Maybe it depends upon whether you are an optimist or a pessimist as to whether you follow RM Ballantyne’s portrayal in ‘The Coral Island’ of children castaway on a tropical island, not only surviving but thriving or the anarchic picture in William Golding’s ‘The Lord of the flies’ of lost boys becoming tribal and murderous. Golding’s premise is that darkness is within us all but fortunately there is a real life incident that shows the contrary. In 1965 a group of boys from Tonga were marooned for over a year and it was found that they had worked together, looked after each other and thus provided a pleasing antidote to Golding’s misanthropy. In his defence, it should be said that William Golding was a depressive alcoholic, seriously war damaged. It would be understandable if this affected his approach to the notion of evil.
I have of course read this book but it was a few decades ago. However, I have just
watched the BBC’s lavish production of Golding’s ‘The Lord of the Flies.’ It’s on every Sunday evening on BBC 1 but I’ve binged the 4 episodes on iplayer. This is a very disturbing story of course but it is filmed in the lush Malaysian jungle, with a fabulous score. I loved the music with its reference to Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett. Indeed it strongly brought to mind the several operas that Britten wrote for children and I felt this was an inspired and very unusual approach. You have to suspend disbelief in some places but I can do that. It is very much an arthouse production, very cinematic, very stylised. In the first episode there is frequent use of a fish eye lens. I thought this increased the sense of otherworldliness and instability. Also I suppose its use resonates with Piggy’s myopia. The character of Piggy and the boy playing him are both delightful. Fabulous and utterly convincing acting. The BBC hasn’t done anything like this for, well forever, so surprising.
Inevitably this television production has sent me straight back to revisit the book. That can only be good don’t you think?
(Thinking about it, this has also happened with the film Hamnet, particularly the end in London’s Globe Theatre. Just have to read the Maggie O’Farrell story again.)