Final Exam Blog

For my final exam I read A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. It was an amazing read. I grew attached to Alex, the protagonist, as the story progressed; I was extremely attached at the end of the book even though it was  just about 200 pages long.

The first thing that struck me about this book was the "nadsat," a type of slang spoken by the Humble Narrator and the youth of the book. The first chapter was hard to get through, but as the book progressed I learned the slang and it made the book a lot more fun. I think the slang served three purposes. The first, and most superficial, purpose was just to make the book more fun to read. Learning new words is fun, at least to smart, awesome people. The second purpose is to immerse the reader in the dystopian world of the book. If it were written in normal English then it would have been harder to believe it were a dystopia. The slang makes it as if the Humble Narrator was regaling us with this story. The third purpose was hard to catch, but it really is effective. When Alex is unconditioned and is "ultra-violent" he speaks in the slang. When he gets conditioned by the government he changes to a "proper" way of speaking. Then when the conditioning is reversed he reverts back to the slang. Atta boy, Alex.

I would have to say the next thing that struck me was the ultra-violence. Alex and his gang are teens and they are beating people up on the street, raping people, and Alex killed a woman. In the beginning of the story the balance of power leans towards the gangs; they rape, steal, and assault while the police do not do much. At the end of the story Alex mentions how the ultra-violence has gone down and suggests the possible reason of the police getting a lot more violent. This lends to the government being the cause of the dystopia in this story. Either the government doesn't do its job and the ultra-violence is perpetrated by the gangs or the gangs die down and the government commits the violence. Burgess here might be commenting that there is always going to be violence one way or another, it is like the Law of Conservation of Violence. Burgess exaggerates the violence to make his commentary clearer.

The last thing that was important to me was Alex's prison time and his conditioning. In the prison pre-conditioning Alex is still violent - he and some cellmates kill a man, with Alex delivering the killing blow. It is obvious that Alex isn't changed at all. Then, when Alex is forcibly conditioned he becomes a polar opposite of his former self: sniveling at the feet of someone who is threatening him, and licking the feet of a good looking devotchka. What we see here are the opposite sides of a spectrum. When the person in jail has no government interaction or help they do not get better. But when they are completely forced into "getting help" they are no better than without the governments help. I think Burgess is saying that we shouldn't just toss prisoners in jail nor should we condition them too harshly. We need to find that sweet spot to make them a better person while still making sure that they know they did something wrong.


I really liked this book. I don't know if I should recommend the movie; I haven't scene it. That being said, I don't know if I should watch the movie. In Burgess' introduction he explains how he wrote the book with 21 chapters, and that the book makes sense if you read them all. It certainly made sense to me. Burgess goes on to explain that the first prints of his book did not have the 21st chapter - the publishing companies left it out. The movie was then made without the 21st chapter and Burgess explains that there is definitely a different feeling in the movie than from the full book. Oh well.

I would give this book a 10/10. Books are awesome.

Best/Scariest Dystopian Novel, and Most Likely Scenario

I think the best dystopian novel that I have read is One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It also happens to be the scariest dystopian novel I have read as well. The premise of the book is that an EMP hit the United States and every piece of electronics were fried. All communication is cut, all refrigeration, everything. The book chronicles a family's struggle to survive in a small town.

This is the best dystopian novel for a few reasons. It is really nicely written, has a plausible, relatable scenario, and is scary.

 - The book is easy to read and I couldn't put it down. That makes it good.
 - The scenario is easy to relate to. When the power goes out we think its fun. But then we go to use the computer... and we can't. We go to turn on the lights in the bathroom... and we can't. We go to use thr fridge... and its warm. Almost everything that we use in our life is reliant on electronic workings.

 - That is what makes it scary. We can't imagine a world without electronics. Our cars wouldn't work. Planes would drop out of the sky. Phones would not work. Pretty much nothing would work. Some of this might not sound that scary, like all "ooh it's like camping!" but the main character in the book has a son who need to take insulin. And insulin needs to be refrigerated. And refrigeration requires electricity. Almost the entire second half of the book is the main character racing to save his son from dying.

I think that the most likely dystopian scenario is a biological one. I think that some pthogen is going to be produced in a lab somewhere and sweep through the world, killing and infecting billions of people. In our world this would be relatively easy to accomplish with all the connections people have. A man can wake up in China, eat lunch in Europe, and go to bed in Brazil. The pathogen would be able to spread like wildfire. I think that this is the most likely scenario.

I don't think that a corporate or goverment dystopia is even possible. As we have seen in the Middle East in the past few year, people will revolt if there is something they don't like. People revolt against goverments, strike against corporations, and boycott corporations as well. The only way that government or corporate dystopias would work is through brainwashing.

