Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The Heart of Darkness



No, this off schedule appearance is not the proof EvKa is looking for of the dark side of AmA.  That is coming next Monday.  At least that’s the plan.

Today is Lisa’s turn, but she has caught a bug and needs to rest.  We all want her to save her strength for her upcoming launch, and I volunteered to be her understudy for this Wednesday.



I reread the classics on a regular but very random basis.  My latest foray into my literary past is Joseph Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness.  I remember loving the book when I first read it as a student.  What particularly bowled me over was the fact that the Polish man born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, who could not speak English fluently until he was in his twenties, wrote in his adopted language as brilliantly as he did.  Now that I am a novelist myself, rereading his masterpiece is even more stunning than before.  It seems like a magic trick.



I just started the book last night and am only just into the third chapter, but I have found new reasons to both identify with and stand in awe of the master.  Here are a couple of quotes from the Part One, Chapter One that knock me out.


As many of you know, I am writing a series that takes place in British East Africa (now Kenya) just as the Brits are moving in and taking hegemony over what had been “unconquered” territory.  Here is how Conrad describes such an endeavor.  He was talking about the Roman invasion of the British Isles:


"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. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea—something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to. ...’"

Oh how I wish I could have said something to compare even remotely with that!


My second excerpt tickles me for a completely different reason.   If you read my post a few months ago about my vagabond nature, you may recall my childhood fascination with maps.  I imagine my peripatetic blogmates may have had similar childhood fixations.  Here is how Conrad describes his character Marlow’s:

"Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, ‘When I grow up I will go there.’"



Yup!

I’ll be going up the river with Conrad’s Marlow over the next few days.  If you have never been there, I highly recommend you join me.



Annamaria, standing in for Lisa.  Feel better SOON, darling friend.


15 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about the illness, Lisa!

    As I'm right in the middle of Lisa' "Dragon Day," I won't be able to join you on your trip into the Heart of Darkness, although I should. A few days ago, Tim Hallinan posted on his Facebook page an admission and a challenge: he said that, somehow, he'd never read To Kill A Mockingbird, and he wondered what books other people had not read that "everyone should read." I admitted to not having read many books that were written before I was born that are considered 'classics', and Joseph Conrad is amongst those. One of these days I'll have to find time to correct that...

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    1. EvKa, I saw that post of Tim's. I should have typed in "Pilgrim's Progress," but I was afraid the ghost of Sister Mary Catharine would see that admission and take back the A I got in the paper I wrote about it, having never read the whole thing.

      Do you ever listen to books? Do you know about Libravox? Free readings of the classics. I listen while walking from place to place, something we New Yorkers of a lot. I usually listen to books I have already read, but sometimes not for a long time. I am currently on a Trollope listening binge. Too many books to read--I can always be sitting down!

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    2. As a lover of Thomas Mann I could never get past page 90 iin Doctor Faustus One day, because of a book I was writing, I had to plow on. Not long after, I was enthralled by it. I think it is the only book I ever finished where when I came to the end, I started crying.

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  2. And I'm nearing the end of "Moby Dick." Wow, we're all in the same planetary orbit...

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    1. Jeff, NO surprise to me that we are all plugged into the same spot in the cosmic consciousness!

      I have tried to read "Moby Dick" several times. I just can't seem to make it past page 186. That book gives me moby brain. I know a number of people who love it. They are all men. I think it may be a guy thing. And then there is the "fabric" of those raincoats!! (Shudder)

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    2. Moby Dick is a tough read with a compelling subject. Does evil, like beauty, lie only in the eye of the beholder.

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  3. Thanks for the reminder to read the classics. I've read several of Conrad's. I like "The Secret Agent" quite a bit. But it's always important to remember that the authors of the classics were embedded in a particular context. "The Heart of Darkness" reflected the British imperial era and all that's troublesome about that era. Chinua Achebe, Africa's foremost novelist, wrote eloquently about that subtext (http://kirbyk.net/hod/image.of.africa.html).

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    1. Thank you, for the link to Achebe's essay. I have been a fan of his since "Things Fall Apart." I know I will find his thoughts interesting. I chose to read HofD now because I am writing about the British Imperial period. My research includes some memoirs and polemics by eyewitnesses, almost to a man (and men they all were) imbued with attitudes of those times. One of the tricks I have to perform is to find ways to express my modern sensibility without having my characters act in anachronistic ways. It helps to know how the people on the ground at the time were thinking. I figured rereading HofD now would give me insights into that. And your gift of Achebe's essay on racism will further the process. I am grateful to you.

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  4. *cough, sniffle

    Thanks guys! Thanks for posting, Annamaria! And hope you enjoy Dragon Day EvKa!

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    1. You are welcome, Lisa. The pay off is that you will get better faster. And see what casting one's bread upon the waters yields? I don't know that I would have ever posted on this subject if it had not been for our situation today. And Michael Niemann just paid me off with a piece full of research value. Works VERY WELL for me!!!

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  5. I am drawing on memory and may not be entirely accurrate. Conrad wrote a short story, I think its title is "Amy," in which a couple experience marital problems because they don't speak the same language. If you have the time, go on to one of my favorite novels, LORD JIM, also narrated by Marlow. Jim goes into the jungle for different reasons from Kurz's and a line I love
    is "He left a flesh and blood woman for marriage with a shadowy ideal."

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    1. Darn it, Barbara, I should have read LORD JIM more carefully when I was an adolescent. All my live I've had that line backwards! :)

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    2. Then you won't want to read my 16,000 word essay on the real meaning of that line! :)

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  6. I loved post and the replies. I went on a reading after I dropout of school [this as a long time ago"follow" my husband and his job. So I had time to read. I covered a lot of the 19th Century. I feel as I should go back and read just to see what they really are about. For me, it also the use of language that I so admired.I have to think on this.

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    1. Lil, I find it interesting to reread books after many years. The stories have new contexts for me and i see in them things I never knew were there. And, you are so right about the use of the language. It inspires me. I'll never get there, but it makes me keep trying. And listening to some of them gives me a chance to hear its music.

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