And why is that word including in this movie have a strong significance by itself and that also when some of those other things are not "it", it basically means - they are not entertaining or stimulating by themselves, why can't the word itself mean "unpleasant horror" etc?
shareХорошо
shareHahaha, I am Russian I know, but that word means "GOOD" in Russian ("Horrosho") but he said that term horror show on a few occasions and it wasn't Nadsat THERE. Or is there an actual connection?
shareYes. There's an actual connection. Anthony Burgess based a lot of the slang in A Clockwork Orange on Russian. Nadsat = надцать.
Gulliver = Голова. Viddy = Видеть. Mallenky = Маленький. Etc, etc.
All that, true. But I swear in this case it was NOT "Horosho" but "horror show" so in this example there was no Nadsat, it was an actual term used.
shareWell, because they're not speaking Russian. They've borrowed Russian words and corrupted them. 'Horrorshow' is an Anglophone bastardisation of Хорошо.
shareHorrorshow seems to basically mean, "really great." From the novel: "The autos parked by the sinny weren't all that horrorshow, crappy starry vehicles, most of them, but there was a newish Durango 95 that I thought might do." Or, "...I turned on the ignition and started her up and she grumbled away real horrorshow, a nice warm vibraty feeling grumbling all through your guttiwuts." Although, sometimes it also just seems to indicate "a lot" or "great" or "big" as here: "...I was round the counter very skorry and had a hold of her, and a horrorshow big lump she was too, all nuking of scent and with flipflop big bobbing groodies on her." That last use could mean "really great," or just "large/great" by itself.
The Nadsat glossary on Sparknotes just gives the definition as "good".
https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/clockworkorange/terms/
As with most Nadsat words it is derived from Russian. The Russian word is Хорошо (Khorosho) which according to Google Translate means 'fine' -- so it makes sense. 'It was real horrorshow' = 'It was really fine'.
shareI think it also kinda hits the messed-up psychology and values of Alex and the other teenagers in ACO. They use a term which sounds like it's about a bad, scary experience to mean something positive, and that's kinda telling.
shareLike IRL today when words like "sick" and "wicked" have a positive meaning.
shareYes, but in real life, that's just the way slang kinda evolves. It's more of a rebellious code that teenagers can use to make themselves feel "cooler" than their parents. I think A Clockwork Orange might be using it to show the topsy-turvy set of values that the Droogies have.
shareHere I tend to think about "horror show" as a reference to "horror films," and aren't horror films fun and thrilling for the scare they give us? So "fine" could be extended in the context of the Durango scene as the equivalence of a thrill ride.
shareYeah. Burgess has clearly chosen xорошо because it could be turned into 'horrorshow'. I don't know much Russian, but I'm sure it has plenty of other words that mean something like 'fine', 'good', 'great', 'brilliant', &c.
But only one of them sounds like 'horrorshow', so only one of them served the writer's purpose... which was to have horrible young thugs describe awful things they enjoy as '[a] horror show' or, yes, as you say a thrill ride.
But I swear in here it WAS "HORROR SHOW" and NOT "Horosho" (like the Nadsat word and Russian for "Good").
For one, I heard separate words in when he said it, and not one word. "Horror" sounded here like horror and show had the "ow" at the end, if he said horosho, the "ow" at the end would NOT have sounded and the horo would've sounded quick like "horo" rather than "horr-OW" (like in "horrOR") and the "sho" would've come straight away.
It definitely was HORROR SHOW and NOT "Horosho".
And I wondered basically what in this context it means.
ALSO... Read the review (look up "Rob's Movie Vault - "A Clockwork Orange") - in it, he DOES mention how "real life violence is not so horror show anymore" - and here, even though it is COMMON to use the word 'horror' to describe something awful happening and being and how its not entertaining, the term "horror show" seems to suggest entertaining and pleasurable horror. So in that context and content, what do you think it means?