Years ago, when a friend of mine started a blog about reading classic literature, I was excited. She was smart and fun, so I figured I would get a lot of interesting book recommendations and entertaining insights on those books. I quickly realized every single one of her "reviews" was an emotional response. THIS BOOK IS BAD BECAUSE BAD THINGS HAPPENED IN IT AND THAT MADE ME FEEL BAD. Most notably, her reading of the Confessions of St. Augustine became a justification for rejecting Christianity because of what Augustine confessed to doing before he was a Christian. I was flabbergasted. It makes sense now.
I first found you on YouTube, and I’m happy to see you here. I’m quasi-new to Substack, so I’m still learning how it all works.
I make things with my hands and sometimes I just use media in the background while I work to add interest to a quiet room. Recently, I watched a short series on Netflix by Harlan Coben - the title doesn’t matter & since he’s a ‘writer’, I assume it’s an adaptation. Essentially, (spoilers) this woman kills her husband because he killed her sister (who worked for his family) because the sister found out that he & his family were faking drug trials and making millions by keeping/making people sick.
In the end the woman, once the police realize she’s the killer, convinces them to wire her up so she can confront the Family and the cop gets retribution before he arrests her. The cop has been having black out episodes & paralysis caused by some unknown medication from her family’s pharmaceutical company.
She ends up tricking them into shooting her on a livestream while they confess to faking drug trials.
The rub is that books & shows like this are not anywhere near truthful but they place in society this idea that there are no protocols or protections and companies run rampant. Nothing that happened in this book/show is believable; but, how many people will come away from that show having their mind influenced to distrust their doctors, medical science and pharmacists even more? The doubt being planted by a thriller writer who knows nothing but his own conspiracies and agenda.
Haven’t finished the video yet, but I love the premise, and wholeheartedly agree. Your videos are top-notch, and your cohost hardly ever interrupts, which is perfect. 😆
Very excellent video and essay. You continue to produce superlative work.
However, I do want to challenge the notion that the story of the Tongan Castaways somehow "disproves" The Lord of the Flies.
I'm not making any argument for or against the validity of Golding's book. But the two stories have certain key differences: the number and ages of the boys, the culture they were from, prior-friendships, and how they ended up on an island.
Golding’s book is about a large group whereas the Tongan case was only six. Group dynamics are greatly altered by size. Small groups have to deal more with individual personalities whereas large groups can tend towards mob rule.
Golding wrote about prepubescent children maybe between the ages of 6 and 12. While the Tongan boys were older teenagers. (There is conflicting information on their ages but the photos definitely show boys well into puberty.)
Golding was writing about British culture, whereas the Tongan boys credited specifically their culture for why they were able to survive.
The children in Lord of the Flies don’t seem to have known each other prior to the events of the book, whereas the Tongan boys were all friends. Or at least friendly enough to steal a boat together and set out on an adventure.
And lastly the boys in Lord of the Flies were being evacuated by adults when they were shot down and suddenly found themselves alone. The Tongan boys purposely set out together to have an adventure because they were unsatisfied with life at their boarding school.
I think “boys marooned on an island” is merely a surface similarity and that everything else about the two stories are two dissimilar to really compare them.
As I said, I’m not in anyway arguing for the validity of the scenario in Lord of the Flies. What I am saying is that if you dropped a plane full of under 12 year olds on a deserted island it would probably be a very different outcome to the Tongan castaways.
Genre wise, the Tongan castaways is an adventure story about people who were dissatisfied with their life and so set out past the boarders of civilisation to the great unknown. Whereas Lord of the Flies is more akin to post apocalyptic fiction: there was a disaster that violently ripped them from their lives and killed all the people in charge.
I think the ideas presented here can be applied even more broadly to how it can alter civilization. This is best seen in the truly great books of history with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey giving us Greek civilization (and by extension the foundation of western civilization) and Dante’s Divine Comedy kickstarting the Renaissance. Every great civilization has one of these works, thus it can be said that fiction more than anything is how civilization forms.
Excellent YouTube video Hilary. Strong. Concise. (...even though it was more than an hour long!)
I pray for my grandchildren. All five are under the age of 12... and all are strong readers.
Thank you!
Being strong readers is certainly something they've got going for them. So many children these days can barely even read.
