The Wanting Seed

You read this wonderful book and then think of when it was written - quite a few years ago. So the years since that it has been proved accurate.

In a similar vein to "A Clockwork Orange", this novel discusses whether man is naturally bad or can be taught to be good, the cycles of history, the instinct to reproduce against the pressures of a populous world, and how one man deals with all of this in a world where the Population Police monitor births, where gays control the government and promote their lifestyle to help deal with overpopulation.Burgess' Catholic influences show strongly in the book, which begins just as the government have decided that people are bad and become more repressive, moving away from a liberal stance that punishes those who have more children than allotted with fines and re-education-called a Gustinian and Pelagian period by the hero, Tristam Foxe, a history teacher whose first child has died, and who unwittingly has a second that may or may not be his.The picaresque story takes Tristam from teaching these strange historical theories, to prison, to a world where war and breeding are encouraged and even mandated as a way of dealing with both man's instincts to sex and violence, and the unfortunate consequences of these urges.The book is not laugh-a-minute, but abounds with humour- the pro-homosexuality posters that tell you "it's sapiens to be homo", the discussion of Rabelais where a soldier tells Tristam that the book is "French. One of the dead languages". It's also short, as was "Clockwork Orange", but makes well-thought-out arguments as to human nature and the quality of life. "everyone's got a right to be born. But at the same time, everyone's got to die sooner or later".The cockney-Russian slang of "Clockwork Orange" is gone too, making this book a little more readable.

Anthony Burgess' take on how to deal with overpopulation. You can encourage homosexuality, stage fake First World War battles complete with trenches, bayonets and recorded artillery sounds, and of course there's cannibalism. As dystopian novels go, this is definitely one of the most surreal!"The Wanting Seed" is great social satire that might best be described as a farcical dystopian view of Humanity written with tongue planted firmly in cheek. As "Dr. Strangelove" is to nuclear war, so "The Wanting Seed" is to overpopulation.Oh, and if you're curious about the title, it's a word play on an old English folk song, "The Wanton Seed":"I said to her,'My pretty maidCome tell me what you stand in need.''Oh yes kind sir, you're the man to do the deed,For to sow my meadow with the wanton seed, the wanton seed,For to sow my meadow with the wanton seed'."

Good book. Thing arrived in horrible condition with stains and rips.Could have gotten this level of quality at a yard sale for 25 cents...Now stop asking for a review, you got it.Hit the rope, all of you.

Perfect condition.