The Scorpion God

by William Golding

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 (first published in 1956 in "Sometime, Never") is a tale of Imperial Rome where the emperor loves his illegitimate son more than his own arrogant, loutish heir. 178 pages.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, Classics, Novels, Historical

178 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Sir William Gerald Golding was an Engish novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.

As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was knighted in 1988. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Reviews

[Amanda B · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5🌟

[Юра Мельник · Rating 3 out of 5]

Здається що це книга про взаємозв'язок влади і релігії. Історичний антураж не здався мені достатньо переконливим. Цікаво було б дізнатись як давні єгиптяни обговорювали всі ці ритуали і жертовні позовання, однак на жаль цього не знав навіть Ґолдінґ

[Terence · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Scorpion God is a collection of three novellas. The title story takes place in Egypt, I would guess shortly before or around the time of the First Dynasty (c. 3000 BC); "Clonk Clonk" takes place at some period before the Agricultural Revolution (pre-10,000 BC), maybe in Africa, maybe not; and the final story, "Envoy Extraordinary," takes place in a fictionalized Roman Empire.

The historian in me would like to know more definitely when things happen but Golding's purpose in writing these stories is not the historian's. All of them challenge the standing of authority and tradition in some way, asking you to question your response to these things in your own life. In "The Scorpion God," the heir to the Great House (pharaoh) rebels against his planned destiny when his father dies and his sister (and future wife) conspires to displace him. In "Clonk Clonk," a crippled hunter struggles to gain acceptance in his tribe. And in "Envoy Extraordinary," there's a whole host of "rebels": the old emperor, his younger son, an eccentric inventor and his mysterious daughter.

The great strength of these stories is also their great weakness - Golding is so spot on at evoking these utterly alien cultures that the tales come across as cold and unengaging. Not surprisingly, the last story, set in ancient Rome, our "grandmother," is the most accessible and easily read.

I originally gave this book 2 stars but having written this short review, I've reconsidered and am raising my estimation to 3, but a very lukewarm 3 stars. The stories in this collection are short enough that you won't find yourself investing inordinate amounts of time in them, and you may find yourself liking them more than I did.

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had several William Golding books sitting on my shelves unread for years. He's an author I always intended to get round to one day but somehow never did -- until recently. And what can I say? I'm an instant convert! I now intend to read as many of his books as I can.

The Scorpion God consists of three novellas. They aren't linked by characters, plot or even mood; but they do seem to be related in some deeper way. The first is set in Ancient Egypt, the second in an unspecified African region, the third in Imperial Rome. All are brilliant. All crackle with astounding prose, remarkable imagery and a feeling of momentous changes taking place at every point on the page.

The density of action is incredible, even when that action is only the shifting of philosophical viewpoints. Three pages of this book feel like thirty pages by another author. Golding was clearly a talent of enormous significance and I am very glad I've finally got round to delving into his works!

[Narjes Dorzade · Rating 4 out of 5]

.
" گریه مرا خواهند دید. "

" غرض اینست که گریه مرا ببینند.این یک واقعیت عمیق مذهبی است.فکر می کنی هر خداوند گاری که چشمان خود را باز نگه دارد.می تواند از آنچه می بیند،کاری جز گریه کند؟

.
ویلیام گولدینگ
فارسی احمد میرعلائی

[Amin]

ترجمه از خود کتاب بهتره. پنج از پنج

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Golding said, looking back on Lord of the Flies, that it was the writing of a child.

I now see what he meant.
This is only the second work of his that I've read, but Golding's style has matured infinitely. His themes are so much more subtle, so much deeper in their exploration, his prose THAT much more enchanting.

NOTE: the middle part of the review will deal with themes, which some people (like me) prefer to figure out on their own. There are no plot spoilers, however.

LotF has always been a favourite of mine, but this impacted me just as strongly. The over-arching theme of the Scorpion God is power, and how strangely and abruptly it shifts. In all three short stories we also see the vital role women play in the shifting of power, even in patriarchal societies. A second over-arching theme is the role implied violence plays in such shifts, not as a necessity, but as a human desire.

