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賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲
廿賳 兀賵賱 賲丕 賷卮丿 丕賱賯丕乇卅 廿賱賶 "賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲" 兀賳賴丕 乇賵丕賷丞 鬲鬲賲賷夭 亘匕賱賰 丕賱亘賳丕亍 丕賱賲丨賰賲貙 賵丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 鬲爻賷乇 毓賱賶 兀賰孬乇 賲賳 賲爻鬲賵賶 亘鬲賳丕爻賯 賲丿賴卮 丨賷孬 鬲鬲賯丕胤毓 鬲賱賰 丕賱賲爻鬲賵賷丕鬲 賵鬲鬲賵丕夭賶 賵鬲賮鬲乇賯 賱鬲賱鬲賯賷 孬丕賳賷丞 丿賵賳 兀賳 鬲禺賱 亘丕賱賳爻賷噩 丕賱兀爻丕爻賷 賱賱乇賵丕賷丞貙 亘賱 毓賱賶 丕賱毓賰爻 鬲夭賷丿 賲賳 廿丨賰丕賲 賵噩賲丕賱 亘賳丕卅賴丕 丕賱賴賳丿爻賷貙 賮毓賳丿 丕賱乇賵丕卅賷 賰賵賳乇丕丿 賱賷爻 賴賳丕賱賰 賲丕 賷丨丿孬 氐丿賮丞 賵賱丕 鬲賯丕賱 噩賲賱丞 毓亘孬丕賸. 噩賲賷毓 丕賱乇噩丕賱 賮賵賯 丕賱賲乇賰亘 丕賱噩賵丕賱 (賳賷賱賱賷) 賷噩賱爻賵賳 -賮賷 兀賵囟丕毓 賲乇爻賵賲丞- 毓賳丿 賲賱鬲賯賶 賳賴乇 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 亘丕賱亘丨乇 丨賷孬 賰丕賳 丕賱賲睾丕賲乇賵賳 賵賮乇爻丕賳 丕賱亘丨乇 丕賱廿賳噩賱賷夭 賷禺乇噩賵賳 廿賱賶 丕賱毓丕賱賲 賱賷賳卮乇賵丕 賮賷賴 丕賱毓賱賲 賵丕賱賲毓乇賮丞 賵丕賱丿賷賳 賵丕賱乇毓亘 賵丕賱匕毓乇 賵丕賱丿賲丕乇貙 賵賮賷 丕賱兀賮賯 亘丿丕 囟亘丕亘 賯丕鬲賲 賰丕賱丨丿丕丿 爻鬲賰孬賮 賱鬲胤睾賶 毓賱賶 丕賱賲卮賴丿 亘毓丿 匕賱賰 賯鬲丕賲丞 賲亘賴賲丞 鬲賲賴丿 賱賯氐丞 賲丕乇賱賵 丕賱鬲賷 鬲卮賰賱 丕賱毓氐亘 丕賱兀爻丕爻賷 賱賱乇賵丕賷丞: "賵賰丕賳 賴匕丕 兀賷囟丕賸" 賯丕賱 賲丕乇賱賵 賮噩兀丞 "兀丨賲丿 丕賱兀賲丕賰賳 丕賱賲馗賱賲丞 毓賱賶 丕賱兀乇囟". 賵賲賳 鬲賱賰 丕賱賲賳胤賯丞 丕賱鬲賷 賰丕賳鬲 賲馗賱賲丞 賮賷 賲丕 賲囟賶貙 賲賳 賲賱鬲賯賶 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 亘丕賱亘丨乇 鬲亘丿兀 乇丨賱丞 丕賱乇噩丕賱 賲毓 賯氐丞 賲丕乇賱賵 賳丨賵 賯賱亘 兀賮乇賷賯賷丕 丕賱爻賵丿丕亍 賱鬲賳鬲賴賷 "鬲丨鬲 爻賲丕亍 賲賱亘丿丞 亘丕賱睾賷賵賲" 賵賳賴乇 賷鬲噩賴 賳丨賵 "賯賱亘 馗賱丕賲 毓馗賷賲" 賳 賵亘賷賳 賴匕賷賳 丕賱賲卮賴丿賷賳 丕賱賯丕鬲賲賷賳 賷乇賵賷 賲丕乇賱賵 兀賰孬乇 丕賱賯氐氐 鬲乇賵賷毓丕賸貙 賯氐丞 兀賱賵賴賷丞 賰賵乇鬲夭 賵禺乇丕亘 賯賱亘賴 賵丿禺賵賱 賲丕乇賱賵 賮賷 鬲噩乇亘丞 賲卮丕亘賴丞 廿賱賶 賲丕 賯亘賱 丕賱賳賴丕賷丞 亘賯賱賷賱 賵禺乇賵噩賴 賲賳賴丕 賲丨胤賲 丕賱賯賱亘貙 賲賳匕 丕賱亘丿丕賷丞 賷囟毓賳丕 賰賵賳乇丕丿 賮賷 噩賵賮 丕賱賲兀爻丕丞 賵鬲氐亘丨 丕賱馗賱賲丞 丕賱賲丨賷胤丞 乇丕亘胤丕賸 賲賵囟賵毓賷丕賸 亘賷賳 賲爻鬲賵賷賷 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丕賱乇卅賷爻賷賷賳貙 賲爻鬲賵賶 丕賱噩賱爻丞 毓賱賶 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 丕賱匕賷 鬲爻鬲睾乇賯賴 乇賵丕賷丞 賲丕賵賱賵 賱賯氐鬲賴貙 賵丕賱賲爻鬲賵賶 丕賱丨賯賷賯賷 丕賱匕賷 丕爻鬲睾乇賯鬲賴 丕賱乇丨賱丞 亘丕賱賮毓賱貙 賵毓賳丿 丕賱賳賴丕賷丞 鬲賰賵賳 丕賱馗賱賲丞 丕賱丨丕賱賰丞 賴賷 賰賱 賲丕 賳乇賶貙 賵賷囟丨賶 丕賱賳馗乇 廿賱賶 丕賱丿丕禺賱 兀賵 廿賱賶 毓賲賯 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 兀賵 廿賱賶 丕賱噩賵丕乇 爻賵丕亍貙 賵賯丿 賳睾賲囟 兀毓賷賳賳丕 賱賳乇賶 賮賷 兀賷 夭丕賵賷丞 賲賳丕 鬲賯亘毓 鬲賱賰 丕賱亘賯毓丞 丕賱賲馗賱賲丞貙 賵賷氐亘丨 兀賰孬乇 賲丕 賳胤賲丨 廿賱賷賴 賴賵 丕賱丨乇賷丞 賮賷 丕禺鬲賷丕乇 賰丕亘賵爻賳丕 丕賱禺丕氐.
鬲亘丿兀 丕賱乇丨賱丞 賲賳 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 賱鬲鬲卮毓亘 賳丨賵 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 丨賷賳 兀鬲賶 丕賱乇賵賲丕賳 賳丨賵 "賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲" 丕賱禺丕氐 亘賴賲 -亘乇賷胤丕賳賷丕 賮賷 匕賱賰 丕賱賵賯鬲- 孬賲 賳丨賵 丕賱賰賵賳睾賵貙 賯賱亘 丕賱賯丕乇丞 丕賱爻賵丿丕亍貙 賵賳丨賵 丕賱丿丕禺賱 賱丕賰鬲卮丕賮 丕賱匕丕鬲 亘丕賱賳爻亘丞 賱賲丕乇賱賵貙 賵賳丨賵 賰賵乇鬲夭 乇爻賵賱 丕賱鬲賯丿賲 丕賱兀賵乇賵亘賷 丕賱匕賷 丨胤賲賴 毓丿丕丐賴 丕賱賲乇賷乇 賱賱丨囟丕乇丞 丕賱亘丿丕卅賷丞 賮賷 賯賱亘 兀賮乇賷賯賷丕 賱賰賳賴 丕賳睾賲爻 賮賷賴丕 廿賱賶 兀賳 兀氐亘丨 毓亘丿丕賸 匕賱賷賱丕賸 賱賴丕. 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 丕賱乇丨賱丞 賮賷 賳賯胤丞 賷毓乇亘丿 賮賷賴丕 丕賱賵丨卮 丕賱賰丕賲賳 賮賷 毓賲賯 丕賱廿賳爻丕賳. 賵賷賰賵賳 賲丕乇賱賵 卮丕賴丿 匕賱賰 丕賱丕賳丨胤丕胤 丕賱毓馗賷賲.
賵賯丿 丕毓鬲賲丿 賰賵賳乇丕丿 毓賱賶 鬲賰賳賷賰 匕賰賷 賱賱廿賲爻丕賰 亘賰賱 鬲賱賰 丕賱禺賷賵胤 賵丕賱鬲卮毓亘丕鬲. 賮賴匕賴 丕賱毓賳丕氐乇 丨丕囟乇丞 賮賷 丕賱賲乇賰亘 丕賱噩賵丕賱 (賳賷賱賱賷) 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賯賮 乇賲夭丕賸 賱賱廿亘丨丕乇 賳丨賵 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 賵賳丨賵 丕賱賯丕乇丕鬲 丕賱亘毓賷丿丞. 丕賱賲乇賰亘 兀賵 丕賱爻賮賷賳丞 賴賷 丕賱賵爻賷賱丞 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺賷丞 賱賱廿亘丨丕乇 賳丨賵 丕賱亘賱丕丿 丕賱睾乇亘賷丞貙 賵賴賷 賵爻賷賱丞 丕賱賰卮賮 賵丕賱賲睾丕賲乇丞 賵丕賱丕爻鬲毓賲丕乇貙 賵賴賷 賲賰丕賳 賱賱丕爻鬲乇禺丕亍 賵丕賱賴乇賵亘 賲賳 丕賱毓賳丕亍 賵丕賱賲卮賯丞. 賵賯丿 噩毓賱 賰賵賳乇丕丿 丕賱乇丕賵賷 卮禺氐賷丞 孬丕賳賵賷丞 賷賯鬲氐乇 丿賵乇賴 毓賱賶 鬲賯丿賷賲 賲丕乇賱賵 丕賱匕賷 賷賯賵賲 亘乇賵丕賷丞 丕賱賯氐丞 丕賱兀爻丕爻賷丞貙 賯氐丞 丕賱丕賳丨胤丕胤 丕賱兀賲噩丿 賱賱廿賱賴 丕賱亘卮乇賷 賰賵乇鬲夭 賮賷 賯賱亘 賯丕乇丞 丕賱馗賱丕賲. 賵賱賲 賷賰賳 丕爻鬲禺丿丕賲 賴匕丕 丕賱鬲賰賳賷賰 卮賰賱賷丕賸 亘賱 賰丕賳 賲賵馗賮丕賸 賱禺丿賲丞 丕賱亘賳丕亍 丕賱乇賵丕卅賷 兀爻丕爻丕賸貙 賮賰賵賳 丕賱乇丕賵賷 卮禺氐賷丞 孬丕賳賵賷丞 賷禺丿賲 賴丿賮 賲鬲丕亘毓丞 賲爻賷乇 賰賱 賲賳 賲丕乇賱賵 賵賰賵乇鬲夭 毓賳 亘毓丿貙 賰賲丕 廿賳賴 賷禺賱賯 丕賱鬲賯丕亘賱 丕賱兀爻丕爻賷 賮賷 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 亘賷賳 賲爻鬲賵賶 丕賱丨丕囟乇 -丕賱賯氐丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲乇賵賶- 賵賲爻鬲賵賶 丕賱乇丨賱丞 廿賱賶 丕賱賰賵賳睾賵 亘賲丕 亘賷賳賴賲丕 賲賳 鬲賯丕亘賱 賵丕禺鬲賱丕賮.
鬲亘丿兀 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丨賰丕賷丞 鬲乇賵賶 毓賱賶 賲鬲賳 丕賱夭賵乇賯 "賳賷賱賱賷" 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 賴賳丕賰貙 賵鬲亘丿兀 賵丕賱馗賱丕賲 賷乇禺賷 爻丿賵賱賴 毓賱賶 匕賱賰 丕賱噩夭亍 賲賳 賱賳丿賳貙 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 賵賯丿 毓賲 丕賱馗賱丕賲貙 鬲亘丿兀 賲賳 馗賱丕賲 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺賷 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 賮賷 馗賱丕賲 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 丕賱丨賯賷賯賷貙 鬲亘丿兀 亘賯氐丞 賲丕乇賱賵 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 亘賴丕貙 賵鬲亘丿兀 亘賰賵乇鬲夭 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 亘賴貙 賵匕賱賰 亘毓丿 兀賳 鬲賳賲賵 賵鬲鬲卮毓亘 睾亘乇 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 廿賱賶 毓氐賵乇 丕賱乇賵賲丕賳 丕賱兀賵賱賶 丕賱鬲賷 賰丕賳 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 賮賷賴丕 賴賵 賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲貙 賵毓亘乇 丕賱噩睾乇丕賮賷丕 丨賷孬 丕賱賰賵賳睾賵 丕賱賷賵賲 賴賵 賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲貙 賵毓亘乇 丕賱賳賮爻 丕賱亘卮乇賷丞 賵氐賵賱丕賸 廿賱賶 丕賱賳賯胤丞 丕賱賲馗賱賲丞 丕賱鬲賷 賷丿禺賱賴丕 賰賵乇鬲夭 賮鬲禺乇亘 賯賱亘賴貙 賵賷賯賮 毓賱賶 兀毓鬲丕亘賴丕 賲丕乇賱賵 賮賷賳噩賵 賵賱賰賳賴 賷毓賷卮 亘乇賵丨 賲毓匕亘丞貙 賵亘乇賵丨賴 丕賱賲毓匕亘丞 賴匕賴 賷乇賵賷 賯氐丞 賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲.
鬲亘丿兀 丕賱乇丨賱丞 賲賳 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 賱鬲鬲卮毓亘 賳丨賵 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 丨賷賳 兀鬲賶 丕賱乇賵賲丕賳 賳丨賵 "賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲" 丕賱禺丕氐 亘賴賲 -亘乇賷胤丕賳賷丕 賮賷 匕賱賰 丕賱賵賯鬲- 孬賲 賳丨賵 丕賱賰賵賳睾賵貙 賯賱亘 丕賱賯丕乇丞 丕賱爻賵丿丕亍貙 賵賳丨賵 丕賱丿丕禺賱 賱丕賰鬲卮丕賮 丕賱匕丕鬲 亘丕賱賳爻亘丞 賱賲丕乇賱賵貙 賵賳丨賵 賰賵乇鬲夭 乇爻賵賱 丕賱鬲賯丿賲 丕賱兀賵乇賵亘賷 丕賱匕賷 丨胤賲賴 毓丿丕丐賴 丕賱賲乇賷乇 賱賱丨囟丕乇丞 丕賱亘丿丕卅賷丞 賮賷 賯賱亘 兀賮乇賷賯賷丕 賱賰賳賴 丕賳睾賲爻 賮賷賴丕 廿賱賶 兀賳 兀氐亘丨 毓亘丿丕賸 匕賱賷賱丕賸 賱賴丕. 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 丕賱乇丨賱丞 賮賷 賳賯胤丞 賷毓乇亘丿 賮賷賴丕 丕賱賵丨卮 丕賱賰丕賲賳 賮賷 毓賲賯 丕賱廿賳爻丕賳. 賵賷賰賵賳 賲丕乇賱賵 卮丕賴丿 匕賱賰 丕賱丕賳丨胤丕胤 丕賱毓馗賷賲.
賵賯丿 丕毓鬲賲丿 賰賵賳乇丕丿 毓賱賶 鬲賰賳賷賰 匕賰賷 賱賱廿賲爻丕賰 亘賰賱 鬲賱賰 丕賱禺賷賵胤 賵丕賱鬲卮毓亘丕鬲. 賮賴匕賴 丕賱毓賳丕氐乇 丨丕囟乇丞 賮賷 丕賱賲乇賰亘 丕賱噩賵丕賱 (賳賷賱賱賷) 丕賱鬲賷 鬲賯賮 乇賲夭丕賸 賱賱廿亘丨丕乇 賳丨賵 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 賵賳丨賵 丕賱賯丕乇丕鬲 丕賱亘毓賷丿丞. 丕賱賲乇賰亘 兀賵 丕賱爻賮賷賳丞 賴賷 丕賱賵爻賷賱丞 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺賷丞 賱賱廿亘丨丕乇 賳丨賵 丕賱亘賱丕丿 丕賱睾乇亘賷丞貙 賵賴賷 賵爻賷賱丞 丕賱賰卮賮 賵丕賱賲睾丕賲乇丞 賵丕賱丕爻鬲毓賲丕乇貙 賵賴賷 賲賰丕賳 賱賱丕爻鬲乇禺丕亍 賵丕賱賴乇賵亘 賲賳 丕賱毓賳丕亍 賵丕賱賲卮賯丞. 賵賯丿 噩毓賱 賰賵賳乇丕丿 丕賱乇丕賵賷 卮禺氐賷丞 孬丕賳賵賷丞 賷賯鬲氐乇 丿賵乇賴 毓賱賶 鬲賯丿賷賲 賲丕乇賱賵 丕賱匕賷 賷賯賵賲 亘乇賵丕賷丞 丕賱賯氐丞 丕賱兀爻丕爻賷丞貙 賯氐丞 丕賱丕賳丨胤丕胤 丕賱兀賲噩丿 賱賱廿賱賴 丕賱亘卮乇賷 賰賵乇鬲夭 賮賷 賯賱亘 賯丕乇丞 丕賱馗賱丕賲. 賵賱賲 賷賰賳 丕爻鬲禺丿丕賲 賴匕丕 丕賱鬲賰賳賷賰 卮賰賱賷丕賸 亘賱 賰丕賳 賲賵馗賮丕賸 賱禺丿賲丞 丕賱亘賳丕亍 丕賱乇賵丕卅賷 兀爻丕爻丕賸貙 賮賰賵賳 丕賱乇丕賵賷 卮禺氐賷丞 孬丕賳賵賷丞 賷禺丿賲 賴丿賮 賲鬲丕亘毓丞 賲爻賷乇 賰賱 賲賳 賲丕乇賱賵 賵賰賵乇鬲夭 毓賳 亘毓丿貙 賰賲丕 廿賳賴 賷禺賱賯 丕賱鬲賯丕亘賱 丕賱兀爻丕爻賷 賮賷 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 亘賷賳 賲爻鬲賵賶 丕賱丨丕囟乇 -丕賱賯氐丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲乇賵賶- 賵賲爻鬲賵賶 丕賱乇丨賱丞 廿賱賶 丕賱賰賵賳睾賵 亘賲丕 亘賷賳賴賲丕 賲賳 鬲賯丕亘賱 賵丕禺鬲賱丕賮.
鬲亘丿兀 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 丨賰丕賷丞 鬲乇賵賶 毓賱賶 賲鬲賳 丕賱夭賵乇賯 "賳賷賱賱賷" 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 賴賳丕賰貙 賵鬲亘丿兀 賵丕賱馗賱丕賲 賷乇禺賷 爻丿賵賱賴 毓賱賶 匕賱賰 丕賱噩夭亍 賲賳 賱賳丿賳貙 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 賵賯丿 毓賲 丕賱馗賱丕賲貙 鬲亘丿兀 賲賳 馗賱丕賲 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺賷 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 賮賷 馗賱丕賲 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 丕賱丨賯賷賯賷貙 鬲亘丿兀 亘賯氐丞 賲丕乇賱賵 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 亘賴丕貙 賵鬲亘丿兀 亘賰賵乇鬲夭 賵鬲賳鬲賴賷 亘賴貙 賵匕賱賰 亘毓丿 兀賳 鬲賳賲賵 賵鬲鬲卮毓亘 睾亘乇 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 廿賱賶 毓氐賵乇 丕賱乇賵賲丕賳 丕賱兀賵賱賶 丕賱鬲賷 賰丕賳 丕賱鬲賷賲夭 賮賷賴丕 賴賵 賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲貙 賵毓亘乇 丕賱噩睾乇丕賮賷丕 丨賷孬 丕賱賰賵賳睾賵 丕賱賷賵賲 賴賵 賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲貙 賵毓亘乇 丕賱賳賮爻 丕賱亘卮乇賷丞 賵氐賵賱丕賸 廿賱賶 丕賱賳賯胤丞 丕賱賲馗賱賲丞 丕賱鬲賷 賷丿禺賱賴丕 賰賵乇鬲夭 賮鬲禺乇亘 賯賱亘賴貙 賵賷賯賮 毓賱賶 兀毓鬲丕亘賴丕 賲丕乇賱賵 賮賷賳噩賵 賵賱賰賳賴 賷毓賷卮 亘乇賵丨 賲毓匕亘丞貙 賵亘乇賵丨賴 丕賱賲毓匕亘丞 賴匕賴 賷乇賵賷 賯氐丞 賯賱亘 丕賱馗賱丕賲.
139 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1899
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About the author
Joseph Conrad
2,606听books4,640听followersJoseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland鈥攄uring nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires鈥攁nd on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world鈥攊ncluding imperialism and colonialism鈥攁nd that profoundly explore the human psyche.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland鈥攄uring nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires鈥攁nd on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world鈥攊ncluding imperialism and colonialism鈥攁nd that profoundly explore the human psyche.
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February 17, 2024
First of all, get this straight:
Heart of Darkness
is one of those classics that you have to have read if you want to consider yourself a well-educated adult.
鈥� 鈥� Having watched doesn鈥檛 count 鈥� if anything, it ups the ante, since that means you have to think about the similarities and differences (for example, contrast and compare the U.S. involvement in Vietnam with the Belgian rule over the Congo. Actually quite an intriguing and provocative question.).
鈥� 鈥� The prose can feel turgid, but perhaps it may help to know that English was Conrad鈥檚 third language. His second was French, and that lends a lyric quality which, once accomodated, can draw you into the mood of the story. Once you get used to that, this is a very easy book to read 鈥� tremendously shorter than , for instance.
鈥� 鈥� Even though it is so much easier to read, this short novel shares with Moby-Dick the distressing (for many of us) fact that it is heavily symbolic. That is the reason it has such an important place in the literary canon: it is very densely packed with philosophical questions that fundamentally can鈥檛 be answered.
鈥� 鈥� Frankly, I was trained as an engineer, and have to struggle even to attempt to peer through the veils of meaning. I鈥檓 envious of the students in the Columbia class that David Denby portrays in his 1995 article in the New Yorker, . I wish I had been guided into this deep way of perceiving literature 鈥斕齩r music, or art, or life itself.
鈥� 鈥� But most of us don鈥檛 have that opportunity. The alternate solution I chose: when I checked this out of the library, I also grabbed the . I read the story, then thought about it, then finally read the Study Guide to see what I鈥檇 missed. What I found there was enough to trigger my curiosity, so I also searched the internet for more.
鈥� 鈥� And there was quite a bit. Like, the nature of a framed narrative: the actual narrator in Heart of Darkness isn鈥檛 Marlow, but some unnamed guy listening to Marlow talk. And he stands in for us, the readers, such as when he has a pleasant perspective on the beautiful sunset of the Thames at the beginning of the story, then at the end he has been spooked and sees it as leading 鈥渋nto the heart of an immense darkness鈥�, much as the Congo does in the story
鈥� 鈥� That symbolic use of 鈥渄arkness鈥� is a great example of what makes this book, and others like it, so great. The 鈥渋mmense darkness鈥� is simultaneously the real unknown of the jungle, as well as the symbolic 鈥渄arkness鈥� that hides within the human heart. But then it is also something that pervades society 鈥斕齭o the narrator has been made aware that London, just upstream, really should be understood to be as frightening as the Congo. And the reader should understand that, too.
鈥� 鈥� The book is full of that kind of symbolism. When Conrad was writing, a much larger portion of the reading public would have received a 鈥渃lassical鈥� liberal arts education and would have perceived that aspect of the book easier than most of us do today. Yeah, the book is so dense with this kind of symbolism, it can be an effort. But that is precisely the element that made the book a stunning success when it was written. T.S. Elliot, for example, referred to it heavily in his second-most-famous poem, The Hollow Men 鈥� the poem鈥檚 epigraph makes it explicit: Mistah Kurtz- he dead. (For more of that connection, see this , or track down a copy of . An here can be edifying, too.)
鈥� 鈥� Not all of the symbolism worked for me. For example, my initial take on how 鈥榚vil鈥� was dealt with seemed anachronistic and naive. Actually, it felt a lot like Wilde鈥檚 . In both books, the main character has inadvertently received license to fully explore their evil inclinations without the normal societal consequences, and yet they both pay the ultimate penalty for their lack of restraint. But my perspective on evil was long ago captured by Hannah Arendt鈥檚 conclusion after analyzing : evil is a 鈥渂anal鈥� absence of empathy; it isn鈥檛 some striving to seduce and corrupt us. Certainly, there are evil acts and evil people, but nothing mystical or spiritual that captures and enslaves, much less transforms us from .
鈥� 鈥� Golding鈥檚 examined the question, but did it in a much more modern manner. (I strongly recommend it.) If people aren鈥檛 reminded by the constraints of civilization to treat others with respect, then sometimes they鈥檒l become brutal and barbaric. But is their soul somehow becoming sick and corrupted? The question no longer resonates.
鈥� 鈥� Even Conrad actually didn鈥檛 seem too clear on that question. These two quotes are both from Heart of Darkness 鈥� don鈥檛 they seem implicitly contradictory?:
鈥� 鈥� After pondering the study guide, I could see the allegorical content better. The mystical side of Heart of Darkness isn鈥檛 the only thing going on. Like the kids rescued from the island after Lord of the Flies, Marlow will forever be cognizant of how fragile civilized behavior can be, and how easily some slip into brutality 鈥� even those that have excellent motives and apparently unblemished characters. This is why he tells this as a cautionary tale to his shipmates on the Thames.
