Wow, I have not written on here in a while!

I recently read Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I had been told that it influenced the making of the show Lost, of which I am a huge fan. I had already seen the movie, because when I hear about a story that i believe I will like, I often watch the movie, being too impatient to read the book. In this case it was a mistake to watch the film first, because it is so different from the book. I found that my knowledge of the film's story left me overly anxious for particular events that never happened in the book. This made me impatient while reading the book. It made ejoyment of the author's physical description of the landscape and characters nearly impossible.

However, after much frustration I finally latched onto the story itself, and was able to finish it with a profound appreciation of the book apart from the film. The story is about a group of young boys who survive a plane crash and are left to fend for themselves on a desert island. As one might imagine, this is a thrilling prospect for many of the boys: being on an island filled with unknown adventure and absolutely no adults. What unfolds are power struggles, childish irresponsibility and, eventually, brutality that is anything but child's play. The message Golding seems to be presenting is that humanity is brutal even in youth. He is denouncing innocence of the young child, which anyone might claim would produce a more peaceful or utopian society. For Golding, man is selfish and barbaric. Even with the strong and seemingly just leadership of Ralph, even with level headed rationality of Piggy as his adviser, the society will pull free of these at the first sign of weakness. Man will be assuaged by their own interests and the rhetoric of the brash and confident revolutionary to do unspeakable horror to their fellow man, or in this case child.

I agree that this story has likely influenced the writers of Lost. One big similarity, apart from the obvious plane crash on a desert island scenario, is the way the children go back and forth between rational and meta-rational or supernatural explanations of particular events e.g. "the Beast". This element of Lost has always been my favorite part of the show. I particularly like the contrast of the character of "Jack Shepherd" vs. "John Locke". Jack represents the side of science and rationality. While John Locke represents the side of faith and belief in the supernatural, i.e. fate, destiny or God.

Apart from this, I found myself fascinated by the similarity of this utopian experiment put forth by Golding with the experiment of the God of Genesis with Noah. In both cases the greater society is taken out of the picture. Golding hopes to exhibit man's cruelty, even with a fresh start. God is hoping that the new start will give humanity a chance to flourish. I see the wisdom in Golding's effort. However, I am having trouble in finding the wisdom in God's effort. I am certainly struggling with the justice of his experiment. I do not know that I believe It did any good. I am more inclined to agree with Golding that man will create another evil society, than I am with the idea that man will improve by having all but the righteous eliminated.

Having found this odd problem with the story of Noah, I am first inclined to believe that the lesson to be taken from this story is that God will preserve a remnant on earth in the end of time for re-creation or new Earth after judgment. However, I find this to be a valuable lesson only in the case that this story is merely a parable or myth. If it is a true story than I find it more troubling than the story of Job. I am perplexed by this dilemma, and uncertain what to think of it.