Lord of the Flies

People are the worst, but power-wielding men, don't get me started. Ugh.

I'd heard a lot about the general story of William Golding's Lord of the Flies, and for some reason thought it resulted in cannibalism.  At least that didn't happen.  If it were a bunch of women on the island as opposed to a bunch of cocky boys, I wonder how it would go. Inevitably, someone would want to be leader but I would hope there would be much less violence and more order.  After all, even "proper English boys" can't really be that well behaved compared to little ladies.

It's heartbreaking and quite shocking that the two best characters were killed, but I suppose that's reality. Smarts, reason and nobleness are currently being defeated by a tyrant in the real United States, after all.  Poor little Piggy with his broken glasses :(. Honestly, I thought Ralph was just as much an asshole as Jack in the beginning, taunting Piggy, but I guess he was reasonable enough to admit his friend's value and have some compassion.

I wish they would just leave Jack on that island to die but surely that doesn't happen. Children get away with everything.

Also, as an aside, where the hell was this plane full of just kids going?

Surfacing

Third Atwood book down, one to go.

In chapter one, I kept tripping over the awkward sentence structure and wondered if I'd get used to it after a while.  By the end, that seems like a faded memory to me now, and I can't tell if I just got used to it, or if it was a device the author was using. If it was, that's genius.  But either way the experience is extremely fitting for this work.

Like a lot of Atwood's other books, Surfacing is deeply feminist. The main character is trapped in countless layers of...social conformity/gender identity? That doesn't seem quite right.  I'm not completely sure, but it builds and builds—quietly and sensitively at first, and then suddenly slamming down like a hammer in a terrifying way.  It's seriously jarring, and kept me very on edge.

It's a depiction of how dark life really is, man.  She's mad in the end, but she's one of the most relatable characters I've ever read, so easy to sympathize with and so mature and reliable, at least on the surface.  Her insanity doesn't come from her being ridiculous, if that makes any sense.  Her relationship with her parents reminded me of my own at times, like a big shadow, and it's unsettling how it loomed at the edge of my conscious throughout.

I had a used copy that had the most random excerpts underlined in spasmodic slashes, and it was seriously distracting and really annoying. At some point this lunatic was just underlining chapter numbers. Maybe the book drove them over the same edge as the heroine in this book.

Emma

Are you supposed to like Emma Woodhouse of Jane Austen's Emma? Because all I get is that she's a triflin' bitch. Sooo judgy and pompous whether she's aware of it or not. And somehow she's meant to come off better than the Eltons, who at one point Austen decides to switch from normal human beings into ridiculous bullies straight out of Mean Girls.

It's like I was reading a book for teenage girls, but written in a hoity-toity way that allowed it to pass off as a classic. And how do characters with actual class and intelligence (whether male or female) keep getting attracted to her? Knightly, Harriet, and Jane are all too good for this superficial meddler. But also seriously, how is her mentor/teacher who found her a brat when she was being raised all of a sudden going to be in love with her? Men are stupid and gross.

Anyway Austen's happy ending values money and status over anything else, and as the book closes, we're back to square one as far as partners go -- back to the way it all was before Emma stuck her nose into everything for the good of nobody.