Зловещо. Хареса ми.
Предполагам 60-70-те години на миналия век е останала в сянката на "Портокал с часовников механизъм". Впечатляваща книга.

I love this book. I haven't read Clockwork Orange, but I have read many of Anthony Burgess' other books and this is by far my favorite. The story is set in an extremely overpopulated future. Fascinating plot, intriguing ideas, plenty of social commentary and Burgess' signature use of made up words. Starts a little slow (as most of his books do) but once you get into it you won't be able to put it down. Definitely leaves you thinking when you finish it.

Burgess is brilliant. His style is unique and his wit is immense. This novel is a tour de force in world building with minimal exposition (that is until the end which peeks behind the curtain a la A Few Good Men).

For the most part I like people, even though many of them suck. I am also convinced that the world grows a bit more stupid every day and that we slowly move away from any kind of social evolution. Sure, there's plenty of technological innovation, and dentistry is a far better experience today, but people don't seem to be improving.

We still love screwing each other over, arguing about false issues, and murdering each other. Infrastructures are straining under corruption, graft, and greed. Congress is highly polarized and our "representatives" do little beyond hooking their friends up and padding the checking account.

The worst part of it all is that stupid people just keep breeding.

Anthony Burgess, perhaps best known for A Clockwork Orange (most likely you've seen the Kubrick film) had this book published in the same year (1962), and it fits nicely along other literary dystopic works such as 1984, Brave New World, and Anthem. However, as much as I loved it, it's probably not in the same weight class.
The Wanting Seed begins in a world that is vastly overpopulated, and extreme measures have been institutionalized to handle it. People live in tiny box apartments, homosexuality is the social norm (and it's policed), and everyone eats a protein mush as there just aren't enough damn cows in the world to handle the load. As you wrap your head around this world (seems like it would be easier to just castrate people instead of implemented totalitarian fabulousness), Burgess throws a curve ball and suddenly society collapses.

Yep, you're just reading along, dum dum dum dum dum, and hey, the world's ending.

The citizens of the world respond to their overcrowding and repression by engaging in mass cannibalism, groovy sex parties, and general mayhem. No, this isn't a spoiler alert, it's on the damn back of the book, so no comments please. Then, as you would imagine, things level out a bit.

There's this brainy back story to the book, that Burgess is essentially commenting on the cyclical nature of human history (which you'll also find in A Clockwork Orange and I'm sure in his other books as well). In short, people suck, they have always sucked, and they will continue to suck. So, why not read a good book and forget about it for a while?

Burgess has created a dystopia in which it's a sin to have sisters, a crime to have children, and a large ancestry can cost you your job. The story opens with Beatrice-Joanna Foxe receiving her "consolation" gift following the death of her infant son. She seeks solace in her brother-in-law Derek Foxe, whose career has grown thanks to his willingness to act gay. As spies and Beatrice-Joanna's husband learn of Derek's indiscretion, she is forced to head off to the Northern Provinces, where totalitarianism has only begun to reach.

With a typical Burgess "happy ending" (of sorts) but without the ultra-violence and confusing linguistics of "A Clockwork Orange," "The Wanting Seed" is my favorite Burgess (which is why I'm re-reading it after ten years).

whitepilllllll

Required reading in high school, however, I absolutely loved this novel. The Wanting Seed is THE reason I began reading books like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. I loved the setting of the novel, and how terrifyingly realistic it was.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone, and I would recommend Anthony Burgess' other works as well.

better than a clockwork orange. the man is effing brilliant.

Nel ventunesimo secolo l'Inghilterra è sovrappopolata, il governo promuove l'omosessualità e l'infecondità: gli omosessuali hanno facilitazioni nel lavoro e ottengono ruoli di spicco, mentre alle coppie eterosessuali è concesso al massimo un figlio, ma anche quello è visto negativamente.

