Clockwork Language - Glossary of Nadsat

The phrase “As queer as a clockwork orange,” which inspired the title of Anthony Burgess' famous novel, is first of all “good old East-London slang,” as the author explains in an interview conducted after the success of Stanley Kubrick's film based on his novel. (If you've missed it, you can find it here!).

Intending to bring together “the organic, the lively, the sweet, in other words 'life' – the orange –, and the mechanical, the cold, the discipline,” the writer added “an extra meaning” to it, thereby giving life to a “sour-sweet word.”

“Anybody who knows cockney slang would know the term, anybody who doesn't can give a meaning to it,” comments Burgess. In the same way, the writer crafts new meanings for his novel by giving to some Russian words “a Joycean* twist into English.”

The Nadsat Language is Burgess' creation for his “little squib of a book”

* Burgess was a renown Joyce scholar and Joyce passionate.

Glossary of Nadsat Language

Words that do not appear to be of Russian origin are distinguished by asterisks.

*appy polly loggy – apology

baboochka – old woman
*baddiwad – bad
banda – band
bezoomny – mad
biblio – library
bitva – battle
Bog – God
bolnoy – sick
bolshy – big, great
brat, bratty –

A Clockwork Orange – The Sour Sweetness of Original Sin

“[A] human being is endowed with free will. He can use this to choose between good and evil. If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange – meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil or (since this is increasingly replacing both) the Almighty State. It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil. The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate. Life is sustained by the grinding opposition of moral entities. This is what the television news is about. Unfortunately there is so much original sin in us all that we find evil rather attractive.

[…]

[M]y little squib of a book was found attractive to many because it was as odorous as a crateful of bad eggs with the miasma of original sin.”

           Anthony Burgess, 1986

      “A Clockwork Orange Resucked” – Introduction to the UK version of his novella

                                                            

Enjoy this 1972 interview with Anthony Burgess and Malcolm McDowell, on Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange (1963) and Stanley Kubrick's eponymous feature (1971).

This conversation interestingly interlaces Burgess' reflections on the genesis of the novel and his insights on language, man, and free will, with McDowell's opinions on the creative freedom of working with Kubrick, and on his (successful) attempt to turn an “evil force” into a “real personality,” that of Alex Delarge. 

 

As Burgess comments, “Alex is a man in that he is violent, as men are, he loves beauty and he loves language. These three things go all together.”

The beauty of classical music is surely one of the things Alex is most attracted to. 

The rhythm, the fluidity, the colour, the taste, and the evocative force of language are surely some of the things Burgess can most finely render on the page.

“Oh, bliss, bliss and heaven. I lay all nagoy to the ceiling, my gulliver on my rookers on the pillow, glazzies closed, rot open in bliss, slooshying the sluice of lovely sounds. Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh. The trombones crunched redgold under my bed, and behind my gulliver the trumpets three–wise silverflamed, and there by the door the timps rolling through my guts and out again crunched like candy thunder. Oh, it was wonder of wonders. And then, a bird of like rarest spun heavenmetal, or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now, came the violin solo above all the other strings, and those strings were like a cage of silk around my bed. Then flute and oboe bored, like worms of like platinum, into the thick thick toffee gold and silver. I was in such bliss, my brothers.”

A bliss counterpointed by violent drives.

“After that I had lovely Mozart, the Jupiter, and there were new pictures of different litsos to be ground and splashed, and it was after this that I thought I would have just one last disc only before crossing the border, and I wanted something starry and strong and very firm, so it was J. S. Bach I had, the Brandenburg Concerto just for middle and lower strings. And, slooshying with different bliss than before, I viddied again this name on the paper I'd razrezzed that night, a long time ago it seemed, in that cottage called HOME. The name was about a clockwork orange. Listening to the J. S. Bach, I began to pony better what that meant now, and I thought, slooshying away to the brown gorgeousness of the starry German master, that I would like to have tolchecked them both harder and ripped them to ribbons on their own floor.”

Sara.

Burgess, Anthony. A Clockwork Orange. London: Penguin, 1996. 

Aubrey Beardsley and the Inescapable Music of the Pied Piper

The story of the Pied Piper of Hameln is well known. Of all its possible interpretations, I like to think of it as an allegory of the passage from autumn to winter. In Lower Saxony, where the story is set, this period of the year is fascinating. As if under the spell of the alluring notes played by the Piper, the richness and variety of colours transform the landscape day after day.

Autumn
 

The colours reach an indescribable intensity, reminiscent of the Piper's gaudy garment, and then fade softly, leaving only the veil of the winter frost to cover the bare arms of the trees.

