[General] Need help understanding a sentence from the book: A Clockwork Orange.

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Sinnobite

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Hi! I'm reading this book trying to improve my comprehension in english but now, there's a sentence in it that I'm not quite sure what it's trying to say. Here it goes: [...So I yelped: 'Out out out!' like a doggie, and then I cracked this veck who was sitting next to me and well away and burbling a horrorshow crack on the ooko or earhole, but he didn't feel it and went on with his "Telephonic hardware and when the farfarculule gets rubadubdub'.]

Veck means guy in nadsat dictionary
Horrorshow means good
Ooko means ear

The context is a guy next to him is high and he speak nonsense.

Did he hitted him twice? And the part saying: "burbling a good crack on the ear" from my understanding burbling's synonym is murmur. How can he murmur a hit? And when they say he crack the guy or his ear, did they mean that he broked something?

Thanks!
 

Tdol

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He hit him once as they left.

Is Clockwork Orange, which uses a made-up slang, going to help your comprehension much? It may help you talk to fans of the book, but outside the readership, few would understand much of it. Knowing what He looked a malenky bit poogly means won't help much in everyday language use. ;-)
 

Sinnobite

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He hit him once as they left.

Is Clockwork Orange, which uses a made-up slang, going to help your comprehension much? It may help you talk to fans of the book, but outside the readership, few would understand much of it. Knowing what He looked a malenky bit poogly means won't help much in everyday language use. ;-)


Thanks for replying!
I see your point and you're right. The thing is that I want to read the book also. So far the fact that he use made-up russian/english slang is not really that challenging for me except that I need to research a little bit here and there to understand the words. Just need to get the context out of it, really.

When he says "burbling a good crack on the ear" does he mean like since you speak nonsense then 'nonsense this' and he hit him? Because burbling a physical hit from my understanding, it doesn't add up together.

Thanks for the help! Really appreciate it.
 
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