Some creative philosophical dialogue on the nature of goodness: choice vs. imposition. Not that I'm a believer of good or evil, but still fun topic of debate. What I love most is really just experiencing the world through the eyes of the young, remorseless, unsuspecting Alex, who embodies both the predator and prey elements of society. Choosing both violence and to be violated, all with the carefree disregard of youth. Plot-wise, I like the irony of the whole F. Alexander arc. Nice full circle poetic justice and predator-prey role reversal, "another Alex" indeed. The Introduction from the author talks about the British vs. American versions of the book, ending either with or without the final 21st chapter, respectively. I have to say I prefer it much better with. Sure it's more an epilogue and maybe de-intensifies the ending a bit, but it was necessary in a way and made the story fuller. Alex growing out of his phase of violence and destruction, not because of any crisis of conscience but because he got tired of it after awhile and wanted to move on to another stage in life. That's pretty realistic set against the course of adolescence, and at the same time not a cop-out to who the character was. It's believable that teenagers can do terrible, irresponsible things simply for the rush of both the doing and the getting away with it. But at some point after what I'm sure feels like a lifetime of this same thing, it's no longer interesting or worth the effort anymore. Clever how the invented teen-speak mimics actual language patterns so well it totally works as believable future colloquial. Some blends of Slavic here. The slangs take awhile to get used to but becomes like second nature after a few chapters. All the "horrorshow" and "heighth of fashion" being thrown around, maybe my favorite expressions along with "and all that cal" and calling cigarettes "cancers."
QUOTES:
"But, brothers, this biting of their toe-nails over what is the cause of badness is what turns me into a fine laughing malchick. They don't go into what is the cause of goodness, so why of the other shop?" (Alex)
"More, badness is of the self, the one, the you or me on our oddy knockies... But the not-self cannot have the bad, meaning they of the government and the judges and the schools cannot allow the bad because they cannot allow the self. And is not our modern history, my brothers, the story of brave malenky selves fighting these big machines?" (Alex)
"It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good... Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? ...And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprived of the ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good. So I shall like to think." (Prison Chaplain to Alex)
"It was like a picture of one of these bolshy great birds called peacocks with all its tail spread out in all colours in a very boastful way... I would like to pull out like all those feathers in its tail and slooshy it creech blue murder. For being so like boastful." (Alex)
"...when he said that I thought of killing a fly and felt just that tiny bit sick, but I pushed the sickness and pain back by thinking of the fly being fed with bits of sugar and looked after like a bleeding pet and all that cal." (Alex)
"Those horrible grahzny bratchnies in that terrible white mesto had done that to me, making me need help and kindness now and forcing me to want to give help and kindness myself, if anybody would take it." (Alex)
"They have turned you into something other than a human being. You are committed to socially acceptable acts, a little machine capable only of good." (F. Alexander to Alex)
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