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Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
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I had originally wanted to wait and read this with the group but decided to read it in January since I noticed that it was so short. Sadly I didn't make it past page 19. I just couldn't get comfortable with it and realized that it had taken me too long just to get there.I hope that anyone who does read it enjoys it more than I did.
I've been trying to read this book, but I keep falling asleep. Maybe I will try to read it again another time.
I'm absolutely enamored with this book. I, too, hated at first - blame high school English. But then I took a Literature and Africa class, and wrote a paper comparing Heart of Darkness with Things Fall Apart (another fabulous book). The depth to which Conrad goes in such a short amount of pages - color opposition, ideas of madness, what being a 'savage' means, the corrupting power of greed, the relationship between Belgium and it's at-the-time colony the Congo, the value of truth when it comes to hurting others - that it really is a book worth powering through and, more so, digging in to. I won't say much more than that now because of the late hour here, but I'll be back!
I had to read this for a Film and Lit class in college (we watched "Apocalypse Now" after reading it) and I found it torturous. I'll never forget it, I had the class at 4:00 PM-it was my only class of the day-and I got up in the morning and sat down to read it thinking that since it was less than 100 pages I'd have no trouble finishing it in time for my class. Ha, I couldn't have been more wrong! This book was so dense and so wordy- it was the longest 98 pages of my life! I guess it's possible that I'd feel differently now but I have no desire to find out!
I didn't enjoy this book, at all. The one thing I will take away from it; however, is the comparison I couldn't help but make between the treatment of the natives while mining ivory and the current blood-diamond situation. Apparently, humanity still has alot to learn from the past.
Heather wrote: "I didn't enjoy this book, at all. The one thing I will take away from it; however, is the comparison I couldn't help but make between the treatment of the natives while mining ivory and the curren..."What an excellent observation, Heather. The effects of colonialism throughout the world continues to haunt mankind, societies and nations in current day interactions in my opinion. I'm going to grab this one from the library and do a reread. Then I'm going to pick up some related reading for my travels next month. I'd let this read/discussion slip my mind. Glad I checked in.
Chelsea wrote: "I'm absolutely enamored with this book. I, too, hated at first - blame high school English. But then I took a Literature and Africa class, and wrote a paper comparing Heart of Darkness with Things ..."Really looking forward to your further comment here, Chelsea. Aso, I'm planning to do some collateral reading and wonder if you have any specific recommendations on titles? Thanks.
Have a bit of a "thing" with Belgium and The Congo and some of the other colonial attachments in Africa which I've accumulated over the years and had definitely planned to jump in here but forgot till now -- I WILL be back. Think this will be the third time around with this book and also likely not my last round with it given my "obsessions".
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Dini wrote: "This book is going so slow for me it seems I'll never finish. I'm stuck in the middle of the river! LOL."Dini -- I think it took me a long while to get through it the first time around, too, but it was such a strong read for me that I returned to it and I'm so glad to have read it. Do hope you perservere(sp?) and finish it and comment here. I would be interested in your comments on it definitely.
I plan to get to this once I've finished my current reads. My boss has repeatedly recommended this to me, saying how awesome it was that Conrad, who he said was not a native English speaker, could write in such impeccable English.