Lord of the Flies As a Template For Science Fiction
The subject of near future science fiction is still tumbling around my head (it echoes a bit because there’s not much else in there). I’ve been quite intrigued by what is happening on line and what appears to be the increasing splintering of people into groups.
It strikes me that humans by their very nature are inclined to define people as either “one of us” or “not one of us”. Historically that probably meant “from our village” or “from our country”. But technology has reached a point where geographical location is not nearly as important as it once was.
Now “one of us” probably translates to “likes the same things as me” or “thinks the same way I do”. Blogs; Podcasts; MySpace; Twitter; all these things have enabled people to meet and interact with others. But they also allow us to focus on people with the same interests (be it political or entertainment) and they make it very easy to block out voices we don’t want to hear.
It occurred to me that one possible end result of this would be to create an almost endless series of self-contained sub-cultures with increasingly little tolerance of each other. If you’re not used to hearing dissent you are likely to react badly to it.
And as I wondered what that might be like to live in, I was reminded of William Golding’s classic The Lord of the Flies. Now of course The Lord of the Flies, is not science fiction, though it could be loosely termed speculative fiction. However, one of the themes (there are many) of Lord of the Flies is that of Individualism vs. Community. How does one balance the interests of one person against the interests of society as a whole?
I can definitely see that basic concept being applied to a world in which social interactions have been broken down in to micro-niches all with their own agendas and with a disinterest in the needs of others.
It seems to me that using The Lord of the Flies as a template offers all sorts of possibilities for Science Fiction stories, and not just near future stories. Is anyone aware of the any stories that have been loosely based on this?
Eoghann Irving is amongst other things the creator and Editor of Solar Flare. He has a life long interest in all forms of science fiction and fantasy and a pressing need to share this interest with anyone who will listen. Find out more at his personal website eoghann.com..
2 Comments, Comment or Ping
dherold
Perhaps Philip K. Dick’s “Clans of the Alphane Moon,” in which society is divided according to psychiatric diagnoses - Manses, Skitzes, Ob-Coms, Deps … But it’s a variant of the “Lord of the Flies” template in that they co-exist peacefully.
Apr 14th, 2008
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