Map of island: https://goo.gl/maps/DRmA2F5roGeHmyKs7 And Wikipedia page: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻAta
The only photo on the page is of the slaver that sealed the island's fate. Sad.
When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
101–110 of 212 posts
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
I don't know why you're being downvoted when it's clear your question is out of curiosity. High effort reviews are common on Goodreads, why? Because it's a community about passionate readers and probably those who write the very detailed reviews have enjoyed reading some other reviews and want to contribute back to the community. I think it's the same reason as people contributes to wikipedia: for the sake of sharing…
> I don't know why you're being downvoted when it's clear your question is out of curiosity.
It is an odd question on the internet where people regularly and normally put a lot of effort into reviews, blog posts, discussion forums comments and so on.
That coupled with question about affiliation probably makes people interpret is as not questions out of curiosity, but rather as sleazy way to introduce doubt on the author motivation.
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#103That'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.…
There is a lot of complaining in this thread about English teachers over-interpreting literature. But I think it is pretty clear that the question Lord of the Flies tries to answer is not "what would happen to a bunch of boys stranded on an island?" but more like "how could the holocaust happen?". The fact of the matter is that Nazism, WWII and the holocaust did happen and many people in 1954 was looking for some kin…
The most disturbing for me is that people interpret work of fiction as if it really happened rather then one persons speculative take. Lord of flies is made up. It is not sociological study.
Yet, the other thing is that boarding schools are notorious for bullying problem. And English boarding schools have ... particular history where older boys were allowed to beat younger boys. If we insist on making it real, that someone in charge of such school writes a book like this says less about general humanity. It says more about about how that institution was run and how he thinks they shaped the boys in their care.
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lord of the flies was written shortly after world war 2, which also really happened... I don't take it seriously as a story of what would really happen if boys ended up on an island, but humans killing each other for dumb reasons is not the stuff of fantasy.
>humans killing each other for dumb reasons is not the stuff of fantasy. But it's the exception not the norm in human behaviour.
It depends on whether you have social constructs in place which take priority over human behaviour.
Remove all of this.. what happens.. humans will eventually go back to primal instincts
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#105It'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?
Anything to do with goodreads becomes toxic. I think that's because the types of people who read and opine about books to the extent they feel compelled to blog/review on gr, are also likely to be the types of people who brook no dissent to their opinions, neither of authors, books nor the things they make them mean. They're independent, self-trusting, artistic thinkers (in the manner of Nietzsche), and the act of engaging in bookreading, where they are in their own closeted little world, alone with the author's mind, is the pinnacle of their innate joy, but the internet of everyman wasn't built for them, so they become little despots when faced with a sea of divergence.
The comment above is an example of a hanger-on to this dynamic: not quite independent enough to be a despot in their own right, but an enabler of the despotism of these little opiners, who the userbase of goodreads epitomizes so well, leading to the toxicity oozing from the seams of goodreads observable in abundance.
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#106It shouldn't be glossed over that these were six boys from a boarding school on a getaway. So, unless there were only six pupils in the boarding school, it would mean that this was a group of boys who like and trust each other enough to let in on a plan which could get them into serious trouble if the wrong person found out about it. Also, the school being a boarding school implies that the group had a preexisting so…
I would also put some emphasis on the fact that it is a "strict Catholic" boarding school. To Guardian readers this is a dog-whistle to signify oppressive and potentially abusive; but the reality is very possible that the boys had learned some of the positive aspects of the faith - it does after all state that they regularly sang and prayed together - so I would imagine, despite their boredom at school, they may well have learned and internalized some of the "love thy neighbour" type teachings and carried them into this situation.
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#107It'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?
no accusations of shilling. mods!!!!!!
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#108It shouldn't be glossed over that these were six boys from a boarding school on a getaway. So, unless there were only six pupils in the boarding school, it would mean that this was a group of boys who like and trust each other enough to let in on a plan which could get them into serious trouble if the wrong person found out about it. Also, the school being a boarding school implies that the group had a preexisting so…
I would also put some emphasis on the fact that it is a "strict Catholic" boarding school. To Guardian readers this is a dog-whistle to signify oppressive and potentially abusive; but the reality is very possible that the boys had learned some of the positive aspects of the faith - it does after all state that they regularly sang and prayed together - so I would imagine, despite their boredom at school, they may well…
I believe you have a good point. I highly recommend listening to the above interview. He elaborates how they had a system in place where he would get any two boys who have a problem together in the evening to talk it through, hug, and then pray together. It's clear that at least from their own perspective faith did play a significant role in their group cohesion and survival.
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#109My high school's district required students to read The of Lord of the Flies. My freshmen English teacher hated the book so much he broke district requirements and told my class he was giving everyone A's on that assignment. He asked the class to read any substitute book in its place. To this day I still consider him to be a wise teacher.
Why? We read it when I was in the Danish ground school (ages 6-16, as in not from 6-16 but 9-10 years during those years) and we never got the idea it was anything other than fiction.
I’m a tad surprised that humans defaulting to corporation is supposed to be news. It’s always been taught to us as rather common knowledge because it’s basically the only way a functional and stable society can evolve. But maybe it explains why so much American post-apocalyptic fiction is so silly.
Re: When six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months (2020)
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
>humans killing each other for dumb reasons is not the stuff of fantasy. But it's the exception not the norm in human behaviour.
It depends on whether you have social constructs in place which take priority over human behaviour. Remove all of this.. what happens.. humans will eventually go back to primal instincts
And one primal instinct is social bonding.