Scorpion God [Paperback]

William Golding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1984

Three short novels show Golding at his subtle, ironic, mysterious best. The Scorpion God depicts a challenge to primal authority as the god-ruler of an ancient civilization lingers near death. Clonk Clonk is a graphic account of a crippled youth's triumph over his tormentors in a primitive matriarchal society. Envoy Extraordinary is a tale of Imperial Rome where the emperor loves his illegitimate son more than his own arrogant, loutish heir.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Mr. Golding who has been called an "anthropologist of the imagination" exemplifies this role in three allegories, distancing back in time, in one case early Egypt ritualized and emblazoned with mysteries, in another to a still more unspecified past reminiscent of The Inheritors with furred and feathered reminders of our earliest beginnings. Golding is always didactic in his intent and in "The Scorpion God" with its incestuous ruling class a Liar defies God and denies the afterlife and perhaps he speaks truest; while "Clonk Clonk" features a sexist struggle in a somewhat inconclusive fashion. The last of the three, "Envoy Extraordinary," takes place in ancient Rome and by comparison we seem to be billeted in modern times. Here the lighter satirical tone (this was at one point a play) is directed at still pertinent aspects of our civilization (the thunder-machine) and the commentary is far more direct. All three stories work better as purposeful apologues than as entertainment. (Kirkus Reviews )

About the Author

William Golding’s Pincher Martin (1956)

Pincher is a selfish man and a thief, greedy fellow. He fanatically keeps asserting his autonomy and resists the power of God, because he himself wants to be the dominant force. His ‘story of life’ is trying to subject others to his will. Martin perseveres in his defiance of God no matter how futile and painful its consequences, thus demonstrating free will at its most perverse. Martin goes on asserting his autonomy even when he is reduced to a pair of claws, even when the claws are  worn away too, and Pincher Martin as a personality is annihilated.

His dogmatic attitude, his ‘enjoyment’ in challenging God; - a risk taking activity which expresses his inner need to demonstrate his strength and masculinity – are very typical for the Aggressive Style of character.

Born in Cornwall, England, William Golding started writing at the age of seven. Though he studied natural sciences at Oxford to please his parents, he also studied English and published his first book, a collection of poems, before finishing college. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, participating in the Normandy invasion. Golding's other novels include Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, The Free Fall, The Spire, Rites of Passage (Booker Prize), and The Double Tongue.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; First Edition edition (March 15, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156796589
• ISBN-13: 978-0156796583
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in Cornwall, England, William Golding started writing at the age of seven. Though he studied natural sciences at Oxford to please his parents, he also studied English and published his first book, a collection of poems, before finishing college. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, participating in the Normandy invasion. Golding's other novels include Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, The Free Fall, Pincher Martin, The Double Tongue, and Rites of Passage, which won the Booker Prize.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ancient lights, October 23, 2000

By 

Philip Challinor - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scorpion God (Paperback)

Not quite three short novels, but three long stories - "The Scorpion God", set in ancient Egypt; "Clonk Clonk", set in Africa somewhere around the Dawn of Man; and "Envoy Extraordinary", set during the late Roman Empire. All are distinguished by Golding's glorious if occasionally difficult style - it's sometimes hard to discern precisely what is going on, but that's because the author is trying to project you into the consciousness of people who are fundamentally different from you - pre-Christian, pre-industrial, pre-rational and in one case prehistoric. All three stories deal with the emergence of new forms of consciousness and hence, new forms of society - in the first, we see the vague beginnings of the Pharaohs; in the second, perhaps, the beginning of the sex war; in the third (in many ways the least difficult of the three) the brilliantly ironic fate of a few ideas which were centuries, not years, before their time. In "Envoy Extraordinary" only - the story set closest to modern times - the attempted change of consciousness does not succeed, is deliberately repressed - or rather, removed until later. There's a real sting in this tale, just as logical, just as inevitable and far less predictable than the ending of Golding's excellent Pincher Martin; the barbs in "Clonk Clonk" and "The Scorpion God" are a bit more subtle and may take longer to sink in, but you'll feel them all right.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Lesson in Anthropology, January 12, 2009

By 

An admirer of Saul "Mr Wobble" (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scorpion God (Paperback)

Three short stories set in ancient Egypt,Rome and stoneage times all exploring mans ambivilent relatoinship with nature;the rational and reasoning of man always being repressed by our over weening need for rituals and superstitious explanations.

Each tale needs to be read in one sitting for the whole effect to hit;Golding is not the sort of writer where you can read a couple of pages then go back to later. His writing has a cumulative effect, and his anthropological observations are acute.

My particular favourite was 'Clonk Clonk' as it was very much in the vein of (to me) his greatest work,'The Inheritors'.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Individual vs Society., May 28, 2009

By 

Jan Dierckx (Belgium, Turnhout) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Scorpion God (Hardcover)

Three different stories in three different ages. They are all about an individual in a moral conflict with society or with its rulers. In the novels written by William Golding -from "Lord of the flies" to "The Double Tongue"- there is always a conflict with any form of society, even the most primitive and even among children ('Lord of the Flies').

This three short novels set in varying places and times exhibit the manifold talents of a writer who has been called the most original and imaginative of his generation. The title piece depicts a challenge to primal authority as the god-ruler of an ancient civilization lingers near death. "Clonk Clonk" is a convincing account of a crippled youth's triumph over his tormentors in a primitive society. "Envoy Extraordinary" is a tale of Imperial Rome and of the poetic illegitimate son of the emperor, whom the emperor loves more than he does his own arrogant, loutish heir.

This is Golding at his best

.Lord of the Flies (50th Anniversary Edition)The Double Tongue