my lil pin post so i am no longer simply a kazoo boy pfp.,,:
hello!!!!!
- my name is kath!! i use they/she pronouns!!!
- this is my lord fly blog my other little blog i barely post on is @candlebuds
- i would both live and die for ralph and am 10 seconds from starting a cult in his honour he is the only child who i wouldn’t punt into the sun
- i’m canadian so dont make fun of me for having “u”s in words i also can’t spell so there’s that i just type fast ok.
- litcherally message me at anytime i am always wanting friends and people to talk to like 24/7. my discord is kath #5368 so like add me bros i’m on there wayy to often
- i got assigned lord fly for school n we went on vacation so i was like hmm buy book for vacation keep up w class, then i read it 3 times that week and wow here we are
that’s abt me so hope u enjoy i promise i am fresh n funky n nice ok pls befriend me :DD
(tldr: kath is leaving because some of you kind of suck. she has some suggestions for those of you who don’t want to kind of suck. also a little bit of sentiment.)
This is my goodbye. The last post I’ll ever make on this blog. Dramatic, I know. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and I think it’s time I just fully absolve myself of the burden that the kazoo kid’s cold, dead eyes carry. I was thinking, “hey, isn’t it a little cringe to make a post saying goodbye to a tumblr blog?” and then I thought, “yeah! It is!” and I pulled up a google doc and started typing. In all seriousness, it’s been a long time coming. This is going to be a long post and I expect very few people to read it, although I hope you do. It’s mostly for me, really. Closure, I guess you could say. Perhaps even a poetic ending.
When I first read Lord of the Flies, I was forced to. It was assigned reading for my grade 10 English class. I was going on vacation, so I decided to bring a copy of the book with me so I could keep up with the class. On that vacation, I probably read that book around 8 times. I couldn’t put it down. I couldn’t stop talking about it. My mom had to tell me to shut up about it after the fifth time I explained to her how Jack would’ve been a much more efficient leader.
As any teenage girl with an urge to rant about niche topics would do, I made a tumblr. At that time, it was inquisitivebrightcreatures, but I cannot stress enough how annoying it was to type. 26 whole characters. Literally enough letters for the entire alphabet. I also made a discord server around that time, and I personally think that led to every major issue I’ve had in the past 2 years (that’s a joke, my grandpa died and he didn’t even know what discord was). On that server, I made friends I still talk to even now. Shoutout to Bunny and Rog, my besties.
Months went by, I made friends and I found a community. I also made enemies. I didn’t know that a book written like a thousand years ago could generate so much anger, but I guess that’s what I deserve for underestimating literature.
Lord of the Flies has been a huge part of my life for the past 2 (almost 3) years. It’s even partially to blame for my current relationship. When I first walked into my grade 12 English class, I distinctly remember seeing Lord of the Flies books on the desks and turning to the complete stranger sitting in the row to the right two seats behind. I proceeded to continue on at least a five minute rant about the joy this stupid book has brought me, and then my hopes were crushed as it was announced that those were for the grade 10s. She still bought a copy for herself though, to appease me, and she even bought one for me so I could annotate it. Now, she’s annotating one for me. Okay, I’m done being gay. Maybe. (I’m not).
To put it simply, this book genuinely means a lot to me. It’s been a comfort to me when I needed it most. I used to have this book with me 24/7 about a year ago. Trust me, I love it.
But the one thing I’ve realized I don’t love is what drew me here in the first place: the community.
I don’t want this to be taken in the wrong way. I have formed very real, very meaningful bonds with people in this community. For two years of my life, the people here were who I would go to with every single issue I had. They were almost like a second family. But I don’t think that means this community is above critique, and I want to talk about that and my thoughts.
For a while, I held my tongue when it came to the problems in this “fandom”, or whatever you want to call it. I wanted to fit in, and I thought that maybe I just wasn’t understanding other people’s perspectives. Maybe everyone else was actually right. And I certainly know that I was part of the problem too. I’ve done some things I seriously, genuinely regret. I know I’ve had my moments that make this whole thing sound hypocritical, but I think those experiences helped me understand why this behaviour is wrong.
Firstly, I’ve always been disgusted by the way some of you handle these characters. They are children. Even if you’re aging them up, they were written as children. Stop making NSFW. You’re just aging them up to “justify” your actions. Just because it’s “legal” doesn’t mean it’s moral! It is horrific. That’s all I have to say about that, because I don’t even think it should be a topic of debate.
