Lord of the Flies by William Golding
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Listened to this in audiobook format read by the superb Martin Jarvis. I kind of regretted it because the book is rich with detailed descriptions a lot of which I missed because I’d sometimes get distracted while listening. Maybe I’m not accustomed to audiobooks with more difficult language, or perhaps it’s just that I need to train my concentration skills.
All that said, I liked the book but, you know, not that much. I wonder whether its message is absolutely pro-civilization; if it’s really saying what it seems to be saying, that if you remove civilized society from humanity, all that’s left is savagery. I don’t like this take and would like to have more knowledge of anthropology to back my feelings with research that humans are better than that.
Then again, there’s this… Rather, I hold true that neither the “noble savage” nor the “civilization über alles!” tropes are absolute truths and that a whole lot of varying parameters will influence whether a community will destroy itself or flourish to form a different culture.
As a final note, I think reading this properly could get it to 3.5 stars. Its subtle, sometimes tender descriptions sat well with me.
