A Clockwork Orange

             If it is not presently ripe it may, under the proper conditions, become ripe. It will eventually be eaten by someone or something. It is not an artefact. Since the proof is in the eating its merits cannot be judged on its face value. Its environment and breeding can be tinkered with to increase the possibility that it will exhibit a certain flavour, size, etc. but there are no guarantees of the effect of such horticulture on these variables on an individual orange. On the other hand, there are Swiss artisans who can take *any* watch given to them in *any *condition and restore it to near its original condition.
             Alex was into ultra violence. He raped women. Rape is about power and violence not sex. He also enjoyed sex. This is as important a distinction. He also found "Ludwig Van's" music sublime and a thing of great beauty. Surely Mother Teresa would have consented. The point is that, although Burgess gives us a character whose particular perversion is abhorrent to the vast majority of his audience, the idea that "undesirable behaviour" in a human being can be repaired is not only appallingly arrogant and absurd but also not a desirable can of worms to open.
             What of the slippery slope? Who draws the line between perversion and subversion? Subversion is a necessary element of all the noblest of expression including the works of "Ludwig Van". If someone proves to me that over ten billion people have arrived on earth to try and be the same as each other then I'm done here. Obviously it is intolerable that Alex is made to feel sick from the noble strains of Beethoven's ninth. It is *even* more intolerable that he is conditioned to feel sick when he encounters his sexuality. And, consciously or not, Burgess was not only condemning totalitarian government but *all* dogmatic institutions starting with the catholic and Anglican churches.
             If you by the fire and brimstone ("incontrovertible proof that hell exists") then, in the end, you will fall sick if you succumb to *anything* taboo according to the dogma of the subscribed to belief system.