Winter

It is probably not a case that the famous illustrator Aubrey Beardsley was one the many artists who have been inspired by this story. Among his very first publications, are precisely the illustrations for “The Pay of the Pied Piper” that formed part of the programme for the Christmas Entertainment at the Brighton Grammar School, in 1888.

The city of Hameln was infested by rats....

The rats follow the Piper outside the town

The Piper entices the children outside the town.

Although these were not the works that made him famous, some of the distinctive traits of his unique style are already present.

J'ai baisé ta bouche, Iokanaan - 1894

The platonic Lament - 1894

Black-and-white illustrations and a preference for grim stories.

Exaggerated garments and the recurring presence of skeleton-like figures.

.

The Black Cape - 1894

La Beale Isoud at Joyous Gard - 1894

These will famously become the emblematic figures of that decadent fin-de-siécle period in which Aubrey's short but intense career flourished.

Due to his weak health, Aubrey was well aware that a wintry veil would have soon covered his fragile body. And indeed, the inevitable notes of a Totentanz follow one another among the black lines of his illustrations.

Sara.

  

Maudites lunettes noires! – Agnes Varda's "Les fiancés du Pont Macdonald"

If you think about the French Nouvelle Vague, some of the things that may come to your mind are

Jean-Pierre Leaud's confused look at the end of Les quatrecents coups,

Jean Seberg's striped t-shirts in A bout de souffle,

Jeanne Moreau's fake moustache in Jules et Jim,

Jean-Paul Belmondo's blue face in Pierrot le fou.

Yet, Nouvelle Vague also means Jean-Luc Godard's black sunglasses.

  

Worried that the viewer could get bored towards the end of her feature Cléo de 5 a 7 (1961), film director Agnes Varda jotted down a short story.

“The heroes of this story are Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard. The truth behind this film, my wish 

to do it in this way, is that I had enough of Godard's dark sunglasses, very dark; one could never see 

his eyes. And I knew – I had seen – that he had beautiful eyes. So I made up a silly story.”

By the way, Cléo de 5 a 7 (1961) is not at all boring.

Deconstructing Capitalism

Every morning, the first glance I throw out of my window meets a kind of sun. It does not matter if it is cloudy, rainy or foggy.. this sun always shines. Under this sun many other signs and advertisements keep their place in front and above my window. But this sun in particular, reminds me of the big eyes of Dr. TJ Eckleburg in the commercial panel mentioned in F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s novel, The Great Gatsby.

“I spoke to her,” he muttered, after a long silence. “I told her she might fool me but she couldn’t fool God. I took her to the window.”— with an effort he got up and walked to the rear window and leaned with his face pressed against it ——” and I said ‘God knows what you’ve been doing, everything you’ve been doing. You may fool me, but you can’t fool God!’” 

Standing behind him, Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg, which had just emerged, pale and enormous, from the dissolving night. 

“God sees everything,” repeated Wilson. 

“That’s an advertisement,” Michaelis assured him. Something made him turn away from the window and look back into the room. But Wilson stood there a long time, his face close to the window pane, nodding into the twilight.

From The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

1925

Pasolini interviews Ungaretti on Homosexuality

Comizi d'amore - Love Meetings (1965)

While looking for the right set for his film Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St Matthew, 1964), Pier Paolo Pasolini embarks on a journey throughout Italy and, driven by restless curiosity and a deep passion, he gives life to Comizi d'amore (Love Meetings).

Equipped only with his microphone, Pasolini explores the most diverse social environments, traveling the Peninsula from north to south, and asking for Italians' opinions about sexuality, love, eroticism: farmers, workers, students, housewives, actors, writers, nobody is spared. He thereby provides us with a photography of the Country at the beginning of the 1960s (it was 1963, the film-documentary will be released in 1965).

Galeb in Regensburg : a Walk Together

Today I post the pics of a restoring morning with my musician friend Galeb. Few days ago, due to several and complicated reasons, we met in Regensburg, a suggestive Bavarian town. 

We had a walk, a coffee, a chat and a few jokes.. Then once again, we said good bye... 

Who knows when will the next meeting be! 

Lukily any of us can keep track of his adventures by listening his ...

Free Music :   

https://soundcloud.com/galeb-and-the-seagull

Official Site:   

http://galebseagull.com/

See you Galeb !  

All other pics below ..

Music of Kalmykia: Okna Tsahan Zam

The Republic of Kalmykia is the only country in Europe whose main religion is Buddhism in its Tibetan way, due to ancient migration of peoples from the East. It is part of the Russian Federation and it is located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Its culture and traditions are still in vigour today and they conserve typical aspects of central Asia folklore. Among those, there is a particular method of singing through which it is possible to express multiple sounds simultaneously. Okna Tsahan Zam is an interpreter of this Art.

