Lord of the Flies / Complaining about minor things

[thistlechaser]

For book #50 of the year, I wanted something special. I dug scrolled through my To Read "pile", looking for something different and interesting. Ah ha! I had Lord of the Flies waiting to be re-read. I last read it in high school, multiple decades ago. I remembered loving it so much! It was easily one of my favorite books!

But reading it now... Why in the world is this book a classic? Why are we giving it to kids to read? The writing is so clunky! Yeah, it was written 60+ years ago, but man. The characterization is awful! I have no idea how in the world I loved it so much as a teen. I'm only 20% into it and I'm having a hard time continuing.

Why are we giving books like this to kids to read? Wouldn't something more accessible be better? Isn't it more important to get them to love reading before trying to make them read stuff like this?

Sample sentence:

The shell was interesting and pretty and a worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy, who in this context was an irrelevance.

And another:

"There's less of that jungly stuff; and more pink rock."

It's really hard to get into the story because the characters are just stereotypes. 'Popular boy', 'Unpopular boy', 'follower #1'.

I should have left this book as a good memory.

And now on to the (more) minor part of my complaining! There have been a bunch of friending memes going on, which is great! I've gotten a ton of new people added to my friends list (hi all!).

Now, before I go on: Anyone has a right to do anything they want with their journal. Lock it, set the whole thing private, type it all in hot pink text. It's up to you!

My complaint: When I go through the friending memes and find an interesting person, I want to look at their journal before I decide if I want to friend them or not. It's easier if I look at it before friending -- maybe the person does something that drives me insane, so it's better to know now than to friend and later have to unfriend. But I keep finding interesting people looking for friends whose journals are locked. :/ Sometimes I make the friend-offer anyway, but most often I skip. I worry too much about drama or hurt feelings to friend a journal lightly.

Of course that goes opposite my policy: Anyone can unfriend me at any time for any reason. Welcome to my life, where I make things harder on myself than on anyone else! :P

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Oh, that's a bummer about Lord of the Flies... I read it in high school, too (sophomore English! you?) and really loved it, and wrote an essay I was really proud of on how Jack and Ralph are two sides of the coin or something like that, and wrote a poem from Jack's POV, and was basically a big fan. But reading the sentences you exerpted does make me cringe... Guess I won't be rereading this one :/

I definitely prefer to look at someone's LJ and "try before you buy" at the friending memes, which is totally hypocritical of me because my LJ is mostly locked (because I got too tired of keeping work stuff or stuff that I wouldn't want a friend or family member to stumble on segregated from everything else). But I try to keep at least the non-incriminating book ramblins accessible, though I don't know that they give a very accurate representation of the sort of what the rest of my LJ is like :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, unfortunately I would have to recommend not rereading it! Let your love of it remain your last memory of the book. /melodramatic! I can't recall what year I read it in, only that I read it overnight when the class had a month to finish it. (Sometimes I wonder if that's why my eyes are so bad now, I used to read a book per day...)

I think having at least some stuff unlocked would be handy, so you're good! That way someone could see how that person writes or if it's all lol u suxx0r lol lol lol. (I frown just typing that out, haha.)

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

My mom got that audiobook when that was a new thing. The author read it and commented on the story at the end of each chapter, which was the most jarring thing ever!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, way to knock someone out of the story! I think it would be very interesting to hear the comments... but save them until the end!

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

They really were fascinating - but in the same voice as the story? Ack!

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

I read Lord of the Flies, and loved it as a teen. Later I re-read it, and it seemed...as we say here, "an den Haaren herbeigezogen" ("dragged there by the hair"), in other words, TOO too.

I friend most anyone that doesn't seem like a creeper. Most of my friends have phases where they do something or other that drives me up the wall anyway. That's life. LOL!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

ha! I like that saying!

And that's a good friending policy, too. :) Sure would keep your friends list from being too quiet!

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

I have great friends, even if we drive each other up one wall and down the other sometimes with our little life dramas. I'm sure I've had people tearing their hair out at times too. Nobody's perfect. :)

I just don't add LJ's that have no entries, they're clearly lurkers and no clue how they found me, or have strange names that make me think "pedo or pervert?". Anyone else halfway normal seeming gets a friending.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wouldn't touch a journal with no entries. It would cry "Stalker!" to me.

[heathersmoo.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way you do about LotF.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Good to know it's not just me!

[daturabelle.livejournal.com]

i've never read 'lord of the flies', i'm sorry it's not as good as you remember!
i can understand about the friending thing. it's hard. i lock my journal now to friends only. what you would have seen, if you looked, would have been old entries or ones i didn't mind anyone reading or ones that i posted on my lj app on my phone because it won't let me do friends only.
i did this because i had someone who used to be a friend stalking my page and making life uncomfortable. but i get it.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Totally understandable reason to lock your LJ! Like I said, I don't blame anyone at all for doing it (it's their journal!). I hope you're not having trouble with that person anymore.

[daturabelle.livejournal.com]

no, not having issues with them anymore, thank goodness!

[postingwhore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I feel the same way about flocked journals on friending memes! I like seeing what sorts of posts people make before friending them. XD

I tried to read Lord of the Flies a few years ago and couldn't get through more than three or four chapters...it was just really dry! But I also find that fic has spoiled me in general for books, so. XD

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Dry is a good word for it. Schools should have kids read the Hunger Games books instead. Give them something well written and that they'll enjoy! I've lost count of how many time Lord of the Flies has used semicolons incorrectly...

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Lord of the Flies is an allegorical story; the stereotypes are part of the narrative.

'Accessible' isn't what being taught literature is about.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I guess it's a question of which is more important -- kids learning literature or learning to love reading.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

And by high school, it's the former. They should be getting their love to read in primary school or at home.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

True, good point.

[loup_noir]

I had to read this in Jr. High and it was my first exposure to Literature (with a capital "L"). How well do I recall the sadness of reading something for content/allusion/literary junk and not for the story. Eh, I say.

I meant to get into the friending frenzy, but then the holidays hit, we had a guest for about a week, and I'm just now catching up on my email and online life. I need more coffee and a nap.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I agree on the 'eh!'. It's great to learn something when you read, but the story is what I'm here for.

It's not too late! I linked one of the friending frenzies in a previous post. You can still go through and friend people even if posting in the thread yourself might now be missed. I swear, my friends list is now double the posts I used to get! It's kind of strange having so many strangers on it, but eventually I'll get to know them all.

[wow-hazmat.livejournal.com]

I think you answered your own question, Thistle. _Lord of the Flies_ may not be a well-written book, but it's one that seems to speak to a lot of adolescents. A lot of us bookworms who read it as a teenager loved it (I'm one of them).

I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than Jane Freaking Austin. :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't understand why adolescents like it so much (simpler is better for them?), but you're right, we sure did when we were that age!