Victor Sonkin. Middle way

Middle way
Victor Sonkin

Publication date: April 28, 2000

William Golding. Lord of the Flies. Translation by E. Surits.

When I was fourteen years old, my father puzzled me with a question - what is the main idea in “The Master and Margarita”. I tried to say that there are several of them, but that trick didn't work. Then I offered a number of answers, each of which was reasonably rejected. Finally, I gave up; but my father refused to answer his own question, saying that when the time comes, I myself will understand.

I still don't understand. But during this time I learned that the main idea in a literary work is an optional thing; and that novels in which you cannot immediately find one Main Idea are much more fascinating than those where it is visible to the naked eye.

Golding's Lord of the Flies is a novel written around an idea. The author is very worried that we will not understand his plan, so he not only illustrates his constructions with every turn of the plot, but also puts phrases into the mouths of the characters that should help our understanding; and to top it all off, he develops his thoughts in the author’s remarks.

It's quite tedious. What will happen becomes clear pretty quickly. The plot therefore does not arouse much interest - there is no intrigue in it. Since Piggy is so hopelessly myopic, something will certainly happen to his glasses, and in exactly this order. Who is doomed in the novel is clear as quickly as if it were a Hollywood thriller. The ending with the appearance of a deus ex machina (in the most literal sense) does not fit into any gates at all, as if this is a concession to the reader’s (read: commercial) expectation: okay, okay, don’t be scared, in the end everything is not so scary, salvation There is.

This makes those pages of the book that are not loaded with ideological content read with particular pleasure. Descriptions of nature, for example. If they have a meaningful role, it is to create an atmosphere; and the effect is fully achieved. True, the Russian translation prevented me from fully comprehending it - it was good and professional, but somehow cramped. In any case, the speech characteristics of the boys did not convince me at all. I understand all the difficulties that had to be overcome: Golding, apparently, is not a brilliant stylist; youth speech is one of the most difficult subjects to translate; To convey English class and regional differences, which are reflected in speech and pronunciation, the Russian language does not have tools (that’s why E. Surits Khryusha says “ochok” and “lay down”). And yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that the translation could have been easier. Although this would hardly help such a heavy book.

If the idea were also unambiguous, then the novel would simply be a failure. But it's not that simple.

Initially, Lord of the Flies was conceived as a parody of heroic Robinsonades, specifically Robert Ballantyne's Coral Island. The fact that real Robinsons quickly lose their human appearance (which is what happened with the prototype of Defoe’s hero) has been known for a long time. Walled lovers will sooner or later eat each other, it's only a matter of time. Therefore, Golding's novel, in essence, is a hymn to civilization, which only allows us to maintain a human appearance.

But if you think about what brought decent British boys to such a life, the one-dimensionality is lost. The reasons for their Robinsonade are vague, as befits a parable, but from hints it turns out that they were trying to evacuate them (by plane) from the outbreak of a big war. That is, from civilization in one of its most characteristic manifestations. It turns out that the heroes fell into an existential trap: civilization in its development brings death, and the absence of civilization does the same. If the novel had been one and a half pages shorter, such a hopeless interpretation would have been the only possible one.

In his later writings, Golding seemed to doubt the benefits of civilization even more; It’s not for nothing that the wise ancient Roman ruler from “The Ambassador Extraordinary” sends the premature inventor of the steam engine and printing to China, out of harm’s way. In this we see the possibility of a kind of middle path: having left bloodthirsty savagery, restrain ourselves from bloodthirsty progress.

Well, the idea is as good as any other. "Lord of the Flies" is good because, having long ago become a classic of English-language literature and included in all conceivable and inconceivable school and university curricula, it remains blatantly politically incorrect. It contains two thoughts that are like a sharp knife to new Western ideologists. It turns out, firstly, that children are by nature cruel and ferocious, and the violence of the adult world against them is a vital necessity. And secondly, it turns out that there are no noble savages, and fatal passions are everywhere, and there is no protection from fate.

And for those who are not satisfied with these unambiguous conclusions, they can think about a question for which there is no single correct answer - why the novel is called “Lord of the Flies”.

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Web presence

In Russian, Golding can be read - and that’s all. On the corresponding page in Moshkov's library several works of the writer are presented, including " Lord of the Flies ". I also found a couple of short biographical notes, one of them is even quite interesting (and the second is copied from it with abbreviations).

But in the English-speaking part of the Internet, Golding rules. The reason is precisely that his novel is actively studied in secondary and higher educational institutions. It is indeed extremely convenient for the educational process: short, simply written, moderately entertaining, about children, with easily identified ideas. Hence the abundance of completely identically structured sites, the main goal of which is to help careless students write a report about the novel. The gentlemanly set of sections on such pages includes (links lead to different sites, but they are interchangeable): description of the plot , characteristics of the characters , illustrations , dictionary , quotes (this is a link to the NovelGuide website , where several famous works are dissected according to a single scheme, from “ The Iliad ” to “ Alice in Wonderland ”), a map of the island (and this is from the Lord of the Flies Lo-Fat website - sort of “ low-fat "Lord of the Flies", an advertisement for very lazy students). But, for example, American high school teacher Deborah T. Aufdenspring once posted on her home page two poems by her student Danielle Mentok (or, perhaps, student , then Daniel Mentok; but hardly) based on Golding's novel. When her pages were erased from the server, it turned out that many overlordly resources had already linked them, and Ms. Aufdenspring began to receive complaints and requests, so she posted poems in a new place. Is a song. “He’s lying on the beach, / And he has a view. / He sees the light, / But he doesn’t want to fight, no!” The translation is very accurate, check it yourself.

on geocities There is a Golding fan site , created by a certain Greek; it is quite detailed, but monstrously amateurish in all respects, from clumsy English to poor design. For greater coverage, I will mention one more French site , a simple one, and one Czech one (called “Pan Mukh”), quite sophisticated, but in essence exactly repeating the American twin resources.

Based on the novel, two films were made - one in 1963 by Peter Brook, the other (said to be much worse) in 1990 by Harry Hook. It seems that the fresh “ Beach ” with DiCaprio develops approximately the same ideas.

In "Foreigner" in 1996, a selection of reviews by contemporaries (critics, editors, fellow writers) on works that later became famous was published, compiled by A. Livergant. This is what is said about Lord of the Flies: “It still seems to us that you failed to give birth to a very promising idea.”