But the stories contain much more. The first, Scorpion God, explores tradition, in an early Egyptian setting. The second, Clong, explores weakness and its effect on social relations, in a hunter-gatherer tribe. The third, Envoy Extraordinaire, explores progress, in a late Roman setting. And in exploring these themes, Golding displays such a vivid image of what it means to be human, constant despite the varying settings, that I find it hard to disagree with his conclusions.

All three stories have a subtle, sarcastic humour in them that is juxtaposed to some darker considerations of human nature. (side-note: in a way, it is very similar to the style Pratchett adopted for his work, and I wouldn't be surprised if Sir Terry was influenced by these short stories...there are more parallels than one to his books, ie "Pyramids" and the relation between the Patrician and DaQuirm). Especially the last short story turned out to be quite amusing.

Golding wove all these things together in such style and class, that it is impossible for me than to give anything less than 5 stars to the book. I will definitely be reading more of his work in the future.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I had stopped reading this book after the first two short novels, I would have need to ask Goodreads to add an option for using negative stars in one's rating. The Scorpion God and Clonk Clonk are told in such vague and enigmatic ways that each paragraph seems more like a series of non-sequiturs instead of anything recognizable as a coherent narrative. By the end of each, the adumbrations of some kind of a situation have been established, but I found myself wondering why anybody bothered to put that story on paper. In short, these two novellas were difficult to read, difficult to follow, and offered no payoff at the end.

Envoy Extraordinary was something different all together. Although occasionally terse and impressionistic to the point of obscurity, this was nevertheless a genuinely interesting story. A Roman emperor, his jaded grandson, a Greek inventor, and all-too-eager heir to the purple collide in an amusing fable about the power of Fortune, not just as an influence in the characters' personal lives, but ultimately in the unfolding history of the world. To cap it off, the last line of the story can be understood in more than one way, but creates a fascinating ambiguity, and, however it may have been meant, actually made me laugh out loud, something which few authors have been able to do.

[منوچهر محور]

حالا همه تصمیم گرفتن در ژانر "باستان‌نگاری" طبع‌آزمایی کنن! باز به سالامبو حداقل سر و ته داشت...۰

[Eugenia Podkuyko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Хороший приклад того, як можна розказати історію, даючи читачеві мінімум інформації.

Багато про що в цьому романі треба здогадуватися самостійно, спираючись на деталі, що їх розкриває автор. Книжка про суспільство, яке настільки спирається на «традиції», що не готове відмовитися від них навіть заради власного виживання.

Добре написано, добре перекладено.

[Ilona Leonova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Це притча про страх, владу та релігію.
Моторошна атмосфера, примітивні вірування та темні людські інстинкти.
Древній Єгипет. Правитель - це Бог.

[Malapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

El libro está compuesto por tres relatos independientes ambientados en la antiguedad. En cada uno de ellos asistimos a un breve episodio en la vida de sus protagonistas, cuyos pensamientos, esperanzas y miedos son transmitidos de manera magistral por Golding.

He notado una cierta diferencia entre los dos primeros relatos (El Dios Escorpión y Clonc, Clonc) y el último y más extenso (El enviado especial). En los tres el autor nos demuestra su maestría a la hora de tratar los personajes, pero en especial en los dos más breves consigue meternos completamente dentro de su cabeza, haciéndonos compartir sus miedos y esperanzas. Dos pequeñas joyas que por unos instantes nos transportan a una comunidad de cazadores primitivos o a uno de los reinos precursores del Egipto faraónico, construyendo mundos que se sienten como reales.

[Amirtha Shri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am Beautiful Bird. I am omnipresent in space and time, purely because I do not perceive them to be on x,y,z,w,t,what-have-you scales. I float around with my tribe, I laugh at everything, I understand everything as there is nothing to understand. I just am. It just is. I am Charging Elephant. I have my weaknesses. I should have been fed to the river when I was a baby but was preserved by human error. An error that made me Chimp, that made me bed a highly revered woman for the first time, to be taken as her man, to be celebrated and respected by my tribe despite my disadvantage. Is progress an intervention of God or bestowed by benevolent powerbearers?

