Heart Of Darkness: And Selections From The Congo Diary (1999) - Plot & Excerpts
Imagine then that you are standing at the edge of a fallow field, planning your route through it. You could walk across it and end up on the other side, safe and sound. But you’ve heard rumors of treasures buried underneath the dirt, so you decide to tunnel your way through. You start shallow and begin to dig deeper and deeper, the soil around you growing denser and denser. Soon you are so deep that there’s nothing to light your way, and there’s great risk of becoming lost. Fortunately, you find the knowledge within to find a path out and to the other side. You’ve found some treasure along the way; but, your outlook has changed slightly from the experience.However, in reality there is no field of wild vegetation in front of you, instead there is only a small book in your hands. Though it is less than 100 pages, the story within it is like that strange fallow field, and you are there at the edge deciding how you shall go through it.It should be a field that is common to most, after all Heart of Darkness is a familiar presence in many English classrooms. With a deceivingly simple plot, the story, set in the days of British Imperialism, centers around Marlow on his harrowing trip down the Congo River to find and rescue the wayward ivory trader Mr. Kurtz.And just like walking across the top of the field you can choose to be a casual reader and skim the surface of the novel, coming through on the other side with no significant impact upon yourself. Or, you could dig and gain some of the treasures that are touted by many literary experts as some of the greatest pictures of humanity the written world has ever seen. If you deiced to take the risk and dig, you’ll be faced with denser and denser language made even more difficult by the age of the words. And if you’re not careful or lack a guide in your quest such as an English teacher or another literary escort, than you can easily get lost and return to the surface with a headache plaguing your brain, a bad taste in your mouth, and no treasure in your pockets.But if you are able to keep on track, the treasures are as wonderfully brilliant and profound as they always tell you. The dark and hideous truths about humanity, whether or not you agree with them, will stick with you like fine dirt in your hair. And before you know it, you find yourself richer in human knowledge, knowledge which will color your outlook for the rest of your life.So now that you are at the edge of the field, deciding how the make your way through it, remember you are making a choice that will influence the amount of riches you will collect by the end of your life. The decision is yours. Now how will you cross the fallow field of the Heart of Darkness?
Joseph Conrad begins his 1902 novella by having the sub-narrator, Charlie Marlow, talk about the Romans conquest of England centuries before. "And this also has been one of the dark places of the earth." I found this a bit odd. The only thing I could think Conrad (or Marlow) was doing, was to justify invading Africa, since this was not first instance of colonization. That goes along with a doctor telling Marlow he would love "to watch the mental changes, on the spot" of people who travel to Africa. But I'm thinking... what about the Africans? They're the people being kidnapped and murdered and sold into slavery. What about THEIR mental changes? The book is pretty darn racist, but I guess some people still are today, a century plus later. I think Conrad was either ironically OR unconsciously matching the general racist thoughts of early 20th century people. If he went out pointing most reader's inherent racism in 1902, he might have lost a lot of his readers at the start. They wouldn't have finished the book. But it is hard to say what writers were thinking, especially writers so far in the past. I'm not entirely sure that the book is ABOUT even Africa, since the book mainly seems to be about a character named Kurtz (he is the only character actually given a name except for the sub-narrator), even if Kurtz is first met twenty pages near the end. The book seems to say the "wilderness" has affected him (and certainly not stealing large amounts of ivory and using less that savory means to go about doing that). So instead of Africa, the book is about a pretty horrible guy. Maybe that is why the book is so short. The modern library edition I have has an excellent piece by Chinua Achebe who can sum it up better than I can: "..there is a preposterous and perverse kind of arrogance in thus reducing Africa to the role of props for the breakup of one petty European mind." I'm glad that the modern library edition included Achebe's piece, even if he wasn't entirely complimentary to the book. He is one of the famous Afican writers, after all. The writing was wonderful at times, which is why I guess the book has survived so long. And it's still quite a puzzle.
What do You think about Heart Of Darkness: And Selections From The Congo Diary (1999)?
I've seen Apocalypse Now and a dozen other renditions/spoofs of the guy-who-goes-native-and-thinks-he's-a-god plot, so as the original, I expected this to be... I dunno, something more memorable. I at least expected something would actually happen in this book, or that it would be a freaky psychological thriller. Instead of the story of a guy traveling down a river in Africa to find a crazy guy - who dies when the narrator gets there, The End.Read for my Empire & The British Novel class.
—Christiana
This story is the perfect example of enveloping imagery. Everything about its descriptions brings us back to its title: the impenetrable wall of black that is the jungle, the dark shapes of the natives strewn about, the somber depths of men's thoughts and souls. There's something about writers for whom English is not a first language (like Nabokov) that makes them do incredible things with English words. This edition includes some very interesting commentaries from such literary luminaries as Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway, and also from Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian novelist, who calls Conrad a racist. Whether you agree with him or not, this book is still worth reading for its stunning imagery and the lasting impression it leaves on you. A true horror story.
—Elisa
Over-rated work of literature.Reading it felt too inward and individual. Conrad's journey never felt like it had any sense of place or purpose. I had very little understanding of the African continent or Congo. If there was anything about his own or society's nature and values in question, I must have missed it. Heart of Darkness may be one of those novels more fit for a college classroom. I think some theoretical or pedagogical guidance would have helped make this a richer, more rewarding text. I hope at some point this novel comes my way in a different light, where I can read it from different lens. I know there's some great things this text does, but haven't found them. So, I'll wait...
—Kyle
