man she doesn't love creates long term problems for Janie. Because we know that in the end she has at least three failing relationships, I have a theory that although unintentional, Nanny's decision causes Janie to struggle to truly love someone else throughout the rest of the novel.

I have said that I came into the project expecting to read A Clockwork Orange, but I'll admit that my reasoning was not originally because I have always wanted to read the book. As I'm sure many people would guess, I spend a lot more of my time watching television and movies than I do reading. The first time I heard of the novel titled A Clockwork Orange was on the cover of the DVD. I was going to watch it with a few of my friends, but we only got through about 5 minutes because one of them was very disturbed by the first rape scene. I still want to watch the movie, but when I learned that I could read the novel for this project, I decided I wouldn't until I was done. Another part of television that exposed me to A Clockwork Orange occurred when I was watching an interview of Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead. He said that when he applied to his college of theatre he performed an original scene inspired by A Clockwork Orange. I now want to see how Burgess's writing could have influenced Lincoln as an actor. I figured that this could be a style of his writing that I could explore during my project.

To be honest, I approached this project without really giving any other book a chance. At the top of a long list of books I would like to read, but still probably won't is A Clockwork Orange, and since I have to actually read one I figured it might as well be something I've had an interest in for a while. I already know a little about the book and from what I understand, the lives of the characters in the book are far different than my own. I think that this is something that will make me want to explore more into the society and pressures that created these characters, rather than being bored by something I have already heard. With this in mind I considered a few books that could spark my interest in the same way. Ultimately they had either already been chosen or I just decided against when it came to picking A Clockwork Orange, the book I intended all along. 

As much as I love The Black Keys' usual sound, I have always had a fascination with acoustic renditions of my favorite songs. There are many times when I find myself preferring an acoustic version to the original, but I feel like that’s not how it should be. "Little Black Submarines" blends this into a song of their own style, and if you watch the performance you can clearly see the difference in how the lyrics are sung, and how Dan Auerbach acts on stage. He even switches guitars mid-song. In fact, if you didn't listen to the lyrics you might think they were two different songs. The song starts as a soft acoustic tune, a far cry from The Black Keys usual work, but then picks up with an electric guitar riff interrupting the silence just after the halfway point. I love both styles of music, although they are two that I have found are not commonly combined. The song isn't even the band's best song in the scope of what made them famous, but Little Black Submarines is far and away my favorite song of theirs, and possibly of anyone's, because it feels like a great song performed two different ways, both of which fit my preferences perfectly.

This is an original song and should be considered culture as well.