Heart of Darkness in Overdue Podcast

Jun 21, 2020 Sarina M rated it it was ok

This was written in a strange way, with beautiful passages but there were quite a few aspects that made it not fun to read (not saying this is even a BAD book, or that it has zero value, just that I didn't really like it):
- the language was jumbled, convoluted, and presented strangely, and tended to jump in time disjointedly.
- the degradation & dehumanization of the Africans was creepy (sometimes intentionally by Conrad, but often not). It doesn't really matter if Conrad meant to be racist or This was written in a strange way, with beautiful passages but there were quite a few aspects that made it not fun to read (not saying this is even a BAD book, or that it has zero value, just that I didn't really like it):
- the language was jumbled, convoluted, and presented strangely, and tended to jump in time disjointedly.
- the degradation & dehumanization of the Africans was creepy (sometimes intentionally by Conrad, but often not). It doesn't really matter if Conrad meant to be racist or not (I am not interested in blaming or excusing him) but describing black people as animals wearing masks, or throwing someone murdered in the river without any thought was uncomfortable and sad to read about.
- The message 'imperialism sucks' might have been profound at the time but it sure isn't now (or wasn't for me at least). I was never pro torturing people, so this didn't move me.
- Mainly people admire the symbolism in the story as making it a classic, but I have never been a big symbolism person (which is probably part of the reason poetry generally does nothing for me). It either goes over my head completely, or I just don't care about something representing something else unless doing so helps me understand the idea it represents better : darkness = human greed & evil doesn't help me understand the concept any better. Ladies knitting to represent the fates before Marlow's journey doesn't help me understand fate better. It is more like a cameo where I am supposed to be like "omgomgomg fate was there! did you see her?".

Interesting Quotes:
"In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits."

"He was a wanderer, too, while most seamen lead, if one may so express it, a sedentary life. Their minds are of the stay-at-home order, and their home is always with them—the ship; and so is their country-the sea"

“I don’t want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,” he began, showing in this
remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their audience would like best to hear"

"they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world. To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe."

"I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. "

"‘The groans of this sick person,’ he said, ‘distract my attention. And without that it is extremely difficult to guard against clerical errors in this climate.’"

"It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice"

"We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there. At night some times the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if hovering in the air high over our heads, till the first break of day. Whether it meant war, peace, or prayer we could not tell."

" Fine fellows—cannibals—in their place." ...more

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