I can see from the data of my previous post that it has been way too long since I spread my wings in Cyber Space. I have no excuse for being absent for several weeks.
I have not been particularly busy, my back has been behaving fairly well, telly has been crap and there were times when I was folding laundry or scouring the Internet for music tracks to buy that I thought..."I really should be updating this Blog of mine!!". Whether it has been all the excitement in Hollyoaks over the past few weeks or the fact that I have joined the gym that have kept me away from here I am not sure?? It is bound to be one of them.
The good news is that I have only bought one more book since the last post. Although it was bought in the old year, (2012) the year of which I said in my previous post I would not buy any more books, I think I can forgive myself this purchase as it was a Christmas present to myself.
So the book count is on 102.
However.... I have finished 2 so I can start the year with a nice round number!!
#### SPOILER ALERT ####
The Lord of the Flies - William Golding
I have been meaning to read this book for some time. I think I hoped we would have read it at Uni but it never made the reading list there. I did read some of Golding before and liked it although I found it a bit heavy and laden with some kind of...I don't know. I read The Spire years ago and remember liking it but being afraid that I missed the deeper meaning of it as I knew there was something more to it than it being a story about a man building a spire to his church. I kind of got some of it but I am not sure I was ready for Golding back then. Although it did not stop me from reading Fire down Below later one. You see.. I like the way he writes! It is not as springy, pacey or quick as Dean Koontz, Stephen King or Minette Walters. But that does not mean Golding reads slowly. You can read him quickly but he makes me want to take my time to read him. The beauty of Golding is that he seems to have weighed every word he writes to describe people and situations. He has chosen his words very carefully, deliberately. He conveys exactly what he wants.. nothing more... nothing less. When cliffs are described as "dark" they are and they are so for a reason.
I did not know a lot of the story of this book before I read it and I decided (as per usual) to skip the introduction but from the start of the book I got the feeling that things were not going to end well. Mind you.. a lot of young boys stranded on an island, not a lot of food, some severe weather, some fear, some lack of sleep, some very vivid imaginations and some big, alpha male egos... what could possibly go wrong?!
Most people probably know the story so I will not go into that too much. Suffice it to say that Piggy is really annoying, the killing of one of the boys is shocking and the battle for power between Ralph and Jack is very well written. Seemingly all that Golding does is place these boys on an isolated island and then he lets them get on with it. All we get to do is watch. Things fall apart fairly quickly. They stop doing the things that would have kept them "sane", in food and more likely to be rescued. They give into the more baser human emotions of fear, hate and anger and end up following the one who instils and controls these best.
What makes me love the book is that it is both a story of survival and of morals. It is a story of how mankind responds in a confined space. What he becomes when there are no agents to police his actions, no-one to tell you where the limits of acceptable behaviour are. It shows what happens when the individual becomes less important than the collective, when power becomes something you cannot avoid and have to bow down to or be destroyed. It is also the story of Ralph's survival on the island. At the start he is innocent an enthusiastic. He believes that all will be well as long as they all listen to him and keep the fire going. They will surely be rescued soon and it will be his dad that rescues them! His enthusiasm seems to wear off on the others and the idea seems to be that they are all just going to have fun until they are rescued. Ralph goes from leader to outcast and it is so wonderful to have Golding describe how Ralph searches for words to say what he feels, to find emotions to deal with the things that happen around him. He knows what to do, he just does not know how to tell them what he feels and is kind of afraid to do so as well. He would rather Piggy make himself ridiculous than face the others himself.
All through the book you have to keep reminding yourself a a reader that these are only small boys... schoolboys, young kids. They know only how to follow their parents' or teachers' instructions and guidance. What do the know of keeping order, fending for yourself, living independently and survival? They may know what they have read on their adventure books but being confronted with the reality of an isolated island life is something those books have not prepared them for.
It is a great book!! It has layers and depth and story line and purpose. The boys are well written, with tenderness and understanding. There is a happy ending of sorts but you know that for none of the boys life will ever be the same.
Title: Lord of the Flies
Author: William Golding
225 pages
Faber and Faber
ISBN nr 978-0-571-27357-7
Books to be read: 101
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