kore: (Default)
K. ([personal profile] kore) wrote in [personal profile] sabotabby 2020-06-07 12:17 am (UTC)

That is totally what the message is, AFAIK. At the time there were all these boy's own adventure stories about how British boarding school kids would get stranded and civilize the indigenous population. Lord of the Flies was essentially, "fuck no, these places breed little monsters who would eat each other's faces." It's a commentary on British upper crust barbarism, not human nature in general.

I KNOW RIGHT! And the way they teach it in US schools it's just totally stripped of all cultural context. Which is not that uncommon for US schools, but re that book, it just kind of turns it into nonsense. (Remember that photo that got censored of David Cameron and his fellow horrors in that fucking club looking like they were ready to sack the earth? GAH.)

I bounced off Heart of Darkness too. I did (and still do) love Apocalypse Now, but I come at it with the context of American film essentially erasing the Vietnamese from the invasion of their country, turning it into an intra-American conflict instead.

I have a memory of some history class showing us the Ride of the Valkyries scene (why? I do not know, man. It was northern California in the late seventies) and some kids were laughing their heads off and a friend of mine had to run out before she got sick on the floor. Then when I got a little older my dad showed it to me as part of his Inappropriate Parental Movie Nights. My sister was part of the audience that saw a different version and she still had the T-shirt -- I think it said 'CHOOSE ME' on it.

I think one reason I was really annoyed by Heart of Darkness was the Intended or the Unreachable or whatever they fucking call her, and Marlow lies to her and she's all I WAS SURE OF IT HE WAS SUCH A GREAT MAN HE LOVED ME I LOVED HIM BESTEST and it's Symbolic of the Corruption of Civilization or some goddamn thing, and I was just like, Fuck you too, Joseph!

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