I am Pretty Flower. I stare into my mirror, my golden altar, I stare into the image of my sister who keeps my soul, my image, and my fantasies. She's my solace when I cannot be united with my rational lover. She's my solace when my father refuses to bed me and has to die for it. She's my solace when the mere child of my brother has to marry me and bed me. She's my solace when I send an old man to die. Not because she understands any of this, but because she is there. Although, is mere presence enough for liberation?

I am Phanocles. I am an artist, I am an automater. I want to liberate slaves who do not want to be liberated. I want to print and sell books to those who want to stay ignorant. Fear seeps in everybody's arteries and veins. I have taken their social identity, I have made them useless. I am an evil sorcerer who uses magic governed by reason to disgorge brutal structures. I am made a cook, I am made an envoy, I am commanded to be distracted for life. Is innovation an immoral weapon?

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

These three tales by are set in far distant times, which like Golding’s prose, serves to disorient in order to offer new perspectives. Each is something of a speculative tale, a re-imagining of the origins of meanings of things, giving opportunity for contemplative wonder. The Scorpion God ponders a people who more value the eternity of death to the here and now; Clonk Clonk imagines a prehistoric gynocratic society; and The Envoy suggests that steam powered technology, explosives, and printing may have developed far earlier than imagined, in pre-Christian Rome.

The Scorpion God is set in a small, ancient Egyptian state closed off by the Nile and mountains, which receives little contact with others. Into this hermetic place, the Liar has somehow come, and he has survived by serving the Great House (God personified) as a sort of fool or jester. The Great House is slated to undertake the long Sleep in order to better be able to better regulate the Nile’s water level and to keep the sky aloft. As part of Great House’s retinue, the Liar must also be entombed with the God, but he rebels and fights to stay in present. In the climactic confrontation with the high priest, the Liar kills the priest (quickly, like a scorpion) and defeats and eludes the guards. Always talking, even as he fights, the Liar lays out a scheme of war and expansion to the God’s heirs, the 12-year-old Princess and the 10-year-old Prince.

The story invokes questions of purpose, social and personal, and about the relative values of progress and stasis. Tacitly, one is bidden to wonder how such a static society could have arisen and how it could be sustained. The Liar is a stranger to the community, the virulent worm in the apple, and he corrupts, but he also offers a way to the Princess and Prince to deal with their dissatisfactions in ways they’d never imagined, suggesting how a culture can impose unconscious bounds around thoughts and actions.

Clonk Clonk tells of a matriarchal prehistoric society where the women segregate the men and mendaciously keep them from an awareness of their ability to father children. The women have a greater verbal fluency and are able to think abstractly and without anthropomorphizing; the communicate simply of present sensation and events. While the women manage the tillable foodstuffs and the children, the men believe themselves the society’s protectors and hunters, and they are often away on long hunts. While the hunt-obsessed men are away, the women plan, converse speculatively, and divert themselves with mead whose existence they’ve hidden from the men.

Chimp, a hunter who’s been temporarily ostracized from the men, seeks safety from the dangers of the night by returning to the mountain community where the women are. Once there, he sees and hears things that he did not know were possible, and he partakes that night of the mead and lies with the head woman, overcoming his fear of her vagina dentata. In the morning, with an unaccustomed headache, he recalls his drunken activities and tries feebly to articulate the swirl of impressions and contradictions. The head woman persuades him that all was no more than dreams, fantasies conjured by the Sky Woman (the moon).

In a throwaway concluding paragraph, Golding pulls back from the specific moment to say that many years later the community is swept under by a volcano, but no worries, he implies, as he asserts, “there were plenty of people in other places, so it was a small matter.” Further implication—in a tongue-in-cheek way—is that present-day patriarchal norms need never have felt threatened by such an anomalous prehistoric matriarchy.

The Envoy is the most lighthearted of the three stories, and it seems to resemble a comedy of the stage, with a small cast of characters, with four chapters/scenes to cover its entirety. The cast includes, in order of appearance, the Emperor/Caesar, his distaff grandson Mamillius, the mad Greek inventor Phanocles, his beautiful veiled daughter Euphrosyne, and the Emperor’s legitimate grandson Posthumous. There are small bit roles for Posthumous’s colonel and a rebellious slave. There is a lazy, philosophical air to the play, which is most emblematic of the old Emperor whose life has compassed a good deal and who now most relishes experiences that can recall afresh moments of his youth. He finds humorous his 17-year-old grandson’s lurching efforts to find something of value to do, as he tries on one role after another. Into the Emperor’s stately, ritual-defined world comes the catalyst Phanocles, promising to build him great steam engines and cannons with explosive charges. After a comic and finally fatal confrontation with his power-hungry grandson Posthumous, the Emperor and Phanocles have a reflective conversation about what has transpired, and the good the latter’s inventions might bring. Even the pressure cooker has resulted in destruction and deaths, but the steam boat, cannon, and printing press bode far worse: society disrupted and slaves out of work, war a mere detonation of distant explosives, and books the burden of trivia and flotsam. The Emperor suggests it is best that Phanocles become the Empire's envoy to China.

Each of The Scorpion God’s stories is about 60 pages in length, enough to absorb in a sitting despite each having a medley of effects and leaving a variety of impressions. Still, while a single reading compassed the essence of the stories, I felt a second reading of each best caught some of the elements that appear but once in each, and also served to gap vagrant ellipses Golding’s writing is prone to. I re-read the book a second time, three days later, and each story was richer for the time and effort.

[Sol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scorpion God: A humorous tale: when the god-king of an ancient Egyptian trips during a ritual run around his territory, then refuses to have sex with his daughter in the same day, he drinks poison, and his most beloved servants follow him in suicide. The only exception is his jester/storyteller Liar, who does not subscribe to any of the accepted ideas of his society, and inadvertently upends this small society when he refuses suicide.

Most of the humour comes from the absurdity of the beliefs and customs of these people to us: games of skill are dismissed as being nothing but cheating, incest is mandatory, and two instances of symbolic weakness and impotence are enough to cause Great House's happy suicide, to name a few. The only character outside this milieu is the Liar, a man who has travelled outside his village, and seen things like the sea, mountains, snow and ice, light-skinned people, and even mentions Syria by name. His tales are impossibly silly lies to his listeners, and Great House loves his lies, but he refuses ritual suicide, as he finds this life "good enough". Everyone else dismisses him as a madman, but to us, he is the only sane one.

I was quite surprised to find there was not really a theme of evil present here. I've read it's a strong preoccupation of Golding, but the worst you'll find here is extremely incompatible worldviews.

Interesting counterpoint to Death and the King's Horseman.

Clonk Clonk: More humour. A primitive matriarchal society, where men are emotional, child-like hunters, and women are the level-headed leaders, gatherers, and caretakers of the young and old. The hunter Chimp has a bad ankle, which leads to him being briefly alienated from his band of hunters after he lets a gazelle escape their hunt. Alone, he wanders back to the village of the women, where he intrudes on their mysterious full moon rituals, and has a terrifying sexual experience. Afterwards he is re-accepted among the hunters and gains a connection to the leader of the women. Meanwhile, the woman Palm, She Who Names The Women, is juggling the combined worries of an impending birth, food production, the full-moon drinking party of the women, and the soon to be returning male hunting party.

An interesting alternate social organization idea. The men think figuratively and imaginatively, engage in frivolous play, switch names at the drop of a hat, are focussed and serious only when hunting, and seemingly have no ability to think in the long-term, living in an eternal present. Their lives are mostly homosocial and partly homosexual. Very reminiscent of Lok from Golding's The Inheritors. The women, by contrast, have permanent names given at birth, hold various duties (beekeeping, gathering, caring for the young and old),plan ahead (extrapolating when the men will return to the village), and treat the men with a parental attitude ("isn't it nice to think of them having fun?"). The viewpoint woman Palm, is highly conscious of the passage of time, especially as it relates to her ageing.

Another humorous tale, with a happy ending (bar the somewhat sardonic postscript). What's happened to you Golding?

Envoy Extraordinary: The emperor of Rome is visited by a Greek man, Phanocles, with the vision a mad scientist - pressure cookers, steam powered ships, explosives! After a series of mishaps ending in the boorish imperial heir's death, he unveils his final invention - the printing press! Faced with the prospect of having to read hundreds of banal reports every day, the emperor sends him on a sinecure to China. A thoroughly amusing tale, though in comparison to the previous two tales it's downright modern and normal. Phanocles is the spectre of our own technologized, despiritualized modernity, here narrowly kept at bay. However, we know he'll return eventually, bringing his wonders and his horrors with them.

What a wonderful collection. I love this more playful, tongue-in-cheek side of Golding, compared to the unrelenting darkness of his early books. They were dangerously close to humourless, but there's more than a little to go around here.

[Noel Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

book #42 of 2021: The Scorpion God (pub. 1971) by William Golding (English author: better known for his book Lord of the Flies, winner of the Booker Prize: 1980 and the Nobel Prize in Literature: 1983.) this is my third book by this beloved author. I’ve read his marvelous Lord of the Flies several times (hear the BBC piece of how it was drastically improved and just narrowly managed to be published: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000...) and gave it a 5/5. more recently, I read his second novel, a speculative prehistoric fiction, The Inheritors, which, according to Wikipedia: “concerns the extinction of one of the last remaining tribes of Neanderthals at the hands of the more sophisticated Homo sapiens.” I believe I gave that one a 3/5. this novel was a collection of three novellas, also speculative historical fiction, each set at a different time and place in ancient history. his writing is, as always, exceptional. the storytelling, however, I feel could’ve certainly benefited from the editor who helped him with Lord of the Flies. some of his endings felt a bit pat and the messages in his stories were sometimes more modern than the settings might’ve allowed (a big fear I have about ever writing historical fiction). some stories were better than others, though I think the last was the best of the set. this book probably deserves a 3.5/5, but I’m giving it a 4/5 because…the writing quality.

[Diana Lillig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for The Scorpion God, the first in the trilogy.

I enjoyed it. Like all the Golding novels I have read, it's an extended metaphor for one of the basic, much repeated, stories of humanity.

In TSG, we see the familiar battle between rationality and belief, where the (true) stories of the outsider are tolerated as amusing lies, until circumstances force a societal change and they must be accepted.

Golding evokes a terrifying but beautiful place resembling ancient Egypt. In this far-off time, incest is virtue, and life after death is so wonderful that all are willing to drink poison to get there.

When a crisis faces this brittle state, one desperate man strikes out to break the golden chains of ritual and escape the priest who would require his death in order to save the world.

The Scorpion God is not for everyone, but I recommend it for those who enjoy the alternant realities of science fiction, beautiful descriptions of a dreamlike world, and the psychology of revolutions.

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Accidentally read the last of the short novels first. The one involving steam power, printing presses, and gunpowder in ancient Rome. - I give that one a rating of 3.5."

"The Scorpion God completed. A story of the Nile. The rise and fall of the river. And the human who is declared a God. Who is to make the river rise, and make the river go down again. - 3.5 stars."

"I have no idea how to "take" the middle short novel. Apparently the point of it is that the only way women can be in control is if all men have the intelligence of fruit flies and are gay. I do not believe I've ever read anything more horrible in my life than the middle short novel of this book."

[Dmitriy Trifonov · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my view in all these novels except maybe "Envoy Extraordinary" the form totally dominates over the content. Yeah, I see, these beautiful descriptions of rivers, and mountains, and plains, and the sun, and the moon are allegorical and meant to translate the author's ideas, but there are not so much depth for so excessive descriptions. "Envoy Extraordinary" is a little better, I've even really liked it, but the whole collection is only okay.

[Hymerka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Хтозна, може, річ у мені, власне, у тому, що я зовсім недавно читала "Піраміди" Террі Пратчетта і тепер не можу сприймати всю цю давньоєгипетську тематику всерйоз.
Хай там як, але очевидним для мене є те, що, по-перше, ця повість набагато слабша за "Володаря мух", а по-друге, ця малесенька книжка не варта 75 гривень, які за неї правлять.

