Articles comparison

In the articles read we can see how the authors of each one differ in some ideas. They have different points of view and focus in different aspects, meaning they analyze different things in their essays.

In “A Clockwork Orange and Its Discontents” the author emphasizes in the use of music in the movie by Stanley Kubrick. He thinks Beethoven music inside the movie has created a dissonant ambient in the public. Music is used to create certain space between the strong images of violence, rapping, etc. and the audience; so the message of each scene is not miss interpreted. But this space is used to create bad interpretations of the movie. For example, Beethoven’s Ninth expresses freedom of choice and the free will of a person, but it is played in very strong scenes of violence, which means that Alex has the freedom of committing such things. This is “the bad thing” of the music in the movie (according to the author).

In “Pulping A Clockwork Orange: The Visual Adaptation of the Novel as a Violent Form of Interpretation” the author does more emphasis in the interpretation that a lot of violence in both the novel and the movie of “A Clockwork Orange” has the audience of each. There shock absorbers in the movie and the novel. In the novel the excessive use of Nadsat helps us vaguely get the amount of violence reflected in each plot. Otherwise, the movie’s music (classic music) does not help hiding the strong images, even when it was Kubrick’s intention. This happens because when the audience puts together the image and smooth rhythm of classic music, they may think that violence is good and enjoyable.

As we can see in both essays the authors express their inner opinion, but both make reference to other art and critics. They both also disagree with me in some aspects.

The author of the first essay is constantly saying that Kubrick’s didn’t use the music in the movie. I think the music in the movie helps us go through the strong image of young guys living in a dystopia they created their selves and get the artistic meaning behind it; which is that youth doesn’t have the proper education to understand what is good or what is wrong. They are all controlled and stereotyped by a society that turn them in clockwork oranges whether they are good or bad.

“Pulping A Clockwork Orange: The Visual Adaptation of the Novel as a Violent Form of Interpretation” is more precise than the first essay. What I didn’t like about this one is that the authors starts to give a comparison between the movie and the book. Even when the movie is more popular than the book, I can’t stand that some aspects are able to stablish which one is better. In the book Burgess makes Alex tell us the story and in the movie Kubrick makes us be Alex. In one we get to know what is happening through the main witness (Alex), in the other we are the witness. So both are well achieved and no matter what aspects (such as the ending of the story) we are given both are great stories with amazing thing. In the book the nadsat (which is accused to destroy English language) and the music in the movie (which is accused of having poor artistic meaning), in my opinion are amazing.

In both articles we can see authors criticizing a good movie and a great book, and I find it uncomfortable because they are giving arguments that I don’t find strong enough to defend their points of view. The ending is not a good reason to make a movie better than a book, and the nadsat and the music are not bad used or staining the British nor the American version.