Well played! Compelling video. Solid research and usable links to information.
Story is at the core.
Years ago, when a friend of mine started a blog about reading classic literature, I was excited. She was smart and fun, so I figured I would get a lot of interesting book recommendations and entertaining insights on those books. I quickly realized every single one of her "reviews" was an emotional response. THIS BOOK IS BAD BECAUSE BAD THINGS HAPPENED IN IT AND THAT MADE ME FEEL BAD. Most notably, her reading of the Confessions of St. Augustine became a justification for rejecting Christianity because of what Augustine confessed to doing before he was a Christian. I was flabbergasted. It makes sense now.
I am what I am, I am what I do.
no book can change me.
sorry, I don’t fall for this.
books cannot transform what I am.
I first found you on YouTube, and I’m happy to see you here. I’m quasi-new to Substack, so I’m still learning how it all works.
I make things with my hands and sometimes I just use media in the background while I work to add interest to a quiet room. Recently, I watched a short series on Netflix by Harlan Coben - the title doesn’t matter & since he’s a ‘writer’, I assume it’s an adaptation. Essentially, (spoilers) this woman kills her husband because he killed her sister (who worked for his family) because the sister found out that he & his family were faking drug trials and making millions by keeping/making people sick.
In the end the woman, once the police realize she’s the killer, convinces them to wire her up so she can confront the Family and the cop gets retribution before he arrests her. The cop has been having black out episodes & paralysis caused by some unknown medication from her family’s pharmaceutical company.
She ends up tricking them into shooting her on a livestream while they confess to faking drug trials.
The rub is that books & shows like this are not anywhere near truthful but they place in society this idea that there are no protocols or protections and companies run rampant. Nothing that happened in this book/show is believable; but, how many people will come away from that show having their mind influenced to distrust their doctors, medical science and pharmacists even more? The doubt being planted by a thriller writer who knows nothing but his own conspiracies and agenda.
Haven’t finished the video yet, but I love the premise, and wholeheartedly agree. Your videos are top-notch, and your cohost hardly ever interrupts, which is perfect. 😆
Very excellent video and essay. You continue to produce superlative work.
However, I do want to challenge the notion that the story of the Tongan Castaways somehow "disproves" The Lord of the Flies.
I'm not making any argument for or against the validity of Golding's book. But the two stories have certain key differences: the number and ages of the boys, the culture they were from, prior-friendships, and how they ended up on an island.
Golding’s book is about a large group whereas the Tongan case was only six. Group dynamics are greatly altered by size. Small groups have to deal more with individual personalities whereas large groups can tend towards mob rule.
Golding wrote about prepubescent children maybe between the ages of 6 and 12. While the Tongan boys were older teenagers. (There is conflicting information on their ages but the photos definitely show boys well into puberty.)
Golding was writing about British culture, whereas the Tongan boys credited specifically their culture for why they were able to survive.
The children in Lord of the Flies don’t seem to have known each other prior to the events of the book, whereas the Tongan boys were all friends. Or at least friendly enough to steal a boat together and set out on an adventure.
And lastly the boys in Lord of the Flies were being evacuated by adults when they were shot down and suddenly found themselves alone. The Tongan boys purposely set out together to have an adventure because they were unsatisfied with life at their boarding school.
I think “boys marooned on an island” is merely a surface similarity and that everything else about the two stories are two dissimilar to really compare them.
As I said, I’m not in anyway arguing for the validity of the scenario in Lord of the Flies. What I am saying is that if you dropped a plane full of under 12 year olds on a deserted island it would probably be a very different outcome to the Tongan castaways.
Genre wise, the Tongan castaways is an adventure story about people who were dissatisfied with their life and so set out past the boarders of civilisation to the great unknown. Whereas Lord of the Flies is more akin to post apocalyptic fiction: there was a disaster that violently ripped them from their lives and killed all the people in charge.
I think the ideas presented here can be applied even more broadly to how it can alter civilization. This is best seen in the truly great books of history with Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey giving us Greek civilization (and by extension the foundation of western civilization) and Dante’s Divine Comedy kickstarting the Renaissance. Every great civilization has one of these works, thus it can be said that fiction more than anything is how civilization forms.