I protagonisti sono una coppia eterosessuale, Tristam e Beatrice-Joanna.
All'inizio del romanzo lei ha appena perso il figlio e si consola con l'amante, suo cognato Derek, che ha ottenuto un lavoro al Ministero spacciandosi per omosessuale. Tristam invece è un insegnante e lo conosciamo mentre spiega alla classe una visione ciclica della storia divisa in tre fasi:
1) L'uomo è perfettibile, lo Stato fa da guida, non ci sono leggi brutali (Pelfase);
2) Subentra la delusione, l'uomo non è perfettibile, lo Stato adotta misure violente (Interfase);
3) Lo Stato ha esagerato, diminuiscono le sanzioni, ma l'uomo è peccaminoso di natura, non ci si aspetta nulla di buono (Gosfase).
Che è anche quello che accade nel romanzo.

Osserviamo questo futuro distopico dal basso, principalmente attraverso il punto di vista dei Foxe, solo una volta da quello di un ministro. Nonostante il punto di vista ogni tanto traballi e lo stile sia un po' arzigogolato si lascia leggere.
Ho trovato affascinante vedere il futuro, un futuro che potrebbe essere questo, immaginato dagli anni '60, con assurdità come il mobilio che si evoca con un interruttore o aspetti ai nostri occhi anacronistici, come la necessità di mandare lettere e la mancanza di cellulari e computer.

Il seme inquieto non cerca comunque di essere realistico o serio: quando si affrontano temi come la prigionia, il cannibalismo o la guerra c'è sempre un velo d'ironia, nella fame di Tristam, nella pazzia del prete, nella naturalezza con cui i bambini accettano il fatto che un compagno di classe sia stato mangiato e nella sfacciataggine con cui Tristam si fa indicare una via di fuga dalla finta guerra — e in generale la sua fortuna in tutto: l'aiuto in prigione e per strada da parte di emeriti sconosciuti, l'essere unico superstite del suo battaglione e l'arrivare sano e salvo alla fine.

Non è Arancia meccanica, ma si riconosce lo stile di Burgess, specialmente nei neologismi e nell'uso di un linguaggio gergale. Va preso però per un romanzo, non per una rappresentazione seria di quello che accadrà a causa del sovrappopolamento. Altrimenti si potrebbe già partire a smontarlo pezzo per pezzo chiedendosi il senso di promuovere un orientamento sessuale piuttosto che un altro.

What a peculiar novel - Anthony Burgess certainly has a marvellously wicked mind to come up with premises such as this and that in A Clockwork Orange. It tells the story of how society crumbles around the main characters, Tristam Foxe and Beatrice-Joanna, as overpopulation drives it into anarchical behaviour, cannibalism and chaotic orgies in revolt of the Malthusian world and the government's strict anti-natal policies.
I originally wanted to read this book after seeing it referenced in a review paper on Calhoun's rodents, which investigated the effect of overpopulation on the psychology and behaviour of rats in a utopian environment. The idea behind it interested me greatly and I was eager to see Burgess' interpretation.
What I didn't expect was the idea of this 'dystopia' being a rather attractive society to live in - one where homosexuality is not only legal but promoted and religion is absent. The entire narrative is laced with repugnant prejudices, which was to be expected from a novel written in the 1960s - however it was laughable to me that something which seemed to be viewed as a terrifying future in this book is rightfully accepted today. I eventually learned to just grit my teeth and bear it, although it originally made it hard to sympathise with any of the characters. Beware those who are easily offended, there is some especially incendiary stuff in here.
Burgess' vocabulary is astonishing, and his writing style is engrossing - I learned many words which I have never heard or seen before, words which I struggled to even find definitions for in standard dictionaries. However, this did get a bit difficult at times, and his constant referral to the 'cycle of society', from Pelphase to interphase to Gusphase, was slightly confusing. Despite this, the writing was wondrous and a pleasure to read.
What I do see missing is how this book was comedic - I didn't find myself laughing all that much, contrary to the quote on the cover which says it is "fantastically funny". Maybe I just don't connect with that level of humour.
Overall, a pretty decent read. If you can get past the abominable homophobia and other offensive language and ideologies and concentrate on the intriguing and thrilling storyline, it would be well worth it.

