Post a response:
|
Are we ever going to retire this way out-of-date Golding bile? Does there exist a schoolchild anywhere who is not still forced to read it? Is there a text clutched more lovingly to the academic breast? Golding didn't like boys and his malicious portrait of them struck quite a chord. Sure, Coral Island was a ridiculously partial picture of boyhood, in need of a correction, but Golding is equally biased in the other direction. Boys reverting to primitivism would of course become violent, fracture into competing tribes, select a scapegoat, etc. But that re-emergence of primitive instinct would bring with it the other side of the coin--you'd see intense friendships and group loyalties also develop. The little'uns would be head-over-heels in love with the older boys by the end of the first week. Basic survival instinct would see to that. We see all the Machiavellian nastiness you could want--but where's the proto-Achilles & Patroclus? The boys form political alliances without any emotional content. The opposite of how it would work in reality, in a situation where fear is the primary motivator. Golding's second novel, The Inheritors, followed another primitive tribe, a group of Neanderthals. What's the first thing we see in this tribe? Incredible levels of loyalty and love between the members. There's a couple of little kids but it's mainly men and women. Take boys out of the picture, and proto-humanity is capable of much love, apparently. Golding hated being a teacher and had a lot of phlegm to expel. Our continuing obsession with his vulgar therapy is sick. But I did watch episode one, ha! One will be enough. By far the most interesting thing about the show is what they've done with Piggy. He's become the star and the kid playing him is very good. I'm almost tempted to keep watching for that reason. They seem to have beefed his role up, making him more overtly the power behind the throne. Which is an angle worth exploring, I like it. BUT, that didn't require casting in the role of Ralph a complete dud. The boy playing Ralph can't act and is completely unconvincing, even as a weak puppet type of leader. Fatal, that. They also went in way too hard on Jack bad, Ralph good. It needs to be more subtle and develop gradually. If Jack's rotten to begin with, it takes away any interest in the stripping away of the veneer of civilization. And color-coding the central good-bad dynamic is risky. If Ralph was convincing, it wouldn't matter. With him being a dud, it's painful. I wish they had made the all-girl version they flirted with a while back. It might've killed this dreary cockroach of a tale off for good. |