Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

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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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...?

Dave3 Dec-27-2004

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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!

anonymous4 Dec-27-2004

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

goossun Dec-27-2004

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

nizou1 Dec-27-2004

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

nizou1 Dec-27-2004

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I give up.

nizou1 Dec-27-2004

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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.

speedwell2 Dec-29-2004

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

Burgess_Meredith Jan-12-2005

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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.

mschlagnha Aug-25-2005

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