Fin liten samling med Conrad i sitt kort-format ess. Man merker godt hvor mye Apocalypse Now har lånt fra boken. Mye av handlingen og karaktergalleriet er utvilsomt inspirert av forfatterens egne opplevelser som sjømann, men ordene og refleksjonene til Conrad, som resonnerer godt i meg, og treffer alle stedene de skal, omdanner alle de små historiene til noe større enn seg selv og plasserer verket inn i moralfilosofiens verden.

Og i den verdenen har vi alle godt av å vasse rundt i med jevne mellomrom.

n  “But the wilderness had found him out early, and had taken on him a terrible vengeance for the fantastic invasion. I think it had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude—and the whisper had proved irresistibly fascinating.” n

I first read this book about four years ago, and, despite its relative shortness, it took me a few weeks to get through. At the time, this exhausted me. I remember sitting on the tube on the way to work, holding this thinnest of books in front of me and unable to keep my eyes open. I certainly enjoyed it in parts, but I was left dissatisfied, having hoped for something transformative and being left with only glimpses of dark ideas and twisted souls and burdened with the memory of dense, suffocating language.

My second reading of the book was quite different.

The perceptions that I’d had from that first reading still held hints of truth, but through a different approach to reading the story, it left me with a very different impression.

Marlowe, a veteran English sailor, narrates, and from the very beginning there is a sense of threat and an image of a world which has always been filled with darkness, and that this darkness both surrounds us and emanates from within us. With this as a starting point, no wonder I had felt like I was being suffocated when I first read the book. And this sense of suffocation, of being unable to see through the blackness of the world around us is what makes this book difficult to read. This marriage of the blackness without and within disgusts and appalls because of how recognisable it is.

And so, in this second reading, I realised that I had to take the story in bit by bit, and that reading it in a few swoops would be too draining. Because Conrad’s genius lies in every part of this book contributing to a feeling of overwhelming darkness. Marlowe looks with dread on the darkness in the hearts of the European imperialists and he sees this dread unfurling from the banks of the river he is journeying down. The jungle is made terrifying by the way it strips a man to his very essence and exposes that which is darkest within him.

Conrad drives this point home on every page, as Marlowe ventures ever further into the jungle where the “air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of the sunshine.” The river which they travel up is a constant struggle:

“You lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever rom everything you had known once - somewhere - far away - in another existence perhaps.”

And so I would put the book down after a section and breathe in the clean air around me, almost astonished to see the hotel veranda where I sat, feeling out of place in the joyful morning sunlight which played off the leaves of the trees in the hotel’s courtyard. It was a relief to be able to pull myself out of the story, in a way, but I also felt guilty that I’d abandoned Marlowe to his horrors, that I could choose to step back from the Inferno.

I was obviously aware that I was reading a book, but I still felt like I was blindly struggling in the fog, “choking, warm, stifling,” that enveloped the lonely party making its way up the river in search of a man, the monstrous Kurtz, who had embraced the darkness.

I need more time to think about Kurtz, and process his journey as his descent touches on the subjectivity of morality. I don’t think I’m ready to examine this and honestly assess who I would be if I, like Kurtz, were to be stripped to my core.

“…the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness—that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions. This alone, I was convinced, had driven him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations; this alone had beguiled his unlawful soul beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations.”

Would the idea of morality which I currently have, which is so precious to me, melt away? Would I, without the watchful eye of society, be drawn towards my own “monstrous passions”? Might my “unlawful soul” be exposed in all its wildness in circumstances much less oppressive?

The darkness which Conrad paints so thickly on to every sentence in this book is left me feeling almost hollow afterwards, or rather, like a nut, rotting from the inside.

Conrad’s heart of darkness is so recognisable that I found myself asking to see where the hope was, to try and breathe fresh air in that oppressive jungle. And while this story is certainly not one of hope, Conrad still shows us that, as individuals, we are the ones who can resist the darkness if we work, and work hard, on burying the darkness and building something to oppose it.

“The earth for us is a place to live in, where we must put up with sights, with sounds, with smells too, by Jove!— breathe dead hippo, so to speak, and not be contaminated. And there, don't you see? Your strength comes in, the faith in your ability for the digging of unostentatious holes to bury the stuff in—your power of devotion, not to yourself, but to an obscure, back-breaking business.”

It reminded me of Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, which details his philosophy of moral survival in a Nazi concentration camp where there was, to most people, no hope (and which bears obvious parallels to the condition of the enslaved indigenous people Conrad describes). Frankl says:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way."

Any book which makes you provokes so much reflection into what kind of person you are is surely worth reading and re-reading. That this book was so modern in terms of its anti-imperialism, style and structure are qualities which I will need to revisit the next time I read it.

I can only handle so much at a time.

En ocasiones los relatos son tan complejos que su lectura se alarga una barbaridad. Este es el caso y no me ha molestado en absoluto. A pesar de que te hace volver atrás cuando crees que has perdido el hilo, de los cambios de voces, de los cambios de planos, de los saltos temporales... sabes que estás pasando poco a poco de una narración lineal y realista a otra febril, de sensaciones, de recuerdos. El asombro/perplejidad/espanto que debió sentir Conrad en su viaje al Congo de Leopoldo II queda perfectamente reflejado. Y, pese a las críticas del relato como racista, no lo veo en absoluto; veo más desconcierto del marino clásico decimonónico ante el colonialismo africano del S.XX. Pero no sólo, también ese desprecio tan británico, en este caso a Bruselas, pero quizás extensible al resto de capitales occidentales: "Me disgustaba el espectáculo de la gente corriendo por las calles tratando de sacarse el dinero unos a otros, devorando sus infames alimentos, tragando su insalubre cerveza, soñando sus sueños insignificantes y necios".
No es un relato fácil ni en forma ni en fondo y deja la certeza de que: vale, Joseph, ahora que sabemos en qué lengua vamos a hablar, volvemos a empezar por la página 1.

There are 4 stories in this book: "An Outpost of Progress", "Karain: A Memory", "Youth: A Narrative", and "Heart of Darkness". My favorites were Outpost and Heart of Darkness. This may actually be because I'm writing these notes soon after finishing Heart of Darkness, which has put me in a much different mood than after finishing Youth.

I took these stories as reflections upon travel. Outpost and Heart in particular considering the darker and more difficult side you must manage when you travel without company.

"Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings. The courage, the composure, the confidence; the emotions and principles; every great and every insignificant thought belongs not to the individual but to the crowd: to the crowd that believes blindly in the irresistible force of its institutions and of its morals, and in the power of its police and its opinion. But the contact with pure unmitigated savagery, with primitive nature and primitive man,brings sudden and profound trouble into the heart."
- Joseph Conrad, An Outpost of Progress

Read Heart of Darkness for the ending - for that line and the turmoil that surrounds it. This edition has a wonderful footnote discussing it." 'No eloquence could have been so withering as his final burst of sincerity' when his stare 'penetrate[d] all the hearts that beat in the darkness.' "

Four very interesting tales—the longest being Conrad's most famous work, "Heart of Darkness." All four stories deal with European imperialism or colonialism in Africa and Asia. Conrad's writing is full of excellent and poetic descriptions of nature and the psychology of people, often in extreme circumstances. One recurring theme is the idea that the "civilized" European can become savage when removed from his environment of physical comforts and legal protection. Sometimes the writing is so obtuse and full of allegorical and metaphorical observations about the psyche that the context is hard to follow. At any rate, don't skip this classic. I also was slightly put off by the fact that the notorious Mr. Kurtz gets extremely little "on screen" action and dialogue compared to how much of the novella deals with the anticipation of meeting him and with reflections on him after he's no longer "on stage." The first three tales give some context for Conrad's favorite themes and for his most well-known character–narrator, Marlow.

It's been a long time coming, but I finally found the courage to explore and read the Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad's novel has some amazing strengths, and one weakness in my opinion. I will begin by speaking on latter. Although I understand that this book was constructed from combined stories by different individuals who traveled in the Congo, this shouldn't excuse the disjointed and sometimes difficult to follow storytelling. This rigid writing may be a product of translation from the mother language (Dutch?), yet an explanation to this problem doesn't solve it. I digress from the more important subject of this novel, which not only exploits Conrad's talent in writing both metaphor and expressing perfectly the atmosphere of the Congo Sahara. In the first section of the novel, as the narrator is looking at the river as a map, he describes it as a snake, one that "fascinated me as a snake would a bird-a silly little bird." Not only does the author foreshadow the dangers the protagonist will face, but further extends the metaphor by stating that "The snake had charmed me." This was very much appreciated.

As someone who has lived thirty minutes south of the border of the Congo for roughly six years, I found it refreshing to find a book that truly captured existence in Africa exquisitely. As well as expressing the feelings of isolation, frustration, helplessness and confusion which accompanies many who have lived in the area, Conrad shows a unique consciousness of the hyper-realistic awe-aspiring affects of the Land on occupants there. To quote a part in the second section which I myself have experienced; "We were wanderers on a prehistoric earth, on a earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet." This among many other other precious snipets from the book brought joy to my soul to be rejoined once more with the world I grew up with. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the literary elements, the over-arching theme of Death, as well as what Conrad captures, I couldn't give the book five stars simply because of the messy narrative. Timothy.

This book was just not my cup of tea. Yes I understand it is a classic that was written for an audience from a different time, but regardless, it is incredibly slow and way too descriptive. Most of the questions I actually had about the text were never answered. All of the stories went on for ages only to reach a half-hearted and weak conclusion. I don't recommend, unless you want to feel extremely accomplished by the simple knowledge that you had enough self discipline to actually read the whole thing.

This edition is actually a book of three stories - Youth, Heart of Darkness and The End of the Tether - in that order. The three novellas have nautical themes set in Africa or Asia that were inspired by the author's experience as a merchant seaman. I was interested in the eponymous tale after reading how it had alerted the public, at the time of its publication, to the horrible treatment of Africans in colonial Congo Free State.

Conrad is excellent at creating intense atmosphere and a sense of place and time. However, I quickly tired of all the long tracts in the narrative of introspection from his main characters. I just wanted him to get on with the story most of the time. Of the three, Youth was my favourite while The End of the Tether made for quite turgid reading.

I always like to think of this as the adult version of 'Lord of the Flies'. Dealing with the issue of the darkness within ourselves. Rather dense and difficult, however I found it rewarding.

It is hard to explain what I thought of this novel. I will do my best to decipher how I feel in a much more concise manner than Conrad himself would have.
This short book, a novella at best, is divided into 3 parts. Part one finds Marlow, our principal narrator, on a boat on the River Thames talking about his experiances in the Congo and how he was previously employed by a trading company to recover some ivory, and more importantly, an exceptional trader by the name of Kurtz. This first part was difficult to follow, to say the least, as Conrad uses a bevy of barely comprehensible words in long drawn-out paragraphs where the subject of what is being said changes as often as who is speaking them. I must admit to barely getting through chapter one at all as I found myself stopping and backtracking at least once per page to figure out what was going on.
Chapter 2 has us following Marlow up the river on his mission, and the writing becomes more purposeful and clear, but as things become "darker" for Marlow and his crew, I found myself indifferent to their plight as I waited for the appearance of the infamous Kurtz who isn't revealed until chapter three.
Ah, chapter three. I don't know of a more thought about and scrutinized character in English literature who appears in a mere 13 pages of text before dying than Mr. Kurtz. And yet, he is fascinating. Described by his followers as a god, Marlow finds him emaciated and near death. He has clearly gone mad with power and regrets what he has done to achieve it. He reveals his savagery best with his final four words: "The horror! The horror!" Kurtz is the only reason I can give this book any stars whatsoever, as I truly struggled through the journey to get to him and his "horror". Great character in an otherwise mediocre book.

Heart of Darkness tells the tale of Charlie Marlow’s journey on an ivory transporter down an unknown river in the Congo. What he sees horrifies and perplexes him, calling into question the very basis of civilisation and human nature. The story follows this commercial agent and the object of his obsession, the notorious ivory-procurement agent Mr Kurtz. This novella has become an important piece in the western canon for its range of themes and scholarly values.

