2 days late

No, not my period, my blog. I was supposed to post monday but I had a golf tournament (took 6th in the county, no big deal), and yesterday I worked on my paper with Mr. Saxon. Now, I have just had the legendary and beautiful M.O.B Mobbish Megan read over my paper. She made several grammatical corrections and was, as always, extremely helpful. I feel I am a little behind on my paper with only my opening paragraph and some of my body paragraph written at this point, but once I get a little more research done, the words will jump out of my mouth and onto the paper. For now, during class I will be working on my research paper, and I will hopefully have it finished by early next week. Also, I will soon begin reading the book Bringing Down The House as well as watching the movie 21, to prepare for my final project. Well, I best be getting to my paper.

slammy - outttt

monday/tuesday 4/28 4/29

It is monday night and I am blogging on my home computer. Break was boring, just like every weekend except longer. Today in class I did not have my laptop because Miss Van Gunten took it after I wasn't taking good care of it. I tried to rent the book Bringing Down The House from the school library but they were out. Because of this, I wasn't able to get much done today. Tomorrow, I will start my website that will ultimately be my final project. Now, I am going to bed. I will finish this post tomorrow.

K, It's tomorrow now. I was going to begin my website but I was just informed that the research paper should be our priority at this time, so that's what I will do. I must first finish the book I am reading and then watch the movie 21. My research paper will be ready to be completed at that point. The paper will make the overall statement that the American people are suckered out of millions of dollars every day by Las Vegas. To prove this, I will use statistics, books, personal accounts and more. So for the rest of my week I will be partially researching Las Vegas gambling statistics as well as reading my book.

Final Project, Finally

Brainstorming for the individual 4th marking period project has commenced. My mom ordered a book for me from the library called Bringing Down The House, which is the story line of which the new hit movie 21* is based on. This gave me an idea. One of the biggest passions in my life is gambling. I have been betting all my life. In 5th grade, I ran a march madness pool with a buy in of 25 cents. I've maintained the pool every year with an increasing buy in and amount of participants every year. Riding the points, letting it all go on a toss of the dice - there's no better rush. That's why, anticipating Mr. Saxon's approval, I am going to do my final project on gambling. I know that two of my materials will be Bringing Down the House, and subsequently, the movie 21*. One minor dilemna however, is I need to find atleast one more book because as of right now, my repetoir is quite shallow with one book and one movie. Thankfully, I found a website listing books that deal with betting, so hopefully by the end of the week I will have atleast one more novel to read. Also by the end of the week, I would like to have an entire plan for the marking period - what my paper is going to be about, what my final presentation is going to be, and what I am going to use as research or for other opinions. I'm afraid this post must come to end because I need to finish my PIP before my interview tomorrow. Expect to be hearing more from me in the near future.

Slammy - out

Clockwork Paradox

My favorite dialogue of the novel is on page 106 when the Prison Chaplain is talking to Alex about the treatment that he is about to undergo. During this conversation, the Prison Chaplain asks several hypothetical and paradoxical questions. At this point, it is obvious that the treatment that Alex is about to receive is still doubted by moral standards. "Very hard ethical questions are involved," says the Chaplain. "You are to be made into a good boy... It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good." And then the Chaplain is spiraled into deep thought and questioning in which is not so much talking to Alex as he is asking himself. "What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions, little 6655321. His speech ends with "And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprived of the ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good. So I shall like to think. "so, God help us all, 6655321, I shall like to think." The questions that the man asks will never be truly answered - not until you sit down for coffee with the big guy upstairs. It can't hurt to toy with the ideas though. Here are my thoughts...
Our current system in which the bad are punished and the good (supposedly) are rewarded is the way God intended. People are born with a choice. They make a choice to be good or to be bad. This very choice is what makes this world diverse and colorful. If everyone was forced to be good, that would obviously mean there is no bad in the world. With no bad, there is also no bravery, no courage, no ability to overcome adversity because there is no adversity. The difference between the good and the bad is what keeps the world circulating and revolving. That said, Alex does not choose to be good, like the Prison Chaplain tries to think toward the end of his rambling. The man thinks that Alex has chosen the good because he knows that this process will only allow him to do good things, but that is not the reason for Alex's choice. Alex clearly wants to be a victim of the process because it will get him out of the staja much earlier than planned. Alex believes he will have freedom when he is released, but there turns out to be less freedom after he is released then there actually was in the prison.