I thank my friend Andrea for letting me know the following video belonging to Tim Cope Journeys Channel.

Galeb and the Seagull - "The Letter"

One fine day Galeb (Goran Erjavec) decided that his goal in life was not mastering the art of classical guitar; on that very day he set aside his ten-years-long classical bildung and chose the lure of rock and roll, the rusticity of blues, the euphoria of funky.

Good friends and fair musicians accompanied him in his first steps, contributing to the realisation of his a first, genuinely felt EP.

This was but the beginning of a long (and ever longer) series of journeys.

His city had become too narrow for his creative flights, Galeb needed "an open space". Next stop: New Zealand! Six fruitful months, that brought him back with a lot of new ideas and the determination to dedicate himself to music.

From that moment on, the northern hemisphere of his art would be the faithful voice of his "room-neighbour" and life companion: Galeb's younger sister, the Seagull (Gaia Erjavec).

Galeb and the Seagull make a powerful duo, performing captivating “100% organic beach-music”... and warming up for the next departure together. A year in Australia full of adventures and meaningful experiences, that would see the fearless Galebs coming back home with new energy and creativity.

Even though separated for some time, following diverging paths, brother and sister would shortly meet again at home, Trieste, just in time to record "Sweet and Sour, Please!", their ticket for the next destination: the crazy streets of Berlin. 

And the right place for street musicians.

Listen to: "Sweet and Sour, Please!"

  

Here Galeb has the chance to share his experiences, emotions and passions directly with the people and get the best of the city's vibrations to cultivate with care the seeds of what will become "Picking Flowers". A sincere solo album, the result of the first six months busking in Berlin, with the Seagull and alone...

Listen to: "Picking Flowers"

… and the flowers are continuing to bloom! Soon, very soon, Galeb will share with us the impressions of the last months of experiences, meetings, travelling, and hard work!

Here's “The Letter”, a taste of “The Sailor, The Bird ans the Butterfly”, the new album.

  

Enjoy and share the music!

Where to next?

On Soundcloud, listen to Galeb and the Seagull's music and download it for free;

Watch the videos on the youtube channel;

Follow his flights on the constantly updated facebook page, never miss a gig!

The Hands of the Apes

Sometimes, the thought comes to my mind that the way we are living with our body is misleading. I get the strange feeling, for example, that my eyes are not entirely to see any more. It's not up to them, though. They have been doing an extraordinary job for 28 years and I am grateful to them for how they managed to overwhelm successfully hours spent in front of the laptop. But what about my part? Am I able to use my eyes up to their potential?

Our sight can spot target miles and miles away, but how many times during the day can we raise our eyes above the horizon? In most of the cases, this faculty is not of any use any more, even though the anthropologist C.L. Strauss wrote of a tribe with an extraordinary sense of orientation because they could spot Venus in the sky during day time. Then, he went to see old treaties of navigation and he found out that it was possible for old sailors of our civilisation as well, but we can not say if the rest of the humans lost this skill or simply forgot how to do it. (Claude Lévi-Strauss, Myth and Meaning, 1978)

In parallel, if the first Homo Sapiens could have a walk in our time, he would take just a few steps before suffocating. He could not live in a world with million of cars as we do, but probably he could rely much more on his nose for his every day life.

So, doubts raised on me about other parts of the body. I am not sure the mouth is for eating and the tongue to taste food. I am not even sure if my hands are grabbing correctly things I move from a place to another.

On the contrary, when I see Chimps on TV handling rocks or stick, I perceive they really mean those actions. Their hands seem to have a conscience on their own when they touch what soon will be a tool for fishing ants trough a hole in the ground. I started to believe that in these moments, their hairy hands are more hands than mines.

A Threatening Object

Its features make it resemble a Praying Mantis...

In the last few days, I have been feeling somehow uncomfortable when sitting at the computer for work. I feel observed and I cannot keep on typing like nothing is happening... It must be something nearby (but hidden!!) which is spreading anxiety... I just cannot play indifferent!

In its natural habitat, close to the usual companions:

sheets of paper and a ballpoint pen.

I get more and more distracted, but I continue my work. I just slow down a little bit, in a way to make it look like a short natural and disinterested brake on my rhythm... but I am actually monitoring the premises...and with the corner of my eye I try to see what lies next to me.... 

I got it! 

Free to roam on the white surface of the desk.