鈥� 鈥� Marlow also received a clear lesson on hypocrisy. I hadn鈥檛 seen how deeply 鈥淭he Company鈥� represented European hypocrisy. Obviously 鈥淭he Company鈥� was purely exploitative and thus typical of imperialism, but in subtle ways Conrad made it not just typical but allegorically representative. One example Cliff mentions scares me just a bit: in the offices of 鈥淭he Company鈥� in Brussels, Marlow notices the strange sight of two women knitting black wool. Conrad provides no explanation. But recall your mythology: the spun out the thread that measured the lives of mere mortals. In the story, these are represented as women who work for 鈥淭he Company鈥�, which has ultimate power over the mere mortals in Africa. That鈥檚 pretty impressive: Conrad tosses in a tiny aside that references Greek (or Roman or Germanic) mythology and ties it both to imperialism, as well as to the power that modern society has handed to corporations, and quietly walks away from it. How many other little tidbits are buried in this short book? Frankly, it seems kind of spooky.
鈥� 鈥� The study guide also helped me understand what had been a major frustration of the book. I thought that Conrad had skipped over too much, leaving crucial information unstated. Between Marlow鈥檚 鈥渞escue鈥� of Kurtz and Kurtz鈥檚 death there are only a few pages in the story, but they imply that the two had significant conversations that greatly impressed Marlow, that left Marlow awestruck at what Kurtz had intended, had survived, and had understood. These impressions are what 鈥渂roke鈥� Marlow, but we are never informed of even the gist of those conversations.
鈥� 鈥� But Marlow isn鈥檛 our narrator: he is on the deck of a ship, struggling to put into words a story that still torments him years after the events had passed. Sometimes he can鈥檛 convey what we want to know; he stumbles, he expresses himself poorly. The narrator is like us, just listening and trying to make sense out of it, and gradually being persuaded of the horrors that must have transpired. (To return to a comparison with Apocalypse Now: at the end of the book, the narrator gazes 鈥渋nto the heart of an immense darkness鈥�, sensing that the evil he鈥檇 been told of could lie anywhere. Watching the movie, there鈥檚 no narrator to murmur about that.)
鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥�
Addendum:
鈥� 鈥� Conrad鈥檚 Heart of Darkness was written in 1899. A critical event which allowed the tragedy portrayed here was the Berlin Conference of 1884 (), where the lines that divided up Africa were tidied up and shuffled a bit by the white men of Europe (no Africans were invited). The BBC4 radio programme In Our Time covered the conference on 31 October 2013. Listen to it streaming , or download it as an MP3 . Forty-three minutes of erudition will invigorate your synapses.
鈥� 鈥� Oh, if you liked that In Our Time episode, they did on the book itself ().
颅
鈥� 鈥� Having watched doesn鈥檛 count 鈥� if anything, it ups the ante, since that means you have to think about the similarities and differences (for example, contrast and compare the U.S. involvement in Vietnam with the Belgian rule over the Congo. Actually quite an intriguing and provocative question.).
鈥� 鈥� The prose can feel turgid, but perhaps it may help to know that English was Conrad鈥檚 third language. His second was French, and that lends a lyric quality which, once accomodated, can draw you into the mood of the story. Once you get used to that, this is a very easy book to read 鈥� tremendously shorter than , for instance.
鈥� 鈥� Even though it is so much easier to read, this short novel shares with Moby-Dick the distressing (for many of us) fact that it is heavily symbolic. That is the reason it has such an important place in the literary canon: it is very densely packed with philosophical questions that fundamentally can鈥檛 be answered.
鈥� 鈥� Frankly, I was trained as an engineer, and have to struggle even to attempt to peer through the veils of meaning. I鈥檓 envious of the students in the Columbia class that David Denby portrays in his 1995 article in the New Yorker, . I wish I had been guided into this deep way of perceiving literature 鈥斕齩r music, or art, or life itself.
鈥� 鈥� But most of us don鈥檛 have that opportunity. The alternate solution I chose: when I checked this out of the library, I also grabbed the . I read the story, then thought about it, then finally read the Study Guide to see what I鈥檇 missed. What I found there was enough to trigger my curiosity, so I also searched the internet for more.
鈥� 鈥� And there was quite a bit. Like, the nature of a framed narrative: the actual narrator in Heart of Darkness isn鈥檛 Marlow, but some unnamed guy listening to Marlow talk. And he stands in for us, the readers, such as when he has a pleasant perspective on the beautiful sunset of the Thames at the beginning of the story, then at the end he has been spooked and sees it as leading 鈥渋nto the heart of an immense darkness鈥�, much as the Congo does in the story
鈥� 鈥� That symbolic use of 鈥渄arkness鈥� is a great example of what makes this book, and others like it, so great. The 鈥渋mmense darkness鈥� is simultaneously the real unknown of the jungle, as well as the symbolic 鈥渄arkness鈥� that hides within the human heart. But then it is also something that pervades society 鈥斕齭o the narrator has been made aware that London, just upstream, really should be understood to be as frightening as the Congo. And the reader should understand that, too.
鈥� 鈥� The book is full of that kind of symbolism. When Conrad was writing, a much larger portion of the reading public would have received a 鈥渃lassical鈥� liberal arts education and would have perceived that aspect of the book easier than most of us do today. Yeah, the book is so dense with this kind of symbolism, it can be an effort. But that is precisely the element that made the book a stunning success when it was written. T.S. Elliot, for example, referred to it heavily in his second-most-famous poem, The Hollow Men 鈥� the poem鈥檚 epigraph makes it explicit: Mistah Kurtz- he dead. (For more of that connection, see this , or track down a copy of . An here can be edifying, too.)
鈥� 鈥� Not all of the symbolism worked for me. For example, my initial take on how 鈥榚vil鈥� was dealt with seemed anachronistic and naive. Actually, it felt a lot like Wilde鈥檚 . In both books, the main character has inadvertently received license to fully explore their evil inclinations without the normal societal consequences, and yet they both pay the ultimate penalty for their lack of restraint. But my perspective on evil was long ago captured by Hannah Arendt鈥檚 conclusion after analyzing : evil is a 鈥渂anal鈥� absence of empathy; it isn鈥檛 some striving to seduce and corrupt us. Certainly, there are evil acts and evil people, but nothing mystical or spiritual that captures and enslaves, much less transforms us from .
鈥� 鈥� Golding鈥檚 examined the question, but did it in a much more modern manner. (I strongly recommend it.) If people aren鈥檛 reminded by the constraints of civilization to treat others with respect, then sometimes they鈥檒l become brutal and barbaric. But is their soul somehow becoming sick and corrupted? The question no longer resonates.
鈥� 鈥� Even Conrad actually didn鈥檛 seem too clear on that question. These two quotes are both from Heart of Darkness 鈥� don鈥檛 they seem implicitly contradictory?:
鈥� 鈥� The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.鈥� and
鈥� 鈥� Anything approaching the change that came over his features I have never seen before, and hope never to see again. Oh, I wasn鈥檛 touched. I was fascinated. It was as though a veil had been rent. I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror鈥攐f an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision鈥攈e cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:鈥� 鈥� The former denies any supernatural origin for evil, but the latter alludes to the tragic results of a 鈥� Marlowe sold his soul to see what mortals should never witness.
鈥� 鈥� 鈥楾he horror! The horror!鈥�
鈥� 鈥� After pondering the study guide, I could see the allegorical content better. The mystical side of Heart of Darkness isn鈥檛 the only thing going on. Like the kids rescued from the island after Lord of the Flies, Marlow will forever be cognizant of how fragile civilized behavior can be, and how easily some slip into brutality 鈥� even those that have excellent motives and apparently unblemished characters. This is why he tells this as a cautionary tale to his shipmates on the Thames.
鈥� 鈥� Marlow also received a clear lesson on hypocrisy. I hadn鈥檛 seen how deeply 鈥淭he Company鈥� represented European hypocrisy. Obviously 鈥淭he Company鈥� was purely exploitative and thus typical of imperialism, but in subtle ways Conrad made it not just typical but allegorically representative. One example Cliff mentions scares me just a bit: in the offices of 鈥淭he Company鈥� in Brussels, Marlow notices the strange sight of two women knitting black wool. Conrad provides no explanation. But recall your mythology: the spun out the thread that measured the lives of mere mortals. In the story, these are represented as women who work for 鈥淭he Company鈥�, which has ultimate power over the mere mortals in Africa. That鈥檚 pretty impressive: Conrad tosses in a tiny aside that references Greek (or Roman or Germanic) mythology and ties it both to imperialism, as well as to the power that modern society has handed to corporations, and quietly walks away from it. How many other little tidbits are buried in this short book? Frankly, it seems kind of spooky.
鈥� 鈥� The study guide also helped me understand what had been a major frustration of the book. I thought that Conrad had skipped over too much, leaving crucial information unstated. Between Marlow鈥檚 鈥渞escue鈥� of Kurtz and Kurtz鈥檚 death there are only a few pages in the story, but they imply that the two had significant conversations that greatly impressed Marlow, that left Marlow awestruck at what Kurtz had intended, had survived, and had understood. These impressions are what 鈥渂roke鈥� Marlow, but we are never informed of even the gist of those conversations.
鈥� 鈥� But Marlow isn鈥檛 our narrator: he is on the deck of a ship, struggling to put into words a story that still torments him years after the events had passed. Sometimes he can鈥檛 convey what we want to know; he stumbles, he expresses himself poorly. The narrator is like us, just listening and trying to make sense out of it, and gradually being persuaded of the horrors that must have transpired. (To return to a comparison with Apocalypse Now: at the end of the book, the narrator gazes 鈥渋nto the heart of an immense darkness鈥�, sensing that the evil he鈥檇 been told of could lie anywhere. Watching the movie, there鈥檚 no narrator to murmur about that.)
鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� 鈥�
Addendum:
鈥� 鈥� Conrad鈥檚 Heart of Darkness was written in 1899. A critical event which allowed the tragedy portrayed here was the Berlin Conference of 1884 (), where the lines that divided up Africa were tidied up and shuffled a bit by the white men of Europe (no Africans were invited). The BBC4 radio programme In Our Time covered the conference on 31 October 2013. Listen to it streaming , or download it as an MP3 . Forty-three minutes of erudition will invigorate your synapses.
鈥� 鈥� Oh, if you liked that In Our Time episode, they did on the book itself ().
颅
August 18, 2020
From 1885 to 1908, an area in Africa now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium, experienced . Through the Red Rubber system, the people of the Congo were essentially enslaved to harvest rubber. Those who failed to collect enough rubber had their hands chopped off. Some died from disease brought on by the terrible conditions, while others were just flat-out murdered. It is estimated that around three to thirteen million people died between 1885 and 1908, perhaps 25 to 50 percent of the total population. By the end of this period, the Congo, which just a 100 years ago had hosted the expansive and successful , had seen its natural resources destroyed, its people mutilated, and its entire society changed forever.
The negative legacy of colonialism is strong throughout Africa and across the world, but the Congo is one of the countries that suffered most. This is a horrifying, disgusting legacy. And one that this book does not on any level respect.
On the surface, this book can be read as anti-colonialist, a narrative that decries the brutality with which King Leopold II and other rulers allowed African people to be treated. This reading is comforting to us. It feels right. How can we read of their deaths and not feel ashamed? How can we see the heads of so-called rebels on pikes and not find ourselves filled with horror? How can we read a scene in which people walk in a chain gang and not find our deepest sympathies with them? How could Conrad not have felt the same?
But I do not believe that is the intent, or, to be quite honest, an accurate reading of the narrative of this book. Conrad鈥檚 descriptions and depictions of black people are dehumanizing to their core. No black character in this book feels real, feels like a person we may empathize with and care for. It is in the descriptions of Kurtz鈥檚 black mistress, of the slave-boy whose only contribution to the narrative is the line 鈥淢istah Kutz, he dead鈥� - Conrad does not share our empathies. Our horror at their fate and in their suffering is our own, not the narrators.
The thing about this book is that it鈥檚 not a criticism of colonialism, and while reading it as such feels viable on the surface, looking deeper into the narrative makes this book feel odder and odder. This book is a look at the depth of human evil and how that can be brought out when society breaks down. Notice the end of that sentence? Because the reason Africa is the subject of this book is because this narrative fundamentally believes that Africa is a primitive, uncivilized, immoral landscape. Which I find to be an inaccurate and frankly immoral view of Africa. The historical record of our time shows that pre-Colonial (and pre-slave trade) African civilization was filled with the same life as European civilizations, and . Conrad emphatically believes otherwise. And while I am willing to understand on some level that this was an ingrained belief of European colonists, this book pushes this message to a very high degree - it鈥檚 irrevocably tied to the message of the book - that I found impossible to ignore.
Yes, the idea is also pushed that the people of Europe are really no different from the people of the Congo. I am fully aware that Joseph Conrad is getting at the idea that none of us are so evolved and none of us are so civilized ourselves and white society cannot put itself totally above others. Conrad is explicitly attempting to put black people and white people on an equal level of brutality. But this narrative is still fundamentally flawed. The white characters in this book are evil colonists, but they are depicted as people. The black characters of this book are 鈥渟avages.鈥� They are rebels. At best, they are the helmsman, unnamed in his own narrative and dying ten pages in. At worst, they are literal cannibals. The narrative shows a fundamental dehumanization of each 鈥渟avage鈥� character, undermining any sort of anti-colonialist or pro-African message.
And I find that fundamentally disturbing. If I cannot feel any horror within the narrative for a genocide, a time in which culture was destroyed and the environment strangled and thousands slaughtered for the profit of an empire, how can I garner anything from this book? How can I, in good conscience, enjoy or recommend this book?
I understand and appreciate that many are going to read this review and think I misread the text, because this book is a classic. I would remind them that no work of literature can be kept free from critique because it has stood the test of time. And beyond that, I do not believe this is at all a surface reading. It鈥檚 been pushed in the minds of many that reading this book as racist is a surface-level interpretation, but I genuinely believe that the racism is what you get upon close reading.
Literary analysis of racist historical works is a polarizing and complex topic, and I recognize that many will feel antagonistic towards this viewpoint. I also fully admit that this book makes good use of an unreliable narrator and is one of the most gritty classics I have read as to its depiction of the human soul, and I have nothing against those who enjoyed it. But I cannot enjoy this for those and erase the flaws. I cannot appreciate the literary merit of a book that lacks a fundamental understanding of the humanity of black people. And I'm not sure I believe that I should.
recommended reading: .
| | |
The negative legacy of colonialism is strong throughout Africa and across the world, but the Congo is one of the countries that suffered most. This is a horrifying, disgusting legacy. And one that this book does not on any level respect.
On the surface, this book can be read as anti-colonialist, a narrative that decries the brutality with which King Leopold II and other rulers allowed African people to be treated. This reading is comforting to us. It feels right. How can we read of their deaths and not feel ashamed? How can we see the heads of so-called rebels on pikes and not find ourselves filled with horror? How can we read a scene in which people walk in a chain gang and not find our deepest sympathies with them? How could Conrad not have felt the same?
But I do not believe that is the intent, or, to be quite honest, an accurate reading of the narrative of this book. Conrad鈥檚 descriptions and depictions of black people are dehumanizing to their core. No black character in this book feels real, feels like a person we may empathize with and care for. It is in the descriptions of Kurtz鈥檚 black mistress, of the slave-boy whose only contribution to the narrative is the line 鈥淢istah Kutz, he dead鈥� - Conrad does not share our empathies. Our horror at their fate and in their suffering is our own, not the narrators.
The thing about this book is that it鈥檚 not a criticism of colonialism, and while reading it as such feels viable on the surface, looking deeper into the narrative makes this book feel odder and odder. This book is a look at the depth of human evil and how that can be brought out when society breaks down. Notice the end of that sentence? Because the reason Africa is the subject of this book is because this narrative fundamentally believes that Africa is a primitive, uncivilized, immoral landscape. Which I find to be an inaccurate and frankly immoral view of Africa. The historical record of our time shows that pre-Colonial (and pre-slave trade) African civilization was filled with the same life as European civilizations, and . Conrad emphatically believes otherwise. And while I am willing to understand on some level that this was an ingrained belief of European colonists, this book pushes this message to a very high degree - it鈥檚 irrevocably tied to the message of the book - that I found impossible to ignore.
Yes, the idea is also pushed that the people of Europe are really no different from the people of the Congo. I am fully aware that Joseph Conrad is getting at the idea that none of us are so evolved and none of us are so civilized ourselves and white society cannot put itself totally above others. Conrad is explicitly attempting to put black people and white people on an equal level of brutality. But this narrative is still fundamentally flawed. The white characters in this book are evil colonists, but they are depicted as people. The black characters of this book are 鈥渟avages.鈥� They are rebels. At best, they are the helmsman, unnamed in his own narrative and dying ten pages in. At worst, they are literal cannibals. The narrative shows a fundamental dehumanization of each 鈥渟avage鈥� character, undermining any sort of anti-colonialist or pro-African message.
And I find that fundamentally disturbing. If I cannot feel any horror within the narrative for a genocide, a time in which culture was destroyed and the environment strangled and thousands slaughtered for the profit of an empire, how can I garner anything from this book? How can I, in good conscience, enjoy or recommend this book?
I understand and appreciate that many are going to read this review and think I misread the text, because this book is a classic. I would remind them that no work of literature can be kept free from critique because it has stood the test of time. And beyond that, I do not believe this is at all a surface reading. It鈥檚 been pushed in the minds of many that reading this book as racist is a surface-level interpretation, but I genuinely believe that the racism is what you get upon close reading.
Literary analysis of racist historical works is a polarizing and complex topic, and I recognize that many will feel antagonistic towards this viewpoint. I also fully admit that this book makes good use of an unreliable narrator and is one of the most gritty classics I have read as to its depiction of the human soul, and I have nothing against those who enjoyed it. But I cannot enjoy this for those and erase the flaws. I cannot appreciate the literary merit of a book that lacks a fundamental understanding of the humanity of black people. And I'm not sure I believe that I should.
recommended reading: .
| | |
December 4, 2013
Never in all my life has 100 little pages made me contemplate suicide...violent suicide. i had to finish it. i had no choice (yay college!). every page was literally painful.
am i supposed to feel sorry for him? because i don't. i feel sorry for all of Africa getting invaded with dumbasses like this guy. oh and in case you didn't get it...the "heart of darkness" is like this super deep megametaphor of all metaphors. and in case it wasn't clear enough, conrad will spend many many useless words clearly explaining the layers of depth his metaphor can take. oh man...my heart is dark...and i'm also in the middle of Africa...and it's dark...and depressing...get it...get it...
am i supposed to feel sorry for him? because i don't. i feel sorry for all of Africa getting invaded with dumbasses like this guy. oh and in case you didn't get it...the "heart of darkness" is like this super deep megametaphor of all metaphors. and in case it wasn't clear enough, conrad will spend many many useless words clearly explaining the layers of depth his metaphor can take. oh man...my heart is dark...and i'm also in the middle of Africa...and it's dark...and depressing...get it...get it...
July 10, 2007
Proving yet again that doing a concept first will get you immortalized, while doing it WELL will make you an unknown and forgotten writer at best, I also learned that in Conrad's time, people could drone on and on with metaphors and it wasn't considered cliched, but "art." I blame this book and others like it for some of the most painful literature created by students and professional writers alike.
It was like raking my fingernails across a chalkboard while breathing in a pail of flaming cat hair and drinking spoiled milk, meanwhile Conrad is screaming DARKNESS DARKNESS OOOH LOOK AT MY METAPHOR ABOUT THE DARKNESSSSSSSSSSS like a fucking goth on a loudspeaker.
It was like raking my fingernails across a chalkboard while breathing in a pail of flaming cat hair and drinking spoiled milk, meanwhile Conrad is screaming DARKNESS DARKNESS OOOH LOOK AT MY METAPHOR ABOUT THE DARKNESSSSSSSSSSS like a fucking goth on a loudspeaker.
April 6, 2015
Overrated. Over-hated. Over-analyzed. Over-referenced.
May 4, 2024
鈥淲e live in the flicker -- may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.鈥�
Marlow is not just a narrator or an alter ego of Conrad, but a universal everyman, timeless. And that, to me, is the greatest appeal of this book, it is timeless.
鈥淟ike a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker.鈥�
The scene of Marlow sitting Buddha like as the Thames dreams into slow darkness and his voice takes on a disembodied, spiritual cast is iconic and Conrad's vision of history repeating itself as wicked and despotic civilization "discovers" it's ancient cousin is a ubiquitous theme in Conrad's work and one that is masterfully created here. As the Britons and Picts were to the Romans, so to are the Africans to the Europeans and Conrad has demonstrated his timely message.
鈥淭hey were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.鈥�
A search for hidden meaning, a quest, mysteries solved and others unanswered, self realization and epiphany. Conrad winds it all up in this classic.
鈥淭he horror! The horror!鈥�
2018 re-read
I think there was a recent poll about what was the book you have re-read the most. No doubt for me, it鈥檚 this one, read it a couple times in HS, few times in college and innumerable times since. Looks like this is the third in the 欧宝娱乐 era.
As a scholar I have to be concise and methodical, precisely citing and referencing to a given treatise or authority. When reading for pleasure, I鈥檓 much more intuitive, allowing my mind to wander and to muse and to collect abstract thoughts and make obscure connections as I read.
This time around I payed more attention to this story as it was written, a tale told in the gathering darkness near the mouth of the Thames, Marlow鈥檚 voice a disembodied narration spinning an account of a time before but one that is ageless nonetheless. The connection he makes between the Romans coming up the Thames and the Westerners traveling up the Congo is provocative and somber.
As always, this is a story about Kurtz and his voice, that eloquent but hollow voice in the darkness, a civilized man gone native, but more than that, a traveler shedding away the trappings of an enlightened age and looking into the abyss.
Whether the natives are dark skinned or white with blue tattoos, the image is the same and the message is all the more haunting.
On a short list of my favorites or all time, this may be my favorite.
*** 2022 reread
I recently rewatched Francis Ford Coppola鈥檚 brilliant 1979 film Apocalypse Now starring Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen and so decided it was past time to reread one of my all time favorite books. This is a short work, a novella really, so I should reread this annually.
This time I was confronted with the twin specters of a disembodied voice 鈥� the first, our narrator, Marlow, sitting Buddha like on the Thames estuary, the second Kurtz鈥� voice as remembered by Marlow 鈥� and it occurred to me that Conrad may have been alluding to the Gospel of John, as it begins 鈥淚n the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.鈥� Here, Conrad describes for us a Voice, crying out in the wilderness (like John the Baptist) and the word 鈥渨ilderness鈥� is used frequently rather that the more accurate 鈥渏ungle鈥� as this is set in the Congo.
I also spent more time considering the end of the work, after Kurtz, when Marlow is back in Europe and his strange eulogy about the fallen man, 鈥淢r. Kurtz, he dead鈥�.
Kurtz was the product of Europe, 鈥淎ll Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz鈥� and so Kurtz embodies the empirical lusts of the 鈥渃rusading鈥� Europeans in Africa (and historically to the Romans in ancient Britain) though Kurtz shrugs off the moralistic trappings of good intentions. Kurtz鈥檚 written statement, 鈥淓xterminate all the brutes鈥� is evocative of his apocryphal dying declaration, 鈥渢he horror鈥�.
A must read.
Marlow is not just a narrator or an alter ego of Conrad, but a universal everyman, timeless. And that, to me, is the greatest appeal of this book, it is timeless.
鈥淟ike a running blaze on a plain, like a flash of lightning in the clouds. We live in the flicker.鈥�
The scene of Marlow sitting Buddha like as the Thames dreams into slow darkness and his voice takes on a disembodied, spiritual cast is iconic and Conrad's vision of history repeating itself as wicked and despotic civilization "discovers" it's ancient cousin is a ubiquitous theme in Conrad's work and one that is masterfully created here. As the Britons and Picts were to the Romans, so to are the Africans to the Europeans and Conrad has demonstrated his timely message.
鈥淭hey were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.鈥�
A search for hidden meaning, a quest, mysteries solved and others unanswered, self realization and epiphany. Conrad winds it all up in this classic.
鈥淭he horror! The horror!鈥�
2018 re-read
I think there was a recent poll about what was the book you have re-read the most. No doubt for me, it鈥檚 this one, read it a couple times in HS, few times in college and innumerable times since. Looks like this is the third in the 欧宝娱乐 era.
As a scholar I have to be concise and methodical, precisely citing and referencing to a given treatise or authority. When reading for pleasure, I鈥檓 much more intuitive, allowing my mind to wander and to muse and to collect abstract thoughts and make obscure connections as I read.
This time around I payed more attention to this story as it was written, a tale told in the gathering darkness near the mouth of the Thames, Marlow鈥檚 voice a disembodied narration spinning an account of a time before but one that is ageless nonetheless. The connection he makes between the Romans coming up the Thames and the Westerners traveling up the Congo is provocative and somber.
As always, this is a story about Kurtz and his voice, that eloquent but hollow voice in the darkness, a civilized man gone native, but more than that, a traveler shedding away the trappings of an enlightened age and looking into the abyss.
Whether the natives are dark skinned or white with blue tattoos, the image is the same and the message is all the more haunting.
On a short list of my favorites or all time, this may be my favorite.
*** 2022 reread
I recently rewatched Francis Ford Coppola鈥檚 brilliant 1979 film Apocalypse Now starring Marlon Brando and Martin Sheen and so decided it was past time to reread one of my all time favorite books. This is a short work, a novella really, so I should reread this annually.
This time I was confronted with the twin specters of a disembodied voice 鈥� the first, our narrator, Marlow, sitting Buddha like on the Thames estuary, the second Kurtz鈥� voice as remembered by Marlow 鈥� and it occurred to me that Conrad may have been alluding to the Gospel of John, as it begins 鈥淚n the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.鈥� Here, Conrad describes for us a Voice, crying out in the wilderness (like John the Baptist) and the word 鈥渨ilderness鈥� is used frequently rather that the more accurate 鈥渏ungle鈥� as this is set in the Congo.
