The Spire by William Golding

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How many completely inadequate people do we see promoted to positions beyond their ability in business, politics, the church? How much madness lies behind religious or creative vision? We have many great works of architecture, art or literature created by the efforts of individuals as driven and destructive as our poor dean. In that end what does this tell us about Golding's desire to make sense of his creative efforts in the context of his personal demons? This is a very demanding novel due to its narration style (it is written in the style of stream of conscience, but solely from Jocelyn's perspective) as well as its heavy symbolism and imagery. However, it is immensely rewarding due to the immersive prose. The apocalyptic, maddening and at times horrific imagery is conveyed perfectly through Golding's excellent narration skills, the dialogue between Jocelyn and his contenders riveting and the symbolism comes across crystal clear. Indeed, this is quite a novel of our age. First, build a barely adequate church with a minimal foundation and then try to make it rise to the heavens like a ghetto retelling of the Tower of Babel. Jocelyn is seriously ill. He learns from Adam's father that the work to build the spire is ongoing, that Goody is not showing up anywhere, and Pengall has escaped. Having hardly risen from bed, Jocelyn goes to the cathedral, feeling that he is losing his mind; he laughs with a strange, shrill laugh. Now he sees his mission in direct participation in the construction. From the artisans, he learns that Goody, before this childless, is expecting a child. He also reveals that Roger the Mason is afraid of heights, but overcomes fear and that he is still building against his will. In word and deed, supporting the master, Jocelyn forces him to build a spire. Some readers today may find it daunting; especially here in this strange 'religious novel' which has a lot of content which isn't particularly appealing. Muscular prose was adequate to Golding's purpose in 'The Inheritors' (that tale describes neanderthal men). It was adroit in 'Lord of the Flies' (a band of boys reverting to primitivism). Both these stories deal with 'extreme' situations and rough-hewn prose didn't hinder Golding at all in his exploration of either of his themes there. Both are still enjoyable readings experiences.

However, as the spire is gradually erected, a hole is dug that seems to point to the fragility of the cathedral's underpinnings, an insufficiency of the original beams, also revealing an array of crawling specimens below ground that make the place resemble a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. The author's verbal imagery is often stunning and the interplay between good & evil is quite reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies, Golding's best-known work.

After going to see Salisbury Cathedral and learning that Golding lived just down the street from it, near St. Anne's Gate, I was compelled to read this book in which Golding imagines the creation of the enormous spire atop the cathedral. In it, he has created is a brilliant, densely woven, intensely introspective study of obsession and faith, which pushes everyone around him to the very edge of endurance. Second readings are dangerous enterprises. Anything can happen. When I first read this novel, I thought the Spire, that gives the name to the title, stood defiantly by the end of the book. My attention was focused on the descriptions of how architects and builders managed to pull up the complex architectural structures that miraculously were built during the Middle Ages. I did not pay too much attention to the writing. At the time, my English did not have strong foundations, and it was as much a guess-work as the art & craft of the medieval masons. Kule; evet bir Sineklerin Tanrısı değil. Ancak şu takıntıdan kurtulalım artık. Bu başka bir roman. (Nasıl da kendi takıntımı sizlere mal ettim ama:) All this affirms the views expressed above that The Spire is, among other things, about the creation of something from nothing: buildings from empty space, gods from human needs, and books from thoughts. It's a fascinating, invigorating and challenging read." Craven, Peter (23 January 2015). "Benedict Cumberbatch animates William Golding's symbolistic novel The Spire". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 25 September 2020.

Obviously a crudely simplistic 'Freudian' reading might see the spire as a symbol of both his writing – he aspired to create something of greatness, against some hostility, but worried that it was built on shaky foundations; and it is also a phallic symbol of course – again on shaky foundations." People note British writer Sir William Gerald Golding for his dark novels, especially The Lord of the Flies (1954); he won the Nobel Prize of 1983 for literature. An audiobook version, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, was released by Faber & Faber Audio in 2014. [27] [28] Excerpts from Cumberbatch's reading are included in an introductory film on the novel [29] produced by William Golding Limited. I've tended to read Jocelin's folly as part of a profoundly human condition – the search for meaning, the construction of belief, even as exemplar of the novelist's ability to invent and elaborate. Nailing The Spire to Christianity works, but it limits or rather narrows our understanding of Art's capacity."If it is all a figment of Golding's imagination, and there was no Jocelin, or anyone like him, The Spire becomes a tremendous mental exercise. A great abstract symbol of folly that is itself insubstantial; a symphony of words, surrounding empty space in a manner even more flimsy than that cone of scaffolding and ladders wrapped around the air at the top of the spire. The book is short and the story simple. Set in medieval England during the reign of Henry II it concerns a new Dean who seeks to have a spire built on his cathedral against advice to the contrary and what results from this. During World War II, he served as part of the royal Navy, which he left five years later. This experience strongly influenced his future novels. Later, he taught and focused on writing. Classical Greek literature, such as that of Euripides, and The Battle of Maldon, an Anglo-Saxon oeuvre of unknown author influenced him.