In many ways this is a companion piece to A Clockwork Orange but without the vitality. It can’t quite decide if it wants to be a comedy or a Swiftian satire. Consequently it fails at both.

‘The Wanting Seed’ by Anthony Burgess is a disguised religious novel by an intellectual who may or may not still have been a Bible believer, but he most certainly retained gender prejudices and a blinkered social paradigm only someone raised in the Catholic Church would have. I think Burgess’s mind was trapped inside a Christian Catholic-themed box with a set number of rigid philosophies. Reading his novels is like living in a world with only two choices possible for every question of self, civilization, politics and social governance. An either-or paradigm of Humanity. Plus, he seemingly enjoyed poking political activists of all sorts into a rage.

I should note here when I read A Clockwork Orange, Burgess’s most famous novel, I researched the author. He gave interviews and declared himself, in my opinion, an intellectual Catholic (perhaps a non-believer, or maybe only a philosophical Catholic believer, I don’t know). He felt people needed to be able to be free to choose Good or Evil without government or social interference. I thought his beliefs very childish and incoherent, frankly.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

For those of you who have seen the American movie based on the American version of the novel ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the original English novel had a chapter included called the ‘Redemption Chapter’, which was censored in the American version. The book can today be purchased in its fully restored condition in America.

‘The Wanting Seed’ supposedly is a satire of current (1962) trends: overpopulation, homosexual rights, growing legal authoritarianism enforcing primarily political leftist thought. Although the book can be understood as a pox on all political houses, I don’t think so. To me, there is an extremist paradigm to the plot carried over into black-and-white religious nonsense, which is typical of satires, but at the same time, I noticed a ‘slight’ attitude of homophobia and anti-government libertarianism.


Quotes from ‘The Wanting Seed’:

“”There we are, then,”” said Dr. Acheson heartily, a fat gelding of an Anglo-Saxon.”

“Beatrice-Joanna looked with distaste, entering the lift, on the embracing giggling pair. The two women, both Caucasian types, were classically complementary—fluffy kitten answered stocky bullfrog. At the fifteenth floor the lift picked up a foppish steatopygous young man, stylish in well-cut jacket without lapels, tight calf-length trousers, flowery round- necked shirt. He turned sharp eyes of distaste on the two lovers, moving his shoulders pettishly, opting with equal disgust at the full womanly presence of Beatrice-Joanna. He began, with swift expert strokes, to make up his face, simpering, as his lips kissed the lipstick, at his reflection in the lift-mirror.”

“”It’s the old story. Liberalism prevails, and liberalism means laxness. We leave it to education and propaganda and free contraceptives, abortion clinics and condolences. We encourage non-productive forms of sexual activity. We like to kid ourselves that people are good enough and wise enough to be aware of their responsibilities. But what happens? There was the case, only a few weeks ago, of a couple in Western Province who’d had six children. Six. I ask you. And all alive, too. A very old-fashioned couple—God-followers....””

““Well, it’s an old book [the Bible] full of smut. The big sin is to waste your seed, and if God loves you He fills your house with kids...””

““We’ve been praying, you know,”said Shonny, pouring out more wine for the ladies, “though, of course, that’s illegal, too. They used to leave us alone in the old days, but now they’ve got these infernal police on the job, spying and arresting, just like in the ancient penal days of sacred memory. We’ve had mass here a couple of times. Father Shackel, God bless and help the poor man, was picked up in his own shop the other day by some of these simperers with guns and lipstick...”

From beginning to end, the novel is a bitter tirade more than it is a satire. I lost patience. It was more like a libertarian tract which rephrased a single joke for over 200 pages, using homosexual prejudice as the punchline in all of the rephrased variations of the joke. I only recommend the novel to those who have enough of an intellectual streak to explore the ideas without succumbing to its single-dimensional Flatland (Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions) representation of social values.