Menippean Satire and Dystopian Literature: A Clockwork Orange in Critical Synoptics

    In my book Critical Synoptics: Menippean Satire and the Analysis of Intellectual Mythology, I have a section titled “The Synoptic Analysis of Programmed Texts.” The section opens with a chapter on “The Advent of Literary Dystopia.”  In this chapter, I devote several pages to the examination of several novels by Anthony Burgess.  After discussions of Burgess’s 1985 and Byrne (click HERE for my World Literature Today review), I set forth a description of A Clockwork Orange. 

    Preceding my remarks on this novel and the film, I offer arguments for drawing distinctions among dystopian and satirical works. I describe the origins of dystopian writing in Menippean satire, indicating that the third book of Gulliver’s Travels—the most “dystopian” section of the novel—is the generic forerunner of literary dystopia.

The third book portrays a dictatorship presided over by a scientific academy that parodies the utopian scientific government envisioned by Francis Bacon in The New Atlantis. Strictly speaking, satire doesn’t portray future states based on brutality, dictatorship, or totalitarianism—these belong to the domain of literary dystopia.   Instead, satire concerns itself primarily with the roles intellectual mythology and orthodoxy play in making dictatorships possible. Thus it is possible to identify elements in 1984 and Brave New World which are satiric and distinguish them from elements which are dystopian. Seen in this light, it is easy to recognize works such as Čapek’s War with the Newts or Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange as not being dystopias but satires. (148)

    In the conclusion to these remarks, this distinction is expressed succinctly: “If a work describes how bad things are, you have a satire on your hands.  If a work describes how bad things could be, you are tangling with a dystopia”. This formula is followed by the rather unsettling admonition: “However, notwithstanding the prophetic element, the roots of dystopia are found in Menippean satire and its diagnoses of euphemism and intellectual mythology. Curiously enough—indeed, ominously—the primary foci of Menippean satire in this respect are not despots or corrupt statesmen, but rather schoolmen and academies” (148).

    Here are my remarks on A Clockwork Orange:

 

 

                                                                   (158-159)

 

 A few pages later, the chapter concludes:

 

                                                                            (160)               

 

Note:  The chapter was expanded from an article of the same title appearing in Extrapolation, Vol. 40, No. 3, 1999, edited by Mack Hassler. 

                         *

Index:

"A Clockwork Orange - Alex Has been 'reformed' - ethical debates from the film and the novel"   August 11, 2025

"A Clockwork Orange - If Dim is 667 and Georgie is 665, then Alex is..."  August 12, 2025

A Clockwork Orange - a range of topics for discussion, research and commentary"  August 13, 2025

"Menippean Satire and Dystopian Literature: A Clockwork Orange in Critical Synoptics"  August 14, 2025

"A Clockwork Orange, Theories of Human Nature and the Politics of the Film and (evidently) Education: Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick vs. Educationalist Fred M. Hechinger" August 15, 2025

A Clockwork Orange - a range of topics for discussion, research and commentary

 Dystopian Literature and Film

 A Clockwork Orange: Dystopia or Satire?
 A Clockwork Orange: 1971 and 2011
 The Power of the State
 Human Nature: Hobbes vs. Locke 

 G.W.F. Hegel

 Michel Foucault
 Herbert Marcuse

 Institute for Social Research
 The "Human Condition"
 The Genealogy of the Totalitarian State/Police State: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany
 Hooliganism: Chavs, Neds and Political Religious Fundamentalism

 Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Crime 

 Gangs, Juvenile and Adult 
 Elite, Underclass, Working Class, Middle Class
 Recruiting police from the "hooligan" class
 Police Powers, the 4th Amendment, English Common Law
 Romanticism and Revolution: Rousseau, Napoleon
 Beethoven and Rossini
 The 60s and 70s--what happened to the Summer of Love, the Flower Children and "Let it all hang out, baby?"
 The dark emergence: Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and Charles Manson
 From Glam to Prole: David Bowie, Punk Rock, Grunge, Rap
 Good vs. Evil
 Choice
 Torture

 Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner

 The "Ludovico Technique" and Aversion Therapy
 Conditioning: Individuals and Societies

 Social Control
 MK-ULTRA

 Donald Ewen Cameron

 Yuri Besmenov

 Diana West
 DSM-IV: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the power of big pharma

 The role of education in cultivating and preserving a free and open society 

*

Index:

"A Clockwork Orange - Alex Has been 'reformed' - ethical debates from the film and the novel"   August 11, 2025

"A Clockwork Orange - If Dim is 667 and Georgie is 665, then Alex is..."  August 12, 2025

A Clockwork Orange - a range of topics for discussion, research and commentary"  August 13, 2025

"Menippean Satire and Dystopian Literature: A Clockwork Orange in Critical Synoptics"  August 14, 2025

"A Clockwork Orange, Theories of Human Nature and the Politics of the Film and (evidently) Education: Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick vs. Educationalist Fred M. Hechinger" August 15, 2025

A Clockwork Orange - if Dim is 667 and Georgie is 665, then Alex is...