Close by, I eventually notice a small object: a staple remover!!! It has been left between a ream and a ballpoint pen for days and days.... In its inched-sized oblivion, it preserves its stillness even though its four teeth -looking more like fangs or claws- are somewhat intimidating.... :)

Ernst L. Kirchner: running on The Bridge

Die Zirkusreiterin

In 1905 few architecture students at the German university of Dresden chose the name “die Brücke” -The Bridge- to highlight the purpose of their entrance into the world of art as a united group. They were ready to start an ambitious journey, even though their restlessness did not make it seem so.

By means of bold brushstrokes, those students were to become the missing link between the medieval German masters such as Dürer and Grünewald, and what they believed to be the spirit of their time. Following the space-time coordinates of the history of art with large spans over the academic tradition, they wished besides to find a common point in the artistic expressions of Europe,tribal Africa and Oceania.

The rooms of Fritz Bleyl , Karl Schmidt- Rottluff , Erich Heckel, and in particular the one of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - an old butcher's shop in Dresden- became the settings for years of frantic research. The object of their investigations was the emotional impact given by the shapes constituting the material reality surrounding us. Through combinations of colours able to capture specific moments of the perception, they managed to cut the sensorial elaboration into infinite particular layers.

In a few years, due to the growing appreciation of the public and thanks to the favourable critics, the group moved to the capital, Berlin. There, Kirchner could deepen his analysis of the urban dimension by studying the atmospheres created by the neon lights. In his paintings the electrical power of these halos seems not to leave behind the dimly shaded loneliness of the metropolitan mass.

Rattling trams and desolate crossroads accompany the steps of the pedestrians whose faces appear like fish swimming in dark waters when suddenly caught by single rays of electrical light.

Attics, nightclubs and circus are notably the places where Kirchner widened his study of the human figure portrayed mostly indoors. Here, the subjects of his works seem to fall alternately in an apparent state of rest or in the excitement of a frenzy dance.

In 1913 the Bridge broke up. Probably, Kirchner’s self-centeredness in writing Chronik der Brücke , the Chronicles of the group , irritated his companions who didn’t recognized themselves in the text. After this event, each member attempted to diminish the experience of the Brücke, especially in regard to their individual artistic growth. A little bit of a paradox if you think about an artistic phenomenon whose creative energy contributed, in parallel with the movement of the Fauves in France, to the birth of Expressionism.

Self-portrait as a Soldier

With the outbreak of World War I Kirchner enlisted as a volunteer, but he was an emotional soldier who suffers from the discipline. Soon he was victim of a serious nervous breakdown that caused his reformation from the army. Explicit in this regard, Kirchner’s "Self-Portrait as a Soldier" where he portrayed himself in uniform and with a mutilated hand, even though he never suffered such physical accident.

Kirchner took refuge at a sanatorium in the Alpine resort of Davos in Switzerland. Under the supervision of the doctors, his conditions improved and he managed to ease his addiction to alcohol and morphine. The recovery was also an opportunity to come in close contact with the natural environment which resolved the last part of Kirchner’s artistic activity.

In a letter from Davos in 1913 Kirchner writes: "Van de Velde has written me today that I should go back to modern life. For me this is out of the question. And I do not even regret it ... The delights that the world provides are the same everywhere, differing only in their outer form. Here you can learn instead how to see further and go deeper than you can do in the "modern" life, which is generally much, much more superficial despite its wealth of outer forms."

Bathers on the Lawn

During the convalescence, Kirchner success grew further and in 1921 fifty of his works were on display at the Berliner Kronprinzenpalais. But many other exhibitions took place all over Germany and forced him to reconsider the possibility of a return to his homeland, where he finally went to work again at a relentless pace.

At the beginning of the 30’s Kirchner’s great versatility as a painter, wood engraver and sculptor gave him new opportunities and soon he was in charge of the decoration of the Hall of the Folkwang Museum in Essen. A job that, unfortunately, he was never able to complete due to the coming to power of the Nazi regime that seized the property and put Kirchner in the list of "degenerate artists".

Starting from 1933, Kirchner was continually opposed by Goebbels’ cultural reforms and soon he was forbidden to exhibit in Germany. Over six hundred of his works were confiscated from the museums to be destroyed or sold abroad.

Paar im Zimmer

Made even more fragile by the political circumstances and the ban on modern art, Kirchner committed suicide at his home in Davos, a year before the outbreak of the Second World War.

For an introduction to the work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, I suggest to follow the links below which lead to two texts in pdf format.