Secondly, the “mob-mentality” needs to stop. I think it’s funny how part of Lord of the Flies is critiquing how humans are able to do bad things when other people are doing it, and on multiple occasions I’ve seen dozens of people in this community attack somebody. Of course, I think that sometimes it’s mandatory to correct people. If someone is genuinely harming other people with their actions, a little bullying is perfectly fine by me. But some of you are frothing at the mouth because someone in the Lord of the Flies tag on tumblr said that they don’t support shipping. There’s no need to send hundreds of insults over petty things. At that point, it’s just insecurity. Next time you start typing, maybe consider: why am I getting this upset? Is it worth getting upset over? I sound rude, but I truly think this is a problem that the community has, and I'd love to see some self-reflection and improvement.
Thirdly, some of you are just genuinely toxic. The amount of hypocrisy, cruelty, and to put it simply, meanness (is that a word?) is worrying. Again, I can say confidently I’ve done the exact same thing. I’m not trying to be rude. But I know I’ve taken the time to try and work through those flaws. I think a lot of you can’t even acknowledge them. You’re all so focused on pointing out other people’s issues that you can’t see how you could possibly be in the wrong. And when you are in the wrong, you get defensive. And then comes the group harassment. From the bottom of my heart, I think a lot of you need some serious introspection.
It’s taken me a long time to think about this. I do love this blog. I love some of the people I’ve met. I love some of the memories. But I cannot continue to be a part of this with a good conscience. The tipping point for me is when I logged into this blog the other day, and saw that every single one of the above patterns was being repeated. Again. And again. And again. (I do feel some of the critique was very valid, but others? Not in the slightest). And once again, there was zero self awareness to be seen. This community is not one I want to participate in, or support, if it keeps going in this direction. And I really hope that at least some of you will turn it in another direction.
I’m not deleting this blog. It holds so many memories for me. Just leaving it inactive for the far, foreseeable future. And again, I love this book! It will forever be my favourite. I already have another blog where I’ll probably post a few Lord of the Flies things! That book has been a safe place for me, but the community that’s grown here is anything but that.
I hope some of you took the time to read through this, and understand where I’m coming from. If any of you have something to say, comment or message me or whatever. I’m open to discussing because I do want people to listen before I actually go.
In conclusion, goodbye to all my friends I’ve separated from. Goodbye to the memories I’ve made here. Goodbye to conchstellations.
I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you. (Okay, sorry I had to.)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
omg me writing again, you never thought this could happen 👀 lmfao anyways this is a multi pov fanfic. fair warning it do get dark as the story progresses, if you don’t like that then i suggest don’t read it. i’m fairly new to writing so it might not be as good. but i tried my best and i hope you enjoy it!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
hello! this is the first chapter for the new fic i’m going to be working on for quite a while. it’s going to be 10 chapters so wish me luck, lmao. it centers around roger and jack and the very gruesome antics they find themselves in. i warn ahead of time it’s dark. so do not read if you don’t like that just as a suggestion. <333 (those aren’t like mocking hearts they’re genuine)
(if you don’t care about this, I start talking about the actual manuscript under the cut. but be warned- it is very long)
So as some of you know if you’ve been following my blog, I have been wanting to go and see the original first draft of Lord of the Flies (handwritten by William Golding in a college notebook and currently held by the University of Exeter’s special collections here in the UK) for a really long time now! It took a while, but today I finally went! I’m sure a lot of you are curious about how it differs from the final book so I decided to put together a list of things I noticed. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to quote anything from the manuscript verbatim due to copyright restrictions, but I’ll try my best to tell you what I can without getting into legal trouble (hopefully). Also, I only managed to get through the first 7 chapters before the library closed (I’m truly devastated) partly because I struggled a lot to decipher Golding’s very messy handwriting and also just because I’m not a very fast reader and I only had about 5 hours with the manuscript, so I’ll just be talking about what I’ve read so far. I plan on returning in the summer to see the rest so there will be a part 2 to this post eventually!
Also also, at the time of posting it is 3am and I am too tired to proofread this properly so apologies in advance for any mistakes.
Now, onto the part of the post you actually care about- talking about the manuscript!
wait did they count the littluns vote. because from what i can remember like every biggun other than ralph, piggy, sam and eric were in the choir. so either ralph really can’t count or they let 5 year olds help choose the new leadership
