Saturday, November 13, 2010

Heart of Darkness

Rating:★★★★★
Category:Books
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Author:Joseph Conrad
"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." --Joseph Conrad.

The Heart of Darkness is a story of a story. Conrad's narrator, Marlowe, recounts his experiences in Africa and briefly, in Belgium, and his feelings about the voyage to a group of other men while waiting for a rising tide along the River Thames. In the story the narrator is going down an African river for "The Eldorado Exploring Expedition" to bring back some of the valuable caches of elephant ivory. The journey takes him down the dark waters and deep and sometimes deadly jungles. The ultimate end of the journey is a personal fiefdom of terror run by a man called Kurtz.

Joseph Conrad's 1902 novella is familiar to many. Rereading it again I was struck by how much of the story delves into Marlowe's sense of assault upon not only the native peoples and his fellow men in the steamer, but his own psyche. Marlowe is as much a victim of war as the modern soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder might be.

But the wounds are totally psychological-- and not to be healed by being removed from the harrowing river journey. The mysterious, intelligent and ultimately enigmatic Mr. Kurtz, the leader of the ivory station--a highly civilized and capable man who is brilliant and at the same time savage and mad--has made him question the nature of humanity itself.
Marlowe cannot see civilization in the same way again, and has contempt for those who might judge his reactions to such terrors "with a policeman at one corner and a butcher shop on the other".

Civilization to Marlowe is a mere veneer. Its Conrad himself trying to express that difficult sense of total isolation in his own skin---he knows that London itself was a savage place to the first Romans who came to Britain. All places were savage once and parts of them can be again, without warning.

But there is something dark and evil within all men as well, and what circumstances might bring this darkness, a darkness perhaps beyond the control of the keenest intellect.

"Heart of Darkness" is a multi-layered novella that is a triumph of fiction and an authentic statement of the animal nature of human avarice.

Some think the book has a racist slant. But I believe, even if he was a man of his own time, Conrad is after something more profound than a tale of terror or a political statement on race. In condemning Kurtz and his dark deeds, and those of others along the route of colonial exploitation, Marlowe also sees something within himself, a savageness as dire as the heads of men placed on poles to encourage more ivory extraction.
Marlowe feels as alone as he was with his friends and listeners as he was back in Africa, at that ivory station hundreds or miles inland, standing over the body of the "great" Mr. Kurtz as he sums up the brutality within that heart of darkness:

"The Horror! The Horror!"

The book is based on the worst of colonies in the dire history of the great African land grab of the late 19th Century---King Leopold of Belgium's' Congo Free State of 1890. Conrad, a longtime seafarer with the French and later British Merchant services--served briefly as a fresh-water captain of a small steamship going upriver to meet up with an ivory outpost run along lines of brutality he later depicted in horrifying and psychologically subtle details.


12 comments:

  1. This sounds very good, and it seems you enjoyed the reading. Thank you, I will try this.

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  2. That's all I can ask for, Jacquie. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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  3. This just so happens to be one of my most memorable books.

    When I was in Junior College, we had an assignment to interpret it. The professor had the opened book in his lap, & all the papers submitted. He had his view of it, I had another. I challenged him. Because I think in abstracts, & 'totalities,' I didn't agree with him. But he was intrigued enough to close the book, & the class. We two discussed The Heart of Darkness for hours, on the campus grounds.

    I won't digress on my interpretation; I can only say that it was the HEART of humans, & the professor agreed with me. A small triumph for someone who entered college after being taken out of school (by my mother) at the age of ten.

    Fascinating to see this now, after so many years.

    "Some think the book has a racist slant. But I believe, even if he was a man of his own time, Conrad is after something more profound than a tale of terror or a political statement on race. In condemning Kurtz and his dark deeds, and those of others along the route of colonial exploitation, Marlowe also sees something within himself, a savageness as dire as the heads of men placed on poles to encourage more ivory extraction.
    Marlowe feels as alone as he was with his friends and listeners as he was back in Africa, at that ivory station hundreds or miles inland, standing over the body of the "great" Mr. Kurtz as he sums up the brutality within that heart of darkness: "

    YES, & more...