I also spent more time considering the end of the work, after Kurtz, when Marlow is back in Europe and his strange eulogy about the fallen man, 鈥淢r. Kurtz, he dead鈥�.
Kurtz was the product of Europe, 鈥淎ll Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz鈥� and so Kurtz embodies the empirical lusts of the 鈥渃rusading鈥� Europeans in Africa (and historically to the Romans in ancient Britain) though Kurtz shrugs off the moralistic trappings of good intentions. Kurtz鈥檚 written statement, 鈥淓xterminate all the brutes鈥� is evocative of his apocryphal dying declaration, 鈥渢he horror鈥�.
A must read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2024
I still don't know what I read here.
I finished this book with one sort-of word spinning around in my head... "eh?"
I read the whole book. Every page, every sentence, every word. And I couldn't tell you what it was about. I think I must have read more challenging books than this - , , etc. - but none has left me so thoroughly clueless.
I finished this book with one sort-of word spinning around in my head... "eh?"
I read the whole book. Every page, every sentence, every word. And I couldn't tell you what it was about. I think I must have read more challenging books than this - , , etc. - but none has left me so thoroughly clueless.
February 28, 2023
Joseph Conrad seems to have known every nook and cranny of human soul鈥� And this priceless knowledge made him one of the greatest innovators鈥� And Heart of Darkness is simultaneously a polestar and milestone in the world literature.
Darkness hates all the trespassers鈥�
Darkness in the novel isn鈥檛 just the darkness of night and of animal instincts but it slowly becomes a symbol of the human nature itself鈥�
Wash away the varnish of civilizing gloss off man and the darkness of heart will be revealed鈥�
Darkness mercilessly destroys those who penetrate into its heart.
But as I stood on this hillside, I foresaw that in the blinding sunshine of that land I would become acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly. How insidious he could be, too, I was only to find out several months later and a thousand miles farther.
Darkness hates all the trespassers鈥�
The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.
Darkness in the novel isn鈥檛 just the darkness of night and of animal instincts but it slowly becomes a symbol of the human nature itself鈥�
Wash away the varnish of civilizing gloss off man and the darkness of heart will be revealed鈥�
The vision seemed to enter the house with me 鈥� the stretcher, the phantom-bearers, the wild crowd of obedient worshippers, the gloom of the forests, the glitter of the reach between the murky bends, the beat of the drum, regular and muffled like the beating of a heart 鈥� the heart of a conquering darkness. It was a moment of triumph for the wilderness, an invading and vengeful rush which, it seemed to me, I would have to keep back alone for the salvation of another soul.
Darkness mercilessly destroys those who penetrate into its heart.
September 29, 2021
Blessed was Odysseus, who returned, full of wisdom, after many conquests and adventures to live a peaceful old age with his wife and family. It didn鈥檛 go that well for Charles Marlow. Heart of Darkness is like or or or any hero鈥檚 journey for that matter, only upside down. Instead of an adventure that is ultimately a coming-of-age, a homecoming, a blessing, a regaining of paradise, Marlow鈥檚 expedition up the Congo River, in search of an illusory Eldorado, setting off 鈥渇or the centre of the earth鈥�, works as a step 鈥渋nto the gloomy circle of some Inferno鈥�.
Conrad himself sailed up the Congo in his youth, so his novella is, in many ways, autobiographical. In the book, like Odysseus or Sindbad, Marlow tells the story of his adventures, and it, in turn, is told by an unnamed narrator, making it a second-degree account of the facts. We even meet, early on, a group of old women 鈥渒nitting black wool鈥� like a modern picture of the ancient Fates, dictating the destinies of humans and weaving the story in yet another way. At this point, while we are aware that the whole thing is a piece of fiction, the narrative鈥檚 multi-layered structure makes it all the more fantastical and unreal, and the reader is at risk of losing his footing, just like the hero of the story. So much so that, at some point towards the middle of the novel, putting his narrative in doubt, Marlow cries out:
Heart of Darkness is a groundbreaking text that digs into the dark depths of the human psyche. And while it is written in sumptuous, almost marmoreal prose, it searches for sensations underneath language, nightmares underneath clear thought, the unutterable, silence, darkness. In short, only read Heart of Darkness with a double Polish vodka or a potent antidepressant close at hand!
Nigerian novelist argued that there is more than a whiff of racism in Conrad鈥檚 novel 鈥� not just because of his use of the N-word (which was commonplace at the time), but because the natives in his fiction, with few exceptions, are little more than animalistic stick figures. In a sense, Conrad is still in the rut of traditional European prejudices, whereby darkness, notably dark skin, is a symbol of ugliness, moral brutality, viciousness, even cannibalism (see Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥淢oors鈥�, for instance, Aaron in or ).
However, at the same time 鈥� and this shows how ambiguous and murky this short novel gets 鈥� Heart of Darkness can also be construed as a criticism of Western colonialism and a denunciation of White, Western ferocity 鈥� in this sense, there is a kinship between Heart of Darkness and . From the start, Marlow reflects: 鈥渨hen the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago 鈥� the other day... darkness was here鈥�. Now flowing through one of the most civilised cities on earth, the River Thames was, not long ago, curving and coiling over a primitive wilderness. Besides, as the story later shows, it only takes a few weeks, on the shores of the Congo River, for a 鈥渃ultured鈥� European to revert into a stinking crook, eaten away by greed, and turn eventually into a beast or a demon or a grotesque deity. 鈥淎ll Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz.鈥�
And so, Marlow鈥檚 journey through the jungle is also a trip into a primaeval past, before civilisation. But, further still: it doesn鈥檛 take the overheated wilderness of a remote, lonely and prehistoric tropical rainforest for the metamorphosis of the European culture into a slaughterhouse to happen. Kurtz, the man who sank into insanity and monstrosity, is described chiefly as 鈥渁 voice! a voice!鈥� Where that voice comes from is not entirely clear either. Is that just Kurtz鈥檚 voice? Is that Marlow鈥檚 voice telling his story? Conrad鈥檚 voice writing his novel? Or some other deeper voice that surfaces from a hollow, dark, ominous silence?
Indeed, the last words of Kurtz鈥檚 imperialistic manifesto are, as an afterthought, 鈥淓xterminate all the brutes!鈥� Conrad was writing in the very last years of the 19th century. But it is impossible, in retrospect, not to think that the 鈥渧oice鈥� he writes about wasn鈥檛 already born in the very heart of Europe; that Heart of Darkness wasn鈥檛 a foreshadowing vision of the horror and destruction that would, only a few decades later, cover the European continent.
Heart of Darkness has been an immensely influential novella. C茅line possibly drew inspiration from it to write the African episode of . There are also many similarities between the atmosphere of this novel and the sense of cosmic terror that developed in his novellas. J. G. Ballard鈥檚 displays some similitude to Conrad鈥檚 story as well.
Heart of Darkness has also obviously influenced the cinema, starting with Orson Welles, who unsuccessfully attempted to adapt it. Likewise with Werner Herzog鈥檚 cult film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God 鈥� an epic movie on insanity set in the Amazon jungle. Finally, Francis Ford Coppola famously turned Conrad鈥檚 novel into a staggering, baroque, disturbing masterpiece about the Vietnam War: Apocalypse Now!
Nowadays, the upper Congo is no longer the heart of a ruthless ivory trade. But the region holds vast quantities of minerals that are critical for Western/Asian computing and renewable energy industries. As a result, under the convergence of this new mineral rush, significant financial interests, military conflicts and political instability, this part of the world is once more the scene of human greediness, atrocities, murder, slavery and rape. In a weird way, Kurtz鈥檚 whispered cry still resonates with us, 鈥淭he horror! The horror!鈥�
Conrad himself sailed up the Congo in his youth, so his novella is, in many ways, autobiographical. In the book, like Odysseus or Sindbad, Marlow tells the story of his adventures, and it, in turn, is told by an unnamed narrator, making it a second-degree account of the facts. We even meet, early on, a group of old women 鈥渒nitting black wool鈥� like a modern picture of the ancient Fates, dictating the destinies of humans and weaving the story in yet another way. At this point, while we are aware that the whole thing is a piece of fiction, the narrative鈥檚 multi-layered structure makes it all the more fantastical and unreal, and the reader is at risk of losing his footing, just like the hero of the story. So much so that, at some point towards the middle of the novel, putting his narrative in doubt, Marlow cries out:
Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything? It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream 鈥� making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream 鈥� sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams鈥�
Heart of Darkness is a groundbreaking text that digs into the dark depths of the human psyche. And while it is written in sumptuous, almost marmoreal prose, it searches for sensations underneath language, nightmares underneath clear thought, the unutterable, silence, darkness. In short, only read Heart of Darkness with a double Polish vodka or a potent antidepressant close at hand!
Nigerian novelist argued that there is more than a whiff of racism in Conrad鈥檚 novel 鈥� not just because of his use of the N-word (which was commonplace at the time), but because the natives in his fiction, with few exceptions, are little more than animalistic stick figures. In a sense, Conrad is still in the rut of traditional European prejudices, whereby darkness, notably dark skin, is a symbol of ugliness, moral brutality, viciousness, even cannibalism (see Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥淢oors鈥�, for instance, Aaron in or ).
However, at the same time 鈥� and this shows how ambiguous and murky this short novel gets 鈥� Heart of Darkness can also be construed as a criticism of Western colonialism and a denunciation of White, Western ferocity 鈥� in this sense, there is a kinship between Heart of Darkness and . From the start, Marlow reflects: 鈥渨hen the Romans first came here, nineteen hundred years ago 鈥� the other day... darkness was here鈥�. Now flowing through one of the most civilised cities on earth, the River Thames was, not long ago, curving and coiling over a primitive wilderness. Besides, as the story later shows, it only takes a few weeks, on the shores of the Congo River, for a 鈥渃ultured鈥� European to revert into a stinking crook, eaten away by greed, and turn eventually into a beast or a demon or a grotesque deity. 鈥淎ll Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz.鈥�
And so, Marlow鈥檚 journey through the jungle is also a trip into a primaeval past, before civilisation. But, further still: it doesn鈥檛 take the overheated wilderness of a remote, lonely and prehistoric tropical rainforest for the metamorphosis of the European culture into a slaughterhouse to happen. Kurtz, the man who sank into insanity and monstrosity, is described chiefly as 鈥渁 voice! a voice!鈥� Where that voice comes from is not entirely clear either. Is that just Kurtz鈥檚 voice? Is that Marlow鈥檚 voice telling his story? Conrad鈥檚 voice writing his novel? Or some other deeper voice that surfaces from a hollow, dark, ominous silence?
Heavens! how that man could talk. He electrified large meetings. He had faith 鈥� don鈥檛 you see? 鈥� he had the faith. He could get himself to believe anything 鈥� anything. He would have been a splendid leader of an extreme party.鈥� 鈥榃hat party?鈥� I asked. 鈥楢ny party,鈥� answered the other. 鈥楬e was an 鈥� an 鈥� extremist.鈥�
Indeed, the last words of Kurtz鈥檚 imperialistic manifesto are, as an afterthought, 鈥淓xterminate all the brutes!鈥� Conrad was writing in the very last years of the 19th century. But it is impossible, in retrospect, not to think that the 鈥渧oice鈥� he writes about wasn鈥檛 already born in the very heart of Europe; that Heart of Darkness wasn鈥檛 a foreshadowing vision of the horror and destruction that would, only a few decades later, cover the European continent.
Heart of Darkness has been an immensely influential novella. C茅line possibly drew inspiration from it to write the African episode of . There are also many similarities between the atmosphere of this novel and the sense of cosmic terror that developed in his novellas. J. G. Ballard鈥檚 displays some similitude to Conrad鈥檚 story as well.
Heart of Darkness has also obviously influenced the cinema, starting with Orson Welles, who unsuccessfully attempted to adapt it. Likewise with Werner Herzog鈥檚 cult film, Aguirre, the Wrath of God 鈥� an epic movie on insanity set in the Amazon jungle. Finally, Francis Ford Coppola famously turned Conrad鈥檚 novel into a staggering, baroque, disturbing masterpiece about the Vietnam War: Apocalypse Now!
Nowadays, the upper Congo is no longer the heart of a ruthless ivory trade. But the region holds vast quantities of minerals that are critical for Western/Asian computing and renewable energy industries. As a result, under the convergence of this new mineral rush, significant financial interests, military conflicts and political instability, this part of the world is once more the scene of human greediness, atrocities, murder, slavery and rape. In a weird way, Kurtz鈥檚 whispered cry still resonates with us, 鈥淭he horror! The horror!鈥�
July 17, 2016
Is Joseph Conrad a racist?
Well, that is a question, a question that is extremely difficult to answer. There are certainly racist aspects within Heart of Darkness. However, how far this is Conrad鈥檚 own personal opinion is near impossible to tell. Certainly, Marlowe, the protagonist and narrator, has some rather patronising notions as to how the Africans should be treated, and the image of the colonised is one of repression and servitude, but does this reflect Conrad鈥檚 own opinions? How far can we suggest that a fictional character embodies the author鈥檚 own notions of the world?
Marlowe could just be the embodiment of an ignorant Westerner with a misguided superiority complex. Conrad could have purposely written him this way to suggest how damaging the Westerner鈥檚 point of view was. There is also the consideration that the colonised doesn鈥檛 really have an intelligible voice through the entire novel, though, it must be noted, that the whole novel is technically a white man鈥檚 monologue; it is all reported speech rather than direct speech. So, everything Marlowe says could be bias; it could be slightly twisted with his perspective. Is this the intended effect? I don鈥檛 think anybody can say conclusively. Nor can anybody fully argue who Marlowe represents. I cannot personally tell whether he is an accidental suggestion of Conrad or a deliberate attempt to satirise the Western man. Convincing, and inconclusive, arguments can be made in either direction. This text is incredibly dense with conflicting interpretations. It鈥檚 hard to know what to make of it.
Well for all the difficulties with the racism angle, one thing is undeniable: Conrad does provide a harsh critique for colonialism. That cannot be ignored. Firstly, it can be seen as detrimental to the colonised. The Westerners exploit the tribes for their ivory and ship it back home. They take the wealth of the tribe folk, rouse their wrath and cause war between neighbouring villages. All in all, they shape the culture of the colonised; they destroy it. It provides an image of a society totally obsessed with monetary wealth, and how much they can gain through the evils of Imperialism. Secondly, it can be seen as detrimental to the coloniser. Kurtz enters the heart of the jungle and becomes completely corrupted. This suggests that the so called 鈥渟avagery鈥� of the tribe folk can set of the white man鈥檚 similar innate response; he can be altered and twisted into a lesser form. Conrad suggests that Kurtz becomes ruined as a result. But, this ruination could be attributed to the evils of colonisation rather than the black man鈥檚 influence. If both cultures can become ruined, then it can be read as a suggestion that colonisation is detrimental to all.
鈥淭hey were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got.鈥�
So, Colonisation is bad. But, does this mean Conrad can no longer be considered a racist? If he wants to get rid of servitude and pull the white man out of the jungle, does this mean that this display of liberty ignores the difference between skin colours? No it doesn鈥檛. Marlowe makes explicit reference to the 鈥渄ifferences鈥� between the white man and the black man. He doesn鈥檛 do this violently or purposely to offend; he does it in a patronising manner. He views the black man as a little brother, someone to be taught and led around. An educated black man then becomes whiter; he stands apart from his brethren. Indeed, the passage I鈥檓 about to quote is one that is used time and time again to suggest that Conrad is racist. Granted, the paragraph is terribly racist; it is patronising, offensive and vulgar. But, is this Conrad鈥檚 opinion? I recognise that this is a long quote, but the whole thing is needed to demonstrate what I鈥檝e been trying to say:
鈥淎 slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking. Another report from the cliff made me think suddenly of that ship of war I had seen firing into a continent. It was the same kind of ominous voice; but these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the sea. All their meagre breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. Behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, carrying a rifle by its middle. He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be. He was speedily reassured, and with a large, white, rascally grin, and a glance at his charge, seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust. After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings.鈥�
The black man has been given animalistic traits. Marlowe describes them as having tails and remarks on their bodies in a way that suggests that they are beasts; they are mere tools for work in which the effectiveness of their body is their stock and trade. It鈥檚 all they have to go on: their ability to produce effective labour. Marlowe is repulsed by this idea; he recognises the absurdity of treating men like this, men who are apparently criminals. This is a criticism of Colonialism; it is a criticism of treating men this way. But, he, personally, describes them as savage; he, personally, suggests that their overseer, a black man who is employed by the Coloniser, is less black. Because he is guarding his fellow black man, he is now, according to Marlowe, whiter. This is blatant evidence that Marlowe (not Conrad) views the black man in a patronising manner. He opposes Colonialism, but he still views the black man as less than him.
Chinua Achebe takes this as direct evidence of Conrad鈥檚 own opinion. In his renowned essay, an image of Africa, he refers to Conrad as a 鈥渂loody racist.鈥� He recognises that Marlowe may be a fictional creation, rather than an embodiment of Conrad鈥檚 own voice. But, he suggests that because Conrad didn鈥檛 condemn such racist remarks, they must therefore be approved by him. Achebe then went on to write a version of Heart of Darkness (Things fall Apart) from the black man鈥檚 perspective. I鈥檒l be reviewing this soon in consideration with what I鈥檓 talking about here, but I think Achebe鈥檚 remarks are unfair. The evidence he provides is inconclusive. Conrad doesn鈥檛 condemn the racist remarks because he didn鈥檛 need to. If you view Marlowe as a purposeful creation of the Western man鈥檚 prejudice, then it would be awkward to condemn the prejudice. The ironic creation of such a character would achieve this without having to directly say it; it would be implied.
I鈥檓 unsure whether Conrad was a racist or not. There is not enough strong evidence to prove or disprove such an argument within the text. But, condemning him for being a racist is a little harsh; yes, racism is terrible, I鈥檓 not saying that. However, Conrad wrote at the end of the Victorian period. Whatever you may think about his possible viewpoints, to judge him by today鈥檚 standers is flawed. If you judge him by today鈥檚 rising liberal opinion regarding race, then you can systematically extend the same judgement to pretty much every author of the period and the periods that came before it. Half the English canon was probably racist. The Victorians, as a society, were racist. So was most of Western society for centuries. It鈥檚 how they saw the world; it鈥檚 how their society saw the world. This is, of course, a terrible thing. But it was the norm. If you dismiss Conrad based upon this, then you can dismiss many, many other authors too. So, for Joseph Conrad, who may or may not be racist, to condemn Imperialism and Colonialization is kind of a big step.
He is arguing against his entire government; he is suggesting that it is evil and corrupt. This is forward thinking stuff. It may sound simple by today鈥檚 standard, but this was the entire Western way of life. They cruelly, and systematically, built their wealth one of the most horrible situations in human history. For Conrad to point this out is almost revolutionary. I enjoyed reading his critique on it; I enjoyed the irony and how he suggests the evil of such a regime. But, regardless of this, I could never rate this book five stars. It is written phenomenally; it is bursting with literary merit; it is wonderfully interesting to read. Some of the prose is just beautiful. However, I will always see the unattributed whispers of racism in this work; I will always be aware of the possibility that it belongs to the author, and I cannot ignore that.
Well, that is a question, a question that is extremely difficult to answer. There are certainly racist aspects within Heart of Darkness. However, how far this is Conrad鈥檚 own personal opinion is near impossible to tell. Certainly, Marlowe, the protagonist and narrator, has some rather patronising notions as to how the Africans should be treated, and the image of the colonised is one of repression and servitude, but does this reflect Conrad鈥檚 own opinions? How far can we suggest that a fictional character embodies the author鈥檚 own notions of the world?
Marlowe could just be the embodiment of an ignorant Westerner with a misguided superiority complex. Conrad could have purposely written him this way to suggest how damaging the Westerner鈥檚 point of view was. There is also the consideration that the colonised doesn鈥檛 really have an intelligible voice through the entire novel, though, it must be noted, that the whole novel is technically a white man鈥檚 monologue; it is all reported speech rather than direct speech. So, everything Marlowe says could be bias; it could be slightly twisted with his perspective. Is this the intended effect? I don鈥檛 think anybody can say conclusively. Nor can anybody fully argue who Marlowe represents. I cannot personally tell whether he is an accidental suggestion of Conrad or a deliberate attempt to satirise the Western man. Convincing, and inconclusive, arguments can be made in either direction. This text is incredibly dense with conflicting interpretations. It鈥檚 hard to know what to make of it.
Well for all the difficulties with the racism angle, one thing is undeniable: Conrad does provide a harsh critique for colonialism. That cannot be ignored. Firstly, it can be seen as detrimental to the colonised. The Westerners exploit the tribes for their ivory and ship it back home. They take the wealth of the tribe folk, rouse their wrath and cause war between neighbouring villages. All in all, they shape the culture of the colonised; they destroy it. It provides an image of a society totally obsessed with monetary wealth, and how much they can gain through the evils of Imperialism. Secondly, it can be seen as detrimental to the coloniser. Kurtz enters the heart of the jungle and becomes completely corrupted. This suggests that the so called 鈥渟avagery鈥� of the tribe folk can set of the white man鈥檚 similar innate response; he can be altered and twisted into a lesser form. Conrad suggests that Kurtz becomes ruined as a result. But, this ruination could be attributed to the evils of colonisation rather than the black man鈥檚 influence. If both cultures can become ruined, then it can be read as a suggestion that colonisation is detrimental to all.
鈥淭hey were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got.鈥�
So, Colonisation is bad. But, does this mean Conrad can no longer be considered a racist? If he wants to get rid of servitude and pull the white man out of the jungle, does this mean that this display of liberty ignores the difference between skin colours? No it doesn鈥檛. Marlowe makes explicit reference to the 鈥渄ifferences鈥� between the white man and the black man. He doesn鈥檛 do this violently or purposely to offend; he does it in a patronising manner. He views the black man as a little brother, someone to be taught and led around. An educated black man then becomes whiter; he stands apart from his brethren. Indeed, the passage I鈥檓 about to quote is one that is used time and time again to suggest that Conrad is racist. Granted, the paragraph is terribly racist; it is patronising, offensive and vulgar. But, is this Conrad鈥檚 opinion? I recognise that this is a long quote, but the whole thing is needed to demonstrate what I鈥檝e been trying to say:
鈥淎 slight clinking behind me made me turn my head. Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path. They walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads, and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their loins, and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain whose bights swung between them, rhythmically clinking. Another report from the cliff made me think suddenly of that ship of war I had seen firing into a continent. It was the same kind of ominous voice; but these men could by no stretch of imagination be called enemies. They were called criminals, and the outraged law, like the bursting shells, had come to them, an insoluble mystery from the sea. All their meagre breasts panted together, the violently dilated nostrils quivered, the eyes stared stonily uphill. They passed me within six inches, without a glance, with that complete, deathlike indifference of unhappy savages. Behind this raw matter one of the reclaimed, the product of the new forces at work, strolled despondently, carrying a rifle by its middle. He had a uniform jacket with one button off, and seeing a white man on the path, hoisted his weapon to his shoulder with alacrity. This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be. He was speedily reassured, and with a large, white, rascally grin, and a glance at his charge, seemed to take me into partnership in his exalted trust. After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings.鈥�
The black man has been given animalistic traits. Marlowe describes them as having tails and remarks on their bodies in a way that suggests that they are beasts; they are mere tools for work in which the effectiveness of their body is their stock and trade. It鈥檚 all they have to go on: their ability to produce effective labour. Marlowe is repulsed by this idea; he recognises the absurdity of treating men like this, men who are apparently criminals. This is a criticism of Colonialism; it is a criticism of treating men this way. But, he, personally, describes them as savage; he, personally, suggests that their overseer, a black man who is employed by the Coloniser, is less black. Because he is guarding his fellow black man, he is now, according to Marlowe, whiter. This is blatant evidence that Marlowe (not Conrad) views the black man in a patronising manner. He opposes Colonialism, but he still views the black man as less than him.
Chinua Achebe takes this as direct evidence of Conrad鈥檚 own opinion. In his renowned essay, an image of Africa, he refers to Conrad as a 鈥渂loody racist.鈥� He recognises that Marlowe may be a fictional creation, rather than an embodiment of Conrad鈥檚 own voice. But, he suggests that because Conrad didn鈥檛 condemn such racist remarks, they must therefore be approved by him. Achebe then went on to write a version of Heart of Darkness (Things fall Apart) from the black man鈥檚 perspective. I鈥檒l be reviewing this soon in consideration with what I鈥檓 talking about here, but I think Achebe鈥檚 remarks are unfair. The evidence he provides is inconclusive. Conrad doesn鈥檛 condemn the racist remarks because he didn鈥檛 need to. If you view Marlowe as a purposeful creation of the Western man鈥檚 prejudice, then it would be awkward to condemn the prejudice. The ironic creation of such a character would achieve this without having to directly say it; it would be implied.
I鈥檓 unsure whether Conrad was a racist or not. There is not enough strong evidence to prove or disprove such an argument within the text. But, condemning him for being a racist is a little harsh; yes, racism is terrible, I鈥檓 not saying that. However, Conrad wrote at the end of the Victorian period. Whatever you may think about his possible viewpoints, to judge him by today鈥檚 standers is flawed. If you judge him by today鈥檚 rising liberal opinion regarding race, then you can systematically extend the same judgement to pretty much every author of the period and the periods that came before it. Half the English canon was probably racist. The Victorians, as a society, were racist. So was most of Western society for centuries. It鈥檚 how they saw the world; it鈥檚 how their society saw the world. This is, of course, a terrible thing. But it was the norm. If you dismiss Conrad based upon this, then you can dismiss many, many other authors too. So, for Joseph Conrad, who may or may not be racist, to condemn Imperialism and Colonialization is kind of a big step.
He is arguing against his entire government; he is suggesting that it is evil and corrupt. This is forward thinking stuff. It may sound simple by today鈥檚 standard, but this was the entire Western way of life. They cruelly, and systematically, built their wealth one of the most horrible situations in human history. For Conrad to point this out is almost revolutionary. I enjoyed reading his critique on it; I enjoyed the irony and how he suggests the evil of such a regime. But, regardless of this, I could never rate this book five stars. It is written phenomenally; it is bursting with literary merit; it is wonderfully interesting to read. Some of the prose is just beautiful. However, I will always see the unattributed whispers of racism in this work; I will always be aware of the possibility that it belongs to the author, and I cannot ignore that.
March 19, 2025
Kurtz is a modern day Prometheus. He dares to peer upon the hidden Dark Side of the Moon, and All the Heavens then seek revenge upon his startled soul.
And he must Pay.
Until that Gracious Day in some Faraway Future arrives, and the Divine Eagle quits chewing apart his liver.
Until this modern-day Oedipus, now an ancient, cursed soul in faraway Colonus, expiates the last dirty remnants of his crime before the very gods themselves.
And that futureless future day - when the last 鈥業鈥� is dotted and the last 鈥楾鈥� is crossed - will be the Last Day, upon which Franz Kafka is certified 鈥渟afe鈥� to enter the Kingdom by the sleepless Gatekeeper...
And Kurtz鈥� weary soul is Graced with Pardon and freed, like the rest of the absolved, to drink the healing Draughts of Lethe.
On THAT day we鈥檒l All Forgive... and Forget the Gorgon!
But you know what?
When T.S. Eliot gives his famous spoiler to this short masterpiece in The Wasteland, and wrecks the ending for young readers, it鈥檚 No Coincidence that he qualifies that spoiler with the incredibly apt line, 鈥淗ieronomo鈥檚 mad again!鈥�
For once you wade into the dread waters of Acheron, you see the Furies that will torment you till mercy dawns again.
Don鈥檛 hold your breath! As the Hindu sacred books say, endless Kalpas will seem to pass before that glad dawn.
I know what you鈥檙e thinking.
Kurtz is like Adam.
And of course ALL Adams, like you and me (and all my negligently disobedient friends!) will see our Edens forever blighted - like our dying planet - or so it will seem to us, since that first Kurtzian day of wrath.
Dante Alighieri once said us poor blokes who pass up a Life of Faith as a kid will have to slowly slog around Mount Purgatory for a hundred painful years before even getting our tickets punched at the door!
Oh, I鈥檓 no different.
I didn鈥檛 say I believed 鈥渓oud (and) clear鈥� as a youth.
No, we ALL Refused to 鈥渓isten as well as we hear... in the living years鈥� of our youth, to the Truth.
That鈥檚 right. We did EXACTLY like Adam, believing we鈥檇 鈥渂e like a god鈥� once we saw through the more inconvenient truths.
And so we continue to run the unforgivingly downward and rapid rails of Perfectionism, or Guilt, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, maybe.
But, you know, there are moments when pure sunlight breaks through our heavily curtained minds...
A child laughs innocently, a bird chirps cheerily, or an old person smiles an incredibly crinkled smile of joy.
Those moments are meant for US - that we may have eyes to see!
But, sooner or later, just like the rest of you - and Mr. Kurtz - we have to Face the Face that Kills.
And tuck the Golden Moments under our belt for the Next Time, in yet another stripping bare of our conscience -
Yes - Until, in fact, the Far-off Day, Kalpas and Kalpas from hence, of our Final Heavenly 鈥淪hantih.鈥�
In blessed Forgiveness.
And he must Pay.
Until that Gracious Day in some Faraway Future arrives, and the Divine Eagle quits chewing apart his liver.
Until this modern-day Oedipus, now an ancient, cursed soul in faraway Colonus, expiates the last dirty remnants of his crime before the very gods themselves.
And that futureless future day - when the last 鈥業鈥� is dotted and the last 鈥楾鈥� is crossed - will be the Last Day, upon which Franz Kafka is certified 鈥渟afe鈥� to enter the Kingdom by the sleepless Gatekeeper...
And Kurtz鈥� weary soul is Graced with Pardon and freed, like the rest of the absolved, to drink the healing Draughts of Lethe.
On THAT day we鈥檒l All Forgive... and Forget the Gorgon!
But you know what?
When T.S. Eliot gives his famous spoiler to this short masterpiece in The Wasteland, and wrecks the ending for young readers, it鈥檚 No Coincidence that he qualifies that spoiler with the incredibly apt line, 鈥淗ieronomo鈥檚 mad again!鈥�
For once you wade into the dread waters of Acheron, you see the Furies that will torment you till mercy dawns again.
Don鈥檛 hold your breath! As the Hindu sacred books say, endless Kalpas will seem to pass before that glad dawn.
I know what you鈥檙e thinking.
Kurtz is like Adam.
And of course ALL Adams, like you and me (and all my negligently disobedient friends!) will see our Edens forever blighted - like our dying planet - or so it will seem to us, since that first Kurtzian day of wrath.
Dante Alighieri once said us poor blokes who pass up a Life of Faith as a kid will have to slowly slog around Mount Purgatory for a hundred painful years before even getting our tickets punched at the door!
Oh, I鈥檓 no different.
I didn鈥檛 say I believed 鈥渓oud (and) clear鈥� as a youth.
No, we ALL Refused to 鈥渓isten as well as we hear... in the living years鈥� of our youth, to the Truth.
That鈥檚 right. We did EXACTLY like Adam, believing we鈥檇 鈥渂e like a god鈥� once we saw through the more inconvenient truths.
And so we continue to run the unforgivingly downward and rapid rails of Perfectionism, or Guilt, or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, maybe.
But, you know, there are moments when pure sunlight breaks through our heavily curtained minds...
A child laughs innocently, a bird chirps cheerily, or an old person smiles an incredibly crinkled smile of joy.
Those moments are meant for US - that we may have eyes to see!
But, sooner or later, just like the rest of you - and Mr. Kurtz - we have to Face the Face that Kills.
And tuck the Golden Moments under our belt for the Next Time, in yet another stripping bare of our conscience -
Yes - Until, in fact, the Far-off Day, Kalpas and Kalpas from hence, of our Final Heavenly 鈥淪hantih.鈥�
In blessed Forgiveness.
September 24, 2024
Blast you, F. Scott Fitzgerald! After reading this book twice, I now have to read this book a third time for "after-effects" on the reader's mind!
Earlier this year, I was reading The Great Gatsby: A Literary Reference. In that book, there were two articles that discussed Conrad鈥檚 influence on F. Scott Fitzgerald. Critics said that the influence merely related to the use of Nick Carraway as a narrator, telling a story within a story, a framing technique. In Heart of Darkness, Charles Marlow is on a ship with sailors gathered round to hear his story.
As part of my study, I was highlighting quotes, similes, metaphors, alliteration, and references to light. In Heart of Darkness, these same techniques are utilized. However, Fitzgerald wrote about how Conrad shaped his entire writing philosophy, how he crafted the story so that it would linger in the mind of the reader, that its impact would be enduring and profound.
Heart of Darkness is a bit spooky, and the framing technique isn鈥檛 implemented well. In fact, Conrad very quickly reverts back to Marlow in one short paragraph tacked onto the very end of the book. The book is also a bit difficult to read with massive run on paragraphs.
If Conrad laid the seeds, Fitzgerald was Jack and the Beanstalk, cultivating and growing those seeds into something solid and magical.
F. Scott Fitzgerald mentioned Joseph Conrad at least 19 different times in his personal letters.
Here are a few of those instances:
鈥淚 keep thinking of Conrad鈥檚 N of the Narcissus Preface鈥攁nd I believe that the important thing about a work of fiction is that the essential reaction shall be profound and enduring.鈥�*
*Conrad wrote: 鈥淢y task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel鈥攊t is, before all, to make you see. That鈥攁nd no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm鈥攁ll you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.鈥�
鈥淭he theory back of it I got from Conrad鈥檚 preface to The N, that the purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader鈥檚 mind as differing from, say, the purpose of oratory or philosophy which leave respectively leave people in a fighting or thoughtful mood.鈥�
鈥淭he happiest thought I have is of my new novel [The Great Gatsby] 鈥� it is something really NEW in form, idea, structure鈥攖he model for the age that Joyce and Stien are searching for, that Conrad didn鈥檛 find.鈥�
鈥淚 thought it was one purpose of critics + publishers to educate the public up to original work. The first people who risked Conrad certainly didn鈥檛 do it as a commercial venture. Did the evolution of startling work into accepted work cease twenty years ago?鈥�
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Softcover Text 鈥� $9.68 from Blackwell's
Audiobook 鈥� Audible Credit (I think this was a freebie but honestly I have no idea-I got a bit too happy deleteing old emails)
Connect With Me!
Earlier this year, I was reading The Great Gatsby: A Literary Reference. In that book, there were two articles that discussed Conrad鈥檚 influence on F. Scott Fitzgerald. Critics said that the influence merely related to the use of Nick Carraway as a narrator, telling a story within a story, a framing technique. In Heart of Darkness, Charles Marlow is on a ship with sailors gathered round to hear his story.
As part of my study, I was highlighting quotes, similes, metaphors, alliteration, and references to light. In Heart of Darkness, these same techniques are utilized. However, Fitzgerald wrote about how Conrad shaped his entire writing philosophy, how he crafted the story so that it would linger in the mind of the reader, that its impact would be enduring and profound.
Heart of Darkness is a bit spooky, and the framing technique isn鈥檛 implemented well. In fact, Conrad very quickly reverts back to Marlow in one short paragraph tacked onto the very end of the book. The book is also a bit difficult to read with massive run on paragraphs.
If Conrad laid the seeds, Fitzgerald was Jack and the Beanstalk, cultivating and growing those seeds into something solid and magical.
F. Scott Fitzgerald mentioned Joseph Conrad at least 19 different times in his personal letters.
Here are a few of those instances:
鈥淚 keep thinking of Conrad鈥檚 N of the Narcissus Preface鈥攁nd I believe that the important thing about a work of fiction is that the essential reaction shall be profound and enduring.鈥�*
*Conrad wrote: 鈥淢y task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel鈥攊t is, before all, to make you see. That鈥攁nd no more, and it is everything. If I succeed, you shall find there according to your deserts: encouragement, consolation, fear, charm鈥攁ll you demand; and, perhaps, also that glimpse of truth for which you have forgotten to ask.鈥�
鈥淭he theory back of it I got from Conrad鈥檚 preface to The N, that the purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader鈥檚 mind as differing from, say, the purpose of oratory or philosophy which leave respectively leave people in a fighting or thoughtful mood.鈥�
鈥淭he happiest thought I have is of my new novel [The Great Gatsby] 鈥� it is something really NEW in form, idea, structure鈥攖he model for the age that Joyce and Stien are searching for, that Conrad didn鈥檛 find.鈥�
鈥淚 thought it was one purpose of critics + publishers to educate the public up to original work. The first people who risked Conrad certainly didn鈥檛 do it as a commercial venture. Did the evolution of startling work into accepted work cease twenty years ago?鈥�
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Softcover Text 鈥� $9.68 from Blackwell's
Audiobook 鈥� Audible Credit (I think this was a freebie but honestly I have no idea-I got a bit too happy deleteing old emails)
Connect With Me!
September 11, 2016
Picture Review of Heart of Darkness
Visual Key:
White Man named Michael Cera 鈥� represents Imperialism
Sunset 鈥� shows the impending darkness that is latently inside man
Sea 鈥� represents the Congo River
Moustache 鈥� represents author Joseph Conrad who also has his own impressive facial hair
Red Bonnet 鈥� is a horrible choice of headwear thus might prompt one to remark "the horror! the horror!" which is also Kurtz' last words
Visual Key:
White Man named Michael Cera 鈥� represents Imperialism
Sunset 鈥� shows the impending darkness that is latently inside man
Sea 鈥� represents the Congo River
Moustache 鈥� represents author Joseph Conrad who also has his own impressive facial hair
Red Bonnet 鈥� is a horrible choice of headwear thus might prompt one to remark "the horror! the horror!" which is also Kurtz' last words
August 27, 2021
(Book 780 From 1001 Books) - Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad, about a voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State, in the heart of Africa, by the story's narrator Charles Marlow.
Marlow tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames.
This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between "the greatest town on earth" and Africa as places of darkness.
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亘夭乇诏賵丕乇丕賳蹖 賴賲趩賵賳 噩賳丕亘丕賳 丌賯丕蹖丕賳: 芦氐丕賱丨 丨爻蹖賳蹖禄貙 芦讴蹖賵賲乇孬 倬丕乇爻丕蹖禄貙 芦丕丨賲丿 賲蹖乇毓賱丕卅蹖禄貙 芦丨爻賳 丕賮卮丕乇禄貙 賵 芦倬乇賵蹖夭 丿丕乇蹖賵卮禄貙鈥� 亘賴 鬲乇噩賲賴 蹖 丌孬丕乇 芦噩賵夭賮 讴賳乇丕丿禄貨 亘賴 賵丕跇賴 賴丕蹖 倬丕乇爻丕蹖蹖 倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴鈥� 丕賳丿貙 讴鬲丕亘 芦丿賱 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖禄貙 丿乇 爻丕賱賴丕蹖 丌睾丕夭蹖賳 爻丿賴 亘蹖爻鬲賲 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 賭 爻丕賱 1902賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 賭 賳賵卮鬲賴 卮丿賴貙 趩丕倬 賳禺爻鬲 丌賳 亘賴 乇賵丕蹖鬲蹖 丿乇 爻丕賱 1355賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貙 丿乇 讴卮賵乇 賲丕 賲賳鬲卮乇 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲
賳賯賱 丕夭 賲鬲賳 芦丿賱 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖禄 賳賵卮鬲賴 蹖 芦噩賵夭賮 讴賳乇丕丿禄: (蹖丕丿賲 賴爻鬲 讴賴 蹖讴亘丕乇 亘賴 賳丕賵 噩賳诏蹖颅 丕蹖 亘乇禺賵乇丿蹖賲貙 讴賴 丿賵乇 丕夭 爻丕丨賱 賱賳诏乇 丕賳丿丕禺鬲賴 亘賵丿貨 鬲賵 亘诏賵 蹖讴 丌賱賵賳讴 賴賲 丌賳噩丕 賳亘賵丿貙 賵 賳丕賵 噩賳诏蹖 亘賴 亘賵鬲賴颅 賴丕 鬲賵倬 卮賱蹖讴 賲蹖颅讴乇丿貨 賲毓賱賵賲 卮丿 讴賴 芦賮乇丕賳爻賵蹖禄颅賴丕 丿乇 丌賳 丿賵乇賵亘乇賴丕貙 亘賴 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 噩賳诏颅賴丕卮丕賳 爻乇诏乇賲賳丿貨 倬乇趩賲 賳丕賵 噩賳诏蹖貙 賴賲丕賳賳丿 賱鬲賴 颅丕蹖 卮賱颅 賵 賵賱 賲蹖颅丕賮鬲丕丿貙 賱賵賱賴 颅蹖 鬲賵倬颅賴丕蹖 亘賱賳丿 卮卮 丕蹖賳趩蹖貙 丕夭 賴賲賴 噩丕蹖 亘丿賳賴 颅蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴 賳丕賵貙 亘蹖乇賵賳 夭丿賴 亘賵丿貙 丕賲賵丕噩 趩乇亘颅 賵 趩蹖賱蹖 賵 倬乇 丕夭 賱噩賳貙 讴丕賴賱丕賳賴 賳丕賵 乇丕 亘丕賱丕 賲蹖颅丕賳丿丕禺鬲貙 賵 亘賴 倬丕蹖蹖賳 賵賱卮 賲蹖颅讴乇丿貙 賵 丿讴賱颅賴丕蹖 讴賵趩賵賱賵蹖 丌賳乇丕 賳賵爻丕賳 賲蹖颅丿丕丿貨 丕蹖賳 賳丕賵 丿乇 丌賳 亘蹖颅讴乇丕賳诏蹖 鬲賴蹖 夭賲蹖賳 賵 丌爻賲丕賳 賵 丌亘貙 丕蹖爻鬲丕丿賴 亘賵丿貙 鈥屭┵� 賲毓賱賵賲 賳亘賵丿 亘乇丕蹖 趩賴 丌賳噩丕爻鬲貙 賵 鬲賵蹖 賯丕乇賴颅 丕蹖 鬲賵倬 賲蹖颅丕賳丿丕禺鬲貨 丕夭 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 鬲賵倬颅賴丕蹖 卮卮 丕蹖賳趩蹖貙 鬲丕倬貙 诏賱賵賱賴颅 丕蹖 丿乇賲蹖颅乇賮鬲貙 卮毓賱賴颅 蹖 讴賵趩讴蹖 夭亘丕賳賴 賲蹖颅讴卮蹖丿 賵 賲丨賵 賲蹖颅卮丿貙 匕乇賴颅 丕蹖 丿賵丿 爻賮蹖丿 賳丕倬丿蹖丿 賲蹖颅卮丿貙 倬乇鬲丕亘賴颅 蹖 乇蹖夭蹖 噩蹖睾 禺賮蹖賮蹖 賲蹖颅讴卮蹖丿貙 賵 賴蹖趩 丕鬲賮丕賯蹖 賳賲蹖颅丕賮鬲丕丿貙 丕賲讴丕賳 賳丿丕卮鬲 讴賴 丕鬲賮丕賯蹖 亘蹖賮鬲丿貨 賳卮丕賳蹖 丕夭 丿蹖賵丕賳诏蹖貙 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賲丕噩乇丕 亘賵丿貙 賵 賲毓乇讴賴貙 丨丕賱鬲蹖 丨夭賳颅 丌賵乇貙 賵 賴賲 禺賳丿賴 颅丌賵乇 丿丕卮鬲貙 亘賴 诏賮鬲賴颅 蹖 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 爻乇賳卮蹖賳丕賳 讴卮鬲蹖 賴賲貙 讴賴 亘賴 賱丨賳 噩丿蹖 丕胤賲蹖賳丕賳賲 賲蹖颅丿丕丿 丕乇丿賵诏丕賴 亘賵賲蹖丕賳貙 鈥屭┵� 丌賳颅賴丕 乇丕 丿卮賲賳 賲蹖禺賵丕賳丿貙 噩丕蹖蹖 倬賳賴丕賳 丕夭 賳馗乇 賯乇丕乇 丿丕乇丿貙 丕蹖賳 丨丕賱鬲 乇丕 丕夭 亘蹖賳 賳亘乇丿)貨 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳賯賱
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 05/07/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 04/06/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad, about a voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State, in the heart of Africa, by the story's narrator Charles Marlow.
Marlow tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames.
This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between "the greatest town on earth" and Africa as places of darkness.
毓賳賵丕賳賴丕蹖 趩丕倬 卮丿賴 丿乇 丕蹖乇丕賳: 芦丿賱 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖禄貙 芦丿乇 丕毓賲丕賯 馗賱賲鬲禄貨 芦賯賱亘 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖禄貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 噩賵夭賮 讴賳乇丕丿貨 丕賳鬲卮丕乇丕鬲蹖賴丕 (丕賲蹖乇讴亘蹖乇貙 讴鬲丕亘賴丕蹖 噩蹖亘蹖貙 丕讴亘丕鬲丕賳貙 讴賱亘賴貙 爻賲蹖乇貙 賳蹖賱賵賮乇貙 毓賱賲蹖 賮乇賴賳诏蹖) 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲貨 鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮 賲丕賴 賲丕乇爻 爻丕賱 2002賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 丿賱 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖貙 噩賵丕賳蹖貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 噩賵夭賮 讴賳乇丕丿貨 賲鬲乇噩賲: 賲丨賲丿毓賱蹖 氐賮乇蹖丕賳貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 丕賲蹖乇讴亘蹖乇貙 讴鬲丕亘賴丕蹖 噩蹖亘蹖貙 1355貨 丿乇 211氐貨 芦噩賵丕賳蹖 丕夭 氐 9貙 鬲丕 氐 64禄貙 芦丿賱 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖 丕夭 氐 65貙 鬲丕 氐 211禄貨 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 亘乇蹖鬲丕賳蹖丕 - 爻丿賴 20賲
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趩讴蹖丿賴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳: 賲賱賵丕賳蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄 丕夭 丿賵乇丕賳 讴賵丿讴蹖貙 丿賱鬲賳诏 乇賵丿蹖 亘夭乇诏 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 丿乇 賲賳胤賯賴 鈥屫й� 讴丕賵卮 鈥屬嗀簇囏� 丿乇 芦丌賮乇蹖賯丕禄 噩丕乇蹖 丕爻鬲貨 爻丕賱鈥屬囏� 亘毓丿貙 卮乇讴鬲蹖 讴賴 賲兀賲賵乇 讴丕賵卮 丿乇 丌賳 賲賳胤賯賴 丕爻鬲貙 賮乇賲丕賳丿賴蹖 蹖讴 讴卮鬲蹖 賵蹖跇賴 蹖 丨賲賱 芦毓丕噩禄 乇丕貙 亘賴 丕賵 賲蹖鈥屫迟矩ж必� 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄貙 倬爻 丕夭 爻賮乇蹖 鬲賵丕賳賮乇爻丕貙 賵 鬲賲丕賲鈥� 賳卮丿賳蹖貙 賵 讴丕亘賵爻鈥屭堎嗁囏� 爻乇丕賳噩丕賲 賲賵賮賯 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 鬲丕 丿乇 跇乇賮丕蹖 賲賳胤賯賴貙 亘賴 讴賲倬 卮乇讴鬲 亘乇爻丿貨 丕賲丕 賴賲賴 趩蹖夭 乇丕 丌卮賮鬲賴貙 賵 丿乇 賴賲鈥� 乇蹖禺鬲賴貙 賵 賲乇賲賵夭 賲蹖鈥屰屫жㄘ� 爻讴賵鬲 賲乇賲賵夭蹖 亘乇 亘賵賲蹖丕賳 爻丕讴賳 丌賳噩丕 丨丕讴賲 丕爻鬲貨 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄 亘賴 噩爻鬲噩賵蹖 賳賲丕蹖賳丿賴 蹖 卮乇讴鬲貙 亘賴 賳丕賲 芦賲爻鬲乇 讴賵乇鬲爻禄 賲蹖鈥屬矩必ж藏� 丕賲丕 禺亘乇蹖 丕夭 丕賵 丿乇 丿爻鬲 賳蹖爻鬲貨 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄 亘乇丕爻丕爻 賳卮丕賳賴鈥� 賴丕貙 亘賴 跇乇賮丕蹖 噩賳诏賱鈥屬囏й� 賵丨卮蹖 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 賵 丿乇 丌賳噩丕 芦讴賵乇鬲爻禄 乇丕貙 丿乇 丨丕賱鬲蹖 讴賴 亘賴 芦丕賱丕賴賴禄貙 賵 禺丿丕蹖 賯亘丕蹖賱 賵丨卮蹖 亘丿賱 卮丿賴 賲蹖鈥屰屫жㄘ� 芦讴賵乇鬲爻禄 讴賴 亘丕 丕賳丿蹖卮賴 蹖 丿毓賵鬲 賵丨卮蹖丕賳 亘賴 芦賲爻蹖丨蹖鬲禄貙 爻賮乇 禺賵丿 乇丕 丌睾丕夭 讴乇丿賴 亘賵丿貙 爻乇丕賳噩丕賲 亘賴 禺丿丕蹖诏丕賳貙 賵 乇卅蹖爻 乇賯氐賳丿诏丕賳貙 賵 賯乇亘丕賳蹖鈥� 讴賳賳丿诏丕賳 賯亘丕蹖賱 賵丨卮蹖貙 亘丿賱 卮丿賴貨 丕賵 亘丕乇賴丕 讴賵卮蹖丿賴貙 鬲丕 亘诏乇蹖夭丿貙 丕賲丕 賵丨卮蹖丕賳貙 丕賵 乇丕 蹖丕賮鬲賴貙 賵 丨丕囟乇 賳賲蹖卮賵賳丿貙 芦禺丿丕蹖 爻賮蹖丿禄 禺賵丿 乇丕貙 丕夭 丿爻鬲 亘丿賴賳丿貨 丕賵 丕蹖賳讴 丿乇 丨丕賱鬲蹖 賳蹖賲賴 鈥屫屬堌з嗁囏� 賵 丿乇 丨丕賱 賲乇诏貙 亘丕 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄 乇賵亘乇賵 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄 賲蹖鈥屭┵堌簇� 丕賵 乇丕 乇丕囟蹖 讴賳丿貙 鬲丕 亘丕 丕賵 亘蹖丕蹖丿貙 丕賲丕 丕賵 丿蹖诏乇 丨丕囟乇 賳蹖爻鬲貨 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄 丕賵 乇丕 亘賴 鈥屫藏呚� 賵 亘丕 夭賵乇 賴賲乇丕賴 禺賵蹖卮 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 丕賲丕 丿乇 讴卮鬲蹖貙 芦讴賵乇鬲爻禄 賲蹖鈥屬呟屫必� 倬丕蹖丕賳鈥屫ㄙ嗀� 丿丕爻鬲丕賳貙 亘丕 乇賯氐 夭賳蹖 毓乇蹖丕賳貙 丕夭 賯亘丕蹖賱貙 賵 蹖丕賮鬲賳 亘爻鬲賴 蹖 賳丕賲賴 賴丕蹖 賲鬲毓賱賯 亘賴 賳丕賲夭丿 芦讴賵乇鬲爻禄貙 丕夭 爻賵蹖 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄貙 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 乇丕貙 丿乇诏蹖乇 鬲乇丿蹖丿賴丕蹖 亘夭乇诏 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄 賲蹖鈥屫辟堌� 鬲丕 丌賳 賳丕賲賴鈥屬囏� 乇丕 亘賴 丌賳 夭賳 亘乇爻丕賳丿貙 丕賲丕 丿乇 亘乇丕亘乇 禺賵丿貙 夭賳蹖 乇丕 賲蹖鈥屰屫жㄘ� 讴賴 賯丕丿乇 亘賴 丕蹖孬丕乇 賵 丕蹖賲丕賳 賵 乇賳噩 丕爻鬲貙 賵 亘丕 蹖丕丿 诏賲鈥屫簇� 鈥屫ж簇� 亘賴 夭賳丿诏蹖 丕丿丕賲賴 賲蹖鈥屫囏� 芦賲丕乇賱賵禄 賯丕丿乇 賳蹖爻鬲貙 丨賯蹖賯鬲 夭賳丿诏蹖貙 賵 賲乇诏 芦讴賵乇鬲爻禄 乇丕貙 亘蹖丕賳 讴賳丿貙 賵 鬲賳賴丕 亘賴 夭賳 丕胤賲蹖賳丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫囏� 讴賴 芦讴賵乇鬲爻禄 丿乇 賵丕倬爻蹖賳 丿賲 丨蹖丕鬲貙 亘賴 蹖丕丿 丕賵 亘賵丿賴貙 賵 賳丕賲 丕賵 乇丕 亘乇 夭亘丕賳 乇丕賳丿賴 鈥屫ж池�
亘夭乇诏賵丕乇丕賳蹖 賴賲趩賵賳 噩賳丕亘丕賳 丌賯丕蹖丕賳: 芦氐丕賱丨 丨爻蹖賳蹖禄貙 芦讴蹖賵賲乇孬 倬丕乇爻丕蹖禄貙 芦丕丨賲丿 賲蹖乇毓賱丕卅蹖禄貙 芦丨爻賳 丕賮卮丕乇禄貙 賵 芦倬乇賵蹖夭 丿丕乇蹖賵卮禄貙鈥� 亘賴 鬲乇噩賲賴 蹖 丌孬丕乇 芦噩賵夭賮 讴賳乇丕丿禄貨 亘賴 賵丕跇賴 賴丕蹖 倬丕乇爻丕蹖蹖 倬乇丿丕禺鬲賴鈥� 丕賳丿貙 讴鬲丕亘 芦丿賱 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖禄貙 丿乇 爻丕賱賴丕蹖 丌睾丕夭蹖賳 爻丿賴 亘蹖爻鬲賲 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 賭 爻丕賱 1902賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 賭 賳賵卮鬲賴 卮丿賴貙 趩丕倬 賳禺爻鬲 丌賳 亘賴 乇賵丕蹖鬲蹖 丿乇 爻丕賱 1355賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貙 丿乇 讴卮賵乇 賲丕 賲賳鬲卮乇 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲
賳賯賱 丕夭 賲鬲賳 芦丿賱 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖禄 賳賵卮鬲賴 蹖 芦噩賵夭賮 讴賳乇丕丿禄: (蹖丕丿賲 賴爻鬲 讴賴 蹖讴亘丕乇 亘賴 賳丕賵 噩賳诏蹖颅 丕蹖 亘乇禺賵乇丿蹖賲貙 讴賴 丿賵乇 丕夭 爻丕丨賱 賱賳诏乇 丕賳丿丕禺鬲賴 亘賵丿貨 鬲賵 亘诏賵 蹖讴 丌賱賵賳讴 賴賲 丌賳噩丕 賳亘賵丿貙 賵 賳丕賵 噩賳诏蹖 亘賴 亘賵鬲賴颅 賴丕 鬲賵倬 卮賱蹖讴 賲蹖颅讴乇丿貨 賲毓賱賵賲 卮丿 讴賴 芦賮乇丕賳爻賵蹖禄颅賴丕 丿乇 丌賳 丿賵乇賵亘乇賴丕貙 亘賴 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 噩賳诏颅賴丕卮丕賳 爻乇诏乇賲賳丿貨 倬乇趩賲 賳丕賵 噩賳诏蹖貙 賴賲丕賳賳丿 賱鬲賴 颅丕蹖 卮賱颅 賵 賵賱 賲蹖颅丕賮鬲丕丿貙 賱賵賱賴 颅蹖 鬲賵倬颅賴丕蹖 亘賱賳丿 卮卮 丕蹖賳趩蹖貙 丕夭 賴賲賴 噩丕蹖 亘丿賳賴 颅蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴 賳丕賵貙 亘蹖乇賵賳 夭丿賴 亘賵丿貙 丕賲賵丕噩 趩乇亘颅 賵 趩蹖賱蹖 賵 倬乇 丕夭 賱噩賳貙 讴丕賴賱丕賳賴 賳丕賵 乇丕 亘丕賱丕 賲蹖颅丕賳丿丕禺鬲貙 賵 亘賴 倬丕蹖蹖賳 賵賱卮 賲蹖颅讴乇丿貙 賵 丿讴賱颅賴丕蹖 讴賵趩賵賱賵蹖 丌賳乇丕 賳賵爻丕賳 賲蹖颅丿丕丿貨 丕蹖賳 賳丕賵 丿乇 丌賳 亘蹖颅讴乇丕賳诏蹖 鬲賴蹖 夭賲蹖賳 賵 丌爻賲丕賳 賵 丌亘貙 丕蹖爻鬲丕丿賴 亘賵丿貙 鈥屭┵� 賲毓賱賵賲 賳亘賵丿 亘乇丕蹖 趩賴 丌賳噩丕爻鬲貙 賵 鬲賵蹖 賯丕乇賴颅 丕蹖 鬲賵倬 賲蹖颅丕賳丿丕禺鬲貨 丕夭 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 鬲賵倬颅賴丕蹖 卮卮 丕蹖賳趩蹖貙 鬲丕倬貙 诏賱賵賱賴颅 丕蹖 丿乇賲蹖颅乇賮鬲貙 卮毓賱賴颅 蹖 讴賵趩讴蹖 夭亘丕賳賴 賲蹖颅讴卮蹖丿 賵 賲丨賵 賲蹖颅卮丿貙 匕乇賴颅 丕蹖 丿賵丿 爻賮蹖丿 賳丕倬丿蹖丿 賲蹖颅卮丿貙 倬乇鬲丕亘賴颅 蹖 乇蹖夭蹖 噩蹖睾 禺賮蹖賮蹖 賲蹖颅讴卮蹖丿貙 賵 賴蹖趩 丕鬲賮丕賯蹖 賳賲蹖颅丕賮鬲丕丿貙 丕賲讴丕賳 賳丿丕卮鬲 讴賴 丕鬲賮丕賯蹖 亘蹖賮鬲丿貨 賳卮丕賳蹖 丕夭 丿蹖賵丕賳诏蹖貙 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賲丕噩乇丕 亘賵丿貙 賵 賲毓乇讴賴貙 丨丕賱鬲蹖 丨夭賳颅 丌賵乇貙 賵 賴賲 禺賳丿賴 颅丌賵乇 丿丕卮鬲貙 亘賴 诏賮鬲賴颅 蹖 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 爻乇賳卮蹖賳丕賳 讴卮鬲蹖 賴賲貙 讴賴 亘賴 賱丨賳 噩丿蹖 丕胤賲蹖賳丕賳賲 賲蹖颅丿丕丿 丕乇丿賵诏丕賴 亘賵賲蹖丕賳貙 鈥屭┵� 丌賳颅賴丕 乇丕 丿卮賲賳 賲蹖禺賵丕賳丿貙 噩丕蹖蹖 倬賳賴丕賳 丕夭 賳馗乇 賯乇丕乇 丿丕乇丿貙 丕蹖賳 丨丕賱鬲 乇丕 丕夭 亘蹖賳 賳亘乇丿)貨 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳賯賱
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 05/07/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 04/06/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
July 28, 2023
A re-read for me from many years ago. We all know the basic story. A small river steamship captain, Charles Marlow, commands a ferryboat up the Congo River (as did the author). Marlow, like many others in the story, has become fascinated with a guy named Kurtz, a mythologized, legendary trader of ivory who lives in the interior and has 鈥榞one native,鈥� as the expression goes.
There are thousands of reviews out there, so I will just add my two cents to the debate about the meaning and value of the book.
We see the miserable conditions the native peoples live in 鈥� they are essentially enslaved - and we read passages that are racist. A well-known critic of the book is the famous Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe, author of many books set in Africa, most notably, Things Fall Apart. Achebe basically said the book is a typical work of 19th-century racist colonialism and we should stop considering it a classic and stop assigning it in college courses.
And yet the book is also fundamentally a critique of the colonial system, highlighting the brutality, materialism, greed and inhumanity of the Europeans. In a way, it鈥檚 about man鈥檚 inhumanity to man and the common flaws of humanity that we all share in. So in that sense, Conrad was relatively 鈥榳oke鈥� for his time (published in 1899) and the book helped push the needle forward on the scale of enlightenment.
I personally believe that regardless of how 鈥榳oke鈥� we think we are, we all engage in things, hold beliefs, say and write things that will shock our grandchildren. 鈥淗ow could he think that???鈥�
I鈥檒l let Harold Bloom have the last word. He wrote that Heart of Darkness had been analyzed more than any other work of literature that is studied in universities and colleges, and he attributed this to Conrad's "unique propensity for ambiguity." Learning about ambiguity is a good thing.
Top photo from warontherocks.com
Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) from litariness.org
[Edited 7/28/23]
There are thousands of reviews out there, so I will just add my two cents to the debate about the meaning and value of the book.
We see the miserable conditions the native peoples live in 鈥� they are essentially enslaved - and we read passages that are racist. A well-known critic of the book is the famous Nigerian novelist, Chinua Achebe, author of many books set in Africa, most notably, Things Fall Apart. Achebe basically said the book is a typical work of 19th-century racist colonialism and we should stop considering it a classic and stop assigning it in college courses.
And yet the book is also fundamentally a critique of the colonial system, highlighting the brutality, materialism, greed and inhumanity of the Europeans. In a way, it鈥檚 about man鈥檚 inhumanity to man and the common flaws of humanity that we all share in. So in that sense, Conrad was relatively 鈥榳oke鈥� for his time (published in 1899) and the book helped push the needle forward on the scale of enlightenment.
I personally believe that regardless of how 鈥榳oke鈥� we think we are, we all engage in things, hold beliefs, say and write things that will shock our grandchildren. 鈥淗ow could he think that???鈥�
I鈥檒l let Harold Bloom have the last word. He wrote that Heart of Darkness had been analyzed more than any other work of literature that is studied in universities and colleges, and he attributed this to Conrad's "unique propensity for ambiguity." Learning about ambiguity is a good thing.
Top photo from warontherocks.com
Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) from litariness.org
[Edited 7/28/23]
January 23, 2023
L'ORRORE
Conrad arriv貌 nel Congo nel 1890 come tanti altri europei alla ricerca di un lavoro, di un鈥檕ccasione di crescita economica e professionale, attratto dalle panzane che il re del Belgio, Leopoldo II, era riuscito a spacciare per verit脿, e cio猫 che in quella (immensa) parte dell鈥橝frica i bianchi stessero cercando di contrastare e arrestare il commercio degli schiavi condotto dagli 鈥渁rabi鈥�.
Arabi mercanti di schiavi neri, principalmente nell鈥橝frica dell鈥橢st, ma non solo.
Conrad voleva diventare capitano di marina e sperava che l鈥檈sperienza africana avrebbe comportato anche il raggiungimento di quel grado militare.
Si trov貌 davanti una realt脿 ben diversa da quella che si aspettava: i bianchi in Congo era schiavisti come e pi霉 degli 鈥渁rabi鈥� 鈥� ignoravano il rispetto dei pi霉 elementari diritti umani 鈥� trattavano i locali come materia prima, forza lavoro, bestie da soma 鈥� erano crudeli, rapaci, volgari, prepotenti, accecati dal loro potere, violenti, stupratori, assassini, torturatori.
Mozzare mani e piedi era pratica punitiva frequente.
In realt脿 erano molto di pi霉, erano autentici genocidari: si calcola che tra il 1890 e il 1905, sempre sotto il dominio belga, la popolazione del Congo si sia ridotta di circa 8/10 milioni di persone. Tutte morte: in nome della 鈥渃ivilt脿鈥�, della conquista 鈥� tutte morte in nome dell鈥檃vorio e della gomma.
Conrad rimase colpito e stordito, e da qui 猫 nato questo magnifico libro, probabilmente il romanzo breve in lingua inglese pi霉 tradotto e ristampato.
Il colonello Kurtz impersonato da Marlon Brando.
Marlow 猫 l鈥檃lter ego dello stesso Conrad che risal矛 il fiume Congo 鈥� e Kurtz impersona alcuni dei peggiori servitori del Belgio, non necessariamente nati in quel paese, tutti passati alla storia per la crudelt脿 e il numero di morti (tale L茅on Rom usava adornare il suo giardino con le teste degli africani decapitati per punizione conficcate in paletti proprio come nel libro fa Kurtz).
Cuore di tenebra 猫 prima di tutto questo: un atto d鈥檃ccusa del genocidio che i belgi hanno commesso in Congo.
Poi, col tempo, 猫 diventato un inno contro la violenza umana in generale, contro l鈥檌mperialismo (vedi l鈥檌nterpretazione datane da Coppola in 鈥淎pocalypse Now鈥�).
Arbasino disse che alla fine del film di Coppola chiunque avrebbe capito che la guerra 猫 un magnifico sballo. Nonostante la deliziosa ironia del grande di Voghera, 鈥淎pocalypse Now鈥� rimane un capolavoro.
Ma Conrad all鈥檌mperialismo credeva, purch茅 di marca britannica, fino al punto di investire i suoi risparmi in una miniera d鈥檕ro vicino a Johannesburg (quindi, sotto controllo inglese 鈥� l鈥檌mperialismo inglese andava benissimo, era sinonimo di civilt脿 e progresso).
In fondo in queste pagine i personaggi di colore non fanno una gran figura, pi霉 che parlare, cantano, grugniscono, emettono suoni.
In fondo il razzismo vittoriano (quindi di stampo inglese) in queste pagine si sente eccome.
Kurtz 猫 un magnifico villain: non 猫 solo un assassino e torturatore, ma anche un intellettuale che si diletta di pittura, di poesia, di giornalismo, di teoria e pensiero (Sterminate tutti questi bruti!), confermando con penna e inchiostro la conquista compiuta con fucile e mitragliatore.
Cuore di tenebra.
Conrad arriv貌 nel Congo nel 1890 come tanti altri europei alla ricerca di un lavoro, di un鈥檕ccasione di crescita economica e professionale, attratto dalle panzane che il re del Belgio, Leopoldo II, era riuscito a spacciare per verit脿, e cio猫 che in quella (immensa) parte dell鈥橝frica i bianchi stessero cercando di contrastare e arrestare il commercio degli schiavi condotto dagli 鈥渁rabi鈥�.
Arabi mercanti di schiavi neri, principalmente nell鈥橝frica dell鈥橢st, ma non solo.
Conrad voleva diventare capitano di marina e sperava che l鈥檈sperienza africana avrebbe comportato anche il raggiungimento di quel grado militare.
Si trov貌 davanti una realt脿 ben diversa da quella che si aspettava: i bianchi in Congo era schiavisti come e pi霉 degli 鈥渁rabi鈥� 鈥� ignoravano il rispetto dei pi霉 elementari diritti umani 鈥� trattavano i locali come materia prima, forza lavoro, bestie da soma 鈥� erano crudeli, rapaci, volgari, prepotenti, accecati dal loro potere, violenti, stupratori, assassini, torturatori.
Mozzare mani e piedi era pratica punitiva frequente.
In realt脿 erano molto di pi霉, erano autentici genocidari: si calcola che tra il 1890 e il 1905, sempre sotto il dominio belga, la popolazione del Congo si sia ridotta di circa 8/10 milioni di persone. Tutte morte: in nome della 鈥渃ivilt脿鈥�, della conquista 鈥� tutte morte in nome dell鈥檃vorio e della gomma.
Conrad rimase colpito e stordito, e da qui 猫 nato questo magnifico libro, probabilmente il romanzo breve in lingua inglese pi霉 tradotto e ristampato.
Il colonello Kurtz impersonato da Marlon Brando.
Marlow 猫 l鈥檃lter ego dello stesso Conrad che risal矛 il fiume Congo 鈥� e Kurtz impersona alcuni dei peggiori servitori del Belgio, non necessariamente nati in quel paese, tutti passati alla storia per la crudelt脿 e il numero di morti (tale L茅on Rom usava adornare il suo giardino con le teste degli africani decapitati per punizione conficcate in paletti proprio come nel libro fa Kurtz).
Cuore di tenebra 猫 prima di tutto questo: un atto d鈥檃ccusa del genocidio che i belgi hanno commesso in Congo.
Poi, col tempo, 猫 diventato un inno contro la violenza umana in generale, contro l鈥檌mperialismo (vedi l鈥檌nterpretazione datane da Coppola in 鈥淎pocalypse Now鈥�).
Arbasino disse che alla fine del film di Coppola chiunque avrebbe capito che la guerra 猫 un magnifico sballo. Nonostante la deliziosa ironia del grande di Voghera, 鈥淎pocalypse Now鈥� rimane un capolavoro.
Ma Conrad all鈥檌mperialismo credeva, purch茅 di marca britannica, fino al punto di investire i suoi risparmi in una miniera d鈥檕ro vicino a Johannesburg (quindi, sotto controllo inglese 鈥� l鈥檌mperialismo inglese andava benissimo, era sinonimo di civilt脿 e progresso).
In fondo in queste pagine i personaggi di colore non fanno una gran figura, pi霉 che parlare, cantano, grugniscono, emettono suoni.
In fondo il razzismo vittoriano (quindi di stampo inglese) in queste pagine si sente eccome.
Kurtz 猫 un magnifico villain: non 猫 solo un assassino e torturatore, ma anche un intellettuale che si diletta di pittura, di poesia, di giornalismo, di teoria e pensiero (Sterminate tutti questi bruti!), confermando con penna e inchiostro la conquista compiuta con fucile e mitragliatore.
Cuore di tenebra.
March 21, 2009
It was a breathtaking read. There are few books which make such a powerful impression as 'Heart of darkness' does. Written more than a century ago, the book and its undying theme hold just as much significance even today. Intense and compelling, it looks into the darkest recesses of human nature. Conrad takes the reader through a horrific tale in a very gripping voice.
I couldn't say enough about Conrad's mastery of prose. Not a single word is out of place. Among several things, I liked Marlow expressing his difficulty in sharing his experiences with his listeners and his comments on insignificance of some of the dialogue exchanged aloud between him and Kurtz. The bond between the two was much deeper. Whatever words he uses to describe them, no one can really understand in full measure what he had been through. In Marlow's words:
". . . No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one鈥檚 existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone. . . ."
This was the first time I read this book which doesn't seem enough to fathom its profound meaning and all the symbolism. It deserves multiple reads.
January 13, 2025
Prin 2003, am c膬zut peste o afirma葲ie a lui Borges dintr-un prolog adunat 卯n Biblioteca personal膬: 鈥�Inima 卯ntunericului este, poate, cea mai intens膬 povestire n膬scocit膬 de 卯nchipuirea omeneasc膬鈥�. Afirma葲ia m-a f膬cut curios.
Nu auzisem de aceast膬 povestire. Mi-am procurat o traducere 葯i am citit-o aproape imediat. Povestirea mi-a adus aminte de toate cobor卯rile la iad din istoria literaturii, 卯ndeosebi de aceea din Eneida. C膬pitanul Charles Marlow poveste葯te unor prieteni drumul pe care l-a f膬cut pe r卯ul Congo, printr-un 葲inut pustiit 葯i amenin葲膬tor, pentru a-l 卯nt卯lni pe un anume domn Kurtz (privit cu venera葲ie 葯i spaim膬 de c膬l膬tori), 葯eful unei 鈥瀞ta葲ii鈥� de exploatare a filde葯ului. 脦nt卯lne葯te un om bolnav (鈥瀠n diavol ve葯tejit鈥�), trecut dincolo de pragul oric膬rei nebunii, 葯i asist膬 la moartea lui. Marlowe se fere葯te s膬 judece, dar nu e un secret c膬 tot ceea ce a v膬zut i se pare atroce 葯i abject.
脦ntunericul la care se refer膬 Conrad este, fire葯te, 卯ntunericul sufletului uman.
A葯 min葲i dac膬 a葯 spune c膬 aceast膬 povestire m-a entuziasmat. Nici 卯n 2003, nici acum. Dar nu pot ignora elegan葲a 葯i precizia stilului prozatorului polonez (pe adev膬ratul lui nume Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski):
P. S. N-a葯 vrea s膬 trec peste faptul c膬 scriitorul Chinua Achebe a denun葲at povestirea lui Conrad ca 谤补蝉颈蝉迟膬 葯i a st卯rnit o polemic膬 卯nver葯unat膬. Opinia cea mai cump膬nit膬 mi s-a p膬rut, totu葯i, aceea a lui David Lodge:
Nu auzisem de aceast膬 povestire. Mi-am procurat o traducere 葯i am citit-o aproape imediat. Povestirea mi-a adus aminte de toate cobor卯rile la iad din istoria literaturii, 卯ndeosebi de aceea din Eneida. C膬pitanul Charles Marlow poveste葯te unor prieteni drumul pe care l-a f膬cut pe r卯ul Congo, printr-un 葲inut pustiit 葯i amenin葲膬tor, pentru a-l 卯nt卯lni pe un anume domn Kurtz (privit cu venera葲ie 葯i spaim膬 de c膬l膬tori), 葯eful unei 鈥瀞ta葲ii鈥� de exploatare a filde葯ului. 脦nt卯lne葯te un om bolnav (鈥瀠n diavol ve葯tejit鈥�), trecut dincolo de pragul oric膬rei nebunii, 葯i asist膬 la moartea lui. Marlowe se fere葯te s膬 judece, dar nu e un secret c膬 tot ceea ce a v膬zut i se pare atroce 葯i abject.
脦ntunericul la care se refer膬 Conrad este, fire葯te, 卯ntunericul sufletului uman.
A葯 min葲i dac膬 a葯 spune c膬 aceast膬 povestire m-a entuziasmat. Nici 卯n 2003, nici acum. Dar nu pot ignora elegan葲a 葯i precizia stilului prozatorului polonez (pe adev膬ratul lui nume Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski):
鈥灻巒tr-o sear膬, intr卯nd 卯n cabin膬 cu o lum卯nare, am tres膬rit c卯nd l-am auzit pe [Kurtz] spun卯nd, cu glas oarecum sc膬zut, 'Zac aici 卯n 卯ntuneric 葯i a葯tept moartea...' [Kurtz] a strigat 卯n 葯oapt膬 c膬tre o imagine, c膬tre o viziune - a strigat de dou膬 ori, o rostire ce nu era mai mult dec卯t un suflu: 'Oroare! Oroare! Am stins lum卯narea 葯i am ie葯it din cabin膬... One evening coming in with a candle I was startled to hear him say a little tremulously, 鈥業 am lying here in the dark waiting for death.鈥�... He [Kurtz] cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision鈥攈e cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: 鈥楾he horror! The horror!鈥� I blew the candle out and left the cabin鈥�.
P. S. N-a葯 vrea s膬 trec peste faptul c膬 scriitorul Chinua Achebe a denun葲at povestirea lui Conrad ca 谤补蝉颈蝉迟膬 葯i a st卯rnit o polemic膬 卯nver葯unat膬. Opinia cea mai cump膬nit膬 mi s-a p膬rut, totu葯i, aceea a lui David Lodge:
鈥濫 o gre葯eal膬 s膬 cite葯ti texte dintr-o epoc膬 trecut膬 cu ochelarii ideologici ai prezentului...; dup膬 standardele vremii sale, abordarea colonialismului european de c膬tre Conrad este una progresist膬鈥� (Norocul scriitorului. Memorii (1976 - 1991), traducere de Radu Pavel Gheo, Polirom, 2021, p.446).
August 10, 2017
芦桅蟻委魏畏, 蠁蟻委魏畏 禄
芦螘尉慰位慰胃蟻蔚蠉蟽伪蟿蔚 蠈位伪 蟿伪 魏蟿萎谓畏!禄
危蟿畏谓 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 蟽蟿慰谓 伪蠁畏纬畏蟿萎 蟿畏蟼 (螠维蟻位慰慰蠀),蟿慰 谓蠈畏渭伪 蟿畏蟼 喂蟽蟿慰蟻委伪蟼 未蔚谓 尾蟻委蟽魏蔚蟿伪喂 蟽蔚 魏伪渭委伪 蟺蔚蟻委蟺蟿蠅蟽畏 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蟿慰谓 蟺蠀蟻萎谓伪 蟿畏蟼,伪位位维 伪蟺鈥櫸鞠�, 芦胃伪蟻蟻蔚委蟼 魏伪喂 蟿慰 谓蠈畏渭伪 蟺蔚蟻喂尾维位蔚喂 蟿畏谓 喂蟽蟿慰蟻委伪...禄.
螒蠀蟿蠈 蟿慰 尾喂尾位委慰 蔚委谓伪喂 渭喂伪 伪蟽蠉位位畏蟺蟿畏 蟿蔚位蔚蟿慰蠀蟻纬委伪, 渭喂伪 未伪喂渭慰谓喂魏萎 蟺谓蔚蠀渭伪蟿喂魏维 渭蠉畏蟽畏, 渭喂伪 魏伪蟿伪位畏蠄委伪.
螚 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼 渭蟺慰蟻蔚委 谓伪 苇蠂蔚喂 蟺慰位位苇蟼 蔚蟻渭畏谓蔚委蔚蟼 魏伪喂 蔚委谓伪喂 蟺慰位蠉 蠁蠀蟽喂魏蠈 伪蠁慰蠉 尾蟻委胃蔚喂 蔚喂魏蠈谓蠅谓 魏伪喂 蟽蠀谓伪喂蟽胃畏渭维蟿蠅谓.
螌位畏 畏 慰蠀蟽委伪 蟿慰蠀 尾喂尾位委慰蠀 蔚蟺喂魏蔚谓蟿蟻蠋谓蔚蟿伪喂 蟽蟿畏谓 蔚渭蟺蔚喂蟻委伪 蔚谓蠈蟼 谓伪蠀蟿喂魏慰蠉 (螠维蟻位慰慰蠀)蟺慰蠀 蟽蠀谓蔚喂未畏蟿维 蔚蟺喂位苇纬蔚喂 谓伪 蟿伪尉喂未苇蠄蔚喂 蟽蟿畏谓 螒蠁蟻喂魏萎 -魏伪蟿伪位萎纬慰谓蟿伪蟼 蟽蟿畏谓 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼- 蔚谓蠋 蟽蠀谓萎胃蠅蟼 蟿伪尉委未蔚蠀蔚 蟽蟿畏谓 螒谓伪蟿慰位萎.
螆蟿蟽喂 尉蔚魏喂谓维蔚喂 蟿慰 蟿伪尉委未喂 蟿慰蠀 螠维蟻位慰慰蠀 蟺蟻慰蟼 蟿慰 螝慰谓纬魏蠈 魏伪喂 纬委谓蔚蟿伪喂 蟿蠈蟽慰 蟿蟻伪蠀渭伪蟿喂魏蠈 魏伪喂 蠁慰尾蔚蟻蠈 蟺慰蠀 渭蟺慰蟻蔚委 谓伪 胃蔚蠅蟻畏胃蔚委 蟿慰 蟺苇蟻伪蟽渭伪 蟿慰蠀 蟺蟻慰蟼 蟿畏谓 蠅蟻喂渭蠈蟿畏蟿伪.
螚 伪蠁萎纬畏蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 蔚委谓伪喂 苇谓伪 纬位伪蠁蠀蟻蠈 慰谓蔚喂蟻慰蟺蠈位畏渭伪 渭蔚 蟺慰位位慰蠉蟼 伪谓伪蠂蟻慰谓喂蟽渭慰蠉蟼 魏伪喂 伪谓伪渭谓萎蟽蔚喂蟼.
螝伪胃喂蟽渭苇谓慰蟼 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蟿慰 伪纬魏蠀蟻慰尾慰位畏渭苇谓慰 蟽魏维蠁慰蟼 螡苇位位畏 蟽蟿喂蟼 蔚魏尾慰位苇蟼 蟿慰蠀 韦维渭蔚蟽畏 蟽蠀谓伪谓蟿维蔚喂 蟿慰 蟺伪蟻蔚位胃蠈谓 蟿慰蠀 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蔚委谓伪喂 蟿慰蠀 蟽蟿畏谓 伪蠁蟻喂魏伪谓喂魏萎 蔚渭蟺蔚喂蟻委伪 渭蔚 蟽魏慰蟺蠈 谓伪 纬谓蠅蟻委蟽蔚喂 蟿慰谓 魏. 螝慰蠉蟻蟿蟼,蟿慰谓 畏纬苇蟿畏 蠈位蠅谓 蟿蠅谓 蟽蠀渭尾慰位喂蟽渭蠋谓...
螚 慰谓蔚喂蟻慰蟺蠈位畏蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 螠维蟻位慰慰蠀 蔚委谓伪喂 渭喂伪 蟽蠀谓蟿伪蟻伪魏蟿喂魏萎 伪委蟽胃畏蟽畏 纬喂伪 蟿慰谓 伪谓伪纬谓蠋蟽蟿畏. 螜蟽慰蟻蟻慰蟺蔚委 伪谓维渭蔚蟽伪 蟽蟿慰 伪喂蟽胃畏蟿喂魏蠈 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蔚蟺喂蟽蟿畏渭慰谓喂魏蠈. 韦慰 伪蟺伪位蠈 蠈谓蔚喂蟻慰 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 魏伪蠀蟽蟿喂魏萎 蔚喂蟻蠅谓蔚委伪. 韦伪 蟽蠀渭尾慰位喂魏维 纬蔚纬慰谓蠈蟿伪 魏伪喂 蟿慰 伪喂蠂渭畏蟻蠈 蟽蠀谓伪委蟽胃畏渭伪 蟿慰蠀 蟺伪蟻伪位蠈纬慰蠀 蟺慰蠀 魏伪蟿伪位萎纬蔚喂 渭伪魏维尾蟻喂慰 魏伪喂 蠁蟻喂魏喂伪蟽蟿喂魏蠈.
桅蟿维谓慰谓蟿伪蟼 蟽蟿畏谓 螒蠁蟻喂魏萎 魏伪喂 蟺蟻喂谓 伪魏蠈渭伪 蟽蠀谓伪谓蟿萎蟽蔚喂 蟿畏 芦渭慰蟻蠁萎禄 (魏. 螝慰蠉蟻蟿蟼) 苇蠂蔚喂 魏维谓蔚喂 渭喂伪 魏伪谓慰谓喂魏萎 魏伪蟿维尾伪蟽畏 蟽蟿畏谓 维尾蠀蟽蟽慰.
螘未蠋 伪蟻蠂委味蔚喂 慰 螁未畏蟼 蟿畏蟼 伪蟺慰喂魏喂慰魏蟻伪蟿委伪蟼.
螠喂伪 魏蠈位伪蟽畏 伪蟺慰 尾伪蟽伪谓喂蟽渭苇谓伪 魏慰蟻渭喂维,蟽伪魏伪蟿蔚渭苇谓伪 伪蟺慰 蟿畏谓 蟺蔚委谓伪 魏伪喂 蟿畏 未蠀蟽蔚谓蟿蔚蟻委伪. 韦蟻蠀蟺畏渭苇谓伪 伪蟺慰 蟽蠁伪委蟻蔚蟼 萎 位蠈纬蠂蔚蟼,伪位蠀蟽慰未蔚渭苇谓伪 魏伪喂 未伪蟻渭苇谓伪 伪位蠉蟺畏蟿伪.
螒蟺慰魏蔚蠁伪位喂蟽渭苇谓伪 蟽蠋渭伪蟿伪 喂胃伪纬蔚谓蠋谓,胃蠀蟽喂伪蟽渭苇谓伪 蟽蟿慰 尾蠅渭蠈 魏维蟺慰喂蠅谓 伪魏伪蟿慰谓蠈渭伪蟽蟿蠅谓 位蔚喂蟿慰蠀蟻纬喂蠋谓. 螘尉蠀蟺畏蟻蔚蟿慰蠉谓 尾蔚尾伪委蠅蟼 蟿畏 蠁蟻喂魏伪位蔚蠈蟿畏蟿伪 蟿蠅谓 伪蟺慰喂魏喂慰魏蟻伪蟿蠋谓 蟽蟿慰 螝慰谓纬魏蠈.
螝维蟺慰蠀 蔚未蠋 渭蟺伪委谓慰蠀渭蔚 蟽蟿畏谓 蟽魏位畏蟻萎 魏慰喂谓蠅谓委伪 蟿蠅谓 伪蟺慰委魏蠅谓 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 维蟽蟺慰谓未畏 蔚魏渭蔚蟿维位位蔚蠀蟽畏 蟿蠅谓 渭伪蠉蟻蠅谓 渭蔚 蟿蠈蟽慰 渭伪魏维尾蟻喂蔚蟼 位蔚蟺蟿慰渭苇蟻蔚喂蔚蟼 蟺慰蠀 慰 伪谓伪纬谓蠋蟽蟿畏蟼 蟽委纬慰蠀蟻伪 蟽蠁委纬纬蔚喂 蟿伪 蠂蔚委位畏 谓伪 渭畏谓 尾纬维位蔚喂 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 蠄蠀蠂萎 蟿慰蠀 渭伪味委 渭蔚 蟿慰谓 伪谓伪蟽蟿蔚谓伪纬渭蠈 慰蟻纬萎蟼 魏伪喂 胃位委蠄畏蟼.
螤蟻慰蠂蠅蟻维渭蔚 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蟿畏谓 蟺蠀魏谓萎 味慰蠉纬魏位伪 蟿蠅谓 渭伪蠉蟻蠅谓 未伪喂渭蠈谓蠅谓 蟺慰蠀 蠁慰尾慰蠉谓蟿伪锟斤拷 魏伪喂 蔚蟺喂蟿委胃蔚谓蟿伪喂.
螚 维尾蠀蟽蟽慰蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 蟿慰 蟺慰位蠉 蟽魏慰蟿维未喂, 蟿慰 伪蟺蠈位蠀蟿慰 蟽魏慰蟿维未喂 蟺慰蠀 魏维谓蔚喂 蟿畏 未喂伪蠁慰蟻维 伪谓维渭蔚蟽伪 蟽蟿慰蠀蟼 伪蟺慰委魏慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 魏蔚蟻未慰蟽魏慰蟺喂魏萎 蟿慰蠀蟼 位蔚畏位伪蟽委伪 魏伪喂 蟽蔚 伪蠀蟿慰蠉蟼 蟺慰蠀 蠀蟺慰渭苇谓慰蠀谓 蟿伪 蟺维谓未蔚喂谓伪 纬喂伪 蟿畏谓 蟿喂渭萎 蟿慰蠀 蔚位蔚蠁伪谓蟿蠈未慰谓蟿慰蠀.
螒喂蠋谓蔚蟼 伪蟺维蟿畏蟼 魏伪喂 蠁胃慰蟻维蟼 伪谓维渭蔚蟽伪 蟽蟿慰蠀蟼 芦蟺慰位喂蟿喂蟽渭苇谓慰蠀蟼禄 魏伪喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 芦蟺蟻蠅蟿蠈纬慰谓慰蠀蟼禄.
韦慰 蠂维蟽渭伪 蟿蠅谓 蠀蟺慰蟿伪纬渭苇谓蠅谓, 畏 蠁蠀位蔚蟿喂魏萎 伪谓蠅蟿蔚蟻蠈蟿畏蟿伪 魏伪喂 畏 纬蔚蠉蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 胃伪谓维蟿慰蠀: 螘螢螣螞螣螛巍螘违危螒韦螘 螣螞螒 韦螒 螝韦螚螡螚. 螚 蟿蔚位喂魏萎 位蠉蟽畏..!
螘蠀蟿蠀蠂喂蟽渭苇谓慰喂 慰喂 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰喂 蟺慰蠀 蠄维蠂谓慰蠀谓 蟿畏谓 伪位萎胃蔚喂伪 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 未蔚谓 蟿畏 尾蟻委蟽魏慰蠀谓 萎 蟿畏谓 魏蟻伪蟿维谓蔚 纬喂伪 蟿慰谓 蔚伪蠀蟿蠈 蟿慰蠀蟼.
螚 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 渭喂伪 蔚谓伪位位伪纬萎 伪谓维渭蔚蟽伪 蟽蟿慰 蠁蠅蟼 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蟽魏慰蟿维未喂, 蟿慰 魏伪位蠈 魏伪喂 蟿慰 魏伪魏蠈,蟿畏谓 维纬谓慰喂伪 魏伪喂 蟿畏 纬谓蠋蟽畏,蟿慰 蟺谓蔚蠉渭伪 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蟽魏慰蟿伪未喂蟽渭蠈, 蟿慰谓 螁谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰 魏伪喂 蟿慰 螝蟿萎谓慰蟼 蟺慰蠀 胃蔚蠅蟻蔚委蟿伪喂 伪谓蠋蟿蔚蟻慰 位蠈纬蠅 蠁蠀位萎蟼 魏伪喂 蠂蟻蠋渭伪蟿慰蟼 伪位位维 未蔚谓 蟿慰 伪谓蟿苇蠂蔚喂.
危蔚 渭喂伪 魏蠈位伪蟽畏 纬蔚渭维蟿畏 芦蟿蟻蔚位苇蟼 蠄蠀蠂苇蟼禄,慰喂 胃蔚蠅蟻畏蟿喂魏维 伪谓蠋蟿蔚蟻慰喂 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰喂 蟽蔚 蟽蠂苇蟽畏 渭蔚 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪蟿蠋蟿蔚蟻慰蠀蟼 渭伪蠉蟻慰蠀蟼 蟺蟻慰蟽魏蠀谓畏蟿苇蟼 渭伪蟿蠋谓慰蠀谓 蟿畏谓 蟺谓蔚蠀渭伪蟿喂魏萎 蟿慰蠀蟼 蠀纬蔚委伪.
螖蔚谓 伪谓蟿苇蠂慰蠀谓 蟿畏 谓慰渭慰蟿苇位蔚喂伪 蟿畏蟼 蠁蠉蟽畏蟼, 蟿慰蠀蟼 伪蟺慰纬蠀渭谓蠋谓蔚喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 蟺伪谓喂魏慰尾维位位蔚喂. 螤蟻慰蟿喂渭慰蠉谓 蟿畏谓 蠄蔚蠀未伪委蟽胃畏蟽畏 蟿畏蟼 蟽蟿蔚蟻喂维蟼 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 蟿慰蠀 蟺慰位喂蟿喂蟽渭慰蠉 蟿慰蠀蟼.
螚 螝伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 危魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 渭喂伪 渭苇胃蔚尉畏.
螆谓伪 伪蟻喂蟽蟿慰蠉蟻纬畏渭伪 蟺慰蠀 蟺喂蟽蟿蔚蠉蔚喂 蟽蟿畏谓 蠁伪谓蟿伪蟽委伪 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 蟺蟻维尉畏. 螤慰蠀 蟺蟻伪纬渭伪蟿蔚蠉蔚蟿伪喂-蟺苇蟻伪 伪蟺慰 魏维胃蔚 渭伪蟿伪喂蠈蟿畏蟿伪 蟺慰蠀 渭伪蟼 蟺蔚蟻喂尾维位位蔚喂- 蟿畏谓 伪谓胃蟻蠋蟺喂谓畏 渭慰委蟻伪 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蠁慰蟻蟿委慰 蟿慰蠀 魏伪胃蔚谓蠈蟼 谓伪 伪谓伪魏伪位蠉蠄蔚喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 蟽蟿蠈蠂慰蠀蟼 蟿慰蠀, 谓伪 胃苇蟽蔚喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪谓蠈谓蔚蟼 纬喂伪 蟿畏谓 蔚蟺喂蟿蠀蠂委伪 魏伪喂 谓伪 蟿慰蠀蟼 伪魏慰位慰蠀胃萎蟽蔚喂.
*危蠀蟽蟿萎谓蔚蟿伪喂 渭蔚 伪喂蟻蔚蟿喂魏萎 蔚蟺喂蠁蠉位伪尉畏 蟽蔚 伪蠀蟽蟿畏蟻慰蠉蟼 伪谓伪纬谓蠋蟽蟿蔚蟼 蠂蠅蟻委蟼 蟽魏位畏蟻维未伪 魏伪喂 蟽蔚 未伪喂渭慰谓喂魏维 未喂魏蟿蠀蠅渭苇谓慰蠀蟼 慰谓蔚喂蟻慰蟺蠈位慰蠀蟼.
围巍螣螡螜螒 螤螣螞螞螒!
螝伪位萎 伪谓维纬谓蠅蟽畏!!
螤慰位位慰蠉蟼 伪蟽蟺伪蟽渭慰蠉蟼!!
芦螘尉慰位慰胃蟻蔚蠉蟽伪蟿蔚 蠈位伪 蟿伪 魏蟿萎谓畏!禄
危蟿畏谓 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 蟽蟿慰谓 伪蠁畏纬畏蟿萎 蟿畏蟼 (螠维蟻位慰慰蠀),蟿慰 谓蠈畏渭伪 蟿畏蟼 喂蟽蟿慰蟻委伪蟼 未蔚谓 尾蟻委蟽魏蔚蟿伪喂 蟽蔚 魏伪渭委伪 蟺蔚蟻委蟺蟿蠅蟽畏 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蟿慰谓 蟺蠀蟻萎谓伪 蟿畏蟼,伪位位维 伪蟺鈥櫸鞠�, 芦胃伪蟻蟻蔚委蟼 魏伪喂 蟿慰 谓蠈畏渭伪 蟺蔚蟻喂尾维位蔚喂 蟿畏谓 喂蟽蟿慰蟻委伪...禄.
螒蠀蟿蠈 蟿慰 尾喂尾位委慰 蔚委谓伪喂 渭喂伪 伪蟽蠉位位畏蟺蟿畏 蟿蔚位蔚蟿慰蠀蟻纬委伪, 渭喂伪 未伪喂渭慰谓喂魏萎 蟺谓蔚蠀渭伪蟿喂魏维 渭蠉畏蟽畏, 渭喂伪 魏伪蟿伪位畏蠄委伪.
螚 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼 渭蟺慰蟻蔚委 谓伪 苇蠂蔚喂 蟺慰位位苇蟼 蔚蟻渭畏谓蔚委蔚蟼 魏伪喂 蔚委谓伪喂 蟺慰位蠉 蠁蠀蟽喂魏蠈 伪蠁慰蠉 尾蟻委胃蔚喂 蔚喂魏蠈谓蠅谓 魏伪喂 蟽蠀谓伪喂蟽胃畏渭维蟿蠅谓.
螌位畏 畏 慰蠀蟽委伪 蟿慰蠀 尾喂尾位委慰蠀 蔚蟺喂魏蔚谓蟿蟻蠋谓蔚蟿伪喂 蟽蟿畏谓 蔚渭蟺蔚喂蟻委伪 蔚谓蠈蟼 谓伪蠀蟿喂魏慰蠉 (螠维蟻位慰慰蠀)蟺慰蠀 蟽蠀谓蔚喂未畏蟿维 蔚蟺喂位苇纬蔚喂 谓伪 蟿伪尉喂未苇蠄蔚喂 蟽蟿畏谓 螒蠁蟻喂魏萎 -魏伪蟿伪位萎纬慰谓蟿伪蟼 蟽蟿畏谓 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼- 蔚谓蠋 蟽蠀谓萎胃蠅蟼 蟿伪尉委未蔚蠀蔚 蟽蟿畏谓 螒谓伪蟿慰位萎.
螆蟿蟽喂 尉蔚魏喂谓维蔚喂 蟿慰 蟿伪尉委未喂 蟿慰蠀 螠维蟻位慰慰蠀 蟺蟻慰蟼 蟿慰 螝慰谓纬魏蠈 魏伪喂 纬委谓蔚蟿伪喂 蟿蠈蟽慰 蟿蟻伪蠀渭伪蟿喂魏蠈 魏伪喂 蠁慰尾蔚蟻蠈 蟺慰蠀 渭蟺慰蟻蔚委 谓伪 胃蔚蠅蟻畏胃蔚委 蟿慰 蟺苇蟻伪蟽渭伪 蟿慰蠀 蟺蟻慰蟼 蟿畏谓 蠅蟻喂渭蠈蟿畏蟿伪.
螚 伪蠁萎纬畏蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 蔚委谓伪喂 苇谓伪 纬位伪蠁蠀蟻蠈 慰谓蔚喂蟻慰蟺蠈位畏渭伪 渭蔚 蟺慰位位慰蠉蟼 伪谓伪蠂蟻慰谓喂蟽渭慰蠉蟼 魏伪喂 伪谓伪渭谓萎蟽蔚喂蟼.
螝伪胃喂蟽渭苇谓慰蟼 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蟿慰 伪纬魏蠀蟻慰尾慰位畏渭苇谓慰 蟽魏维蠁慰蟼 螡苇位位畏 蟽蟿喂蟼 蔚魏尾慰位苇蟼 蟿慰蠀 韦维渭蔚蟽畏 蟽蠀谓伪谓蟿维蔚喂 蟿慰 蟺伪蟻蔚位胃蠈谓 蟿慰蠀 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蔚委谓伪喂 蟿慰蠀 蟽蟿畏谓 伪蠁蟻喂魏伪谓喂魏萎 蔚渭蟺蔚喂蟻委伪 渭蔚 蟽魏慰蟺蠈 谓伪 纬谓蠅蟻委蟽蔚喂 蟿慰谓 魏. 螝慰蠉蟻蟿蟼,蟿慰谓 畏纬苇蟿畏 蠈位蠅谓 蟿蠅谓 蟽蠀渭尾慰位喂蟽渭蠋谓...
螚 慰谓蔚喂蟻慰蟺蠈位畏蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 螠维蟻位慰慰蠀 蔚委谓伪喂 渭喂伪 蟽蠀谓蟿伪蟻伪魏蟿喂魏萎 伪委蟽胃畏蟽畏 纬喂伪 蟿慰谓 伪谓伪纬谓蠋蟽蟿畏. 螜蟽慰蟻蟻慰蟺蔚委 伪谓维渭蔚蟽伪 蟽蟿慰 伪喂蟽胃畏蟿喂魏蠈 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蔚蟺喂蟽蟿畏渭慰谓喂魏蠈. 韦慰 伪蟺伪位蠈 蠈谓蔚喂蟻慰 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 魏伪蠀蟽蟿喂魏萎 蔚喂蟻蠅谓蔚委伪. 韦伪 蟽蠀渭尾慰位喂魏维 纬蔚纬慰谓蠈蟿伪 魏伪喂 蟿慰 伪喂蠂渭畏蟻蠈 蟽蠀谓伪委蟽胃畏渭伪 蟿慰蠀 蟺伪蟻伪位蠈纬慰蠀 蟺慰蠀 魏伪蟿伪位萎纬蔚喂 渭伪魏维尾蟻喂慰 魏伪喂 蠁蟻喂魏喂伪蟽蟿喂魏蠈.
桅蟿维谓慰谓蟿伪蟼 蟽蟿畏谓 螒蠁蟻喂魏萎 魏伪喂 蟺蟻喂谓 伪魏蠈渭伪 蟽蠀谓伪谓蟿萎蟽蔚喂 蟿畏 芦渭慰蟻蠁萎禄 (魏. 螝慰蠉蟻蟿蟼) 苇蠂蔚喂 魏维谓蔚喂 渭喂伪 魏伪谓慰谓喂魏萎 魏伪蟿维尾伪蟽畏 蟽蟿畏谓 维尾蠀蟽蟽慰.
螘未蠋 伪蟻蠂委味蔚喂 慰 螁未畏蟼 蟿畏蟼 伪蟺慰喂魏喂慰魏蟻伪蟿委伪蟼.
螠喂伪 魏蠈位伪蟽畏 伪蟺慰 尾伪蟽伪谓喂蟽渭苇谓伪 魏慰蟻渭喂维,蟽伪魏伪蟿蔚渭苇谓伪 伪蟺慰 蟿畏谓 蟺蔚委谓伪 魏伪喂 蟿畏 未蠀蟽蔚谓蟿蔚蟻委伪. 韦蟻蠀蟺畏渭苇谓伪 伪蟺慰 蟽蠁伪委蟻蔚蟼 萎 位蠈纬蠂蔚蟼,伪位蠀蟽慰未蔚渭苇谓伪 魏伪喂 未伪蟻渭苇谓伪 伪位蠉蟺畏蟿伪.
螒蟺慰魏蔚蠁伪位喂蟽渭苇谓伪 蟽蠋渭伪蟿伪 喂胃伪纬蔚谓蠋谓,胃蠀蟽喂伪蟽渭苇谓伪 蟽蟿慰 尾蠅渭蠈 魏维蟺慰喂蠅谓 伪魏伪蟿慰谓蠈渭伪蟽蟿蠅谓 位蔚喂蟿慰蠀蟻纬喂蠋谓. 螘尉蠀蟺畏蟻蔚蟿慰蠉谓 尾蔚尾伪委蠅蟼 蟿畏 蠁蟻喂魏伪位蔚蠈蟿畏蟿伪 蟿蠅谓 伪蟺慰喂魏喂慰魏蟻伪蟿蠋谓 蟽蟿慰 螝慰谓纬魏蠈.
螝维蟺慰蠀 蔚未蠋 渭蟺伪委谓慰蠀渭蔚 蟽蟿畏谓 蟽魏位畏蟻萎 魏慰喂谓蠅谓委伪 蟿蠅谓 伪蟺慰委魏蠅谓 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 维蟽蟺慰谓未畏 蔚魏渭蔚蟿维位位蔚蠀蟽畏 蟿蠅谓 渭伪蠉蟻蠅谓 渭蔚 蟿蠈蟽慰 渭伪魏维尾蟻喂蔚蟼 位蔚蟺蟿慰渭苇蟻蔚喂蔚蟼 蟺慰蠀 慰 伪谓伪纬谓蠋蟽蟿畏蟼 蟽委纬慰蠀蟻伪 蟽蠁委纬纬蔚喂 蟿伪 蠂蔚委位畏 谓伪 渭畏谓 尾纬维位蔚喂 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 蠄蠀蠂萎 蟿慰蠀 渭伪味委 渭蔚 蟿慰谓 伪谓伪蟽蟿蔚谓伪纬渭蠈 慰蟻纬萎蟼 魏伪喂 胃位委蠄畏蟼.
螤蟻慰蠂蠅蟻维渭蔚 渭苇蟽伪 蟽蟿畏谓 蟺蠀魏谓萎 味慰蠉纬魏位伪 蟿蠅谓 渭伪蠉蟻蠅谓 未伪喂渭蠈谓蠅谓 蟺慰蠀 蠁慰尾慰蠉谓蟿伪锟斤拷 魏伪喂 蔚蟺喂蟿委胃蔚谓蟿伪喂.
螚 维尾蠀蟽蟽慰蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 蟿慰 蟺慰位蠉 蟽魏慰蟿维未喂, 蟿慰 伪蟺蠈位蠀蟿慰 蟽魏慰蟿维未喂 蟺慰蠀 魏维谓蔚喂 蟿畏 未喂伪蠁慰蟻维 伪谓维渭蔚蟽伪 蟽蟿慰蠀蟼 伪蟺慰委魏慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 魏蔚蟻未慰蟽魏慰蟺喂魏萎 蟿慰蠀蟼 位蔚畏位伪蟽委伪 魏伪喂 蟽蔚 伪蠀蟿慰蠉蟼 蟺慰蠀 蠀蟺慰渭苇谓慰蠀谓 蟿伪 蟺维谓未蔚喂谓伪 纬喂伪 蟿畏谓 蟿喂渭萎 蟿慰蠀 蔚位蔚蠁伪谓蟿蠈未慰谓蟿慰蠀.
螒喂蠋谓蔚蟼 伪蟺维蟿畏蟼 魏伪喂 蠁胃慰蟻维蟼 伪谓维渭蔚蟽伪 蟽蟿慰蠀蟼 芦蟺慰位喂蟿喂蟽渭苇谓慰蠀蟼禄 魏伪喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 芦蟺蟻蠅蟿蠈纬慰谓慰蠀蟼禄.
韦慰 蠂维蟽渭伪 蟿蠅谓 蠀蟺慰蟿伪纬渭苇谓蠅谓, 畏 蠁蠀位蔚蟿喂魏萎 伪谓蠅蟿蔚蟻蠈蟿畏蟿伪 魏伪喂 畏 纬蔚蠉蟽畏 蟿慰蠀 胃伪谓维蟿慰蠀: 螘螢螣螞螣螛巍螘违危螒韦螘 螣螞螒 韦螒 螝韦螚螡螚. 螚 蟿蔚位喂魏萎 位蠉蟽畏..!
螘蠀蟿蠀蠂喂蟽渭苇谓慰喂 慰喂 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰喂 蟺慰蠀 蠄维蠂谓慰蠀谓 蟿畏谓 伪位萎胃蔚喂伪 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 未蔚谓 蟿畏 尾蟻委蟽魏慰蠀谓 萎 蟿畏谓 魏蟻伪蟿维谓蔚 纬喂伪 蟿慰谓 蔚伪蠀蟿蠈 蟿慰蠀蟼.
螚 魏伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 蟽魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 渭喂伪 蔚谓伪位位伪纬萎 伪谓维渭蔚蟽伪 蟽蟿慰 蠁蠅蟼 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蟽魏慰蟿维未喂, 蟿慰 魏伪位蠈 魏伪喂 蟿慰 魏伪魏蠈,蟿畏谓 维纬谓慰喂伪 魏伪喂 蟿畏 纬谓蠋蟽畏,蟿慰 蟺谓蔚蠉渭伪 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蟽魏慰蟿伪未喂蟽渭蠈, 蟿慰谓 螁谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰 魏伪喂 蟿慰 螝蟿萎谓慰蟼 蟺慰蠀 胃蔚蠅蟻蔚委蟿伪喂 伪谓蠋蟿蔚蟻慰 位蠈纬蠅 蠁蠀位萎蟼 魏伪喂 蠂蟻蠋渭伪蟿慰蟼 伪位位维 未蔚谓 蟿慰 伪谓蟿苇蠂蔚喂.
危蔚 渭喂伪 魏蠈位伪蟽畏 纬蔚渭维蟿畏 芦蟿蟻蔚位苇蟼 蠄蠀蠂苇蟼禄,慰喂 胃蔚蠅蟻畏蟿喂魏维 伪谓蠋蟿蔚蟻慰喂 维谓胃蟻蠅蟺慰喂 蟽蔚 蟽蠂苇蟽畏 渭蔚 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪蟿蠋蟿蔚蟻慰蠀蟼 渭伪蠉蟻慰蠀蟼 蟺蟻慰蟽魏蠀谓畏蟿苇蟼 渭伪蟿蠋谓慰蠀谓 蟿畏谓 蟺谓蔚蠀渭伪蟿喂魏萎 蟿慰蠀蟼 蠀纬蔚委伪.
螖蔚谓 伪谓蟿苇蠂慰蠀谓 蟿畏 谓慰渭慰蟿苇位蔚喂伪 蟿畏蟼 蠁蠉蟽畏蟼, 蟿慰蠀蟼 伪蟺慰纬蠀渭谓蠋谓蔚喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 蟺伪谓喂魏慰尾维位位蔚喂. 螤蟻慰蟿喂渭慰蠉谓 蟿畏谓 蠄蔚蠀未伪委蟽胃畏蟽畏 蟿畏蟼 蟽蟿蔚蟻喂维蟼 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪喂 蟿慰蠀 蟺慰位喂蟿喂蟽渭慰蠉 蟿慰蠀蟼.
螚 螝伪蟻未喂维 蟿慰蠀 危魏蠈蟿慰蠀蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 渭喂伪 渭苇胃蔚尉畏.
螆谓伪 伪蟻喂蟽蟿慰蠉蟻纬畏渭伪 蟺慰蠀 蟺喂蟽蟿蔚蠉蔚喂 蟽蟿畏谓 蠁伪谓蟿伪蟽委伪 魏伪喂 蟿畏谓 蟺蟻维尉畏. 螤慰蠀 蟺蟻伪纬渭伪蟿蔚蠉蔚蟿伪喂-蟺苇蟻伪 伪蟺慰 魏维胃蔚 渭伪蟿伪喂蠈蟿畏蟿伪 蟺慰蠀 渭伪蟼 蟺蔚蟻喂尾维位位蔚喂- 蟿畏谓 伪谓胃蟻蠋蟺喂谓畏 渭慰委蟻伪 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蠁慰蟻蟿委慰 蟿慰蠀 魏伪胃蔚谓蠈蟼 谓伪 伪谓伪魏伪位蠉蠄蔚喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 蟽蟿蠈蠂慰蠀蟼 蟿慰蠀, 谓伪 胃苇蟽蔚喂 蟿慰蠀蟼 魏伪谓蠈谓蔚蟼 纬喂伪 蟿畏谓 蔚蟺喂蟿蠀蠂委伪 魏伪喂 谓伪 蟿慰蠀蟼 伪魏慰位慰蠀胃萎蟽蔚喂.
*危蠀蟽蟿萎谓蔚蟿伪喂 渭蔚 伪喂蟻蔚蟿喂魏萎 蔚蟺喂蠁蠉位伪尉畏 蟽蔚 伪蠀蟽蟿畏蟻慰蠉蟼 伪谓伪纬谓蠋蟽蟿蔚蟼 蠂蠅蟻委蟼 蟽魏位畏蟻维未伪 魏伪喂 蟽蔚 未伪喂渭慰谓喂魏维 未喂魏蟿蠀蠅渭苇谓慰蠀蟼 慰谓蔚喂蟻慰蟺蠈位慰蠀蟼.
围巍螣螡螜螒 螤螣螞螞螒!
螝伪位萎 伪谓维纬谓蠅蟽畏!!
螤慰位位慰蠉蟼 伪蟽蟺伪蟽渭慰蠉蟼!!
September 4, 2019
Later edit: I've thought about this book lately and I decided that it deserves more than 2* so 3* it is.
A beautifully written dark ramble.
Do not be fooled by the fact that this book is short. It is actually very dense, hard to read, with long paragraphs and endless metaphors. Even the rare dialog was inserted in a big, bulky paragraph.
I found it strenuous to follow the line of the story. The author was jumping from one idea to the next in the blink of an eye and the prose was so full of pompous words that I was lost among them like in the darkness of the deep, unreal jungle he was describing.
Here's an example:
鈥淚t seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream--making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams...No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream-alone...鈥�
I could feel the suffocating atmosphere of the book and I understood the main metaphor which is very true. People, no matter of skin's color can become cruel and evil in certain circumstances.
A beautifully written dark ramble.
Do not be fooled by the fact that this book is short. It is actually very dense, hard to read, with long paragraphs and endless metaphors. Even the rare dialog was inserted in a big, bulky paragraph.
I found it strenuous to follow the line of the story. The author was jumping from one idea to the next in the blink of an eye and the prose was so full of pompous words that I was lost among them like in the darkness of the deep, unreal jungle he was describing.
Here's an example:
鈥淚t seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream--making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams...No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream-alone...鈥�
I could feel the suffocating atmosphere of the book and I understood the main metaphor which is very true. People, no matter of skin's color can become cruel and evil in certain circumstances.
May 23, 2021
Soul! If anybody ever struggled with a soul, I am the man. And I wasn鈥檛 arguing with a lunatic either. Believe me or not, his intelligence was perfectly clear- concentrated, it is true, upon himself with horrible intensity, yet clear; and therein was my only chance- barring, of course, the killing him there and then, which wasn鈥檛 so good, on account of unavoidable noise
Human heart of full of darkness, but is humanity capable of expressing it fully? Can the wilderness of humanity be disseminated through its existence? Are 鈥榗ivilized鈥� people any different from those who are labeled as 鈥榮avages? Does civilization take humanity away from the path of evolution whose milestones are empathy and compassion? Does the path of human evolution necessarily pass through river of power, imperialism which is built upon under-currents of darkness, racism, butchery and savagery? Does the gene responsible for human coloration also underline the superiority of human beings? The sombre snake of darkness, whose head is a sea of human wilderness, whose body runs through various expressions of human wilderness, if uncoiled it will spit out the abashed, ferocious, dingy poisons of humanity, which may send a feeling of harrowing terror if it comes face-to-face with humanity. Is mother Nature capable of enduring the possessions which humanity asserted through its evolution. Could humanity withstand itself on the first hand? Is humanity storing enough to deny to fall into trap of its own avarices and gluttony- the darkness it contains in itself? Do we fall into the void鈥攄o we drown or come out with a stronger sense of self?鈥� These are the questions raised by Joseph Conrad through this novella which portrays the darkest history of human existence.
Though the novella maybe not from the contemporary world but it remains as relevant today as it was then, which could be said a timeless harrowing beauty. The book has dense imagery and emotions which has the ability to surprise and shock the reader simultaneously. It is said to be an essential starting point of modernism in English literature as Conrad as its literary experiments, themes could be interpreted in different ways, Conrad is said to bring his non-English sensibilities to English literature. The novella centers on the efforts of Marlow, Conrad's alter ego, to travel up an unnamed African river on behalf of his employer in order to bring back a rogue ivory trader, Mr Kurtz. Kurtz's reputation precedes him: "He is a prodigy鈥� an emissary of pity and science and progress." Yet as Marlow gets closer to Kurtz, there is the growing suggestion that he has in some way become corrupted and descended into savagery.
His was an impenetrable darkness. I looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines.
Mr. Kurtz is depicted as a puzzle, a 'widespread virtuoso', who had been sending enormous measure of ivory from the hearts of this territory to the base station while other station aces were wallowing, when they were not passing on, or diverting feeble from the unfriendly condition. The whole campaign is much for one reason, that is of discovering Mr. Kurtz; while for Marlow - to converse with this riddle is the motivation behind this trial. Marlow becomes loyal to Kurtz, even to the dead Kurtz, and there seems to be little reason in it other than that he sympathized with Kurtz and at the same time loathed the general white lot present with him, whom he refers to as the 鈥榩ilgrims鈥�, seekers of ivory.
The shad of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mould of primeval earth. But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysterious it had penetrated fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of the success and power.
The book seems to suggest that we are not able to understand the darkness that has affected Kurtz's soul鈥攃ertainly not without understanding what he has been through in the jungle. Taking Marlow's point of view, we glimpse from the outside what has changed Kurtz so irrevocably from the European man of sophistication to something far more frightening. As if to demonstrate this, Conrad lets us view Kurtz on his deathbed. In the final moments of his life, Kurtz is in a fever. Even so, he seems to see something that we cannot. Staring at himself he can only mutter, "The horror! The horror!"
The darkness of the civilized humanity wherein a supposedly noble white man, who entered the jungles of Africa as a missionary of science, advancement and progress, however, during the course of his stay there, his inner self got better of him and he turned into a white tyrant, the tyranny of him is vicious and catastrophic, in whose comparison the barbarism of natives is nothing. In Kurtz, the alleged benevolence of colonialism has flowered into criminality. Marlow鈥檚 voyage from Europe to Africa and then upriver to Kurtz鈥檚 Inner Station is a revelation of the squalors and disasters of the colonial 鈥渕ission鈥�, staring at his own self, abashed and ashamed, Kurtz could only say- 鈥淭he horror! The horror!; as if it鈥檚 the horror to eventually succumb to his real and vile self, the horror to realize that ideals of man could not sustain the vagaries of avarices of humanity and humanity finds itself eventually stained with its own murder. In Marlow鈥檚 mind, a journey back to the beginning of creation, when nature reigned exuberant and unrestrained, and a trip figuratively down as well, through the levels of the self to repressed and unlawful desires.
Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision- he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:
鈥淭he horror! The horror!鈥�
The prose of the novella is like a fresh wave as it contains some of the most fantastic use of language in English literature. The roots of Poland, the journey through France and South America as a seaman had influenced his style to have a wonderfully authentic colloquialism. We also see a style that is remarkably poetic for a prose work. More than a novel, the work is like an extended symbolic poem, affecting the reader with the breadths of its ideas as well as the beauty of its words. One may initially feel uncomfortable at the prose of Conrad but after braving through a few pages, the reader would certainly fell under Conrad鈥檚 spell.
Perhaps it was an impulse of unconscious loyalty, or the fulfilment of one of those ironic necessities that lurk in the facts of human existence. I don鈥檛 know. I can鈥檛 tell. But I went.
It may be said with authority that Heart of Darkness is a masterfully constructed parable on human nature, how does humanity in general behaves when tested under arduous circumstances. Despite his protestations, this is undeniably an invaluable historical document offering a glimpse into the horrific human consequences of the imperial powers' scramble for Africa as much as it is a compelling tale. As put up by Conrad himself that savagery is inherent in all of us, however civilized we may become, it is a brief interlude between innumerable centuries of darkness and the darkness yet to come.
Perhaps! I like to think my summing up would not have been a word of careless contempt. Better his cry- much better. It was an affirmation, a moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats, by abominable terrors, by abominable satisfactions. But it was a victory! That is why I have remained loyal to Kurtz to the last, and even beyond, when a long time after I heard once more, not his own voice, but the echo of his magnificent eloquence thrown to me from a soul as translucently pure as a cliff of crystal.
Human heart of full of darkness, but is humanity capable of expressing it fully? Can the wilderness of humanity be disseminated through its existence? Are 鈥榗ivilized鈥� people any different from those who are labeled as 鈥榮avages? Does civilization take humanity away from the path of evolution whose milestones are empathy and compassion? Does the path of human evolution necessarily pass through river of power, imperialism which is built upon under-currents of darkness, racism, butchery and savagery? Does the gene responsible for human coloration also underline the superiority of human beings? The sombre snake of darkness, whose head is a sea of human wilderness, whose body runs through various expressions of human wilderness, if uncoiled it will spit out the abashed, ferocious, dingy poisons of humanity, which may send a feeling of harrowing terror if it comes face-to-face with humanity. Is mother Nature capable of enduring the possessions which humanity asserted through its evolution. Could humanity withstand itself on the first hand? Is humanity storing enough to deny to fall into trap of its own avarices and gluttony- the darkness it contains in itself? Do we fall into the void鈥攄o we drown or come out with a stronger sense of self?鈥� These are the questions raised by Joseph Conrad through this novella which portrays the darkest history of human existence.
Though the novella maybe not from the contemporary world but it remains as relevant today as it was then, which could be said a timeless harrowing beauty. The book has dense imagery and emotions which has the ability to surprise and shock the reader simultaneously. It is said to be an essential starting point of modernism in English literature as Conrad as its literary experiments, themes could be interpreted in different ways, Conrad is said to bring his non-English sensibilities to English literature. The novella centers on the efforts of Marlow, Conrad's alter ego, to travel up an unnamed African river on behalf of his employer in order to bring back a rogue ivory trader, Mr Kurtz. Kurtz's reputation precedes him: "He is a prodigy鈥� an emissary of pity and science and progress." Yet as Marlow gets closer to Kurtz, there is the growing suggestion that he has in some way become corrupted and descended into savagery.
His was an impenetrable darkness. I looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines.
Mr. Kurtz is depicted as a puzzle, a 'widespread virtuoso', who had been sending enormous measure of ivory from the hearts of this territory to the base station while other station aces were wallowing, when they were not passing on, or diverting feeble from the unfriendly condition. The whole campaign is much for one reason, that is of discovering Mr. Kurtz; while for Marlow - to converse with this riddle is the motivation behind this trial. Marlow becomes loyal to Kurtz, even to the dead Kurtz, and there seems to be little reason in it other than that he sympathized with Kurtz and at the same time loathed the general white lot present with him, whom he refers to as the 鈥榩ilgrims鈥�, seekers of ivory.
The shad of the original Kurtz frequented the bedside of the hollow sham, whose fate it was to be buried presently in the mould of primeval earth. But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysterious it had penetrated fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of the success and power.
The book seems to suggest that we are not able to understand the darkness that has affected Kurtz's soul鈥攃ertainly not without understanding what he has been through in the jungle. Taking Marlow's point of view, we glimpse from the outside what has changed Kurtz so irrevocably from the European man of sophistication to something far more frightening. As if to demonstrate this, Conrad lets us view Kurtz on his deathbed. In the final moments of his life, Kurtz is in a fever. Even so, he seems to see something that we cannot. Staring at himself he can only mutter, "The horror! The horror!"
The darkness of the civilized humanity wherein a supposedly noble white man, who entered the jungles of Africa as a missionary of science, advancement and progress, however, during the course of his stay there, his inner self got better of him and he turned into a white tyrant, the tyranny of him is vicious and catastrophic, in whose comparison the barbarism of natives is nothing. In Kurtz, the alleged benevolence of colonialism has flowered into criminality. Marlow鈥檚 voyage from Europe to Africa and then upriver to Kurtz鈥檚 Inner Station is a revelation of the squalors and disasters of the colonial 鈥渕ission鈥�, staring at his own self, abashed and ashamed, Kurtz could only say- 鈥淭he horror! The horror!; as if it鈥檚 the horror to eventually succumb to his real and vile self, the horror to realize that ideals of man could not sustain the vagaries of avarices of humanity and humanity finds itself eventually stained with its own murder. In Marlow鈥檚 mind, a journey back to the beginning of creation, when nature reigned exuberant and unrestrained, and a trip figuratively down as well, through the levels of the self to repressed and unlawful desires.
Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision- he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath:
鈥淭he horror! The horror!鈥�
The prose of the novella is like a fresh wave as it contains some of the most fantastic use of language in English literature. The roots of Poland, the journey through France and South America as a seaman had influenced his style to have a wonderfully authentic colloquialism. We also see a style that is remarkably poetic for a prose work. More than a novel, the work is like an extended symbolic poem, affecting the reader with the breadths of its ideas as well as the beauty of its words. One may initially feel uncomfortable at the prose of Conrad but after braving through a few pages, the reader would certainly fell under Conrad鈥檚 spell.
Perhaps it was an impulse of unconscious loyalty, or the fulfilment of one of those ironic necessities that lurk in the facts of human existence. I don鈥檛 know. I can鈥檛 tell. But I went.
It may be said with authority that Heart of Darkness is a masterfully constructed parable on human nature, how does humanity in general behaves when tested under arduous circumstances. Despite his protestations, this is undeniably an invaluable historical document offering a glimpse into the horrific human consequences of the imperial powers' scramble for Africa as much as it is a compelling tale. As put up by Conrad himself that savagery is inherent in all of us, however civilized we may become, it is a brief interlude between innumerable centuries of darkness and the darkness yet to come.
Perhaps! I like to think my summing up would not have been a word of careless contempt. Better his cry- much better. It was an affirmation, a moral victory paid for by innumerable defeats, by abominable terrors, by abominable satisfactions. But it was a victory! That is why I have remained loyal to Kurtz to the last, and even beyond, when a long time after I heard once more, not his own voice, but the echo of his magnificent eloquence thrown to me from a soul as translucently pure as a cliff of crystal.
June 18, 2008
I know as an English major I am supposed to find this work brilliant and important, but I just don't. I hate it. I hated it the first time I read it, the second time I read it, AND the third time I read it.
December 14, 2009
Like contemporaries Haggard and Melville, Joseph Conrad lived the adventures he wrote. He left his native Ukraine to escape the political persecution of his family and became a merchant marine in France, sailing to the West Indies and gun-running for a failed Spanish coup. Soon after, he learned English and became a british citizen, eventually attaining the position of Master Mariner. Had his story ended there, he might have become merely a footnote in history: a successful seaman and minor writer of romantic adventures.
Instead, he took a fateful steamship voyage into deepest Africa, an experience which forever changed him. Like the protagonist of the book which his journey inspired, Conrad found horror deep in the jungles. He witnessed the cruel depth of mankind, and not in the barbaric tribes, but in the colonial whites who ruled them. Far from civilization or law, these men became utter tyrants, mad with power and answerable to no one.
Having lived under repressive colonial forces in his own troubled Ukraine, Conrad's deconstruction of this human subjugation was both sympathetic and satirical. Apparently unable to detect Conrad's sarcasm, Chinua Achebe accused him of the most profound racism. Doubtless, he was tired of his continent being defined in literature by an outsider. Why Achebe then chose to write his own, much more hopeless, racist, and sarcastic book in an attempt to replace Conrad's, it is difficult to say.
When Conrad finally emerged from Africa, he was a different man. He said of the experience that it forced him to cease simply living, like an animal might; instead he found himself saddled with a profound self-awareness. As any writer can tell you, only two things issue from inescapable self-awareness: pain and art.
Conrad's writings took a darker turn, resulting in his most contentious and influential work, 'The Heart of Darkness'. While his other stories are not without death and pain, they tend towards lighter fare, none quite reaching its inexorable brooding. Doubtless this is why it garners the most attention, dealing as it does with messy issues like race, nation, and death. The author's literary catharsis leaves us raw and shocked, but then it was always Cornad's intention to use writing as a means to share real experiences with his reader.
Though often compared to other adventure fiction of the era, such as Stevenson's or Haggard's, like Melville, Conrad transcends his genre. His tight pacing and evocative, poetic prose help to elevate all of his stories, and here, his language is bolstered by an overriding, passionate, personal message. There is an ever-present thread of philosophy throughout all of Conrad's works, but rarely is it as naked and powerful.
In some ways, the great interest paid to 'Heart of Darkness' is unfortunate, as it tends to ignore the rest of his varied and masterfully-constructed oeuvre, but the vast swathes praise and criticism are not misplaced: it is a Great Book.
Instead, he took a fateful steamship voyage into deepest Africa, an experience which forever changed him. Like the protagonist of the book which his journey inspired, Conrad found horror deep in the jungles. He witnessed the cruel depth of mankind, and not in the barbaric tribes, but in the colonial whites who ruled them. Far from civilization or law, these men became utter tyrants, mad with power and answerable to no one.
Having lived under repressive colonial forces in his own troubled Ukraine, Conrad's deconstruction of this human subjugation was both sympathetic and satirical. Apparently unable to detect Conrad's sarcasm, Chinua Achebe accused him of the most profound racism. Doubtless, he was tired of his continent being defined in literature by an outsider. Why Achebe then chose to write his own, much more hopeless, racist, and sarcastic book in an attempt to replace Conrad's, it is difficult to say.
When Conrad finally emerged from Africa, he was a different man. He said of the experience that it forced him to cease simply living, like an animal might; instead he found himself saddled with a profound self-awareness. As any writer can tell you, only two things issue from inescapable self-awareness: pain and art.
Conrad's writings took a darker turn, resulting in his most contentious and influential work, 'The Heart of Darkness'. While his other stories are not without death and pain, they tend towards lighter fare, none quite reaching its inexorable brooding. Doubtless this is why it garners the most attention, dealing as it does with messy issues like race, nation, and death. The author's literary catharsis leaves us raw and shocked, but then it was always Cornad's intention to use writing as a means to share real experiences with his reader.
Though often compared to other adventure fiction of the era, such as Stevenson's or Haggard's, like Melville, Conrad transcends his genre. His tight pacing and evocative, poetic prose help to elevate all of his stories, and here, his language is bolstered by an overriding, passionate, personal message. There is an ever-present thread of philosophy throughout all of Conrad's works, but rarely is it as naked and powerful.
In some ways, the great interest paid to 'Heart of Darkness' is unfortunate, as it tends to ignore the rest of his varied and masterfully-constructed oeuvre, but the vast swathes praise and criticism are not misplaced: it is a Great Book.
April 17, 2025
To reach hell is to follow the path of Joseph Conrad. This path we follow, or we leave it鈥攏o other choice. The horizon of darkness weaves along the water toward the source of the Congo River. "Watching a ship off the coast is like thinking about a riddle." Here is the invitation to this voyage. Going up a river is going back in time, to the time of the first man in each of us. The pulsations of the river banks revive the primary impulses of men. Torpor, savagery, "tiresome pilgrimage among the beginnings of a nightmare." Go deeper; enter the heart of darkness. Is hell a space where we surrender ourselves to deliver the one who lives in us? Can darkness infect the hearts of those who pass through it? Or do we carry this germ forever and ever in us?
We live it or destroy it; there is no other choice.
We live it or destroy it; there is no other choice.
April 6, 2015
Revisiting The Heart of Darkness
After passing past that Castle of Ego,
Laying siege on the very borders of Mind,
We entered the vast and bristling forests,
Of that strange, strange land, that Id,
Which doth divide the knowing, waking,
From the land of dreaming, unknowing.
But this way is much too hard to follow;
And is harder even to describe to you:
We are more likely here to perish,
Here in these vast, dense hinterlands;
For these woods that we see arrayed,
Has never previously been crossed,
By mortal men or by Gods before,
Except by the Duke, on his missions,
To plunder and to subjugate.
He had sliced a path so wide and true,
For himself and his army vast,
Marking along the trees as he trode,
Deeper and deeper into these woods,
Holding fast to his own marks,
And to the crude compasses of his day,
Wary of the beasts and birds,
And of dark shadows of the serpents,
And the importunities of bugs and bites.