Dim's number is clearly 665. It's difficult to make out, but Georgie's number is evidently 667.  Can we assume Alex's number is 666?

 

Further considerations:

Although smart film direction, amazing acting and a strong "satirical" posture drive much admiration, Alex is no hero.  The "turmoil" and tastes of the times (the film was released in 1970) and Kubrick's humor and eye for corruption and telling human foibles and quirks--often suggesting a "feel" for our character as creatures in an "Augustinian" universe--naturally evoke admiration. Young people have and will continue to admire little Alex.  But no--no!--he is not a hero, no more than Milton's Satan is in any way, shape or form a hero, and click HERE for more on that thread.

Considering the cinematic legacy of Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge (Alexander the Great, another "psycho"), casting McDowell in Star Trek Generations as Dr. Tolian Soran--the "Man who Killed Captain Kirk"--represents a wonderful point of departure for meditating on human nature and ethics. 

As Dr. Soran, McDowell represents the self-involved quest of a psychopath to create and dwell in an artificial universe of "perfect" self-gratification, and even if it means murdering the inhabitants of entire planets to do so. Captain Kirk of course represents "real humanity" struggling to survive, thrive and respond to the "real world". That Soran/Alex kills this real human hero speaks volumes as to the nature and centrality of our moral journey as human beings.

 

From time to time, our cinema produces remarkable revelations indeed.

Malcolm McDowell and William Shatner

*

Index:

"A Clockwork Orange - Alex Has been 'reformed' - ethical debates from the film and the novel"   August 11, 2025

"A Clockwork Orange - If Dim is 667 and Georgie is 665, then Alex is..."  August 12, 2025

A Clockwork Orange - a range of topics for discussion, research and commentary"  August 13, 2025

"Menippean Satire and Dystopian Literature: A Clockwork Orange in Critical Synoptics"  August 14, 2025

"A Clockwork Orange, Theories of Human Nature and the Politics of the Film and (evidently) Education: Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick vs. Educationalist Fred M. Hechinger" August 15, 2025

A Clockwork Orange - Alex has been "reformed" - ethical debates from the film and the novel

Alex has spent a fortnight undergoing the Ludovico technique, and he is now the subject of a public demonstration. He shows himself incapable of violence, and moreover he is incapable of defending himself from a physical attack. His "self-preservation circuit", so to speak, has been "disconnected". Also, his conditioning is such that sex now repels him.

After explaining how the conditioning treatment has made Alex incapable of physical violence, the Minister of the Interior asks for questions.  The prison chaplain stands and approaches the stage.

From the film:

Prison Chaplain: Choice! The boy has not a real choice, has he? Self-interest, the fear of physical pain drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. The insincerity was clear to be seen. He ceases to be a wrongdoer. He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice.

Minister: Padre, these are subtleties! We are not concerned with motives, with the higher ethics. We are concerned only with cutting down crime and with relieving the ghastly congestion in our prisons. He will be your true Christian, ready to turn the other cheek, ready to be crucified rather than crucify, sick to the heart at the thought of killing a fly. Reclamation! Joy before the angels of God! The point is that it works.

From the novel:

"Very hard ethical questions are involved," he went on. "You ... are to be made into a good boy, 6655321. Never again will you have the desire to commit acts of violence or to offend in any way whatsoever against the State's Peace. I hope you take all that in. I hope you are absolutely clear in your own mind about that." (2.3.11)

*

"It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. ... It may be horrible to be good. And when I say that to you I realize how self-contradictory that sounds. I know I shall have many sleepless nights about this. What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some ways better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions…" (2.3.13)

*

"The heresy of an age of reason," or some such ... slovos. "I see what is right and approve, but I do what is wrong. No, no, my boy, you must leave it all to us. But be cheerful about it. It will soon be all over. In less than a fortnight now you'll be a free man." Then he patted me on the pletcho. (2.2.24)

*

"Choice," rumbled a rich deep goloss. I viddied it belonged ... to the prison charlie. "He has no real choice, has he? Self-interest, fear of physical pain, drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. Its insincerity was clearly to be seen. He ceases to be a wrongdoer. He ceases also to be a creature capable of moral choice."

