![]() People are entitled to have what they want. When talking to a journalist, Howard raises some accusations: ‘What I mean is that you get so low it stands to reason you’ll be appealing to the majority, the majority being stupid for the most part and just like animals.’ ‘This is a democracy,’ said the young man. It shows the world which endeavours to appeal to the lowest tastes in any sphere of life, be it music or literature. The book can be easily interpreted as an expression of contempt for a materialistic lifestyle and accumulating goods. However, money does not bring happiness how much can one buy, eat or drink? The new luxurious lifestyle leads to sloth, infidelity, madness, suicidal thoughts and ultimate murder. Her husband, Howard, wins one thousand pounds in a Quiz Show on TV and multiplies the amount by gambling. She needs to be perceived as well off and successful. Being affluent and living a comfortable life is her only principle. The narrator, Janet Shirley, is ‘a material girl’ who finds pleasure in enumerating objects that she and her husband either posses or lack. The inspiration for the plot and for the narrator’s idiolect was stirred by TV programs that Burgess’s first wife, Lynne, enjoyed watching. After his return from Malaya and Brunei he discovered a new and alien world of television and youth culture back in Britain. The book was a result of his observations of major changes in British society. Burgess wrote it within a month and published it as Joseph Kell in 1961. One Hand Clapping, translated as Klaskać jedną ręką by Jadwiga Rutkowska (Burgess, Anthony, Klaskać jedną ręką, Warsaw: Czytelnik, 1976), was a huge success in Poland. The appearance of One Hand Clapping in this fine company, a book which, according to Burgess "sank like a stone" Note 1 both in Britain and in the United States, may seem at least surprising, though. The choice of A Clockwork Orange or The Wanting Seed for translation should not come up as a shock. ![]() ![]() Such a reception is clearly unjust and Polish readers are offered an immensely impoverished selection of Burgess’s oeuvre. His image in Poland is evidently ‘off the mainstream’. This selection contributed to the Polish reception of Burgess as a writer who specialized in creating gloomy visions of the future. Four of his books have been translated into Polish: One Hand Clapping (1976), A Clockwork Orange (19), Man of Nazareth (1995) and The Wanting Seed (2003), but only A Clockwork Orange, One Hand Clapping and The Wanting Seed are known to a wider public. ![]() However, it is difficult to estimate whether it is Burgess’s book or Kubrick’s film that occupies the Polish audience’s imagination. Anthony Burgess is known in Poland mainly as the author of A Clockwork Orange. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |