Loading summary
Transcript89 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hello. You're about to drift into an episode of the Nightly, a podcast designed to help you unwind and relax. For the full phone free immersive light experience, visit Hatch Co. Enjoy. All right. I'm Mat.
- [00:32]
B
Right. I'm Kristen. I just.
- [00:35]
A
All right.
- [00:36]
B
Like you do, Matt. Welcome to the Nightly, everybody from Hatch, a slumber party for pop culture lovers and lovers of language, where I learned to say things like, all right, just like Matt does instead of hello or good evening.
- [00:52]
A
I don't know why, if I try and say anything like that, I sound so disingenuous. So I could actually do with learning from you, Kristin, about how to sound
- [01:03]
B
genuine in your mind. Does it sound like me trying to say cheerio, top of the morning?
- [01:10]
A
Yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like in my head. Like, if we're so what should I try. Try like a good evening. Yeah, okay. Good evening.
- [01:22]
B
Just the look on your face, Matt.
- [01:26]
A
Why does it sound so bad?
- [01:28]
B
Is it just that it sounds overly formal to you? It sounds like you're speaking to the head boy at the boarding school because you've been called into the headmaster's office and he's greeting you at the door.
- [01:43]
A
It's either that or like evil genius in a lair. I've been expecting you, kind of. Good evening.
- [01:51]
B
Good evening, Mr. Speaker.
- [01:53]
A
Yes, it's the same with hello, hello, hello. Why? It sounds so mad to me. Hello sounds awful.
- [02:04]
B
How do you sign off emails? Do you sign it like, you know, the way some people sign off emails. Cheers or best or sincerely, or you just don't sign off just like.
- [02:16]
A
That's it. It's either cheers or just Matt or nothing. Yeah, or nothing at all, depending on how passive aggressive I'm trying to come across, which is very. Most of the time.
- [02:32]
B
Okay. But to end an email with yours truly would be forced, and so would saying good evening. Both of those things would be forced.
- [02:40]
A
Both would be forced. Do you know what the. What is the protocol for? I could have sworn in school. I learned that once where. Whether you say yours truly, yours faithfully, yours sincerely. Is there a defined difference between when you're gonna use them?
- [02:56]
B
I think yours faithfully sounds like you're somebody's servant. Like you're signing a letter that way. Cause you're John Brown and you're writing a letter to Queen Victoria. That's, you know, you're for faithful servant and horseman. Yeah.
- [03:11]
A
Yeah. I mean, I've never used it. It just sounds like. Sounds fancy.
- [03:16]
B
Yeah. When you start working for the king,
- [03:17]
A
it'll change when the king starts working for me, oh, he can say, yours faithfully. Yes, Charlie, yes.
- [03:27]
B
But I wouldn't sign an email like that to just anybody. Like a landlord. Yours faithfully to the landlord.
- [03:37]
A
Yeah, that is weird, isn't it? What's your go to for your sign off?
- [03:42]
B
I think for the past few years it's been very best. Very best, Kristen. And I think in the past it was cheers. But then I realized in some situations that might not sound professional enough. So I don't know, I'll probably change it again at some point.
- [03:59]
A
I quite like that.
- [04:00]
B
But very best sounds somehow more earnest than just best.
- [04:05]
A
Best is the. Yeah, that's the kind of thing if I'm complaining to a company, I'll give it a best match.
- [04:10]
B
Yes, exactly. I'm like, best doesn't sound that nice. Whereas very best sounds kind of like. I mean it. Right.
- [04:16]
A
That. Yeah, the very best is better.
- [04:18]
B
Very best to you.
- [04:19]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Well, that's good. I might give that a go at
- [04:23]
B
some point and I'll. And I'll. I'm going to give more. Alright. A chance.
- [04:27]
A
Good. Yeah, you should. It's the most genuine greeting that you can have.
- [04:47]
B
All right, Matt, now that we have our greetings taken care of for the evening, are you ready for a new and exciting adventure? A new segment we're calling Da Bunk Bed.
- [05:01]
A
Very, very excited. Love the title for a start.
- [05:05]
B
I'm sorry I'm a bad punner. I come up with puns that not everybody's okay with, but because, you know, we're a bedtime podcast, maybe some folks out there actually are sleeping in bunk beds, but jealous Debunk Bed is actually about debunking things that some people out there might think are true, but they're not actually true at all. We're debunking here while everyone's laying in their debunk beds.
- [05:31]
A
I'm excited. I think this is a great concept for a segment. Kristen, can I just say, is this your doing?
- [05:40]
B
It is. It is, yes.
- [05:42]
A
I love. It's a great idea. I'm all for it. I can't wait.
- [05:45]
B
Oh, I'm so glad you think so. Well, tonight what I am going to debunk is the myth that the book the Lord of the Flies by William Golding was based on a true story. A lot of people think it was based on a true story. And spoiler, this is going to be a happy bedtime story. So for anybody who is looking for something dark like the real Lord of the Flies, too bad. This is Going to be a really uplifting story. Matt, before I get into it, have you ever read the Lord of the Flies? Have you ever seen a movie adaptation of it?
- [06:20]
A
I think I read it in school, but I can't really remember. Much of it is the truth.
- [06:26]
B
So the gist of it is some schoolboys get shipwrecked on an island. They create their own hierarch, which is really just based on being mean to each other. And the people who are the meanest end up on top. And William Golding, based on his view of the world, he said, this is what human nature is. And left to their own devices, even school children will be cruel to each other, just like grownups are cruel to each other. Humans are not good creatures, and this is what we'll do if we're unsupervised. And so it's a pretty pessimistic book, actually.
- [07:03]
A
I'm inclined to agree.
- [07:05]
B
Yes. And I like to think better of humanity. I really do. But a lot of people think the book is based on a true story. And one of the reasons why is because a few years ago, there started to be headlines circulating of articles. And the headlines all were along these lines. The real story of the Lord of the Flies.
- [07:28]
A
The.
- [07:28]
B
The Lord of the Flies in real life. And so all of these stories started circulating in legit news outlets like the Guardian. And so people who were just reading the headline or the first paragraph of these articles, they got the impression that, like, oh, this was actually based on a story that was true. The real story of the Lord of the Flies. This actually happened. But tonight, I'm going to debunk that this is all fiction that William Golding wrote. None of this was based on a true story. I'm going to tell you what these news articles were actually referring to instead.
- [08:02]
A
Interesting. And what year, out of interest, what year was the original. The book published?
- [08:08]
B
The book was published in 1954.
- [08:12]
A
Okay, cool.
- [08:13]
B
And the story I'm going to relay to you, the real Lord of the Flies story that all the headlines have been about in recent years actually happened 11 years later, in 1965. So the timeline does not line up.
- [08:27]
A
Obviously, it's anachronistic.
- [08:28]
B
Yes. And here's what really happened. In 1965, six schoolboys in Tonga, aged 13 to 18, stole a boat, got caught in a storm, and survived for 15 months on an uninhabited South Pacific island called Ata. They were students at St. Andrew's Catholic School, a very, very strict boarding school in Tonga. And one day, the boys, feeling bored, feeling oppressed, feeling Restless, they ran away from school to seek adventure with the intention of sailing to New Zealand. So they found a boat, they stole it and they said, we're gonna ferry this boat to a new land and we're gonna have fun instead of go to school. But the boys quickly encountered a storm and after drifting for eight days in this boat, they washed up on the remote high cliffed island of Atta, which had last been inhabited nearly 100 years earlier. So there was a point where different South Pacific people did live on this island. But by the time the boys arrived there, it had been completely abandoned for almost a hundred years. They were the only humans on the island when they got there. But these boys are so amazing. They have the most outstanding survival skills and they also just have great social skills and humanity in them. So do you want to hear some of the things they accomplish, Matt?
- [09:57]
A
I would absolutely love to. I find that fascinating because it's a very 60s thing that isn't it? Like that's totally gone now. If we chucked a load of 16 year olds on an island, now they're dead, toast. It's over.
- [10:10]
B
You don't think a bunch of 13 to 18 year olds would be able to survive for 15 months anymore? You don't think so?
- [10:15]
A
I don't think they'd survive for 15 minutes. I think it's done.
- [10:18]
B
PHONE BATTERY DIES they're like, my iPhone, signal's not working. What's going on?
- [10:23]
A
Well, I love that, especially in that part of the world, as you know. Cause in like New Zealand and all around there, I've got family there. And they're so like the outdoors. Oh yeah, huge. Like they do sailing and camping and so if anybody was going to be able to survive on an island, it's going to be lads from that part of the world, isn't it?
- [10:43]
B
Yeah. And they did more than survive, Matt. They totally kicked butt. They were incredible. So first and foremost they developed a system of cooperation, working in pairs at all times to manage food procurement, cooking, guard duty, and if any conflicts occurred, because conflicts did occur from time to time, they had a mandatory timeout system where it's like you're going to take some time away and just cool off and then we'll make peace again, we'll move past it. And I just think that's an amazing way of self monitoring tempers and disagreements. Like this is what we do, we try to cooperate and when we can't, we find a peaceful way to just sit it out and relax a little bit. And I'm like I wish more grownups would do that. Good job, kids.
- [11:28]
A
Yeah, great idea.
- [11:29]
B
Something else they did, they built a wooden thatched house, which I can't build a house. And these kids were building a house. And not just that, they maintained a continuously burning fire, which I can't imagine without a fire starter on an island. Like, it must be so hard to start a fire. But as you said, Matt, people in the South Pacific, I think, are more resourceful, perhaps, than we are. So they started this fire, maintained it for the whole 15 months. They had a rainwater collection system. They found some wild chick that were left behind 100 years ago by the former inhabitants. And they raised these chickens so they had protein at all times. In addition to what they were getting out of the sea from fishing and the plants that they were raising, they had a garden, which essentially they grew crops in. And this part. I just love this part so much. It makes my heart so warm. They made sure to take care of their spirits because they knew that morale. To keep it up, they had to have more than just food and shelter. So they built a badminton court to play badminton every day. And they also built makeshift instruments so they would do sing alongs every night before bed to end the day on a happy note.
- [12:45]
A
Wow.
- [12:45]
B
Isn't that so sweet?
- [12:47]
A
That is. How old were these boys again?
- [12:50]
B
13 is the age of the youngest one, and 18 was the age of the oldest one. And the guitar that they built, one of the survivors still has that guitar still to this day.
- [13:02]
A
So they're still alive, some of the survivors, then?
- [13:04]
B
Oh, yes, yes. Let's get to that part. So in 1967, 15 months after being shipwrecked, the boys saw a boat off in the distance, and it was captained by a man named Peter Arthur. He was the son of a wealthy Australian media magnet. He just had loads of money, and he liked to go on adventures. And they saw his boat, and they swam out to the boat and told him their story. Like, hey, we've been shipwrecked here for 15 months. Will you take us back home? And Peter Arthur was like, what? What is going on here? I don't know how this makes sense. These are all uninhabited islands. How did you get here? But, okay, I'll call the capital of Tonga and say that I found you boys, and we'll see what the capital of Tonga says. The capital of Tonga, they answer. And they're like, those boys have been dead for 15 months. They can't be alive. We already held funerals for those boys. And sure enough, no, they're not dead. They're here on this boat. I'm gonna take them back to you. So Peter Arthur drives the boat back to Tonga. The boys get a hero's welcome at first, but then the person whose boat they stole says, no, I'm gonna throw you in jail because you stole my boat.
- [14:22]
A
Come on.
- [14:23]
B
I'm not kidding.
- [14:24]
A
Oh, that's so mean.