"These are subtleties," like smiled Dr. Brodsky. "We are not concerned with motive, with the higherethics. We are concerned only with cutting down crime--" (2.7.13-14)

*

You are passing now to a region where you will ... be beyond the reach of the power of prayer. A terrible terrible thing to consider. And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprive of the ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good. So I shall like to think. So, God help us all…" (2.3.13)

*

Until next time, a few points to consider:

Keep in mind Alex is a depraved psychopath. His facial expressions and displeasure as the chaplain speaks clearly show the treatment has not cured his psychopathy, but merely have programed his behavior. At the same time, note his positive response to the Minister's words. Notwithstanding the "fun" and satirical aspects of McDowell's madcap performance and Kubrick's clever and very careful direction, the character is a complete monster.

His willingness to subject himself to the treatment can itself be considered the act of a psychopath. (Indeed, what are young people entering the professions willing to endure to enter their chosen fields? Indeed, are educational administrators and programmers studying such questions?)

*

Index:

"A Clockwork Orange - Alex Has been 'reformed' - ethical debates from the film and the novel"   August 11, 2025

"A Clockwork Orange - If Dim is 667 and Georgie is 665, then Alex is..."  August 12, 2025

A Clockwork Orange - a range of topics for discussion, research and commentary"  August 13, 2025

"Menippean Satire and Dystopian Literature: A Clockwork Orange in Critical Synoptics"  August 14, 2025

"A Clockwork Orange, Theories of Human Nature and the Politics of the Film and (evidently) Education: Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick vs. Educationalist Fred M. Hechinger" August 15, 2025

Battle of Britain: a late (metal wing) Hurricane Mk. I, 1Sqn RAF, at RAF Wittering, 1940

A chain of alternate views

 

After viewing this together, old bachelor Plato turns to his most influential student and says, "My dear boy, you've been right all along." 

Aristotle, who embraces marriage (like everything else) with a sense of purpose and an appropriate sense of theological regard, replies, "Evidently, but I certainly have more questions than I had before."

Plato agrees: "You have often spoken of a telos, or end-cause, but does this end-cause, as you call it, push a soul, or does it draw, or pull, a soul to its eventual position or situation?"  

Aristotle: "As to that, my loving friend, one might instead dispense with the telos altogether and consider, thus: What then is the alternative? Take Happiness, for example. Are we compelled to Happiness by some telos, or should we dispense with the 'apparatus' of this word, and simply observe, 'Well, if not to Happiness, where else could, or should, we choose to go?' Could we indeed choose to move toward unhappiness?! Indeed, moving toward Happiness is part of our nature, if not part of our very substance and form." 

Plato: One way or another, in such matters how could I say you are wrong, Aristotle?"

Aristotle: "That, indeed, is the question."

A clue.

Once again, a possible Miltonic "teleology" of love and marriage, HERE. 

More?  Please click HERE. 

"Dr Corrias and Living Platonism: Teaching the Soul at Ralston College" with Professor Highbrows' Remarks

An interesting video, but I am not convinced there is a position one could call "Platonist", nor do I believe it is possible anymore to be a Platonist, assuming such a designation could be comprehensively described. Does a "Platonist" embrace a set of theories, or is the designation a characterization of a certain methodology?  Fundamentally, is a Platonist skeptical of his or her own most cherished views? Click HERE for an off-the-cuff impressionistic response to the Platonic worldview, then click HERE for more directly argued concerns that will point to our inability to be Platonists in any "defined" sense. 

We might ask ourselves, "Was Plato a Platonist?" Or, if this is unsatisfactory, we should ask, "Were he alive today, would Plato revise (indeed overturn) many of his proposals (assuming of course his proposals weren't already subject to his own strict review and revision 2500 years ago)?"  Hmm.  Also: "Does Dr Corrias too easily conflate Plato with the ideas of others, for example Plotinus?"

And so on.

Meanwhile, we have other Platonic considerations in need of Highbrow treatment:

Political musings, HERE.

A possible Miltonic "teleology" of love and marriage, HERE.

Plato is of course fascinating, but let's keep in mind this "proviso" from St. Augustine:

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

These are wonderful topics.  More in this vein?  Please click HERE.

Frank Zappa Interview, Freak Out, U.S.A., Fall 1967

Source: