Who am I?
When I wrote The Mirror Man, I found that I needed a “tool” that would allow me to work within the world I had created. Specifically, I needed a way for a person’s consciousness to be transferred into the empty mind of a clone. I created Meld (a nod to the Vulcan Mind Meld in Star Trek). The drug took on a life of its own. I devised different ways to use it, touched on illegal street use, and it grew to a larger societal presence in the novel. Meld also encapsulates the essence of what I was exploring: What would it feel like to see yourself exactly as others see you?
Jane's book list on science fiction that use an invented drug
Why did Jane love this book?
This is the book that got me into Science Fiction in the first place and it remains, perhaps, my favorite novel. The setting is a near-future dystopian society where a subculture of young, roving gangs control the streets through extraordinarily violent antics (ultra-violence). This violent behavior is enhanced by “milk plus,” a drink laced with synthetic drugs available at the Korova Milk Bar, which is where we first encounter our main character, Alex, a 15-year-old gang leader.
When Alex is arrested for murder, he is selected to undergo an experimental therapy (The Ludovico Technique) designed to wean him off violent behavior forever, after which his sentence will be commuted. During these treatments, he is injected with (yet another) drug called Serum 114. This drug induces extreme nausea while he is made to watch horribly violent films. Utterly changed, Alex is released back onto the streets to a world in which…
13 authors picked A Clockwork Orange as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
In Anthony Burgess's influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends' intense reaction against their society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess's introduction, "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."