lord of the flies doesnt show the base human condition, it shows the base privileged straight white male condition, incredibly when i point this out people get kind of annoyed

Might I direct you to Beauty Queens by Libba Bray, a YA novel in which a plane full of teen beauty pageant contestants crashes on a deserted island.  Instead of descending into violent savagery, the girls are able to work together and become more truly themselves than they could in the patriarchal world outside.  They repurpose the tools of beauty into tools of survival (and some of them work to keep up their appearances too, because that’s what makes them feel happy, while others decide they’re done with all the pressure to be a certain sort of beautiful.)  They fight against evil corporations.  Beauty Queens is enthusiastically feminist.  (Never fear, the feminism is intersectional, exploring issues of race and sexuality as well as gender.)  Also, this book is HILARIOUS, not to mention surprisingly exciting!

Amazing rec!

I also want to add, although it’s pretty commonly misinterpreted (I’m looking at you, high school English teachers) as being about the human condition, the point that LotF is trying to make is that young, privileged boys were awful. It was written in direct response to a popular series of ‘Robinson and Crusoe’ type of books where they’re all super civilised and whatever. And William Golding read it and was like “this is bullshit, did you even go to boarding school? They’re goddamn savages.”

So he wrote Lord of the Flies.

As someone who went to boarding school (albeit in 21st century USA), I can confirm that we were goddamn savages.

And the boys were worse.

The Lord of the Flies is one of those books that’s articulating a very specific criticism, but is deliberately misrepresented by the literary establishment as a commentary on some alleged “universal human condition” so that it can be held up as great literature without having to engage with that criticism.

I love you all. Marry me.