> > Issachar, your review intrigued me, so I checked Lord of the Flies out from the library. Started reading it yesterday. I'll let you know what I think.

Wow. I had no recollection whatsoever of making that post, and since I happened to be thinking about the Iliad recently, it was interesting to read what I had to say about it a couple of years ago.

> Well Issachar, Lord of the Flies was a quick read. I think I finished it in less than a week. It held my interest really well; I'm afraid I found it a bit depressing, though. Golding had a realistic outlook on the nature of humanity, even if he didn't understand *why* we are the way we are.

The way LotF was taught in my high school, it was made out to be primarily an allegory of the interplay between various political and social forces: Ralph the avatar of democracy; Piggy the scientific community (enlightened but defenseless against the mob); Jack the, well, I can't remember whether Jack was supposed to be communism or dictatorship or whatever.

I like LotF on that level, but I like it even better as you describe it: a study in the violent, evil nature of humanity. I think that LotF could be a very valuable part of today's high school curriculum if it were used to illustrate the importance of maintaining civility in a social system. Civility is a dying virtue in America, and we can't hope for much social improvement unless we can revive a sense of it in the next generation.

> Forster even said in the first paragraph of his introduction that he didn't want to tell the story, as that would cause the reader to become "complacent," and "complacency is not a quality which Mr. Golding desires." He then proceeded to blatantly hypocritize himself. He gave a detailed character sketch of each of the three main characters of the novel, and described exactly what happens to each of them, even going so far as to describe Piggy's fate to the tee. From the moment he was introduced in the story, I knew what was going to happen to him in the end, and that stunk. The book would have been so much better if I had actually been SURPRISED by the events in it, as I'm sure William Golding intended.

GAH. That inhales with exceedingly great force. I'm sorry the book was spoiled for you like that, and you're probably right in thinking that the introduction of a classic novel is best saved for last.

Iss " 'Lord of the flies' is the translation of the name Beelzebub" achar