Post #1290840
2026-03-26 09:17 UTC
@zebulonmysterioso When I first read A Clockwork Orange I was quite alarmed at how much Nadsat I could understand, but then I did study Russian for a while. For most people, Nadsat is a barrier and will make the book very hard going, but the use of "Russian" words makes it very visceral and they hit hard. "Tolchoking a starry vek in the golova" feels much more violent than "Hitting an old man in the head."
Replies (1)
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@zebulonmysterioso@mas.to 2026-03-26 09:25
@HollieK72 it sounds like you were almost the perfect audience for the book! I'd not known anything about it apart from the film being 'banned' at the time, so those first ten pages were hard work until I picked up enough context.