Exceedingly Lukewarm

Well, over the last month or so my project has moved along alright.  My annotations just need to be polished a little bit, and I have a few good leads for what critisisms and background sources I will be using. This is still pretty stressful though considering Kreinbring will be reminding the class that we only have 17 days left to finish the project when I go to school tomorrow. 

Anyway, I’ve been looking for some interesting media I could post on here, and there are a few good youtube videos which have caught my attention.  This first one is just a brief video of the collection of cover art used for “A Clockwork Orange.” 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBf-tR0-t5Y

Although there’s only just over a handful, I found it interesting the different aspects of the book on which each artist decided to focus.  For some, it was simplicity, like the glass of milk which Alex faithfully consumes.  With others, complexity is thrown into the readers face, therefore showing the intense mind alterations of Alex. 

This other video is just one scene from the movie version of the novel.  After some research, its pretty clear that “A Clockwork Orange” is a cult-movie, as many “non-artsy” people tend to find it repulsive, whereas many others see it as the best directed film, ever.  Interesting..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBf-tR0-t5Y

My goal is to watch the rest of this movie sometime before finishing my paper just to see how Kubrick decided to take on the odd elements of the novel.  That’s all for now, but I’ll keep you updated.. if I find time in between abstracts.  

Due to some password issues, not to mention procrastination issues, this thing hasn’t been updated in a while.  But anyway, I am just about done with A Clockwork Orange at this point.  I decided to give up on Huck Finn after the first two chapters or so, as I found out that it was really just as dull as many people had warned me.  So now I’m left with a novel that I find much less dry, but I know will be more difficult to find some research on, seeing as it is not necessarily viewed as a classic. 

Honestly, I was also ready to give up on Clockwork Orange after the first few pages due to the language that Anthony Burgess had created for the protagonist of the novel, Alex.  This language (called Nadsat) is comprised of what Burgess saw as a slang of the future, mixing some Russian etymologies with English.  This new language really bothered me at first, but I decided to plug through, probably to prove to myself that I don’t have literary-commitment issues.  After about the first third of the book, I understood the almost all the words being used, and began to see why Burgess may have chose to write the novel in this way.  It adds to the futuristic, unknown element of the characters and plots, and really ends up making the novel more timeless since the language is not that of Burgess’ present-day. 

What is interesting is the way in which Burgess uses this new language.  I immediately thought after the first chapter of the novel that I would need to go online and find a dictionary of the words being used, at least so I could understand the plot.  After finding multiple lists of translations on the Internet I realized most of my assertions of the definitions were right, and that Burgess’ superb use of context clues leaves the reader with an understanding of the language. From that point on, I only looked up about 2 words for the rest of the novel.  Not bad, Burgess.

Well, more to come later I guess…

Well, for the past week or so this decision of what to read for my critical file and proved pretty dreadful and frustrating.  Honestly, I don’t know nearly as much about popular literature as I feel I should, and I’ve resorted to looking up potential novels online.  The fact that I’m naturally not that decisive isn’t helping either.  My criteria was (or rather, is):

-Somewhere from 150-400 pages long (It’s surprising how many books I considered were longer than this)

-Something at least partially controversial, to help in finding criticism

-Should be written in modern English, which I feel most comfortable with (i.e. no Shakespeare)

I’ve recently been leaning towards Huck Finn, but reviews of the book from some friends is that it is surprisingly pretty boring and it’s classic popularity might prove a little dry.  Still, it’s a classic and a couple websites said that the AP Lit test mentions it a lot. 

Also on my list is Clockwork Orange, Breakfast of Champions, and maybe Jekyll and Hyde, but that seems a little too short.  Yes, I realize that all the books are very different in style, but I’m sure that I have not read enough styles yet in my lifetime to determine which is my favorite.  Time will tell, but for now I’ll probably start reading Huck Finn, since I already have a copy at my house, and see if I fall asleep.