Saturday, March 04, 2006

A Prophetic and Violent Masterpiece

I'm drawn to Theodore Dalrymple, the nom de plume so far as I can tell, of a recently retired prison doctor.

Here, in an appreciation of ' A Clockwork Orange' he heralds 'Burgess’s creation of a completely convincing new argot more or less ex nihilo' as an extraordinary achievement. I tried to write some updated Nadsat last year and I think that I pulled it off. You can see it here.

Dalrymple's brutal evaluation of contemporary mores strkes a chord with me. He puts the boot into the youth who "persuaded that they already know all that is necessary, are disabused about everything, for fear of appearing naive".

It applies to more than youth, but not - I hope - to me any more.

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