Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Today's Absolutely Useless Question - Anthony Burgess Edition

Anthony Burgess wrote "A Clockwork Orange" and the slang use in the movie is only a fragment of how much Burgess developed for the book.  That slang gives us today's Absolutely Useless Question:

Why did Burgess use 'millicent' as slang for 'police' in "A Clockwork Orange?"

Points:

The word only exists as a proper name.

Millicent derives from two Germanic roots meaning 'strong' and 'work.'


That's it.  All I could find.  Maybe it's sufficient the cops in Burgess' vision represent strong work against the Ultra Violence.  This seems kind of thin so now I've passed it along and maybe it bugs you as well.


Maybe it adds something that 'horrorshow' obviously means 'good' in the eyes of Ultra Violent thugs who enjoy beating, raping and killing.  Since that doesn't need any deep analysis then maybe 'millicent' doesn't either and 'strong work' is sufficient to represent his view of what cops do.  The reason for the question is the book is strongly critical of every other aspect of handling random violence so why do cops get a pass.

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