CIA mind-control trials revealed as secret inspiration behind 'A Clockwork Orange'

The Independent (UK) | 13 October 2002 | James Morrison

[aculeus]

Anthony Burgess was inspired to write his most famous novel A Clockwork Orange by his real-life involvement in CIA-run mind-control experiments, a new biography claims.

The revelations, published next month, come as the controversial film version gets its first mainstream British television screening.

The new biography claims A Clockwork Orange's central theme – the use of brainwashing to quell evil impulses in the criminal mind – arose from Burgess's involvement with the British secret service and the CIA experiments.

It argues that many of the novel's other trademarks, including Nadsat, the fictional slang in which it is written, stem from the author's dealings with secret agents.

Burgess, a curmudgeonly interviewee, always refused to be drawn in any detail on his inspiration for A Clockwork Orange. When asked about the famous scene in which government scientists pump images of torture into the mind of its delinquent antihero, Alex, to rid him of violent thoughts, he dismissed it as an idea that came to him in a dream.

Now, a decade after Burgess's death, respected biographer Roger Lewis believes he may have uncovered the truth, thanks to a mysterious retired British intelligence agent.

According to the anonymous source, Burgess became involved with the CIA while working as a Colonial Service education officer in Malaya in the 1950s.

There he became a party to trials for a mind-control process designed to trigger emotional responses in the brain using pain and pleasure – the inspiration, it is claimed, for the chilling Ludovico Technique in A Clockwork Orange.

The ex-spy's most compelling claim was that a sequence of capital letters seen on Alex's bedroom wall in Chapter 3 of the novel and supposedly lifted from Alex's school trophies is actually an encryption for the location of a US military base where "psychotronic warfare" experiments took place. The coded wording reads: "SOUTH 4; METRO COR-SKOL BLUE DIVISION; THE BOYS OF ALPHA."

According to the spy, the figure 4 refers to the conjunction of four US states, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. To the south of this is a military reservation, based in a metropolitan location. The base is a training school (skol in Russian), initially supervised by the US Navy's Blue Division, which experimented with the Alpha waves of the human unconsciousness. Its name was Fort Bliss; the word "bliss" appears repeatedly in the chapter.

Another clue, Mr Lewis argues in Anthony Burgess, is the novelist's use of Americanisms in A Clockwork Orange. Amid the Russian-inflected flow of Nadsat are scattered words like pretzel and liquor, yet Burgess had not visited the US before the novel's publication in 1962.

He adds that linguistic analysis of the writings of Burgess's alleged collaborator, the former CIA officer Howard Roman, suggests the latter may have even worded large chunks of the novel himself.

When Mr Lewis asked the CIA for access to files pertaining to Burgess, he was turned down with the words,"By this action, we are neither confirming nor denying the existence or nonexistence of such records ..."

[Malesherbes]

The most compelling thing about "A Clockwork Orange" is how closely today's yobbish culture in Britain has come to resemble that exemplified by Burgess' Alex.

[Robert_Paulson2]

Where's me drogues?

[Pontiac]

When Mr Lewis asked the CIA for access to files pertaining to Burgess, he was turned down with the words,"By this action, we are neither confirming nor denying the existence or nonexistence of such records ..."

Boiler plate. The CIA will answer any request for information with these words, unless the info is declassified. If the records don’t exist you get the standard reply. But of course it is sexier to suggest as the author does that the CIA is hiding information to protect a dirty secret.

[Tomalak]

The irony of "Clockwork Orange" is that it was meant to be a novel showing what was wrong with good behaviour enforced by the state upon its criminal fringe, yet I came away from the book and the film convinced it was a really good idea.

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[backhoe]

Mind Control-- Myth? Or is there more to it than meets the eye?

[Gorons]

When all else fails .. You can put on your Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie ;)

What Is An AFDB?

An Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie (AFDB) is a type of headwear that can shield your brain from most electromagnetic psychotronic mind control carriers. AFDBs are inexpensive (even free if you don't mind scrounging for thrown-out aluminium foil) and can be constructed by anyone with at least the dexterity of a chimp (maybe bonobo). This cheap and unobtrusive form of mind control protection offers real security to the masses. Not only do they protect against incoming signals, but they also block most forms of brain scanning and mind reading, keeping the secrets in your head truly secret. AFDBs are safe and operate automatically. All you do is make it and wear it and you're good to go! Plus, AFDBs are stylish and comfortable.

What are you waiting for? Make one today!

http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html

[lelio]

Thanks for the post. Pretty nifty:
According to the spy, the figure 4 refers to the conjunction of four US states, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. To the south of this is a military reservation, based in a metropolitan location. The base is a training school (skol in Russian), initially supervised by the US Navy's Blue Division, which experimented with the Alpha waves of the human unconsciousness. Its name was Fort Bliss; the word "bliss" appears repeatedly in the chapter.

[ikka]

Droogs (or maybe droogz).

A drogue is a sort of sea anchor for small boats caught in rough sea conditions.

[freefdny]

"Droog" is Russian for friend.

[Lancey Howard]

I watched A Clockwork Orange twice last night on BBC America (available on DISH). It was probably the first time I have seen the movie since it was in the theaters. I thought the funniest part was the irony of the goofball liberal who took Alex in after Dim and Georgie (now cops, "Jobs for two who are of job age.") beat him up at the water trough. It seemed to me that Burgess was slapping hard at everybody in this book, and Kubrick certainly was.

[Red Jones]

bump

[Ditto]

According to the spy, the figure 4 refers to the conjunction of four US states, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. To the south of this is a military reservation, based in a metropolitan location. The base is a training school (skol in Russian), initially supervised by the US Navy's Blue Division, which experimented with the Alpha waves of the human unconsciousness. Its name was Fort Bliss; the word "bliss" appears repeatedly in the chapter.

Fort Bliss is a US Army base in Texas --- not exactly 'south" of the 4-corners area. It's more like 500 miles southeast.

[longshadow]

Another clue, Mr Lewis argues in Anthony Burgess, is the novelist's use of Americanisms in A Clockwork Orange. Amid the Russian-inflected flow of Nadsat are scattered words like pretzel and liquor, yet Burgess had not visited the US before the novel's publication in 1962.

And I'm sure that no AMERICAN BOOKS, MOVIES, MAGAZINES,or NEWSPAPERS ever got to Britian before 1962, where Burgess might have seen or read them and picked up on "Americanisms."

</sarcasm mode>