HMS Victor Victorian <victorvictorian@hushunomail.com> wrote in
news:6vff38hmfh4rv9lkbdpbsracq7bjt74ief@4ax.com:
> Dear Friends,
>
> I confess with some embarrassment that for the first time I have read
> William Golding's novel, "Lord of the Flies." I made the mistake, as
> it were, of reading it before retiring each night ... only a chapter
> at a time ... and discovered that with each successive night, my sleep
> became more and more disturbed. What a horrible and sad tale, so at
> odds with my affectionate beliefs, or delusions apparently, of the
> basic goodness of boys! Powerful. Powerful.
>
> I've seen the film several times, and was pleased to see how closely
> it followed Golding's work, although the movie excluded the disturbing
> conversation had between Simon alone in the thicket and the pig's
> fly-encrusted head on a pole. Nevertheless, reading the novel, and
> diving into his prose, affected me far more profoundly than the movie
> ever had. I readily suggest that, my friends, if you have not yet
> read it, do so. It represents the quality of art that earned Golding
> the Nobel Prize later in life.
>
> Many lauded experts have attempted to explain the deep significance of
> "Lord of the Flies." Was it a condemnation of human nature, a treatis
> on the ultimate disintegration and decay of all charity that we
> cherish and value, an apocalyptic vision of a sick society that must
> result when we abandon love and sympathy for one another?
>
> Well, who am I, relatively untutored and unread in the classics, to
> comment intelligently on Golding's purposes? E. L. Epstein's
> analysis, presented in the volume that I read, at least depended on
> Golding's own brief and somewhat superficial motivation, and I think
> him spot on.
>
> With one exception ... and it is one that upset me. In the passages
> where Roger and Jack mercilessly attack and slaughter the sow suckling
> her piglets. There is considerable horror and revulsion, simply done
> in a masterful way, as Golding describes the boys plunging deep into
> her with their spears. Now, in his interpretation, Epstein noted that
> this represented the uncomfortable sexual awaking of young adolescent
> boys ...
>
> And that analysis, which had never and would never occur to me, was
> ever more so revolting than the murder itself!
>
> Do you think Golding intended such a thing, or had Epstein gone
> bonkers like so many other social scientists, over such a Freudian
> idea?
>
> I hope soon to post here several nice clips I've collected from this
> wonderful movie, including a few outtakes.
>
> Sincerely yours,
> HMS Victor Victorian, NP-g18
>
>
>
> God Save the Queen.
> God Bless the Prince of Wales.
> God Preserve the Windsors.
> Rule Britannia!
>
Hello Victor Victorian,
It is indeed an intreguing book, I read it many years ago after I saw the
film. It is not clear if you saw the first or the second filming of the
story. The first is from the early sixties and in black/white. I happened
to see it in London, where it run many months.
Now if you want to regain a little bit of faith in youth again then I
recommend you read the stories of Clan Short on the net. Especially the
first ones: Memories 1 and 2.
Dianthus
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