We are expanding access to transportation. You need to get to go and need to be able to get where you need to go to do the work and get home.  ~ Kamala Harris

A very happy birthday to William Golding, an author who could unravel the human psyche with as much finesse as a tiger unraveling a ball of yarn.  His was the first significantly anti-Disney voice I was exposed to, and I ate it up.  I knew Disney was full of shit.  I knew their version of the world was, entertaining to little children as it may be, was moronic bullshit.  So when Golding came along with the question, “What happens when you leave a bunch of kids alone on an island?” and his answer was not s’mores and campfire songs and everybody getting along and living happily ever after, I was on board.

Golding’s magnum opus, “Lord of the Flies,” wasn’t just a book; it was a rite of passage in high school.  That book didn’t just explore the darker side of human nature…it built a summer home and started receiving mail there.  The story of stranded boys descending into tribalism and chaos scratched a lot of psychological itches…at least for me.

Contrary to contemporary opinion, Golding wasn’t a one-hit wonder.  He wrote “Sea Trilogy,” beginning with “Rites of Passage,” which won the Booker Prize.  I’ve always found it amusing that Golding was once a schoolteacher (which likely informed his opinion on the truly dark nature of children).

And for you frustrated novelists: Golding was initially rejected by 21 publishers before “Lord of the Flies” was finally sold.  The establishment wasn’t quite ready for the lesson that the scariest monsters are the ones we see in the mirror.

N.P.: “Run Like Hell” – Soulidium