Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/26/unseen-sequel-to-anthony-burge.html
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More than 25 years after Burgess’ death, wow.
I worry this would somehow ruin A Clockwork Orange, but I’m still eager to read it.
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So it’s going to be a rom-com?
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Sure hope they publish it with his handwritten notes.
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A Clockwork Oranger.
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I read a comment that suggested the situation is reminiscent of Brave New World Revisited, which no one seems to particularly remember.
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Or Go Set a Watchman?
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If only Ayn Rand had a similar epiphany. (Though in her case it would be that she was a bad novelist and horrifying philosopher.)
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I tend to be wary of books that the authors didn’t think were good enough for publication, but I’ll wait for reviews.
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Well, it seems both this new work and Brave New World Revisited are non-narrative commentaries on earlier pieces. Go Set a Watchman seems to now be regarded as a “first draft” (according to wiki).
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Probably just some sort of editing error, but the explanation for the title is not from the found manuscript.
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I’ve got it in my bookshelf. I even remember reading it - or the first half of it. I just can’t rembember what it exactly was about, except that Huxley kept claiming that his “Brave New World” was closer to reality than Orwell’s “1984”. I do remember that I found Huxley’s attempt to review his own work not quite convincing and even less interesting.
Another thing I remember is that Burgess said he whished not to have written A Clockwork Orange after Kubrick’s adaption became increasingly popular with the “wrong kind of people”. So the sequel might be as disappointing as Brave New World Revisited - or something completely different.
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We now know Orange is meant as a noun and not a adjective.
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That’s been known for a while now.
I’m still sure the orange will be even oranger in the sequel.
A Clockwork Oranger: What I do I do because I like to do, again.
And I also know; 1. the book doesn’t contain an actual orange. 2. the ms. is called “The Clockwork Condition”.
A wise decision, but consider that story-not-good-enough-per-author would not be a problem for Hollywood.
Sometimes it’s easier to do an adaptation of a mediocre story because there’s less pressure to remain faithful to the source material for fear of “not doing justice” to it.
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True. I wonder if that’s how Kubrick felt. His film is significantly different from the book. (The book – which I enjoyed – has many oddly funny, surrealistic observations). My understanding is that Burgess was pissed off about that, and also felt that his book’s Nasdat language should have been featured more in the film. Whatever. Perhaps a case where the author thought their book was fine… but screwed up (again) by Kubrick (not that I’m complaining).
For example, Disney’s first animated Marvel movie:
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He also wrote this in a letter to Orwell. Orwell had sent a copy of 1984 to Huxley because Huxley had been one of his teachers at Eton.
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