This year marks the 50th anniversary of the ultra-violent novella "A Clockwork Orange." Author Anthony Burgess said the work should have been forgotten, but because of Stanley Kubrick's film, it seemed destined to live on. It's the story of the barbaric passions of a British teen and the state's attempt to impose a mechanistic morality over his free-will. Monday, we're talking with scholar Andrew Biswell about "A Clockwork Orange" and about why Burgess said the point of the book has been widely misunderstood.
Andrew Biswell is Director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester, England and the author of The Real Life of Anthony Burgess. He also served as editor for the new "restored text" of Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.
Music from Beethoven: Symphony No. 9