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When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

theguardian.com

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Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#81

Post by kzrdude »

WalterBright wrote: post #9

The six boys were significantly older than the Flies boys - 13 to 16.

The tonga boys were 15 to 17. (Wikipedia)

> From June 1965 to September 11, 1966, six Tongan youths, Sione Fataua (17, the eldest), "Stephen" Tevita Fatai Latu (17), "David" Tevita Fifita Siolaʻa (15, the youngest), Kolo Fekitoa (17), "Mano" Sione Filipe Totau (16), and Luke Veikoso (16, later a boxing champion),[15] all natives of Haʻafeva island, were shipwrecked on ʻAta after running away from their strict Catholic boarding school, St. Andrew's College,[16] in Nukuʻalofa on Tongatapu.

Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#82

Post by girvo »

Evidlo wrote: post #8

I wish the article had more information about the boys' time on the island. It's mostly about the captain that found them.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/416819/concerns-over-a-tale...

That article has some more information, and RNZ has an audio interview with one of the survivors:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018746636

Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#83

Post by db48x »

edejong wrote: post #76
lumost wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently learned that 19th century literature was often released one chapter at a time. This lead to substantial "filler" chapters which were required for the author to keep the story going. I sometimes wonder if at least some portion of literary analysis is equivalent to teaching contemporary fan theories while waiting for the next episode/sequel/release.

A bit like modern television series, isn’t it?

Yes, a lot of modern television shows have been serial works rather than episodic ones. Babylon 5 comes to mind as one of the earliest serialized television shows, if not the earliest.

Well, I suppose soap operas existed before that, but as far as I can tell they rarely had proper narrative endings; they were designed to last as many years as possible.

Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#84

Post by lrem »

rossdavidh wrote: post #4

It's not quite as simple as "it works like 'Lord of the Flies' or it doesn't". Nicholas Christakis, in his book "Blueprint", devotes a chapter to a database that he and his grad students made of shipwrecks, where the survivors lived long enough, in enough isolation, that they had to more or less put together a temporary society. There were lots of cases where they turned on each other, and lots of cases where they di…

This review is obviously high effort. What's the incentive here? Is this what the community regularly does in Goodreads? Or are you somehow affiliated with the author and treat this as a favour?

Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#85

Post by Kelamir »

elliekelly wrote: post #46
stakkur wrote: post #21

This story is examined nicely in Rutger Bregman's book Humankind: A Hopeful History . TL:DR; It turns out that in the real world, nothing like the Lord of the Flies happened; in fact the opposite happened. Highly recommend Bregman's book, by the way, which shoots down many of the faulty foundations of what we take for granted as fact today about human nature. I believe this article is an excerpt from the book.

Does the book cover the experience more from the boys’ perspective? I was a little disappointed the article was so light on the details of how they managed.

The book does show the story from the survivor's perspective. Here's a little snippet:

"The kids agreed to work in teams of two, drawing up a strict roster for garden, kitchen and guard duty. Sometimes they quarrelled, but whenever that happened they solved it by imposing a time-out. The squabblers would go to opposite ends of the island to cool their tempers, and, ‘After four hours or so,’ Mano later remembered, ‘we’d bring them back together. Then we'd say “Okay, now apologise.” That’s how we stayed friends.’19 Their days began and ended with song and prayer. Kolo fashioned a makeshift guitar from a piece of driftwood, half a coconut shell and six steel wires salvaged from their wrecked boat – an instrument Peter has kept all these years – and played it to help lift their spirits."

Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#87

Post by WalterBright »

kzrdude wrote: post #81
WalterBright wrote: post #9

The six boys were significantly older than the Flies boys - 13 to 16.

The tonga boys were 15 to 17. (Wikipedia) > From June 1965 to September 11, 1966, six Tongan youths, Sione Fataua (17, the eldest), "Stephen" Tevita Fatai Latu (17), "David" Tevita Fifita Siolaʻa (15, the youngest), Kolo Fekitoa (17), "Mano" Sione Filipe Totau (16), and Luke Veikoso (16, later a boxing champion),[15] all natives of Haʻafeva island, were shipwrecked on ʻAta after running away from their strict Catholi…

The article said 13..16, but that may have been when they were shipwrecked, and the Wikipedia gave ages at rescue.

Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#88

Post by [deleted] »

beachy wrote: post #3

That's a wonderful story and and an uplifting rebuttal to Lord of the Flies. But to be fair, six Tongan boys were probably far hardier and well equipped than the typical British schoolboy of that time would have been. It seems they thought nothing of stealing a fishing boat and heading to sea, and they most likely had abundant life skills already - they basically relocated from life on one pacific island to another.…

[deleted]

Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#89

Post by retrobox »

lrem wrote: post #84
rossdavidh wrote: post #4

It's not quite as simple as "it works like 'Lord of the Flies' or it doesn't". Nicholas Christakis, in his book "Blueprint", devotes a chapter to a database that he and his grad students made of shipwrecks, where the survivors lived long enough, in enough isolation, that they had to more or less put together a temporary society. There were lots of cases where they turned on each other, and lots of cases where they di…

This review is obviously high effort. What's the incentive here? Is this what the community regularly does in Goodreads? Or are you somehow affiliated with the author and treat this as a favour?

Other reviews for this book on Goodreads are equally high effort. It’s not uncommon to see long and insightful reviews in the Goodreads community. I’d assume good intent :)

Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)

#90

Post by Scarblac »

1MachineElf wrote: post #66

This story is amazing and The Guardian did a great job presenting it in an interesting way. The comments here make me wonder, just why did Lord of The Flies become popular in the first place? Was there a generation that thought it was a good story for illustrating human nature? Why?

It's from 1954. That generation was very occupied with trying to understand how the Holocaust could happen.
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