'Real Lords of the Flies' shipwreck to become Hollywood movie

I have always thought that Golding's novel, whatever its literary merits, was intellectually spurious. It was based on a dubious premise promoted by Thomas Huxley that nature was "red in tooth and claw." Peter Kropotkin wrote a series of articles in the prominence intellectual journal "The Nineteenth Century" which refuted Huxley and later was assembled into a book called "Mutual Aid." The premise was that mutual aid among living things, including humans, was essential for survival, thus putting a positive spin of the Darwinian idea of "survival of the fittest." Kropotkin was an accomplished naturalist and geographer. He was also an anarchist, which is why "Mutual Aid" has been relegated to near obscurity.

The story of these boys' survival is a perfect example of mutual aid. Had they behaved like Golding's fictional characters they would likely not have survived.

And remember Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl. It's about survival in the most hostile environment, a concentration camp during WWII. Dr. Frankl was a student of Freud's initially and then founded logotherapy, about the need for meaning in one's life to survive, based on his own life and suffering in the camp, and what he observed about those who survived with him. They all had a goal to live for.

This sounds a bit boring,

It's not boring, it's a wonderful and uplifting story.  Check out the Guardian story on it below - well worth taking five minutes to read:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months

Hollywood in action! There was a fairly interesting article on this in the Guardian a few weeks ago which went viral. Then there was a short interview with one of the surviving boys (now an old man) who said he was considering writing a memoir. Not enough info for a feature film but the studios are desperately chasing the viral money. I'm a little curious but I'd rather read the memoirs of someone who was there then a formulaic movie "based on a true story."

Whatever happens, I hope a good portion of the money makes it to the boy themselves.

Commanteer

Perhaps that is the problem today as you put it boring may be just what we need, something positive and not all the conspiracy, action, mass killings all and everything is bad, a conspiracy everyone is out to get everyone. Barely a TV show, movie, etc... now isn't a killing action or conspiracy, no wonder so many people have these ideas that Corona is a conspiracy, vaccines conspiracy, elections conspiracy. How about nice happy movies for a change.

Mocheake: "All these years I thought Lord of the Flies was a fantasy like Narnia or Harry Potter. "

It WAS a fantasy!

It's the Tonga story that was real.

Man or woman or children or even domestic animal stranded on an island for months, years. There are lot of real stories like these happen every year.

Even one of my far relative who returned home After 20 years of missing. Everyone in the village thought he died and even had funeral. I could make a good movie about such event if given funds.

I remember reading about this story years ago and found it really inspiring. In reality we see a much better human nature than what fiction writers present. And Tonga isn't exactly a household name in the northern hemisphere; this should give that culture some well-deserved publicity. Looking forward to it!

Sounds like a movie that could be worth watching.

My Dad was reported dead during WW II. A year later he sent home a telegram saying he was alive and well. Imagine how that felt.

And remember Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl.

That could be a great film if done right. The problem with this Tonga story is that there is little jeopardy or suspense that I can see. The boys went from subsistence living in Tonga in the 60s to even more subsistence living on an island. It's not like they started as coddled FedEx executives from the suburbs. A credit to them that they managed so well and got on, but that's not great movie material.

I should have mentioned that Kropotkin and Huxley were to have a debate in "The Nineteenth Century," the most prominent intellectual in Britain then, but Huxley died suddenly.

I'm surprised (and not surprised) that this true story of mutual aid took over 50 years to become widely known. Stories that are "red in tooth and claw" make for great adventure stories and stories about people working peacefully together do not. The true story of these boys is an exception because they dealt with hardship. The is also true of Jack London's stories of survival. Cooperation saves people; individualism is destructive.

All these years I thought Lord of the Flies was a fantasy like Narnia or Harry Potter. Hate those kinds of movies but now that Isee my error, I will have to check it out because I love those kinds of stories. Really have to check out this new one too. Learn something new every day!

jeancolmar, you can be individualistic and cooperative, they are not mutually exclusive.

It was based on a dubious premise promoted by Thomas Huxley that nature was "red in tooth and claw."

Was the "red in tooth and claw" not a concept from a Tennyson poem? I know Kropotkin critiqued Huxley's "struggle for existence" ideas, but was it not just a different interpretation of the same basic idea?

Sorry, it's a long time since I studied this - I found both Huxley and Kropotkin's ideas interesting.

Additional comment...

I was required to read Lord Of The Flies at school as a teenager. I really disliked it; it made me uncomfortable. But I'm fairly sure the reason for the discomfort was that the story featured no girls. The "all boys" thing was weird, and perhaps indicative of something about the writer.

When I saw the title, I was hoping they would do Batavia's Graveyard - which really was Lord of the Flies. This sounds a bit boring,

It's not boring, it's a wonderful and uplifting story. Check out the Guardian story on it below - well worth taking five minutes to read:

OK. It looks like a sweet story. Still, some killer robots would spice it up.