[Etna · Rating 3 out of 5]

одним словом - атмосферность. местами такое ощущение будто пробираешься сквозь толщу аллегорий и недосказанности, приходится додумывать. особенно это характерно для первых двух рассказов. это бы не напрягало, если бы в результате присутствовал более мощный посыл, основная идея. а так весь такой заинтригованный ожидаешь какой-то магии слова, а в результате пшик. лучше почитаю ещё его романы

[Jules]

La naturaleza del hombre, vista desde la modernidad. El autor nos sumerge en sus sueños ancestrales, nos describe sociedades de seres humanos enfrentados con sus semejantes y con el ambiente. Usando herramientas para mejorar y sobrevivir. Pero el amor servirá a Golding para poner fin a las tres cortas historias.

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 4 out of 5]

не люблю притч, але то моя проблема, а не Ґолдінґа (переклад, до речі, гарний). історія у творі прозора, час, коли міфологія перетворюється на релігію. боги на бога (точніше - Бога). хоч усе одно не розумію - навіщо нам притчі, коли вже є Біблія?

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

About 35-40 years ago I read all of Golding's books, except for An Egyptian Journal which I found extremely dull and did not finish. Later when the posthumous The Double Tongue came out I read that one too.

The Scorpion God somehow went missing in my collection, and on replacing it I'm rereading it.

"The Scorpion God" (story): 4 stars

Golding is great at evoking the distant past. This story is worth reading for that alone.

In this society, incest is the norm, and suicide is revered. But we have one character who has seen the world and knows better; he does not want to participate in mass suicide. We see our modern selves in him, and his efforts to prevent the mass suicide are comical.

Of course Golding is not in any way advocating incest or suicide here. Rather his point is that some societal norms we take for granted may be as bad and stupid as incest and mass suicide, if seen from outside our culture. That's not an original thought, but if it's been expressed better than here, I'd like to know where.

"Clonk Clonk": 2 stars

"Clonk Clonk" is my least favorite Golding story (excluding the nonfiction An Egyptian Journal).

But there is a lot to like about how the story is told. Again Golding is amazing at evoking an ancient society. I particularly appreciated how he makes us really feel the sun and moon not as lifeless objects in the sky but as sentient dieties.

In this society, women are in charge and live mostly separate from the men. The men spend most of their time away hunting.

Weirdly, all the men, even the oldest, gray-haired members, have the emotional maturity of a child of about 5-7 years old. That's really weird and just not believable. Even if the women kept them from having any authority in society, many of them would still be mature adults.

Also weirdly, the men are all enthusiastically homosexual, getting it on with other men in the tribe every night. Many of the men are paired with women but not much interested in sex with them. As a heterosexual man I find that difficult to believe for most of the men.

We even get a gang rape scene where a mob of drunk women forces a young man who is terrified of sex with women.

It's annoying that important aspects of this society are much different from what I think any otherwise similar society would be like.

So what's Golding's point here? As far as I can tell this is just about imagining a matriarchal society and how that would infantalize the men. Also make the men all homosexual. It's a disappointing and in some ways frankly stupid story from a writer who has done great things. Also a disappointing lost opportunity to imagine what could have been a very interesting ancient matriarchal society. On the other hand, it's told with a great storytelling style and worth reading for that alone.

Is there something here about explaining away infantalized pre-feminism women and their disinterest in sex, before say first-gen feminism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries? If so the story disproves itself, as plenty of women then were emotionally mature, and there is no evidence of daily Lesbian orgies.

"Envoy Extraordinary": star rating TBD after I finish reading it.

"Envoy Extraordinary" is much older than the first two stories. It was originally published in 1956, just two years after Lord of the Flies, in a volume with other authors. Two years after that Golding reworked the story as the play The Brass Butterfly. Yes the play was produced, and apparently did fine.

Though we're still in the ancient world--Rome this time--it's so much less ancient than in the first two stories, and with so much more bustling technology about, that the setting almost feels modern in comparison.

The first chapter is hard to follow. But the gist is that our hero, like the protagonist of "The Scorpion God", is a stand-in for our modern sensibilities, trying to persuade an ancient mind. But where the protagonist of "The Scorpion God" was modern in his philosophy, this one knows some useful modern technologies. Useful that is, if he can persuade the skeptical and dismissive Emperor to fund their development.


