Goth Devotchka

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Enjoy some krov-plus, droogie

During Little Miss Savage, Yulaan befriends some goths and alternative types. Through Gideon Crowley, she also discovers the murky, hazy world of 60s and 70s arthouse and grindhouse film. Yabans aren't satisfied by human storytelling. Yabans are a people who prefer and understand dynamic action and reaction as a constant, rather than rise-and-fall narrative, so human-made movies are frustrating to follow. Still, she does come to like plenty of them, and one in particular is A Clockwork Orange.

When she decides to go out trolling the night with a couple of goth malcontents, Yulaan uses the opportunity to go out as a black-nadsat droogie.
This is the basis of the short story, "Goth Devotchka," that takes place during the second season of LMS, It Came From Skinwalker Lodge.

The only reason Yulaan drops the style is because she starts angsting about the fact that she could never actually be like Alex DeLarge. It's impossible for Yulaan or any Yaban to be a "clockwork orange" as it were. They'd be more like clockwork grenades. There's no point making a grenade out of clockwork gears because it's going to blow up anyway. Likewise, Yabans are specifically designed to be violent. Nexcidiousness is impulsive violence, after all. 

Think about it. Just think for a moment. Alex DeLarge is a man. A boy, really, but "man" is more important. A wayward boy was he who took to a life of criminality in a degenerated society. He could have been so different. He could have been nicer, or at the very least not an asocial psychopath. What's more, as a Man, he had the opportunity to choose against doing violent deeds. Anthony Burgess's point in the novella was that Man is an animal with free will. We're sculpted by our past, but we're not slaves to it. Doing good and doing evil should be your choice. As evil as Alex DeLarge was, it was still his choice to do evil. When the government stepped in to regulate his choice for him, he was no longer a Man but a Clockwork Orange, someone who seemed sweet and proper on the surface but was mechanical and soulless on the inside. He chose to do evil and certainly wasn't the good guy, but the State was the greater evil. This is why he was so extreme and callous and why A Clockwork Orange cannot be faithfully remade for modern times— Alex being as evil as you can get was entirely the point, and that final controversial chapter of the book completed the fable that free will was our greatest trait. Alex wasn't reformed, and he wasn't any less of a narcissistic psychopath, but he had decided to stop doing evil— he was cured of the State's control and acted upon his own free will, and that's what was important. He was an apple. A rotten apple. But no longer a clockwork orange.

Yulaan literally cannot relate. Yabans don't have that choice. Even her cute little brother Yuta is damned to a life of violence by his genes, making the humans' fawning over him tragic.
It's a similar dilemma J. R. R. Tolkien had with orcs, except in real life (in the Yabanverse at least). Tolkien's faith informed him that anyone sapient can be Saved, but orcs seemed to go against this completely as they were inherently evil and corrupted. Did they not have a choice? 
If Alex was a Tolkien orc rather than a Man, the book wouldn't have worked. Now of course, fantasy has expanded the role of orcs ever since. Some orcs are just as naturally evil as Tolkien's, while others are just misunderstood. Indeed, Vinter-kobolds of Planet Sarrat are basically orcs and they're definitely of the 'misunderstood savages' lot.

Yabans are the "naturally evil" orcs. Nexcidium controls them to do evil. Even "good" Yabans are driven to fight and risk. If Alex was a Yaban, the book would have worked even less. Indeed, it would have had a much more horrifying end. If the totalitarian state tried to brainwash Yaban!Alex into becoming a clockwork orange, they'd have actually pulled the pin on their new clockwork grenade. Nexcidium will overpower you. A nexcidious crisis takes a few months to build up. Yabans who do not fight or destroy (whether in reality or virtually) will suffer a nexcidious crisis at some point, making a pacifistic lifestyle utterly impossible for them. And if the crisis comes without being rectified, it'll transform into a nexcidious breakdown, turning that Yaban into a feral no matter their sapience level beforehand. And when that happens... well, there's a reason they call Feral Yabans "explosions with tails." Explosions just destroy. Explosions kill and maim. They don't think or reason. They're simply destructive forces. 

Yaban!Alex would have suffered a nexcidious crisis and breakdown that would overpower the Ludovico Technique and everyone would pay for trying to tame a monster. 


This is why Yulaan finds it pointless to roleplay as a droog. She's just playing dress-up with the cool part and missing the whole point of the story. It feels inauthentic to her to dress like a nadsat brat when she doesn't have a choice in the matter. She has to engage in the old ultraviolence because it literally comes naturally to her. The only thing that's her choice is choosing how much she gives into the violence lust of nexcidium.

"But you can still not be a bitch and just enjoy the cosplay," so says Gideon, who gets a cane smashing his balls as a response.