from Glenn
July 27, the Forge. Charlie, Asad, John F, Clark, Mike, Glenn
“Durable,” Mike said, and, yeah, it is. Lord
of the Flies by William Golding has sold more than 10 million copies since
its 1954 publication and is still taught in many British and American classrooms.
The Apes discussed it during our July meeting and gave it a passing grade. Of course, several of us had read it as youngsters, but we old farts apparently were not as enthralled with it as we might once have been.
Charlie and others had questions about
some plot points which were discussed but not fully explained.
The (spoiler alert) rescue at the end struck
a few Apes as lame.
Jeff weighed in via Clark with an intriguing
question raised in one of his classrooms while discussing the book: “What if
the prep school had been coed?”
A few Apes considered: “What if the
adolescent ‘you’ had been in this situation, which of the characters might you
have been most like?” Mike: Piggy. Glenn: Piggy. Charlie: the rescuing naval
officer.
Consensus on the book MAY have been
something to the effect: It offers a decent survival story wrapped in an
experiment in human behavior. What happens if the rules go away? How fragile is
civilization? What is the essential nature of humanity? Etcetera!
A few Apes thought some of the difficult questions
resonate with our current national trauma.
The meeting began with the usual “Why’d
you pick the book?” or, in this case, “Why the F**k did you pick the book?”
I picked the book mostly for “convenience,”
as Clark pointed out. We had less than a month between mtgs, so short seemed
like a good thing. However, I mainly wanted to reread the book before watching the
new Netflix adaptation.
I was gobsmacked by 2025’s Netflix 4-episode
award-winning series, Adolescence. (One amazing thing = every hour-long
episode was shot in one continuous take.) Check it out:
Adolescence (Wikipedia entry)
The same screenwriter, Jack Thorne, who created Adolescence wrote this adaptation of Lord of the Flies, exploring similar themes. Again, it’s only 4 episodes, and powerful, and so very well done. Nominated for a 2026 Grammy. Again, recommended! (Extra-credit: Making of the Lord of the Flies documentary, also amazing…)
Lord of the Flies (Wikipedia entry)
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