I both dislike the book and dislike this comic for missing the actual point of the book, which is not in fact, haha, this is what would actually happen and it’s just a group of random kids. It was specifically portraying british aristocratic children to criticize the colonizer mindset while discussing larger issues of human nature amd civility and structure vs chaos.
Comment on See ya.
iamdisappoint@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
I hated that damn book, but this (complete with conch) is hilarious.
kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I haven’t read the book but how did it criticize the colonizer mindset? A cursory look makes it seem like a justification of paternalistic authority, so propaganda for kids to blindly listen to their parents haha.
kerrigan778@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
It was specifically a contrast on the colonizer mindset that was common both in culture and literature at the time. Showing a bunch of useless british aristocrats coming to “savage lands” and rather than taming the land they were shown that without their wealth and power and being taken care of by competent natives and labourers they became the savages they claimed to be inherently divinely better than.
AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Can I ask why? It was actually one of my favorites in school, so just curious for a differing opinion.
theneverfox@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
I hated it because it was totally unbelievable, just a paternalistic rationalization for authority
I was confronted with the knowledge that the adults around me all thought the only thing keeping me from murdering someone was layers of rules and supervision. Like we’re all just rabid animals barely held back by a watchful eye
Even then, I knew myself better than that. I knew people better than that
But that’s how our society treats people. Like monsters that must be managed
AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Hmm, interesting. To be fair, I haven’t read it since HS and that was…decades ago. Based on what you said I might reread and reassess.
Deathray5@lemmynsfw.com 3 weeks ago
Fair, my analysis of it was that it was more metaphorical. That you could abstract it easily to global society at large.
The rejection of intellectualism through breaking glasses. The war caused over superstition. The one disabled kid being murdered first could be read as a criticism of extreme right wing ideology.
The Forrest burning is very reminiscent of American napalm bombing. Hell the meetings could be compared to the UN if you squint
theneverfox@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
I can see that angle, but that’s not how it was presented to me… And based on memes like this, it’s not how it was presented to most students. Teachers legitimately taught this as if it were a justification for giving us so little autonomy
Analyzing it now outside of that, I see a through line with what you’re saying. I think to really understand the intention behind it, this all points back to one thing…
“I have always understood the Nazis,” Golding confessed, “because I am of that sort by nature.”
To drive your point home, most of what you listed are on the fascism checklist. This is something Golding thought of often, because he had that level of darkness within him
And as a depressed schoolteacher, he did what many small minded people do - he projected himself onto others instead of understanding that people come with all sorts of drives and natures
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Humans aren’t monsters until they reach a critical mass. Then they’re just awful.
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Maybe it was presented to him as required school reading so that’s why he hated it 😜
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I liked that book. It was eye-opening. And kinda made me appreciate the relative orderliness we have in a society run by adults. As much as kids would love to run wild & free with no supervision, but I was fortunate to be a child of the 1970’s & 80s so I enjoyed the perfect balance of wild freedom with parental care at the end of every day.
Bababasti@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
If it’s really that eye-opening is debatable I would see. As another user has posted it already, this is a more realistic scenario: theguardian.com/…/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what…
MilitantAtheist@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Well imagine if one of the kids was young Donald Trump. Pretty sure it would be different.
Crashumbc@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Not really, he would disappear early on.
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
The idea of you debating their subjetive experience sounds funny
Jessica@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Lord of the flies is not based on a true story
Whelks_chance@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Reading it in the early 00s it made me wish I lived somewhere far more interesting with far more wild classmates.
All the rules and restrictions were so internalised, I think if we were abandoned on an island half of them would just sit still and starve.
I can’t imagine any of them being interesting enough to try to start their own religious cult or anything.
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago