The dark masses had begun to congregate. Branches thumping against the glass and iron bars, in rhythm to some obscure, some lost song of the wild. The tendrils of darkness that took birth in the vacuums that the sun's warmth had just forsaken, had started their ascent :first shy, then bold, then complete. And when their majesty was absolute; pieces of the night sky, shining almost silver in the blackness met the pools of shades offered by the oozing earth with a coy surrender.

I opened a window. Just enough to allow the candle to hold it's flame and picked up the first Conrad I would ever read

It was lucky for me. Somehow, the elements had conspired to allow me this singular moment of authentic parallelism that made the transition to the sea faring universe of Heart of Darkness, palpable and real

In the heart of the story, Conrad's work is a treatise into the psychological variables of an innocent, who by design of fate and choice, ends up traversing the 'exotic and savage' wilderness of Africa. It seemed to me that the physical journey might not have been so much real but the beautiful handiwork of a master writer seeking to experiment the delving into the intricate mesh work of a mind's odyssey into his most intimate and savage self. In this respect, the choice of Africa lends an authentic charm to the subject, atleast to the colonial supremacist of the late 19th century with the Industrial Revolution blowing new steam into the proceedings. It was around for time when Europe launched their magnificent campaign to 'civilize' Africa. So, it is quite understandable that the choice of the land was to reinforce in the intended reader's mind the savage convulsions of psychological darkness.

The darkness is beautiful and still. The voyage of Marlow deeper into the heart of the land, via the Congo is, nevertheless, accompanied by some of the most beautiful descriptions of nature. Wild, free and untouched, something that I suppose was intended to lend an aura of fear, I found myself rejoicing in the pristine and sepulcrous land, yet untouched. I bought every word of it, and I ate it.(I wonder what the shrinks will make of that.) And if not for the very repulsive idealization of the supremacists which made towards dehumanizing the natives, that lends such an abhorrent aftertaste to my palate;my love for this piece of work would have been complete.

Heart of Darkness provides us with some very ponderable interesting characters. Two of my favorites : the educated and nomad harlequin surviving in the wild ;an adventurer, a seeker and the second, Mr Kurtz who is larger than life and a Superhuman persona, embodying madness, as is their due. He represents the lofty ideals of the educated invader who has 'ideas' and big ones too! They could not be forsaken and was considered his duty to share with the world. And he was savagery personified. A man who had given up his cultivated persona and had succumbed to sin and ventured into the darkest recesses and ultimately lost his marbles. But he still exercises a control over those that know him, an enigma, the intense magic that gives a sultry call to the journeyman and leads him astray. Marlow becomes his victim. The darkness almost engulfs him, but an act of kindness serves as his salvation.

The darkness belongs to no one. Nor the intended, neither the mistress . It is horror. The horrors! The horrors!

Doğrusu Joseph Conrad okumaya başlayınca daha iyi bir şey bekliyordum. Üzerinde çok yazılan Karanlığın Yüreği'nde ben yazılacak pek bir şey bulamadım. (Şubat 2017)


Yeni not : Afrika’nın önemli filozoflarından Achille Mbembe, J. Conrad’ı sömürgeci edebiyatın mimarlarından biri olarak görmekte Karanlığın Yüreği romanında siyahların insanlığından şüphe edecek derecede vahim bir tablo cizdiğini vurgulamaktadır.
(Aralık 2021)

“It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”



I know some readers find Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness a bit heavy-handed (and maybe it is). Certainly, there is very little questioning of the empire building/resource plundering that is going on, but I still find the storytelling really good. The nightmare Conrad presents in the form of a journey up the river to the heart of darkness is also compelling, and works on many levels.

“We live in the flicker -- may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.”

“The horror! The horror!”

A dark dark novel, with great historical significance. Conrad glances into the deep underbellies of modernity to reveal its darkest and greatest preserved secrets, that of colonialism, offshore theft, barbarism and perversion. It is understandable that this book is often required reading in many postcolonial courses. In fact, Heart of Darkness might be one of the first postcolonial novels, in that it is deeply concerned with the effects and characteristics of colonialism, and as such, it is also one of the first truly modern novels; all modern novels, directly or indirectly, are concerned with or shaped by colonialism and the postcolonial.

The writing in itself is also intensely modern, as the focus is directed inward, as it were, to the hearts of men and mankind. This focus is shaped by darkness, as our existence is one of great horror and malevolence. We are all at each others throats; greedy and power hungry but, like Kurtz, we are also intensely lonely. Conrad represents man as engaging in self perpetuating and evil solipsism.

After reading this for the first time, I've now had more than my fair share of Heart of Darkness!!1

“He struggled with himself, too. I saw it -- I heard it. I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.”

REREADING HEART OF DARKNESS FOR THE 3RD TIME - The first time I read this, my problem was that I was not immersed and engaged from the beginning. Second time around, I enjoyed the first half far more, and found myself hooked from beginning to end in this tense and disturbing tale! Who knows what is in store this time...

Heart of Darkness is known as one of the great short stories/novellas, with a powerful message regarding empire and exploration, in a tale with strong horror aspects. That reputation alongside Cormac McCarthy loving the works of Joseph Conrad intrigued me, and I finally picked it up.

Heart of Darkness to me seemed at first to be a fairly similar classic story to many others that I have read. But the further on that I progressed, the more distinctive and unnerving this tale became. Without giving too much away, and to over simplify it, Heart of Darkness is about someone journeying to the heart of the Congo and having their expectations and idolisations destroyed. There are strong horror aspects. There is a great deal of tension. It explores the abuse of power, and also appears to suggest that the British Empire should not expand into lands that are not its own. A fairly progressive idea for the time. It still displays hegemonic values of the time which are morally wrong, but it was interesting to see some of these more progressive opinions being shared at the time when it was written.

I was not immediately hooked, but as the story evolved, Conrad brilliantly crafts tension that builds up to some incredibly powerful and visceral scenes that I remember vividly, a year after closing the final page.

4/5 STARS

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 ‘I’ is dotted and the last ‘T’ is crossed - will be the Last Day, upon which Franz Kafka is certified “safe” to enter the Kingdom by the sleepless Gatekeeper...

And Kurtz’ 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’ll 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’s No Coincidence that he qualifies that spoiler with the incredibly apt line, “Hieronomo’s mad again!”

For once you wade into the dread waters of Acheron, you see the Furies that will torment you till mercy dawns again.

Don’t hold your breath! As the Hindu sacred books say, endless Kalpas will seem to pass before that glad dawn.

I know what you’re 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’m no different.

I didn’t say I believed “loud (and) clear” as a youth.

No, we ALL Refused to “listen as well as we hear... in the living years” of our youth, to the Truth.

That’s right. We did EXACTLY like Adam, believing we’d “be like a god” 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 “Shantih.”

In blessed Forgiveness.

Άβυσσος. Άνθρωπος. Ψυχή. Εκπολιτισμός. Αποικιοκρατία. Εκμετάλλευση. Απληστία. Μάρλον Μπράντο. Ζούγκλα. Ομίχλη. Ποταμός. Αποκάλυψη Τώρα. Θεοποίηση. Φράνσις Φορντ Κόπολα. Ψυχισμός. Τρέλα. Φόβος. Χειραγώγηση. Ανθρώπινη Ύπαρξη. "The horror! The horror!"

Celebrity Death Match Review Tournament, Round 1: The Essential Calvin and Hobbes versus Heart of Darkness

Heart of Darkness doesn't even bother to show up, but sends its kid sister, n  Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Deathn. Calvin and Hobbes laugh scornfully, but their jeers soon become screams of terror as the Cannibal Women tie them up and eat them alive with guacamole and corn chips.

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.

Conrad's Heart of Darkness seems to me to be the book more than any other that been analysed and raked through with the finest of tooth-combs by readers, writers, scholars and the like for many a year. And I admit, once experienced, it is hard to let it go. Having said that, I personally think it's over-hyped, and far from being a masterpiece, but can I understand why there are many that deem it is. And it doesn't surprise me that Heart of Darkness continues to cast such a fiendish spell on everyone who reads it. Full of digression, observation, and psychological reflection, Conrad's writing is dense and layered with symbolism, with dark and complex themes that builds an impressive sense of dread, while at the same time offering a searing critique of imperialism at a time when the expansion of the British Empire and the exploitation of Africa by European powers was glorified as bringing the light to the uncivilized world. The book as a whole felt like one of those ominous rain clouds hovering thunderously above a summer's day. Heart of Darkness still threatens, and still retains its power after more than one-hundred years, so I certainly respect the book for what it did for modern fiction, but I still much prefer Conrad's 'Nostromo' and 'Under Western Eyes' to this. I was expecting one of the all time greats here, after countless many telling me I simply had to read it. It's a good book yes, but I was still left disappointed.

The Heart of Darkness is a slim novel that belies the immense profundity it reveals about human nature. I re-read it after many years and understood again why it left me sober, tearful and broken when the last page was turned. Marlow, the seaman narrator, told the story of his journey into the heart of the African interior and his encounter with the natives and most notably, Kurtz, the ivory agent, a much revered white man. To me, the journey into the heart of darkness is the unraveling of what is inscrutably at the core of human nature.



One of the most dominant themes is the human need to dream. Conrad said it well, “We live, as we dream – alone.” A dream has an energizing quality that propels the way forward. It has an all-consuming life of its own. Yet for better or worse, it is an illusion that keeps a man alive. Marlow, newly appointed as skipper of a steamboat, was drawn by an alluring dream – to follow the river like “a silly bird” to the “lure of a snake”, to a destination that was to become for him the heart of darkness. The sinister nature of this dream was suggested by the powerful associations with death early in Marlow’s journey: his arrival at the white sepulchre city, the decaying rot of a murdered captain, greetings by two black hens and two women knitting black wool. Perhaps, the most poignant depiction of the false redemptive power of a dream was in Kurtz’s beloved, “My Intended”. She saw in Kurtz the embodiment of inspiration and goodness, the sum total of all her happiness. Her quest to Marlow for Kurtz’s last words was heartbreaking. Would the truth have saved her?



Perhaps, another theme is deception. Conrad successfully built suspense surrounding Kurtz, the gifted ivory trader. Kurtz was portrayed as larger than life and invested with demi-god status. He was the Voice to be heeded. Yet, Kurtz’s gift of expression was described as "the pulsating stream of light, or the deceitful flow from the heart of an impenetrable darkness." Kurtz was in fact a ruthless ivory vampire who plundered the natives. Interestingly too, Marlow’s first glimpse of Kurtz was incongruently, a fragile wisp of a dying man. Conrad let it be known Kurtz was “hollow at the core”. Kurtz’s evil was symbolized by the human heads drying on staves outside his windows. Yet, the seduction of Kurtz’s power was so strong that the natives were grossly deluded even when they were victims of his rapacious savagery.



Lastly, there is the unmistakable theme of death. The map that guided Marlow into the interior revealed a yellow patch that was described as “dead in the centre”. The ictus of the heart of darkness is death. Life is but a riddle. No pathos is more eloquent than in Kurtz's final words, "The horror! The horror!"



Conrad’s prose may not be immediately accessible but it is finely wrought. There is much one can relish in the palpable beauty of the African jungle rendered in hushed, almost hallowed tones. There is also subtle humor that lifts the looming shades of darkness that close in gradually as the story unfolds. Read this novella. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

n  '"And this also," said Marlowe suddenly, "has been one of the dark places of the earth."'n


It does feel weird to be praising the work of someone who is regarded by many as a "blatantly racist piece of sh*t" when you yourself are against that cause. Then why am I praising it? Simple answer. I don't think he's a racist. I will come to that later.

The name of the book will tell you what is there in it, if not the whole story. The writing, not quite unlike the forests depicted is way too compact for sunlight to creep in there. It's such that you can visualize the whole from the very beginning in a dusky, sable way (Not only Africa but also Europe, got my point?). The best aspect of the novella often neglected is its delineation of the surroundings; it's practically something raving, the way the prose absorbs you into it. And next is the sometimes unnecessary-yet-necessary character development. Personally, I visualized Kurtz from the first as Brando, thanks to Coppola, but the manager, the cannibals everyone is portrayed exactly as chafedly as you can take in.

n  It is difficult to discern exactly what Darkness might mean in here, given that absolutely everything in the book is cloaked in darkness.n

My complaints? Well, there are a few. Firstly, in real life, I don't know anyone, save a seaman so introspective. It's quite frightening actually, the complexity of Marlowe's thoughts and that's why the narration requires your utmost concentration. Secondly, Ambiguity. That's also the finest aspect of the novella( or novel?). You may read it feeling it to be some trash, unworthy of your time and dime. You can definitely find the description of Africa disgusting in parts. Or like me, you can end up feeling your head buzz yet revel in the genius of what you have just read.

Meanwhile, What is Darkness?

Darkness is the inability to see: It sounds simple but is with profound implications as a description of the human condition. Failing to see another human being means failing to understand that individual and failing to establish any sort of sympathetic communion with him(/her). That happened primarily with Kurtz, then with Marlowe, and then sadly enough with the author. Achebe’s condemnation in 'An Image of Africa' is too simple. Thankfully the fictitious characters were not as much criticized as their creator. I think Marlowe's introspection hardly mitigates racist notions about primitive or degraded “savages”: it just means that Europeans are as “bad” as that which they have constructed as the lowest form of humanity. Well, that's simple enough to understand: brutes and racists have no nationality just like terrorists have no religion. They are just people who are not admitted to asylum yet. Marlow meant from the beginning that the then “Western” civilization is just as barbarous as African civilizations. Kurtz's philosophy is clearer from their point of confrontation. To try to judge either alternative is an act of folly: how can moral standards or social values be relevant in judging evil? Is there such a thing as insanity in a world that has already gone insane?

There's a sort of pride in enjoying something that many fail to appreciate. It's meaningless to say again, but it's truly fascinating.