More to come once I've read further.

[Alejandro González Medina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comencé a leer este libro con la idea de aproximarme a una obra tan admirada y respetada como es la de William Golding, galardonado con el Premio Nobel de Literatura en 1983. Como se puede deducir de las dos estrellas, "El dios Escorpión" no ha satisfecho mis expectativas. Intentaré valorar de manera sucinta los tres relatos contenidos en este volumen:

- "El dios Escorpión": comienzo bastante críptico y embrollado, imagino que el extrañamiento figura en la intención del autor como herramienta para sumergirnos en una civilización tan apartada (¿en el tiempo, en el espacio o en ambas?) de la occidental. Esta confusión inicial se resuelve pronto y la presentación de los personajes y sus relaciones promete. Además, la crítica al papel de la religión en el control social parece el eje vertebrador del relato, lo que incrementa su posible interés. Lamentablemente, se queda en un bello castillo en el aire, pues el relato avanza a trompicones, con muchas ralentización en el ritmo narrativo, para desembocar en un final "deus ex machina" sin pies ni cabeza. El peor relato de los tres.
- "Clonc, clonc": el comienzo se parece mucho al de "El dios Escorpión" en lo que a oscurantismo se refiere pero, a diferencia de este, irresoluto a lo largo de la trama. De nuevo, un aura de misticismo envuelve la trama, esta vez más enfocada en cuestionar el aporte diferencial de hombres y mujeres a las estructuras sociales y la gestión de conflictos. A mi parecer, el mejor relato de los tres, con un final muy interesante.
- "El enviado especial": todo lo clara que es la narración, se emborrona con los acontecimientos en el puerto. El final no deja de tener un tono algo humorístico, como de sainete. Insustancial.

En definitiva, me ha dejado mal sabor de boca. Le he puesto dos estrellas porque Golding no deja de ser un narrador de una plasticidad sobresaliente en lo sensorial, aunque en estas narraciones breves se ahogue en tramas insulsas o desarrollos demasiado alegóricos.

[Tristan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of three novellas originally published together in 1971 although the third had previously been published in 1956.

* The Scorpion God is set in ancient Egypt at the dawn of history. It’s a rather muddled story as the author strives to stay true to the imagined beliefs of the time which underscores all the characters’ actions. But he fails to explain these beliefs or evoke an immersive experience of the times, which makes the narrative confusing, and he fails to be consistent with the context, as upper class Englishness keeps seeping through, which is jarring. Overall, it’s an underwhelming mess. Two stars.

* Clonk Clonk is set in primordial hunter gatherer times. I can’t discern a story in this rambling mess of a narrative. The depiction of an “uncivilised” society is as hackneyed as it can get. Two stars is a generous score.

* Envoy Extraordinary is set in an alternate Roman Empire where an eccentric genius presents the pressure cooker, the paddle steamer, and the guided missile to a vaudeville emperor and his caricatural heirs, one an incompetent dreamer and the other a power crazed beast. The anachronistic inventions malfunction in a slapstick of over the top cartoonish action, and the wry emperor rids himself of three problems at once, particularly the inventor whose genius could overturn the order of the world. A truly bizarre tale, a parody along Monty Python lines. The narrative is a little more coherent than the previous two stories, but not by much. It seems that the author’s best work was early in his career, and he became less and less clear in later years. Three stars for this one.

Overall I am not impressed by this collection at all. It’s a real effort to follow who is doing what or saying what, and this lack of clarity makes reading a chore. There are moments of brilliance in the morass, but too few and too far between. Two stars in the end.

