One cannot discuss the diction of A Clockwork Orange without addressing the harsh, crudely original slang derived from Russian and Cockney English that Anthony Burgess innovates to narrate the entire novel. Burgess does not hesitate and immediately begins the novel with his invented vocabulary called nadsat. As a reader, this unprecedented approach is very disorienting at first, which is surely what Burgess intended. However, by the beginning of the second chapter, the meanings of several words can be inferred, and as the reader begins to draw connections to nadsat from their own brand of slang, the diction begins to flow in an effortless, conversation-type fashion. However, this understanding of nadsat enables the reader to identify in Alex’s terms which now brings with it the ability to comprehend the horrible and unspeakable crimes that Alex and his droogs commit. This is a clever technique because Burgess forces the reader to develop a sort of connection and sympathy with Alex. “In some sense, then, nadsat is a form of brainwashing—as we develop this new vocabulary, it subtly changes the ways we think about things. Nadsat shows the subtle, subliminal ways that language can control others. As the popular idiom of the teenager, nadsat seems to enter the collective consciousness on a subcultural level, a notion that hints at an undercurrent of burgeoning repression” (SparkNotes Editors).
Nadsat brings with it its own sort of omnipotent undertone that affects essentially every word in the novel. No matter what tone Alex is narrating in—gleeful, pensive, outraged—the use of nadsat flavors it with a unique undertone of gall and enmity which subtly insinuate Alex’s underlying hasty and puerile traits that he allows to guide him along his path of wickedness. It is a conscious moral decision that he makes just as he chooses to speak using the stark nadsat.
Works Cited:
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Clockwork Orange.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 06 Mar. 2011.
Well Kori,
ReplyDeleteYou make very good points about Burgess's use of Nadsat, but I do have to make one critic. Your title. bezoomy means mad... wonderful, solvos are words... great, but pony means "to understand" and by you saying to pony it is rather redundant. But other than that, your outlook on the reason Burgess uses Nadsat is rather accurate. Also if I may add, I read that another reason Burgess uses Nadsat is so the language used by Alex is timeless. Language slangs are generational, but an invented slang will never be. Very good analysis of the diction. :D
Using the SparkNotes Nadsat Glossary, it translates to "some crazy words to understand."
ReplyDeleteYes, this is exactly what I perceive as Burgess's intentions as to immediately beginning the novel with nadsat tongue. Such as nay authors' use of diction, Cathcher in The Rye, Alex's diction is most definately incorporated into our own vocabulary. As you seem to say yourself, this allows us to identify ourselves with Alex and the droogs. I appreciate your thoughts on sympathy felt from the nadsat towards Alex, I had not though of this though I did feel sympathetic towards Alex. Very good intake on the nadsat guding Alex "along a path of wickedness". All together, great insight and anlysis.
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