I remember reading this book a few years back and while I thought it was an interesting book, I never really grasped it completely (and I’m not sure if I ever will) but for comparison to what I know now and then, check out my review here. To begin with we need to gain an understanding of Joseph Conrad’s life because there are a lot of life experiences in this book. Born Josef Teodor Konrad Walecz Korzeniowski in Russian-ruled Poland in 1857; this part of Poland is now part of Ukraine. Both parents were political activists and as a result of their participation in the Polish independence movement they were exiled to Northern Russia in 1863. At sixteen he dropped out of school to work on a French merchant ship, sailing the West Indies as an apprentice. Later he joined a British ship where he served as a merchant for ten years, during this time he gained the rank of captain and became a naturalized British citizen. During a trip in 1890 sailing through the Belgian Congo and Congo River he got really sick and had to retire from sailing and focused his energy on writing. This means Joseph Conrad must have grown up speaking Polish and Russian, learning French at some point and then English. Although he often struggled to write in his adopted language, he is now considered one of the greatest prose stylists in English literature.

There are many themes explored in this book, so much so that I think I would need to keep reading this book again and again to discover them. Though major themes include slavery (the effect the British had on Africa) as well the author’s problems with Colonialism and Imperialism. There are a few other themes I would much prefer exploring. First of all, the idea of alienation; both Conrad and Marlow are both outsiders. The entire novel questions what alienation and loneliness can do to a person over an extended period of time, especially since they are in hostile environments. Even the doctor warns Marlow prior to his departure of changes to his personality that may be produced by a long stay in another country. Prolonged solitude seems to have damaging effects on the sailors, which leads me into another major theme; insanity. In the case of Kurtz, the loneliness lead to literal madness, while others like Marlow’s predecessor, Captain Fresleven was described as a gentle soul that transformed into a violent one.

There are other themes I really would love to talk about but for the sake of keeping this review a decent length I will just highlight them. Heart of Darkness also looks at the way Belgium is exploiting the Congo, order verse disorder, duty verse responsibility, doubt verse ambiguity, race verse racism and finally violence and cruelty. All these, plus many more, are reasons why this book has been studied. It is a very difficult book to explore, I found myself rereading passages trying to get more out of it. I know at one point near the start of reading this I thought I would never get enough meaning out of this book but eventually it opened up to me.

There are a lot of symbols within the book as well, beginning with the title and the setting; Heart of Darkness deep in the heart of the Congo, the centre of the deep dark Africa. Even the fact that the entire story is told in the late afternoon as the sun sets is a motif of Africa. There are a lot more in this novel but I want to quickly talk about the movie adaptation Apocalypse Now. Sure there are some similarities but not enough to really consider the movie to be based on this novella. There are more similarities with Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in the way the book starts out, also with Bram Stokers’ Dracula with the suspension between life and death. So how are they the similar, since one is set in the Congo and the other during the Vietnam War? The very basic answer would be that both look at the deterioration of humanity as a result of conflict, one via imperialism and one by war.

I would love to talk about the narrative and how there are two narrators, Marlow and someone anonymous. And how all the scenes on the Nellie are obviously an introductory and critique to the story that it doesn’t go away after the intro. Marlow’s narrative is often interrupted by this unnamed narrator as they listen to the story as a way for Conrad to tell the reader to notice different themes. There are also the proses in the book, poetic and while difficult, you can get swept away and not really notice just what Conrad is trying to do. So many things I want to talk about but I have to cut this review short.

Heart of Darkness is a really complex book but if you take the time to break it apart and explore the text critically, you’ll find there is so much to appreciate. It’s like a fine meal, it can be enjoyed without any thought, but if you take the time to see how each element complements each other you end up enjoying the novella a whole lot more. It all comes together with a sense of satisfaction that while you might not know everything Joseph Conrad was trying to say, you know enough for the book to have real value.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://www.knowledgelost.org/book-rev...

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