He began with the Sci-Fi roots he saw as common to both in their \u201cprojecting a multi-layered past on the future\u201d, and the evolving link between clothes and violence that Burgess forecasted in Clockwork<\/em>, which Savage traced through the Edwardian dress of the Teddy Boys, Zoot Suits (cue cringe-inducing flashback to my raver days), up through Ziggy Stardust\u2019s wardrobe futurology. Literature and language followed. Savage pointed out that Punks read books \u2013 and took a quick jab at Liam Gallagher \u2013 noting that Johnny Rotten, Ian Curtis, and Paul Cook had each read Clockwork<\/em>.<\/p>\n Nadsat, Burgess\u2019s invented Russian-English hybrid language in Clockwork<\/em> was, in Savage\u2019s parsing, able to remain timeless because it was situated outside of time; a retooling of language it shared with Punk, the private codes of teenagers, and which Savage saw as continuing today in the likes of Grime. Savage showed the crowd a vinyl of Burgess reading from Clockwork<\/em> in \u201cvarious Mancunian accents\u201d \u2013 one of several archival materials he shared over the course of the night \u2013 and read from Burgess\u2019s late New Yorker published essay \u201cThe Clockwork Condition\u201d in which he reflects on the book title\u2019s oxymoronic combination of the organic and mechanical.<\/p>\n A Clockwork Orange<\/em> and Punk share ground in post-war fears of Juvenile Delinquency, the media\u2019s alternating exploitation and condemnation of youth culture, and \u201cthen as it is now\u201d adult projections of fear on adolescents \u2013 which Savage experienced as a teen, and which \u201cold Punks\u201d express today in laments that there is \u201cno new punk\u201d, to which Savage replied \u201cwho cares\u201d. This part of the talk included a tour through some of the explorations and condemnations of youth culture in books like One Million Delinquents<\/em> and movies like Teenagers from Outer Space<\/em>. A Clockwork Orange<\/em> is a book that \u201ckeeps on releasing meaning and news throughout time\u201d, said Savage, and he traced its \u201cpercolation\u201d through Bowie, Warhol, concert backdrops, and showed us the 1972 100th edition paper Rolling Stone Magazine<\/em> that featured a piece on the book, explaining that both Punk and Clockwork<\/em> were \u201cfull-blown nightmares from the English id\u201d.<\/p>\n What was clear from Savage\u2019s talk, as it was in England\u2019s Dreaming<\/em>, is that Savage understands Punk\u2019s relevance as a \u201csymbol for youth disaffection, rebellion, (and) sheer trouble\u201d, as important in its own time as it is now in the context of Brexit, and any attempts to \u201croll back this country to some ridiculous fantasy we won the war \u2013 we still-have-an-empire-type crap…that England was (is) dreaming\u201d. A desire John Lyndon expressed when he said, \u2018All I want is for future generations to go, \u201cFuck it. Had enough. Here\u2019s the truth\u201d.<\/p>\n Jon had left his CD \u201cin the car\u201d and so ended the night by reading us the lyrics of one of Bowie\u2019s last recorded songs, \u2018Girl Loves Me\u2019, in which he returns to the language and world of Burgess that first moved into his work when he was still Ziggy,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He signed it:\u00a0To the Manchester Literary Festival, and whoever sells it<\/em><\/p>\n Punk.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jon Savage: Burgess, Punk and the Sex Pistols, introduced by Andrew Biswell, The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, 17 October 2017. Jon Savage moved with Punk to Manchester in the late seventies after the Sex Pistols\u2019 famous \u201876 \u2018June Show\u2019 at the Lesser Free Trade Hall; a gig attended by Pistol\u2019s fans (like Steve Morrissey) who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[15,16,283],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nI’m cold to this pig and pug show
\nI’m sittin’ in the chestnut tree
\nWho the fuck’s gonna mess with me?\u2019<\/div>\n![](\"http:\/\/i64.tinypic.com\/e0is1i.jpg\")
\nSavage\u2019s talk was lucid, lyric, and I think the audience shared the feeling I had that we could have sat there much longer listening, or just bought him a beer and asked questions. I had the questionable idea at the end of the talk to ask him to sign a copy of England\u2019s Dreaming<\/em> to the Manchester Literature Festival, but I think he thought I was some sort of corporate emissary.<\/p>\nThe Manchester Literature Festival<\/a> continues until October 22 in venues across Manchester. This piece also appears at Chapter & Verse<\/em><\/a>, the Manchester Literature Festival blog.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"