131–140 of 170 posts
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House was at least in part based on Sherlock Holmes who infamously had his 7% Cocaine solution. It's not entirely unreasonable to think the writers of House would update that to be pills. Not everything is some vast conspiracy...
Except that this was such a small detail on Sherlock Holmes novels that few people remember it.
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I wouldn't place the blame on South Park. Kids are cruel. If they didn't pick up on the ginger joke, they would latch on to somebody else for some other innocuous reason.
lol gingers/redheads/carrot tops etc etc have been picked on for at least as long as I remember... well over 40 years. kids are brutal
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Because it’s not that interesting. Bad guy decides being bad is boring, and starts being good? Like, okay, but… why?
How is that any more boring than the opposite?
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William Gibson is the father of Cyberpunk, not Steam Punk. Though if Gibson is the father, I might say Bester is the grandfather.
Alfred Bester has fallen into obscurity for sure. How do you figure Bester and not Lem as the grandfather?
I think the most important aspect of "A Clockwork Orange" is it's use of language as a literary tool. It's also key to its misunderstanding, as it tends to lead towards secondary interpretations (i.e. Kubrick's film) more than the text itself. In addition to freewill being a key theme in the book, the nadsat language is used to disassociate the reader from the actions and events partaken in by the narrator. Alex desc…
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Im going to have to read that now. Loved Neuromancer, and Steam Punk is one of my favorite genres
Difference Engine starts great but then towards the end kind of fizzles out (IIRC, maybe I should read it again).
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One of the weirdest and most interesting things I've ever seen was how this crazy book created gang violence by illustrating dystopian gang violence...And I can guarantee you that some of the youth ("hooligans") in England that were committing Droog gang violence -- inspired by this book -- have reformed as elderly adults. It's not unrealistic. When you remove people out of cults and gangs and they begin to self-refl…
Are you really suggesting that real gang violence was caused by a novel?
> Kubrick himself, in response to a series of murder trials where the defendants explicitly mentioned his work, requested the withdrawal of A Clockwork Orange in the United Kingdom, where it could not be seen again until the director’s death in 1999.
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That's what editors are supposed to do. And authors gaining editorial control is why so many books later in a popular author's career are worse and worse - no one able to trim them. As examples I'll pick Neal Stephenson and J.K. Rowling. Even the fans have to notice how their work has gotten bigger and sloppier.
Trimming the book is one thing, and I agree with you 100% on both examples. Removing the conclusion in a way that completely alters the message is another.
Years later a new print included both endings and staged an essay contest to decide which is the "right" ending.
Eh, it's one of the rare cases where the movie is better than the book anyway.
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I disagree with the disagreements. We look naturally at the shock value of the violence but harshly reject the shock of a character turning around out of the blue. We never give "good" the privilege of irrationality.
Because it’s not that interesting. Bad guy decides being bad is boring, and starts being good? Like, okay, but… why?