1.Http://static.royalacademy.org.uk/files/kirchner-student-guide-13.pdf

2.Http://www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/kirchner.html

Calypso and Odysseus

Calypso's Isle, Herbert James Draper, 1897

Calypso is a nymph of the Ocean whose name comes from the Greek kalyptō which means "to hide ". In accordance to her name, she lives alone in a cave in Ogygia, a mysterious island located somewhere in the Western Mediterranean sea. Her eternal life, rather than going through the days and the seasons, seems to be a single instant far away from the rest of the world. A world, in any case, not able to understand Calipso’s charm and beauty.

One day, brought by the waves, the shipwrecked Odysseus lands to Ogygia. This does not seem real to Calipso: she takes care of him, she restores and charms him in that little corner of paradise in the middle of the sea. On the island there is abundance of any wealth: food, comfort, satisfaction and old age are not a nightmare to wash away with the water of an unobtainable spring. On this new land the decay does not occur.

Yet Odysseus eventually gets bored and all this comfort becomes dull and unbearable to his eyes. Some sources report how Calypso managed to keep the hero in Ogygia for seven years, other texts state less. But, as a matter of fact, Odysseus will at last go away, helped in this by the gods. Urged by Athena, Zeus sent the god’s messenger Hermes to Ogygia with the order for Calypso not to hinder the departure of Ithaca’s hero. On the contrary, the voice that comes from the Olympus is clear: Calypso shall collaborate!

The nymph does not disobey; she understands and helps by preparing the supplies and the barrels of wine for the voyage. She also shows to Odysseus where to take the wood to build his raft, so that the hero becomes suspicious and makes her swear that it is not a trap. There is no deception in the heart of the nymph and Calypso swears on the holy waters of the river Styx without resistance.

Once again Odysseus faces the waves, but differently from the past this time he is alone. Nevertheless, he will always bring with him the everlasting remembrance of his lost companions. Eternity has been rejected; flattery and ease have had the same response. Once again days will always bring something new and there will never be an end to discovery.

Head-shaped Jug by Paul Gauguin

Gauguin, Van Gogh and the origin of a Self-Portrait

Van Gogh wished with all his heart that his friend Gauguin could reach him in the South of France where he had settled. Even though he was in need of money, Vincent was there to get to know how to sketch a Nature completely unfamiliar to him: olive trees, corn fields and cypresses were shining under a Mediterranean sun whose rays were a discovery he wanted to share with Paul by giving birth to an artistic friendship.

We can track this wish on many of Van Gogh’s missives addressed both to the French Painter and his brother Theo.

Dear Theo, 

I was thinking about Gauguin: if Gauguin wants to come over here, we should think about the travel and two beds or two mattresses which, in this case, we need to buy. But then, being Gauguin a guy who sorts it out, we will probably be up to prepare our food at home. And with the same amount of money that I spend for myself we will manage to live in two. You know that it seemed always foolish to me that painters live alone ... When you are isolated you always lose. […]

Finally, on a day of December 1888 Gauguin went to the Provencal town of Arles. Deplorably, the incompatibility of the two personalities made of his stay over the Flemish painter a 9 weeks period of fire and delirium. During this time they reached the point to face each other with a razor, the same object Van Gogh used afterwards to cut his left ear without any apparent reason. 

With the blood pouring fluently all over his neck, Vincent wrapped the piece of flesh in a newspaper and run to the brothel where he used to find relief whenever his pockets allowed it. Once there, he committed the ear to the hands of a girl, but not before making sure that she was going to take really care of it.

When Paul saw Vincent coming back home with his head all in blood, he got so scared that something in his soul -something located in between pride, understanding and bravery - trembled on its foundations. It was most probably because of this new frightening knowledge that a few days later, back in Paris, Gauguin attended the execution of Prado, old owner of Le Café des Artistes “Le Tambourin”, sentenced to death by guillotine for murder. I suppose that Gauguin was there because he was set on a particular kind of quest: he wanted to overcome the burning feeling of uncertainty unexpectedly disclosed to his inner self.

Unfortunately the execution didn’t go how it was supposed to go. At first the blade fell aslant and it cut only part of the face of the convict who stood up again with preternatural force. Only with the intervention of several guards it was possible to put the man back in position and perform the execution a second time. Eventually Prado’s head fell down.

We don’t know if Gauguin found what he was looking for, but following these events he carved the Head-shaped Jug (1889), a porcelain self-portrait today kept at Copenhagen Kunstindustrimuseet.   

A work of art that combines the Japanese style of painting and the crafting of glazed ceramic while realizing a concept typical of the Peruvian tradition: an object of everyday use fashioned in a human form. An object that, through the picture, doesn’t show the macabre energy it conveys when seen alive.