And speaking of brainwashing, how about religion? HAHAHAHAHAHA. But seriously though a religious dystopia would not work because a religion needs to reach a critical mass of followers to become powerful enough to warrant a dystopia. Recent polls show that religion is declining and atheism is on the rise. If that trend continues our world will be a much better place HAHAHAHAHA JOKING JUST KIDDING. But seriously if that trend continues the chances of a religious dystopia will decrease. This article has more on the subject.

                                           Drop in Religiosity Index

Country 2005 2012 % change in Religiosity

Global Average 77% 68% -9

%

Vietnam 53%

30% -23%

Ireland 69%

47% -22%

Switzerland 71

% 50% -21%

France 58

% 37% -21%

South Africa 83

% 64% -19%

Iceland 74

% 57% -17%

Ecuador 85

% 70% -15%

United States 73

% 60% -13%

Canada 58

% 46% -12%

Austria 52

% 42% -10%

Resist or Embrace the Feed

I think you should resist the feed. Just like that. The reason for this is that there will inevitably be a virus that will be able to infect the feed.

Viruses travel over the internet and it is obvious that the feed connects to and uses the internet. Therefore it is just a matter of time until a virus is made to infect the feed.

It was shown in the nightclub how the feed already has "virus" capabilities. The police, or whoever the authority is, come and basically turn the ruffians off. I don't want to have something in my head that gives others that capability.

Also, the feed in the novel has advertisements out the wazoo, and there is no real way to turn off those advertisements. Think about how annoying that would be, having advertisements whizzing around your mind, with no way to turn them off. You know how when you surf the internet and then suddenly a site starts playing an add WITH SOUND and you have no idea which tab/site it is and you are frantically switching from tab to tab yelling SHUT IT OFF SHUT IT OFF? Imagine that, but in your mind.

The only way that you could ever convince me to use the Feed would be that
       
 - A. My Feed could never ever get a virus and would never ever be affected by things outside my head i.e. the police.
 - B. My Feed could surf the internet freely.
 - C. My Feed would never get ads. I would see ads on the internet of course, but would not see ads directly beamed to my feed.
 - D. I could turn off and on the Feed freely.

Basically the only way I would ever let the Feed into my head was that if it was completely 100% mine and would never be affected by any outside things.

In summation I would resist the Feed as it is presented in the book, but would accept a Feed with stringent guidelines.

My Feed

First off, I like sports and I don't care who knows. Therefore, I would have sports news and updates on my feed. College sports, professional sports, it would all be customizable. Also, I would have news about my Fantasy Football team uploaded to my feed. 

I also like new technology and news from around the world. Therefore, news would be uploaded to my feed. I gotta stay in the loop!

I collect and sell Yu-Gi-Oh! cards so news and prices about them would be uploaded to my feed. I would try to make a special app that would watch card prices so I would be able to see trends in those cards and buy and sell accordingly. 

I also like the internet and news about the internet so the front page of Reddit would be streamed to my head accordingly. 

My family means a lot to me so I would have some sort of way to stay connected with them. Maybe it would be feasible to connect my feed with other feeds to communicate. 

Lastly I would have my email, texts, etc all connected to my feed so I would be able to send emails and texts without my phone or computer and there would not be much downtime between receiving something and sending out. However, I would want an option to turn this off so when I go on vacation I would be able to just relax and not have any outside influences. 

Similarities between 1984 and The Truman Show

One similarity is how the media is manipulated. In 1984 Winston is given the task of changing previous news articles; he gets an assignment to change "X did Y to Z" to "Z did Y to X" and basically manipulate the truth. In The Truman Show the same thing happens: All of the media that Truman sees is carefully created so that Truman has no idea of the "outside" world. Pretty much in both of them the media is manipulated.

Another similarity is how much surveillance is used in both of them. In 1984 there are cameras in every home that look at you and listen to you. Winston has to cram himself into a corner to have the camera not see him. Cameras are everywhere in 1984. The same can be said for The Truman Show. It is a TV show for heaven sakes!! Of course there are going to be cameras out the wazoo!!!!! Cameras everywhere!!!!

Another similarity is how people are encouraged to spy. In 1984 children are encouraged to turn their parents in if they see the parents doing anything wrong, and people are encouraged to spy on their neighbors.  Basically everyone is looking at everyone and if you are around someone your privacy is not guaranteed. The same thing happens to Truman in The Truman Show!!! Everyone is eyeing Truman and they report when he is acting out or weird.