Submitted by goossun  •  December 26, 2004

Films

What does the title, Clockwork Orange mean? I have found this. Is it correct? Does anyone from London know this slang? I also wonder what exactly th etitle, Family Plot means if you have seen the film, I mean Hitchcock’s.

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dave

December 27, 2004, 2:44am

Haven't seen Family Plot for ages, but if my memory serves me correctly, the title is a double-entendre. A "plot" is a piece of ground set aside for burial; a "family plot" is one shared by all the (deceased) members of the same family.

The second meaning is "plot" as in "plan" or "scheme" -- didn't the family in the film have some sort of fake-medium scam going...?

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Anonymous  (unregistered)

December 27, 2004, 7:53am

Found this at www.filmsite.org/cloc.html:

"[The title is said to refer to:]

- a clockwork (mechanical, artificial, robotic) human being (orange - similar to orang-utan, a hairy ape-like creature), and

- the Cockney phrase from East London, "as queer as a clockwork orange" - indicating something bizarre internally, but appearing natural, human, and normal on the surface."

Looks likely enough to me!

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goossun

December 27, 2004, 9:09am

Ananymos,
It is oUrangutan. So I think that conection is mere guess. I've read that before.

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nizou  (unregistered)

December 27, 2004, 6:14pm

No, goossun, the correct spelling is "orangutan." The correct spellings of some other words in your sentence are "connection" and "guess."

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nizou  (unregistered)

December 27, 2004, 6:14pm

Heh, by "guess" I completely meant "connection."

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nizou  (unregistered)

December 27, 2004, 6:15pm

I give up.

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speedwell2

December 29, 2004, 1:03pm

It's also correct in American English to spell it "orangutan." The first element, the "ourang" part, is "man" in one if the Indonesian languages, interestingly, so the title could also be read as if it referred to a cyborg, robot, or just an artificially "enhanced" person.

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Burgess Meredith  (unregistered)

January 12, 2005, 12:22pm

The "one of the Indonesian languages" in question is Malay, as any fule kno.

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mschlagnha

August 25, 2005, 9:26am

Read the book, I forget exactly what is written and in what edition (because it's not in all of them), but the writer defines it in the very beginning or introduction or something, it means something to the effect a fleshy object (orange) or (man) working exactly how you want it (like clockwork). So a clockwork orange would be a person who has been trained to work perfectly. Like our dear friend the main character. Hope that helps.

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