• NomadicWarMachine [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The guy who wrote it was a grumpy old British school teacher who really hated his job. He was basically getting off to the idea of his students all murdering each other.

      Only cool thing I remember about the book is that it's subtly implied that WWIII is going on while as this shit is going down on the island and that civilization is basically done for.

    • Glass [he/him,they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      what is it, Human NatureTM, you need the authorities, don't try to leave society?

        • Alex_Jones [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I thought the message was about how entitled British children are actually as bad at maintaining society, if not worse?

          I thought there were other groups who went missing and did okay because they didn't adhere so hard to hierarchical systems.

          • MiraculousMM [he/him, any]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            I don't recall there being other groups, but I did find this:

            The idea [for the novel] came about after Golding read what he deemed to be an unrealistic depiction of stranded children in youth novels like The Coral Island: a Tale of the Pacific Ocean (1857) by R. M. Ballantyne, and asked his wife, Ann, if it would "be a good idea if I wrote a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave?"

            Sounds like 100% human nature brainworms, but maybe I'm not giving him enough credit. Chuds sure as fuck have appropriated it though

          • NomadicWarMachine [any]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Kinda. At the end of the book the surviving children are rescued by the captain of a British warship, he berates the boys for acting so "savage", but then look at his warship with pride. FYI it's implied that there's a massive war going on out in the rest of the world during the events of the books. The message is meant to be that civilization is a veneer for humanity's warlike tendencies. Really the ship captain is no better than the boys, he just conducts his slaughter in a uniform. I thought it was kind of clever but the overarching message is mostly just that human suck.

            • RNAi [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              But what the fuck was the pigs head jesus plotline?

    • corgiwithalaptop [any, love/loves]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Honestly, I've forgotten most everything I ever knew about the book, I was maybe 13 or 14 when I picked it up. What even IS the message?

      • MiraculousMM [he/him, any]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        "Everyone is CONSTANTLY FIGHTING their PRIMAL URGE to KILL KILL KILL, they all wanna KILL you, people are inherently EVIL, no don't question how capitalism makes people desperate and do horrible things, just know that PRIMAL URGE KILL KILL KILL EVIL EVIL EVIL LOOK OUT FOR YOURSELF ONLY"

        more or less at least. idk its been years for me too but that's really as much as I took away from it