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3.03 AVERAGE
3.03 AVERAGE
‘droll thing life is - that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. the most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself - that comes too late - a crop of inextinguishable regrets.’
heart of darkness by joseph conrad is renowned for it’s huge reputation, earned by venturing into the insanity of the mind and the corridors of the unknown.
the first half of this novella i found almost impossible to get into stride with; seemingly endless descriptions, overflowing with ridiculously overzealous details, made it extremely difficult to form a picture of what was to come. the second half, however, i found to be a lot more profound.
for me, this was less an analysis of the descent into madness, and more an attempt at coming to terms with the terror of the unknown. some characters were there to break up the malaise, such as the russian who is met on the island where kurtz resides, but others are there to serve as spectres of imagination and representatives of the deepest, darkest human desires. cannibaIism, death, and gloominess pervade every sentence; each page is claustrophobic and horrifying and utterly inescapable. in some areas the language was almost too flowery and consequently brought the reader out of the atmosphere. i’m not entirely sure that this book’s intentions weighed in my conscience as much as they should have done, because of how bogged down in language it was. i think a more simplistic approach to this subject matter would have made the eeriness more tangible.
in saying that, the second half of this novel was well worth the slog of the first half— the set-up paid off, especially towards the very end of the book. imagination and nightmares all add up to experiences already lived. confronting the perceived horrors of every day life often seems rather anticlimactic, when the time comes to face your biggest fears. you are the creator of your own dread. society is only a thin veil; peeking through, if you look hard enough, are the dormant desires that the norms of civilisation have attempted to eradicate.
this book is evidently extremely problematic for many reasons that you will come to recognise immediately upon reading, so please research trigger warnings before going into it.
a lot of racist jibber jabber from worthless idiots
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great literary text, hard to read, easy to analyze.
Going up the Congo was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the Earth and the big trees were Kings, an empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest and this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention. It looked at you with a vengeful aspect.
This graphic novel adaptation of [a:Joseph Conrad|3345|Joseph Conrad|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1403814208p2/3345.jpg]'s classic short story, [b:Heart of Darkness|12012853|Heart of Darkness|Joseph Conrad|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331855193l/12012853._SY75_.jpg|2877220], is a dark and disturbing affair. It captures Marlow's uncovering Kurtz' descent into madness perfectly. It also maintains Marlow's uneasy relationship with the 'natives', which is summed up with this observation;
I'm grateful for these cannibals... in their place men I can work with. The suspicion of their not being inhuman comes slowly to me. What thrills me is the thought of their... humanity.
A difficult read that highlights some of the atrocities of imperialism, colonialism, slavery, pillaging and plundering. The depiction of the mounds of ivory are truly disturbing!
This graphic novel adaptation of [a:Joseph Conrad|3345|Joseph Conrad|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1403814208p2/3345.jpg]'s classic short story, [b:Heart of Darkness|12012853|Heart of Darkness|Joseph Conrad|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331855193l/12012853._SY75_.jpg|2877220], is a dark and disturbing affair. It captures Marlow's uncovering Kurtz' descent into madness perfectly. It also maintains Marlow's uneasy relationship with the 'natives', which is summed up with this observation;
I'm grateful for these cannibals... in their place men I can work with. The suspicion of their not being inhuman comes slowly to me. What thrills me is the thought of their... humanity.
A difficult read that highlights some of the atrocities of imperialism, colonialism, slavery, pillaging and plundering. The depiction of the mounds of ivory are truly disturbing!
Every page of this book was absolute PAIN. I hate the perspective on Africa and absolutely despise the way in which the author shows the places and the people. Honestly, I finished it just for the sake of finishing it because it took me more than a year to be able to go through it. It’s just another opportunity for a racist colonizer to say things that no one wants to hear.
2.5⭐️
I really am too stupid to understand these classics but you gotta do what you gotta do to get that degree...
I really am too stupid to understand these classics but you gotta do what you gotta do to get that degree...
slow-paced
This book was not enjoyable at all, but despite how much I want to hate it, Conrad still managed to make me reflect on my own morality and beliefs in a way that not many books have. Nevertheless, the way that he does it is just blatantly racist and such a pain to read.
Throughout the story, I found myself hating every major character. First, there's Marlow, who's built up to be so much better than all of the other colonizers. But after taking the briefest look at Marlows actions/words/thoughts throughout the book, it's painfully apparent that the only thing Marlow does right is seeing the colonized Africans more humanly than his peers (and that's a really low bar to meet). Conrad writes Marlow like modern fanfic writers make self inserts, and somehow manages to do it so much worse than them.
Then, there's Kurtz. For 2/3 of the book, this man is made out to be such a powerful and respectable figure, and I did enjoy the twist of IRL Kurtz being so frail and pathetic when Marlow finally meets him. Even so, the man is still painfully one-dimensional and so boring to learn about.
Throughout the story, I found myself hating every major character. First, there's Marlow, who's built up to be so much better than all of the other colonizers. But after taking the briefest look at Marlows actions/words/thoughts throughout the book, it's painfully apparent that the only thing Marlow does right is seeing the colonized Africans more humanly than his peers (and that's a really low bar to meet). Conrad writes Marlow like modern fanfic writers make self inserts, and somehow manages to do it so much worse than them.
Then, there's Kurtz. For 2/3 of the book, this man is made out to be such a powerful and respectable figure, and I did enjoy the twist of IRL Kurtz being so frail and pathetic when Marlow finally meets him. Even so, the man is still painfully one-dimensional and so boring to learn about.
A couple of things contributed to my disappointment with Heart of Darkness. One was that its psychological terror had been hyped beyond its ability to deliver. But the other is that Apocalypse Now had also raised my expectations about how disturbed I would be. The novel never got there for me. Nor did it answer any of the questions I had about Kurtz or what went wrong with him. Which is probably the point, but I was still looking for some insight that the book doesn't deliver. There's a lot of talking about how strange and wonderful Kurtz is, but I never experienced his profundity for myself or related to Marlow's intoxication with him. Some great themes in the book, though, and some unforgettable scenes.