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nu era nicio fisură pe cer, nicio pată pe emailul albastru și dens. Nici măcar soarele, plutind în mijlocul lui, nu făcea mai mult decât să topească vecinătatea imediată, în care aurul și ultramarinul curgeau dintr-unul în altul, amestecându-se. Din cerul acesta, dogoarea si lumina cădeau ca o avalanșă, astfel că totul, între cele două stânci prelungi, se întindea la fel de neclintit ca stâncile.
Apa fluviului era plată, opacă, moartă. Singura iluzie de mișcare din peisaj o dădea dâra de abur care se ridica de pe suprafața ei. Două stoluri de păsări acvatice, care stăteau unde mâlul de pe mal era tare și spart de crăpături hexagonale, priveau colorat în gol. Straturile de papirus uscat – spintecate de câte o tulpină care se îndoise, se rupsese și atârna invers decât celelalte – stăteau nemișcate ca trestiile pictate pe un mormânt, până în clipa în care câte o sămânță cădea dintr-o coroană uscată; iar acolo unde cădea, în apa mică, sămânță rămânea, fără să se clintească. Ceva mai încolo însă, apa era adâncă – trebuie să fi avut câțiva kilometri; și acolo soarele ardea, topind emailul albastru al cerului jos, același cu al bolții albastre și grele de deasupra stâncilor roșii și galbene. Iar acum, parcă pentru că doi sori erau mai mult decât puteau ele îndura, stâncile se ascundeau pe jumătate dincolo de straturile de aer, începând să tremure.

[m. · Rating 3 out of 5]

     Я максимально розчарований цією графоманією.
     Я у захваті від цього геніального письма.

     Ці думки в моїй голові теліпалися як метроном. В свої 18-20 років я намагався писати тексти в максимально подібній манері: не давати читачу жодних деталей, щоб він сам будував навколишній світ із шматків діалогів головних героїв. Мені тоді це здавалося максимально геніальним: я спираюся на те, що читач не дурний, і, залежно від досвіду конкретної людини, у кожного будуть свої враження від "навколишнього" світу, якого я, як автор, не подавав зовсім.
     Та виявляється, що і в 1971-ому році, коли був написаний «Бог Скорпіон», люди вже дійшли до цієї форми подачі розповіді.
     Це щодо геніальности.

     І тому тут й одразу приходять думки-сумніви про графоманію: наскільки ж це вартісно писати так? Це дійсно геніально, чи.... чи це банальщина, що лежить на поверхні?

     Головною темою є сила (релігійна) й те, наскільки ж вона впливає на соціум. Й все це в потужному історичному сеттінгу.

     Тому ставлю 3. Щось посередині, бо я не визначився це добре чи ні. Але книга всього 100 сторінок, тому можете запросто за один вечір сформулювати свою власну думку.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Scorpion God: ***-**** By far the best and strangest of the three short novels.

Clonk, Clonk: ** The male prehistorical hunters recall the child savages fromThe Lord of Flies, and the whole ambiance eerily resembles scenes from The Inheritors.

Envoy Extraordinary: ** The most satirical story of the three, painted in thick brushstrokes of slapstick comedy which recall some of Karel Čapek's short stories -particularly the Pontius Pilates' stories from Apocryphal Tales (1932-1945).

William Golding's anthropological imaginative powers are outstanding, he convincingly sets up alien cultures that seem to flow effortlessly from archetypes he dredges up and polishes from a somewhat twisted collective unconscious. At its best, his inebriated prose makes you dream alongside him as long as you resist the urge to apply commonsense logic to his iridiscent, sardonic and slightly hypnotic bubbles; at its worst the prose hides confusing gaps in a warped narrative thread....

[Stuart Aken · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed most of the books by William Golding I’ve read, despite one being a text for my ‘A’ level English Lit GCE.
This one, however was tough to enjoy. It was difficult to engage with most of the characters, and the need for a personal familiarity with the times portrayed rather diminished the enjoyment that might have been had. I know something of all three scenarios, but insufficient detail of ancient Egypt (The Scorpion God) and the specific period of the Roman Empire (Envoy Extraordinary) meant I felt partially lost throughout both these stories. It was easier to imagine the prehistorical world of early humanity in Clonk Clonk, and that made this story the most accessible for me. I could readily empathise with the malformed hunter as he attempted to persuade his tribe he was worthy of their respect.
A somewhat disappointing read, but mercifully short and therefore not too much time was needed to finish what became a determined ploughing through a text resembling more a maze than a story.