- [14:26]
B
And he's like, no, you to repay me for the boat or you're going to be incarcerated. This is unforgivable, what you did. You stole my boat and let it be destroyed in a storm. But fortunately, as I mentioned, Peter Arthur was the son of a media magnet. So he kind of knew about media and story and rights and so on. So he secured a deal where the boys got media rights to their stories, and that earned them enough money to pay off the guy whose boat they stole and then be able to go on and live rich, full lives. And so that's the story. That's the real story of the Lord of the Flies. And the reason why this has been circulating so much over the last few years is because in 2020, a book was published called A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman. And when he was trying to publicize his book when it came out, he published excerpts in the Guardian and other places with the headline the Real Story of the Lord of the Flies. So there was confusion out there. Was this the real story or was it not? Is this what William Golding based his book on? And no, again, the timeline is off. It's not the story that Golding based his book on. And in fact, the real story shows something so good and sweet and decent about human nature that's not in the book at all.
- [15:57]
A
I mean, that's a better story.
- [15:59]
B
I think it's such a better story.
- [16:02]
A
But just in terms. I mean, obviously it's a more pleasant story, but just generally for, like, there's so much drama in that as well. I can't believe that that's not. Has it been a film or anything yet? Or is there a book about, like, a whole book about that?
- [16:17]
B
I think there was a documentary, and I don't know if there's been a full book about it. One thing I didn't even mention. Oh, my gosh. These boys, in addition to all the other things they accomplished while they were shipwrecked, they also proved to be very good at practicing medicine. One of the boys broke a leg, and the other boys figured out how to set his leg with sticks and leaves. And when the doctors Examined that boy after he was rescued. They said, wow, you did a better job than the hospital here would have done.
- [16:44]
A
That is incredible. You've got to give some props to that school as well. That is probably the best PR that that school could ever get. Like, send your boys to this boarding school, they will be able to survive in the wilderness for like best part
- [16:57]
B
of two years or they will hate the school so much that they will run away.
- [17:02]
A
Very good point. Defends what spin you put on it. And they're still alive today. Where are they now? What are they up to?
- [17:13]
B
They're still in the South Pacific as far as I know. And last I read about them still living really well rounded, happy lives. It sounds like they all had really great temperaments, really great personalities. And I just admire them so much. If we could all be like that, you know, like, okay, we'll find a way to cooperate, we'll find a way to survive. We'll find a way to still sing at the end of every day. Ugh. It just. It makes me so happy.
- [17:37]
A
Yeah. I think there's probably nothing better for making you the most well rounded human being that you can be than being deserted on a desert island for 15 months. Is that. That's, that's. I mean, people pay good money for retreats like that, like thousands of pounds to go on like detox retreats.
- [17:55]
B
Oh, yeah. One of my friends recently went on a silence retreat and essentially felt like an island for. It was eight days. It was a Saturday to the following Sunday. Eight days of. Or is that nine days? Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Of not talking at all and just feeling like in the middle of nowhere.
- [18:13]
A
So is that like an organized. What you got to pay to go on an organized.
- [18:17]
B
She paid good money to do that.
- [18:20]
A
She. Not just be quiet in the nicest possible way.
- [18:26]
B
She said she got a lot out of it. And I mean, if it works for you, I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna. Yucky or yum, if that's your thing. I don't wanna do it. Not that I wanna be deserted on a desert island, but I feel like I'd have more fun with these boys on this island than I would at a silence retreat.
- [18:41]
A
I completely agree. Yeah, it sounds great. I think there's a happy medium somewhere, isn't there? Between what we're doing right now and the deserted island. Yeah, there's gotta be some sort of middle ground there. I think we could all learn a lot from teenage boys on an island. That's insane, isn't it.
- [18:58]
B
So folks out there, if you're one of the people who accidentally believed that the book the Lord of the Flies was based on a real story, it was not. And real people are actually better than those characters in my mind. That's the lesson. At the end of the day, we are better than that book.
- [19:14]
A
I completely agree, and thank you very much for bringing that along, Krista. I knew I'd love this segment and I did.
- [19:20]
B
Oh, good, good. There are so many other things to debunk in the world, so stay tuned for that. And now I hope that bedtime story made you a little bit sleepy, because I think it's time to turn in.
- [19:32]
A
I think so. Night, Kristen. Good night, Matt. Sa. To learn more about our phone free light and audio experience, head to Hatch Co. You can also follow us at Hatch Podcasts.