Well, let’s face it, there are TONS of famous books I’ve never read. Most I don’t ever plan to read. So this post could have gone in all kinds of different directions. But I decided to pick one that I feel like most people did, in fact, read in high school. Even people who aren’t big readers:
Yep, that’s right, I’ve never read Lord of the Flies. I bounced around a lot, and went to three different high schools, so I’m not sure if it just wasn’t assigned at the schools I went to, or whether it was, but I managed to miss it each time I moved. Either way, it never came up on my reading lists, and I never picked it up voluntarily. I know it’s widely loved, and that it’s supposed to be read at that age, but I just have no interest in a book about a group of boys who go feral. I don’t feel like there’d be much I’d connect to in that story, and I also feel like it might not feel all that different from some of the schools I went to. Who knows, maybe I would love it or find more there than I expect, but it hasn’t ever been forced on me, and I’ve never felt any remote bit of desire to pick it up.
Have you all read it? I assume so. If so, did you like it? Was it one you’d have read voluntarily if you were assigned it in school?
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I remember Lord of the Flies from school, though I didn’t enjoy it. Back then, we also watched the movie in class, and because I bore a striking resemblance to Piggy, my lovely fellow schoolies made sure I knew it. Daily. I think I might have enjoyed it more if not for that.
I feel like pretty much everyone read it in school except me! Having not read or watched it, I don’t know who Piggy is, but my imagination tells me it wasn’t a favourable comparison, and for that I’m sorry to hear about your experience. That would definitely ruin any enjoyment for me too!
Okay, so two thoughts about Lord of the Flies — but with the caveat that I’m perfectly fine with people never having read it.
1. I read it when I was about twelve, because a specific teacher specifically recommended it to me. (It was that kind of school.) And being a twelve year old boy and more than slightly feral myself, I found it interesting if also slightly frustrating.
2. Lord of the Flies is one of those really effective satires/subversions. It was such an effective counterpoint to the sort of book it was satirizing that that whole genre of boys’ adventure books essentially doesn’t exist anymore, and most people don’t remember that it ever did. It’s kind of like what Airplane! did to the genre of 70s Disaster Movies: the genre basically doesn’t exist anymore, and all we have left is the satire.
I’m always pleased to hear about experiences people have had with teachers (or librarians or whoever) that took the time to really foster a love of reading in their students, and who went above and beyond their curriculum requirements to find good reads for their students. So I’m pleased that that was the context where you discovered this one. I haven’t read it, and I also haven’t watched Airplane! but I think I can understand what you mean, and that’s definitely an interesting element to consider.