Episode 05: Replace William Golding with Octavia Butler, Shirley Jackson & Maya Angelou

Lord of the Flies won a Nobel Prize! Good job, white man William Golding! LOTF is 200 pages of toxic masculinity wrapped in a story about a bunch of white boys stranded on an uninhabited island after a plane crash and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves, basically by fighting over who gets to be in charge. How are women depicted in this one? We aren’t! Though one character exhibits widely accepted ‘feminine’ attributes and so of course that guy gets murdered. Elanor has been assigned to read this book three times. THREE TIMES. JFC. So how about we dump this thing for some better, more interesting books that explore lateral themes, written by some far more talented and intelligent ladies that maybe include women characters portrayed as actual humans who exist? Let’s do this!

Octavia Butler * Kindred * Parable of the Sower * Parable of the Talents

Shirley Jackson * The Lottery * We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Maya Angelou * I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings * On the Pulse of Morning

Additional Sources

Goodreads

Wikipedia (Sending them an Edible Arraignment this week)

Encyclopedia Britanica