Re: Fiction Books

From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Tue Apr 22 2003 - 23:34:20 MDT

  • Next message: Michael Wiik: "Re: Fiction Books"

    On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 20:09:01 -0700, spike66 <spike66@attbi.com> wrote:
    > gts wrote:
    >>

    <_Lord of the Flies_ puffery elided.>

    Bah.

    ***SPOILER***

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    I think I've already flamed it once on this list. What I have vivid
    memories of is that he got Piggy's glasses wrong. The denouement can't work
    if Piggy is farsighted, and his glasses can't be used to start a fire if
    he's nearsighted. I caught that, and considered that (as a young teenaged
    person, in the age group he was supposedly writing about) "phony", as
    Holden Caulfeld used to put it--unpardonable in a book that's supposed to
    be about objective reality. The author got seduced by his wishes, much like
    his characters. I found that terribly ironic and threw the book across the
    room as soon as I figured out the story arc (the instant Piggy became
    useful).

    I'm willing to grunt and admit he had it right about superstition and human
    nature as he saw it, but that's as far as I'll go.

    You want a chastening view of human nature? ... Thomas Hardy's _Jude the
    Obscure_.

    -- 
    I am not here to have an argument. I am here as part of a civilization. 
    Sometimes I forget.
    


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