Vexed he was by silence and dark,
But angered more by lonely shrieks.
So we move on in this path of old;
Those old trees that the Duke had marked,
Now but marshy ground to mire our carts,
When will we cross these woods so dark,
And reach the sparkle at the other end?
That river which we truly seek,
That drowned the Duke and freed the Mind:
That river so cool, called Sanity.
June 9, 2024
I read this a long time ago, and then again this weekend, and realised that I remembered maybe 5% of it. It's perhaps not that surprising because the existential meandering dominates the actual events, and many of the those events involve lying around being too hot, too sweaty, and too sick, just waiting. That's unfair - events do unfold, characters are met, unpleasantness witnessed, at at the creshendo, blood is spilled. The pace, however, is slow. Nineteenth century slow. Dickens sprints by comparison. Each moment of emotion and contemplation is picked apart, over-written, beaten into submission with $100 words (inflation adjusted).
Two things save this from being discarded within pages and perhaps (along with academia's love affair and inclusion on ten thousand secondary school English curricula) explain its longevity. Firstly, if you forgive the overblown language that is perhaps a sign of his times more than anything, Conrad has a rare eye for characterisation and description. He 'sees' and manages to share, delivering, when he chooses to, whole people with a handful of lines. Secondly, the heart of the heart... of darkness is a mystery that obsesses the narrator and starts to compel the reader. Like our narrator steaming his way upriver into the unknown, we want to meet Kurtz, to find out what it is about this man that's so extraordinary.
In the end, like anything that is built up and built up again, Kurtz is a let down, but somehow Conrad saves it with the man's last words. Another mystery left for the reader and one that's kept people reading the work for a hundred years.
3.5 stars from me - I can appreciate its worth, but I wasn't enraptured.
..
Two things save this from being discarded within pages and perhaps (along with academia's love affair and inclusion on ten thousand secondary school English curricula) explain its longevity. Firstly, if you forgive the overblown language that is perhaps a sign of his times more than anything, Conrad has a rare eye for characterisation and description. He 'sees' and manages to share, delivering, when he chooses to, whole people with a handful of lines. Secondly, the heart of the heart... of darkness is a mystery that obsesses the narrator and starts to compel the reader. Like our narrator steaming his way upriver into the unknown, we want to meet Kurtz, to find out what it is about this man that's so extraordinary.
In the end, like anything that is built up and built up again, Kurtz is a let down, but somehow Conrad saves it with the man's last words. Another mystery left for the reader and one that's kept people reading the work for a hundred years.
3.5 stars from me - I can appreciate its worth, but I wasn't enraptured.
..
January 5, 2020
HEART OF HORROR
Conrad arriv貌 nel Congo nel 1890 come tanti altri europei alla ricerca di un lavoro, di un鈥檕ccasione di crescita economica e professionale, attratto dalle panzane che il re del Belgio, Leopoldo II, era riuscito a spacciare per verit脿, e cio猫 che in quella (immensa) parte dell鈥橝frica i bianchi stessero cercando di contrastare e arrestare il commercio degli schiavi condotto dagli 鈥渁rabi鈥�.
Conrad voleva diventare capitano di marina e sperava che l鈥檈sperienza africana avrebbe comportato anche il raggiungimento di quel grado militare.
Si trov貌 davanti una realt脿 ben diversa da quella che si aspettava: i bianchi in Congo era schiavisti come e pi霉 degli 鈥渁rabi鈥� 鈥� ignoravano il rispetto dei pi霉 elementari diritti umani 鈥� trattavano i locali come materia prima, forza lavoro, bestie da soma 鈥� erano crudeli, rapaci, volgari, prepotenti, accecati dal loro potere, violenti, stupratori, assassini, torturatori.
Immagini di ragazzini congolesi mutilati per non aver raccolto la quota stabilita di gomma durante il regime di Leopoldo II.
In realt脿 erano molto di pi霉, erano autentici genocidari: si calcola che tra il 1890 e il 1905, sempre sotto il dominio belga, la popolazione del Congo si sia ridotta di circa 8/10 milioni di persone. Tutte morte: in nome della 鈥渃ivilt脿鈥�, della conquista 鈥� tutte morte in nome dell鈥檃vorio e della gomma.
Conrad rimase colpito e stordito, e da qui 猫 nato questo magnifico libro, probabilmente il romanzo breve in lingua inglese pi霉 tradotto e ristampato.
Marlow 猫 l鈥檃lter ego dello stesso Conrad che risal矛 il fiume Congo 鈥� e Kurtz impersona alcuni dei peggiori servitori del Belgio, non necessariamente nati in quel paese, tutti passati alla storia per la crudelt脿 e il numero di morti (tale L茅on Rom usava adornare il suo giardino con le teste degli africani decapitati per punizione conficcate in paletti proprio come nel libro fa Kurtz).
Cuore di tenebra 猫 prima di tutto questo: un atto d鈥檃ccusa del genocidio che i belgi hanno commesso in Congo.
Poi, col tempo, 猫 diventato un inno contro la violenza umana in generale, contro l鈥檌mperialismo (vedi l鈥檌nterpretazione datane da Coppola in 鈥淎pocalypse Now鈥�).
Ma Conrad all鈥檌mperialismo credeva, purch茅 di marca britannica, fino al punto di investire i suoi risparmi in una miniera d鈥檕ro vicino a Johannesburg (quindi, sotto controllo inglese 鈥� l鈥檌mperialismo inglese andava benissimo, era sinonimo di civilt脿 e progresso).
In fondo in queste pagine i personaggi di colore non fanno una gran figura, pi霉 che parlare, cantano, grugniscono, emettono suoni.
In fondo il razzismo vittoriano (quindi di stampo inglese) in queste pagine si sente eccome.
Kurtz 猫 un magnifico villain: non 猫 solo un assassino e torturatore, ma anche un intellettuale che si diletta di pittura, di poesia, di giornalismo, di teoria e pensiero (Sterminate tutti questi bruti!), confermando con penna e inchiostro la conquista compiuta con fucile e mitragliatore.
Conrad arriv貌 nel Congo nel 1890 come tanti altri europei alla ricerca di un lavoro, di un鈥檕ccasione di crescita economica e professionale, attratto dalle panzane che il re del Belgio, Leopoldo II, era riuscito a spacciare per verit脿, e cio猫 che in quella (immensa) parte dell鈥橝frica i bianchi stessero cercando di contrastare e arrestare il commercio degli schiavi condotto dagli 鈥渁rabi鈥�.
Conrad voleva diventare capitano di marina e sperava che l鈥檈sperienza africana avrebbe comportato anche il raggiungimento di quel grado militare.
Si trov貌 davanti una realt脿 ben diversa da quella che si aspettava: i bianchi in Congo era schiavisti come e pi霉 degli 鈥渁rabi鈥� 鈥� ignoravano il rispetto dei pi霉 elementari diritti umani 鈥� trattavano i locali come materia prima, forza lavoro, bestie da soma 鈥� erano crudeli, rapaci, volgari, prepotenti, accecati dal loro potere, violenti, stupratori, assassini, torturatori.
Immagini di ragazzini congolesi mutilati per non aver raccolto la quota stabilita di gomma durante il regime di Leopoldo II.
In realt脿 erano molto di pi霉, erano autentici genocidari: si calcola che tra il 1890 e il 1905, sempre sotto il dominio belga, la popolazione del Congo si sia ridotta di circa 8/10 milioni di persone. Tutte morte: in nome della 鈥渃ivilt脿鈥�, della conquista 鈥� tutte morte in nome dell鈥檃vorio e della gomma.
Conrad rimase colpito e stordito, e da qui 猫 nato questo magnifico libro, probabilmente il romanzo breve in lingua inglese pi霉 tradotto e ristampato.
Marlow 猫 l鈥檃lter ego dello stesso Conrad che risal矛 il fiume Congo 鈥� e Kurtz impersona alcuni dei peggiori servitori del Belgio, non necessariamente nati in quel paese, tutti passati alla storia per la crudelt脿 e il numero di morti (tale L茅on Rom usava adornare il suo giardino con le teste degli africani decapitati per punizione conficcate in paletti proprio come nel libro fa Kurtz).
Cuore di tenebra 猫 prima di tutto questo: un atto d鈥檃ccusa del genocidio che i belgi hanno commesso in Congo.
Poi, col tempo, 猫 diventato un inno contro la violenza umana in generale, contro l鈥檌mperialismo (vedi l鈥檌nterpretazione datane da Coppola in 鈥淎pocalypse Now鈥�).
Ma Conrad all鈥檌mperialismo credeva, purch茅 di marca britannica, fino al punto di investire i suoi risparmi in una miniera d鈥檕ro vicino a Johannesburg (quindi, sotto controllo inglese 鈥� l鈥檌mperialismo inglese andava benissimo, era sinonimo di civilt脿 e progresso).
In fondo in queste pagine i personaggi di colore non fanno una gran figura, pi霉 che parlare, cantano, grugniscono, emettono suoni.
In fondo il razzismo vittoriano (quindi di stampo inglese) in queste pagine si sente eccome.
Kurtz 猫 un magnifico villain: non 猫 solo un assassino e torturatore, ma anche un intellettuale che si diletta di pittura, di poesia, di giornalismo, di teoria e pensiero (Sterminate tutti questi bruti!), confermando con penna e inchiostro la conquista compiuta con fucile e mitragliatore.
February 24, 2014
鈥� Mistah Kurtz. He dead.鈥�
-T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men
He came, he saw, he conquered 鈥� and then he succumbed and died. Mistah Kurtz. An enigma, who ultimately came to signify the gloomy reality of sin, which closely lurks in the minds of mortal beings and keeps ready to pounce upon the heart and to sink it into darkness at the mere hint of viciousness. Which impatiently awaits the weak moments of vanity, false notions and fickleness to take over control and let humanity die a grief death of hopelessness; A sad departure which is at once trivial and grave. Trivial, for an opportunity wasted and grave, for the fear it raise.
Conrad once said, 鈥淭he temporal world rests on a few very simple ideas; so simple that they must be as old as the hills. It rests notably on the idea of fidelity.鈥�He believed that evil lies in every man and constant, unsparing efforts have to be made to keep it from taking over control. It seems difficult to interpret this context of evil. But on my part, I want to believe that that we are more likely to fall victim to our own follies. As a dear friend once said, 鈥淓vil is nothing but an excuse on the part of human beings to escape their own responsibility for the results of their own malevolence.鈥�
Our complex minds, subjected to temptations of our own whims, fancies, lust, greed and false notions of superiority, are prone to forgetting these simple ideas and hence, taken over control by darkness, which only leaves its victim when it succeeds in defeating the very essence of being. It renders the mind hollow and catches one totally unaware by its final verdict. In the words of T.S. Eliot:
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Heart of Darkness, the novella by Joseph Conrad, is essentially a multi-layered narrative. On the surface it is the adventurous story of Marlow鈥檚 search for Kurtz, who for him is a living legend. On one hand it is also a peek into the unconscious of man where darkness resides silently, and on the other, it also brings to mind the glimpses of Dante鈥檚 Inferno i.e. the descent to hell. In a very powerful manner, Conrad lays before us the story evoking subjective impressions, as the characters of his story are obscure and their tales are only half-told. Be it Kurtz, Marlow or his native help. Marlow鈥檚 search for Kurtz in itself enfolds two interpretations for me. Is it only a search for a company employee who is sick and needs to be hospitalized? Or could it be the search of a man for his ideals? Ideals, which might assure his beliefs?
For Marlow, Kurtz is an enigma, a well- intentioned man who is engaged in the cause of civilizing the natives while still sending maximum ivory to the Company. He becomes perplexed when he learns about the savage ways in which Kurtz engaged himself, like killing people and hanging their heads outside his hut. Kurtz came to the place with good intensions, but being with natives for long, he couldn鈥檛 restrain himself and succumb to their ways of life. Ways from which he could never again come out. Dying Kurtz told Marlow that his life had come to nothing and his last words to Marlow were 鈥淭he horror! The horror!鈥�
These last words send a chill down the spine and make one wonder how helpless a man can become in the trap of his own vice. The only way to evade this cage is to keep guard of one鈥檚 thoughts and to cling to the values of good. Simple ideas which are the toughest to follow.
-T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men
He came, he saw, he conquered 鈥� and then he succumbed and died. Mistah Kurtz. An enigma, who ultimately came to signify the gloomy reality of sin, which closely lurks in the minds of mortal beings and keeps ready to pounce upon the heart and to sink it into darkness at the mere hint of viciousness. Which impatiently awaits the weak moments of vanity, false notions and fickleness to take over control and let humanity die a grief death of hopelessness; A sad departure which is at once trivial and grave. Trivial, for an opportunity wasted and grave, for the fear it raise.
Conrad once said, 鈥淭he temporal world rests on a few very simple ideas; so simple that they must be as old as the hills. It rests notably on the idea of fidelity.鈥�He believed that evil lies in every man and constant, unsparing efforts have to be made to keep it from taking over control. It seems difficult to interpret this context of evil. But on my part, I want to believe that that we are more likely to fall victim to our own follies. As a dear friend once said, 鈥淓vil is nothing but an excuse on the part of human beings to escape their own responsibility for the results of their own malevolence.鈥�
Our complex minds, subjected to temptations of our own whims, fancies, lust, greed and false notions of superiority, are prone to forgetting these simple ideas and hence, taken over control by darkness, which only leaves its victim when it succeeds in defeating the very essence of being. It renders the mind hollow and catches one totally unaware by its final verdict. In the words of T.S. Eliot:
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
Heart of Darkness, the novella by Joseph Conrad, is essentially a multi-layered narrative. On the surface it is the adventurous story of Marlow鈥檚 search for Kurtz, who for him is a living legend. On one hand it is also a peek into the unconscious of man where darkness resides silently, and on the other, it also brings to mind the glimpses of Dante鈥檚 Inferno i.e. the descent to hell. In a very powerful manner, Conrad lays before us the story evoking subjective impressions, as the characters of his story are obscure and their tales are only half-told. Be it Kurtz, Marlow or his native help. Marlow鈥檚 search for Kurtz in itself enfolds two interpretations for me. Is it only a search for a company employee who is sick and needs to be hospitalized? Or could it be the search of a man for his ideals? Ideals, which might assure his beliefs?
For Marlow, Kurtz is an enigma, a well- intentioned man who is engaged in the cause of civilizing the natives while still sending maximum ivory to the Company. He becomes perplexed when he learns about the savage ways in which Kurtz engaged himself, like killing people and hanging their heads outside his hut. Kurtz came to the place with good intensions, but being with natives for long, he couldn鈥檛 restrain himself and succumb to their ways of life. Ways from which he could never again come out. Dying Kurtz told Marlow that his life had come to nothing and his last words to Marlow were 鈥淭he horror! The horror!鈥�
These last words send a chill down the spine and make one wonder how helpless a man can become in the trap of his own vice. The only way to evade this cage is to keep guard of one鈥檚 thoughts and to cling to the values of good. Simple ideas which are the toughest to follow.
June 5, 2024
Have you ever come across a book that you like, despite its dark and disturbing contents? It's a strange feeling. But Heart of Darkness proves that it is possible. The main contributing factor to this possibility is undoubtedly Conrad's beautiful prose. It is rich, passionate, and dramatic. With his beautiful prose, Conrad exposes various themes, and although I could not fathom all of them fully, I was enchanted by what he wrote (if that makes any sense).
The story is about an adventure that a sailor named Charles Marlow had had when he was working as a captain on a steamboat for an Ivory Trading Company. He narrates his adventure to his fellow sailors on board a ship called "Nellie" while it is anchored on River Thames. Through the adventure of Marlow, Conrad brings out many issues to light: Slavery, civilization, the destruction of nature by human conduct, and above all, human nature.
Out of all these themes, what caught my attention and kept me engaged with this reading is Conrad's psychological presentation of human nature. He exposes the greed, ambition, love for power, and recognition that humans crave, which are well stored in the dark corners of their hearts. Conrad takes the reader through a journey to the dark wilderness in the African region, but at the same time, he takes the reader towards the darkness of the human heart. I'm no literary scholar, but I feel that that is what Conrad was after - the darkness of the human heart in this "civilized" society. Are we civilized after all? That is a question I felt that the author seeks an answer for through and through.
This novella is more of a philosophical account than an adventure story. The underlying message sent is deep and powerful. His beautiful prose and elaborate writing are compensation enough for its dark and disturbing contents.
The story is about an adventure that a sailor named Charles Marlow had had when he was working as a captain on a steamboat for an Ivory Trading Company. He narrates his adventure to his fellow sailors on board a ship called "Nellie" while it is anchored on River Thames. Through the adventure of Marlow, Conrad brings out many issues to light: Slavery, civilization, the destruction of nature by human conduct, and above all, human nature.
Out of all these themes, what caught my attention and kept me engaged with this reading is Conrad's psychological presentation of human nature. He exposes the greed, ambition, love for power, and recognition that humans crave, which are well stored in the dark corners of their hearts. Conrad takes the reader through a journey to the dark wilderness in the African region, but at the same time, he takes the reader towards the darkness of the human heart. I'm no literary scholar, but I feel that that is what Conrad was after - the darkness of the human heart in this "civilized" society. Are we civilized after all? That is a question I felt that the author seeks an answer for through and through.
This novella is more of a philosophical account than an adventure story. The underlying message sent is deep and powerful. His beautiful prose and elaborate writing are compensation enough for its dark and disturbing contents.
October 24, 2023
"Ni tiene confines el infierno ni se circunscribe a un solo lugar: sino que all铆 donde estemos estar谩 el infierno. Y donde est茅 el infierno, all铆 siempre estaremos." Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
Hac铆a m谩s de tres a帽os que hab铆a le铆do este libro y en su primera lectura no me gust贸. Simplemente me pareci贸 sin direcci贸n alguna, algo abstracto y divagante.
Bueno, efectivamente me equivoqu茅. Puede que tal vez en aquel tiempo yo no hab铆a le铆do tantos cl谩sicos como ahora ni ten铆a tampoco tan agudizada la capacidad de analizar un texto para elaborar una rese帽a, por eso sostengo que tanta lectura me hizo bien para volver a leer 鈥淓l coraz贸n de las tinieblas鈥� y realmente conseguir plasmar otra visi贸n sobre esta novela tan particular.
El relato de Charlie Marlow es en cierta forma una extensi贸n de las propias experiencias de Joseph Conrad en el 脕frica, m谩s precisamente en el Congo belga durante sus a帽os de marino mercante.
Todo lo vivido le servir铆a para plasmar lo que narra en este libro con el agregado de permitirse soltarse y cambiar ciertos aspectos de lo que 茅l mismo vio para darle mayor profundidad y destacar mayores elementos de ficci贸n en la historia que nos cuenta.
A medida que Marlow comienza a navegar en un vapor remontando r铆o arriba para llegar a Kurtz, un enigm谩tico hombre a cargo de la explotaci贸n y el comercio del marfil terminar谩 experimentando su propio Descenso ad 铆nferos de la misma manera que Ulises o Eneas o el mism铆simo Dante con la salvedad de que Marlow no tendr谩 ning煤n Virgilio para guiarlo en ese, su infierno personal y no elegido, sino impuesto por el azar de su incierta traves铆a.
Es tambi茅n digno de destacar el profundo enfoque de introspecci贸n psicol贸gica que Conrad le imprime al personaje de Marlow, puesto que con el correr de las p谩ginas, comenzar谩 este a desmoronarse mentalmente a partir de su expedici贸n.
Por otro lado, tenemos la figura fantasmal y omnipresente de Kurtz, ese hombre desconocido para Marlow que comenzar谩 a tener una influencia total en 茅l para terminar arrastr谩ndolo a un colapso inevitable.
Es que, en cierto modo, Kurtz representa lo ominoso, lo poderoso y su imagen desconocida generar谩 tanto curiosidad como un temor inherente en Marlow y esos dos elementos lo empujar谩n hasta querer llegar a conocer a Kurtz a toda costa.
Kurtz, durante gran parte de esta novela oficia en cierto modo, con su presencia lejana y opresiva de la misma manera que Moby Dick sobre la tripulaci贸n del Pequod en la novela de Herman Melville, ya que todos saben que el inmenso leviat谩n est谩 all铆, oculto, merodeando y al acecho y con el mismo efecto logra alterar los nervios de Marlow hasta que llegue el momento indicado y se enfrenten cara a cara.
Y de la misma manera, la jungla, con su poderosa atracci贸n enloquece a Marlow. Todos esos peligros est谩n all铆, latentes y le sofocan, apenas le permiten descansar. Cualquiera puede ser el momento en que los seres primitivos que pueblan la selva arrasen con todo y Marlow lo sabe, por eso debe estar alerta, con los nervios crispados ante el peligro latente.
La novela roza tambi茅n distintos aspectos relacionados a la esclavitud, el comercio ilegal de marfil y la pirater铆a m谩s cruenta ejercida en el continente africano durante el siglo XIX, m谩s precisamente por B茅lgica en el 脕frica. Dichas pr谩cticas, hoy prohibidas eran moneda corriente para los conquistadores anglosajones que devastaron el continente de 茅bano.
Habiendo rele铆do la novela descubro su poder de atracci贸n, incertidumbre y curiosidad que genera tanto en el personaje principal como en el lector y es este el mejor elemento del que dispone Conrad para mantenerlo a uno atento a la lectura.
Dice Marlow en un pasaje de la novela: "Quiz谩 toda la sabidur铆a, toda la verdad y toda la sinceridad est谩n contenidas en ese lapso inapreciable de tiempo en el que cruzamos el umbral de lo invisible. 隆Tal vez!"
Indudablemente, Marlow cruz贸 el umbral hacia su propio infierno personal y Joseph Conrad lo transform贸 en un relato convincente.
Hac铆a m谩s de tres a帽os que hab铆a le铆do este libro y en su primera lectura no me gust贸. Simplemente me pareci贸 sin direcci贸n alguna, algo abstracto y divagante.
Bueno, efectivamente me equivoqu茅. Puede que tal vez en aquel tiempo yo no hab铆a le铆do tantos cl谩sicos como ahora ni ten铆a tampoco tan agudizada la capacidad de analizar un texto para elaborar una rese帽a, por eso sostengo que tanta lectura me hizo bien para volver a leer 鈥淓l coraz贸n de las tinieblas鈥� y realmente conseguir plasmar otra visi贸n sobre esta novela tan particular.
El relato de Charlie Marlow es en cierta forma una extensi贸n de las propias experiencias de Joseph Conrad en el 脕frica, m谩s precisamente en el Congo belga durante sus a帽os de marino mercante.
Todo lo vivido le servir铆a para plasmar lo que narra en este libro con el agregado de permitirse soltarse y cambiar ciertos aspectos de lo que 茅l mismo vio para darle mayor profundidad y destacar mayores elementos de ficci贸n en la historia que nos cuenta.
A medida que Marlow comienza a navegar en un vapor remontando r铆o arriba para llegar a Kurtz, un enigm谩tico hombre a cargo de la explotaci贸n y el comercio del marfil terminar谩 experimentando su propio Descenso ad 铆nferos de la misma manera que Ulises o Eneas o el mism铆simo Dante con la salvedad de que Marlow no tendr谩 ning煤n Virgilio para guiarlo en ese, su infierno personal y no elegido, sino impuesto por el azar de su incierta traves铆a.
Es tambi茅n digno de destacar el profundo enfoque de introspecci贸n psicol贸gica que Conrad le imprime al personaje de Marlow, puesto que con el correr de las p谩ginas, comenzar谩 este a desmoronarse mentalmente a partir de su expedici贸n.
Por otro lado, tenemos la figura fantasmal y omnipresente de Kurtz, ese hombre desconocido para Marlow que comenzar谩 a tener una influencia total en 茅l para terminar arrastr谩ndolo a un colapso inevitable.
Es que, en cierto modo, Kurtz representa lo ominoso, lo poderoso y su imagen desconocida generar谩 tanto curiosidad como un temor inherente en Marlow y esos dos elementos lo empujar谩n hasta querer llegar a conocer a Kurtz a toda costa.
Kurtz, durante gran parte de esta novela oficia en cierto modo, con su presencia lejana y opresiva de la misma manera que Moby Dick sobre la tripulaci贸n del Pequod en la novela de Herman Melville, ya que todos saben que el inmenso leviat谩n est谩 all铆, oculto, merodeando y al acecho y con el mismo efecto logra alterar los nervios de Marlow hasta que llegue el momento indicado y se enfrenten cara a cara.
Y de la misma manera, la jungla, con su poderosa atracci贸n enloquece a Marlow. Todos esos peligros est谩n all铆, latentes y le sofocan, apenas le permiten descansar. Cualquiera puede ser el momento en que los seres primitivos que pueblan la selva arrasen con todo y Marlow lo sabe, por eso debe estar alerta, con los nervios crispados ante el peligro latente.
La novela roza tambi茅n distintos aspectos relacionados a la esclavitud, el comercio ilegal de marfil y la pirater铆a m谩s cruenta ejercida en el continente africano durante el siglo XIX, m谩s precisamente por B茅lgica en el 脕frica. Dichas pr谩cticas, hoy prohibidas eran moneda corriente para los conquistadores anglosajones que devastaron el continente de 茅bano.
Habiendo rele铆do la novela descubro su poder de atracci贸n, incertidumbre y curiosidad que genera tanto en el personaje principal como en el lector y es este el mejor elemento del que dispone Conrad para mantenerlo a uno atento a la lectura.
Dice Marlow en un pasaje de la novela: "Quiz谩 toda la sabidur铆a, toda la verdad y toda la sinceridad est谩n contenidas en ese lapso inapreciable de tiempo en el que cruzamos el umbral de lo invisible. 隆Tal vez!"
Indudablemente, Marlow cruz贸 el umbral hacia su propio infierno personal y Joseph Conrad lo transform贸 en un relato convincente.
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