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  4. Some Romans still think that or so I've heard Doug.

    I also studied this text as part of an undergraduate course many years ago. The general consensus was that it is indeed racist and offensively Eurocentric, demonising Africans in what is actually a critique of Belgian imperialism, but not one of its much bigger British equivalent.

    In stereotypical fashion Conrad overvalues his adopted country (England) and uncritically shares its prejudices with regard to savage black chaps and their second rate Belgian masters (a nation still castigated in Britain by the way, for the distastefull habit of dipping chips into mayonaise).

    Nevertheless a ripping yarn all the same Doug

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  5. To each his own, Aaran. I see this in quite a different & less insular way.

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  6. I'm very impressed by you sticking to your guns with a college professor, Lucija, especially given how egotistical and hidebound some of the instructors could be in my experience, (especially in the liberal arts departments!)

    One of the reasons I chose to blog about this novella is that it is controversial, and provokes strong feelings. Like any work of enduring value, it brings out layers and layers of perspectives depending on what focus of the story most grabs at the reader.

    Thanks for sharing that personal anecdote about Conrad's powerful work, and bravo to you for doing something most of myself and my fellow undergrads wouldn't have stood up to for such a grilling.

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  7. LOL! I can't imagine, "ergo", what the modern Romans make of LA or Las Vegas, AA!

    As I stated earlier, a lot of this has to do with focus on certain language and select passages in Conrad's novella. One of the tests I think of a great work is how one can return to the work and see other material in the story that comes with a change in focus. Lucija's point about it being a subject worthy of debate is all too true I think. I became more intrigued by "Heart of Darkness" a few years ago when I read David Denby's essay in "The New Yorker" magazine on how students at a Columbia university Western Lit class reacted to this book. It was a lively debate to say the least, later recounted again in Denby's "Great Books" tome, a book filled with other debates on the class he attended after 25 years away from Columbia to see how the views of great works of literature had changed. I enclose a link to an abstract of the essay to give you an idea what Denby was getting at.

    A ripping yarn for certain, AA, and for such a slender work, surprisingly one with plenty of room for debate and friendly challenges toward.

    http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/11/06/1995_11_06_118_TNY_CARDS_000372995

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  8. An interesting link. For me, when a book is debated within the context of a certain time, of political correctness, of history, per se, whatever meaning was/is in it, can be lost. It can be intellectualized to death.

    "In the end Achebe's and Said's complaints come down to this: Joseph Conrad lacked the consciousness of race and imperial power which we have today. Poor, stupid Conrad! A self-approving moral logic has become familiar on the academic left: So-and-so's view of women, people of color, and the powerless lacks our amplitude, our humanity, our insistence on the inclusion in discourse of all people."

    Hmmm....

    "...bravo to you for doing something most of myself and my fellow undergrads wouldn't have stood up to for such a grilling."
    Not really, it wasn't a grilling & he was more than receptive to a perception he'd not considered before. I did the same in The Methodology of Philosophy, & Political Science. I was even invited to the professor's home to discuss philosophy. They were actually quite open, & not egotistical at all.

    I'm pleased you blogged about "Heart of Darkness." It can be controversial, & it certainly evoked strong feelings from me!

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  9. I glad you had such receptive instructors and positive feedback. I had some good professors and instructors--others who just were stuck in their ways and were not very open to interpetations or in one case, obvious facts, they were not used to--or maybe they were just burned-out.

    Suffice to say higher education was sometimes a delight for me; and also a mixed bag.

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  10. I had never heard of him prior to this blog. My curiosity has been peaked. I will see if my librarian will add this to my list of books to read.

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  11. Crabby, it's quite a book!

    It moved me mostly as a symbolic story, a story within a story or frame narrative. Timeless, & expressed the unfathomable darkness within every human.

    Wouldn't it be fun to read my essay on it now!

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  12. I think you'll find this one a great introduction to Conrad, Fred.

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