Discussion for article #227718
That and the fact that so many middle schoolers read it year after year.
“Flies” is believable. That is what makes us shudder when we remember it.
“our stubborn tribalism” has been harvested quite efficiently by Rush (The Lump), Bleck (say it like a dry heave) and FOX, et al.
Without that blind nativist prejudice, all the right wing bloviators would be revealed for the cheap provocateurs they really are.
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EXCELLENT article!
It’s a shame Ralph and Jack didn’t have crap polls and a rudimentary cable ‘news’ channel…
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Look very carefully at the cover. Note that the author’s name is not Ray Bradbury.
And I would like to thank all those stupid bettors who lost money to me over the years.
“…because of their self-absorption, anxiety, and inability to corral fear and emotionalism.”
Sounds like a Tea Party rally.
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a PIGnews poll?
How depressing. Good article though. Maybe someday someone will pick up where Golding left off and present some version of “Lord of the Flies” with a group of stranded preteen girls instead. I don’t know…maybe “Lady of the Flies”…
The whole notion of someone to lord over others is a very male-dominated construct, with years of history and social convention behind it. The book wreaks of paternalism, ruthlessness, and cruelty. Young boys are socialized and given license in our culture to take charge from a early age. Young girls have less history behind them in terms of acceptance as rulers in most societies. They generally aren’t seen to be factional leaders in this same manner. A main similarity at that preteen age are the social clicks that encompass both genders. In which case, a group of “mean girls” could emerge in a book like that, taking control of their territory of the island for survival’s sake (though perhaps unlikely at that age), or they are met with similar contingencies as in Golding’s book and cooperation ensues with a more lasting and durable outcome…thus ruining the dystopian premise.
Yeah, the story only works with boys.
Special note: I had a couple of brothers that acted like boys in that novel as we were growing up…but instead of a conch shell to indicate “one who may speak” it was the fucking remote control to the TV set…Yeah, they were little tyrants.
I gotta say…I hated that book in school. Not too fond of it today either, though it always was good food for thought. Aldous Huxley was one of my favorite authors during those school days. “Brave New World”…now there’s a great dystopian novel…and one of my favorites back then.
It also predicts the kind of society we will have if the current Republican Party has its way.