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From: Dessy <Dessy@invalid.net>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.utb.naughty-boy
Subject: Re: Lord of the Flies Novel
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Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:58:56 -0400
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On Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:13:01 -0600, HMS Victor Victorian
<victorvictorian@hushunomail.com> wrote:
>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!
Victor,
I have both the B&W version as well as the later color version and
watch them ever few years. Also, I have and re-read the novel.
For me, the most outstanding message has always been the importance
of nurturing young boys and providing them with positive role models,
without which, the story tells the outcome.
I am reminded of a program about young male elephants that were
terrorizing an area in Africa. They hearded them into an enclosure
with two adult males, who soon saw to it that the younger males
learned how to behave.
Perhaps flimsy, but I see a parallel.
At the very ending, when Ralph is trying to escape, and runs into
the Officer, and the other boys stop short upon seeing him as well,
I have always believed this was a jarring reminder, for them all, of
just how badly they had deteriorated.
And lastly, have you ever wondered about Ralph and Jacks relationship
after the rescue? The other boys as well.
Dessy
P.S. Epstein, which you aptly put it, was simply bonkers, like so many
other social scientists, over such a Freudian dea?
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