ACO the movie

On my plane ride to Orlando I began watching the controversial movie version of A Clockwork Orange. However, it was interrupted after one of the early scenes when a woman sitting next to me caught a glimpse of Billyboy and his droogs raping, or doing the old "in-out" on a young woman. She made a face and turned the other way, so I finished the scene and then turned it off. Later on in between rounds, I was able to watch almost to the end of Part I. What I appreciated most about the movie was the extroadinary acting by Malcom McDowell, who played the part of Alex. He steals the show with an uncanny ability to personify and bring to life the fictional character that Anthony Burgess created. I was most impressed at the scene when the four droogs knocked on the door of a young couple and Alex tricked his way into entering the house. The boys get in and beat down the husband and tape him up. They then direct his eyes right at his wife as Alex cuts her clothes off with a knife. What made the scene so much more entertaining was when Alex broke out into song and dance as he both beat the man and prepared for the in-out on the woman. He sang "Singing In the Rain" as he undressed the woman and himself. I was able to appreciate McDowell's talent here because his acting was so fluid and realistic. For a moment I even got spooked because I thought I was watching a real raping. A review of the movie accurately states, "If not for the presence of the youthful face of established thespian Malcolm McDowell, one could be forgiven the assumption that the movie was made far more recently than 1971." It is undeniable that McDowell makes the film 10 times more enjoyable with his animated and accurate portrayal of Alex DeLarge.

Clockwork #3

I am now almost done with Part 2 of the novel, so I am figuring that I will finish it sometime around 2012. My past posts were focused around the intriguing character and narrator, Alex DeLarge. Unfortunately, his true character was revealed as he was being captured by the "razdraz" at the end of Part I. Upon meeting the police, he immediately screeches the identity and demands the capturing of his droogs, saying "It was all their idea, brothers. They like forced me to do it. I'm innocent, bog butcher you." Alex's cowardly reaction to the unfortunate events reveals his true identity, disproving any pretenses that the reader may have been under in believing that Alex was a real leader or a bold and mentally strong person. I must confess that DeLarge had me believing that the kid was hardly short of a genius - a strong-minded, headstrong boy that was simply always up to mischief. The scene where he emerged victorious in fights against two of his droogs had me further on the Alex DeLarge bandwagon. Now it is apparent that Alex uses weapons and preys upon weaker, defenseless victims to hide his pusillanimous and spineless nature. On a geocities site the critic writes "Alex hypnotizes his readers into becoming fans of his 'ultra-violence' but his gutless tendencies are later revealed." It's good to know that I am not the only person who sees right through Alex's transparency. I am disappointed in this revelation that I have come across, although I am now happy that he was captured.

Clockwork #2

This is my second Clockwork post and I am almost half way through. This is the first book since Christopher Paolini's Eragon that I have had the motivation to read at home. Yes, instead of watching Seinfeld or playing March Madness 08 on a dilapidated, outdated Playstation 2 system, Sam Davis read a book. Based on my peers' comments, I thought that the nadsat language barrier would be a problem and a burden to my reading, but I have realized tht the unknown words actually make the text even more interesting. I enjoy figuring out what these new words mean by either context or by looking them up.
The character of Alex De Large or, Alex "The Large" as he calls himself, has me so intrigued that I have pondered peeking at Sparknotes and ruining the book just to get their incite on his character. However, I refuse to do such research because I do not want the end to be spoiled. Delarge's newest claim that has me so confused about who he truly is is his love for classical music. When he plays classical music in his room, he describes a calm feeling that engulfs him bringing him into an ultimate nirvana or heaven, where nothing in the world can go wrong. On page 36, Alex even describes the speakers being set up in his room so the music surrounds him. "The little speakers of my stereo were all arranged around the room, on ceiling, walls, floor, so, lying on my bed slooshying the music, I was like netted and meshed in the orchestra." He continues, "Oh bliss, bliss, and heaven... Oh it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh... Oh it was wonder of wonders." DeLarge's love for classical music so sharply contrasts his addiction for violence but I can't help but see a connection between the two. Later, he takes advantage of two young drunken girls in his bed as he plays classical music.
Another curiosity that has only been itched thus far in the novle is the title. What significance does the title hold and how does it pertain to the novel? The words were mentioned for the first time when the droogs terrorize the house of a man who is writing a book called "A Clockwork Orange." While researching, I found an explanationr for the title which makes perfect sense - a clockwork orange is someone that can only do good or only do bad, which is what Alex seems to be in Part I of the novel. This research site analyzes and explains the connection of the title to Alex and the novel very well.
I am about to enter Part II of the novel and I am very excited to see what events Alex and the droogs have planned next.