A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Author:Anthony Burgess
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3, pdf
Published: 2014-02-19T16:00:00+00:00

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That very same evening I was dragged down nice and gentle by brutal tolchocking chassos to viddy the Governor in his holy of holies holy office. The Governor looked very weary at me and said: ‘I don’t suppose you know who that was this morning, do you, 6655321?’ And without waiting for me to say no he said: ‘That was no less a personage than the Minister of the Interior, the new Minister of the Interior and what they call a very new broom. Well, these new ridiculous ideas have come at last and orders are orders, though I may say to you in confidence that I do not approve. I most emphatically do not approve. An eye for an eye, I say. If someone hits you you hit back, do you not? Why then should not the State, very severely hit by you brutal hooligans, not hit back also? But the new view is to say no. The new view is that we turn the bad into the good. All of which seems to me grossly unjust. Hm?’ So I said, trying to be like respectful and accommodating:

‘Sir.’ And then the Chief Chasso, who was standing all red and burly behind the Governor’s chair, creeched:

‘Shut your filthy hole, you scum.’

‘All right, all right,’ said the like tired and fagged-out Governor. ‘You, 6655321, are to be reformed. Tomorrow you go to this man Brodsky. It is believed that you will be able to leave State Custody in a little over a fortnight. In a little over a fortnight you will be out again in the big free world, no longer a number. I suppose,’ and he snorted a bit here, ‘that prospect pleases you?’ I said nothing so the Chief Chasso creeched:

‘Answer, you filthy young swine, when the Governor asks you a question.’ So I said:

‘Oh, yes, sir. Thank you very much, sir. I’ve done my best here, really I have. I’m very grateful to all concerned.’

‘Don’t be,’ like sighed the Governor. ‘This is not a reward. This is far from being a reward. Now, there is a form here to be signed. It says that you are willing to have the residue of your sentence commuted to submission to what is called here, ridiculous expression, Reclamation Treatment. Will you sign?’

‘Most certainly I will sign,’ I said, ‘sir. And very many thanks.’ So I was given an ink-pencil and I signed my name nice and flowy. The Governor said:

‘Right. That’s the lot, I think.’ The Chief Chasso said:

‘The Prison Chaplain would like a word with him, sir.’ So I was marched out and off down the corridor towards the Wing Chapel, tolchocked on the back and the gulliver all the way by one of the chassos, but in a very like yawny and bored manner. And I was marched across the Wing Chapel to the little cantora of the charles and then made to go in. The charles was sitting at his desk, smelling loud and clear of a fine manny von of expensive cancers and Scotch.

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