Heart of Darkness

I thought that Heart of Darkness was very different from the other books that we have read this year. There is no clear villain, and no cunning plan. It is apparent that Marlow sees the jungle as an evil being and it constantly terrifies him throughout the story. To me it seems as if Marlow sees Kurtz as a victim of the jungle. All of the evil that surrounded him ended up corrupting him. It was a difficult story for me to follow, but I liked the narrative story. I confused why we never find out who our narrator really is.

HOH

Heart of Darkness was a really tough read. I felt like I was reading the same sentence five times before I  had actually processed. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how Heart of Darkness ties in to what we're studying, but that may be a part of my inability to understand what I read. Yes, there were cannibals, a seemingly corrupt "Company," dark, twisty jungles, and ferocious natives, but nothing really evil stuck out at me. From what I read, it seemed like an antsy captain, eager to get back out there, got assigned a really challenging "mission" that brought him to hell and back. Anything truly bizarre happened in the third part of the book when the reader finally meets the notorious Kurtz, a washed up old man that became immersed in the native culture. From all of that I don't think I could pin point a certain theme. Maybe disappointment? I feel like Marlow built up this big adventure (Kurtz included) in his head only to realize that what awaited him was nothing more than a bunch of savages and a narcissistic scholar.

Heart of Darkness

I thought Heart of Darkness was very difficult to understand, but it was an interesting story and worth the confusion. One thing I was not clear on in the book that Coach Crook answered today was that there are two mistresses. I was also confused as to why Marlow still took a fond interest in Kurtz once he found out that Kurtz was evil. Marlow states that he hates lies, yet he is not appalled by far worse done by Kurtz. Kurtz is so intent on killing all the brutes, yet Marlow is not shocked or discouraged at all. I actually think the best part of Heart of Darkness for me was the fact that the cannibals were portrayed as allies with restraint, whereas the natives were portrayed as scary savages. It's small, but I thought it was cool how he just simply gave the word "cannibals", which is not a words to describe someone you want to be friends with,a somewhat positive connotation without even trying hard. Overall, I thought the book was really interesting!

HOD

I liked the concept behind Heart of Darkness. I think it was hard to read, which may be attributed to the style that Joseph Conrad wanted to portray. I liked the plot and the idea of the story. The parallels as well as the obvious evolution in Marlow, which can be noted by many factors including his lie at the end of the novel, are very beneficial to the story. I agree with Kathan, the fixation that MArlow has on Kurtz is a bit weird, but at the same time I think all of us have similar obsessions at one point or another.
Someone in class today said that they thought of Kurtz as extremely old, however I think we have to remember that in those time periods people had a much shorter life span than we do today, I would guess 40 years old was considered elderly.
Overall, I liked the novel. I think the term having a Heart of Darkness can be said about everyone. Human kind has definitely proved it has an evil side, and even if you are outwardly an angel, you probably have inner thoughts that reflect a heart of darkness.

Heart of Darkness

I honestly did not completely understand The Heart of Darkness, so my thoughts on it might be completely off.  I thought one of the main themes of the novel was corruption/madness.  This corruption and madness I feel like had a presence in Kurtz throughout the whole novel, but it soon transferred over to Marlow to some extent.  Marlow tells us near the beginning of the book that he can't stand lies.  Yet, at the end of the book, Marlow lies to Kurtz's fiance about Kurtz's last words.  I think that Marlow's obsession with Kurtz kind of led him down the road of corruption.

Heart of Darkness

I just finished Heart of Darkness and I am confused about two things.  The first is why Marlowe likes Kurtz so much.  I understand that he is very interested and fascinated with him, but I do not understand why he wants to defend his reputation.  I also do not really know all of Kurtz's ideology.

Heart of Darkness, presence of evil

In the Heart of Darkness discussion paper, Coach Crook told me to blog on how I believed the jungle represented evil. I said that the jungle is the abstract villain that changes good and pure men into evil sinners upon enterin the jungle. What do y'all think about that. Especially Lani. A little birdie told me you would disagree....

Reading vs listening

When I listened to Heart of Darkness it was a totally different experience that when I read it. I actually felt like I was listening to Marlow telling the story. I even tried listening to it in the dark...very cool, I was really able to relate to how the men in the story must have felt hearing that story in the dark!

Weird Music?

All the music in Apocalypse Now is so eerie! And, I think it's very fitting because we know that in all the mess of the Vietnam War, something else is happening. Can evil take shape in music?

I had a dream

Did anyone else think that Heart of Darkness was very similar to the idea behind Inception. I am thinking specifically where Marlow says that he had his "choice of nightmares," and I think the movie is based on this same idea. When the movie comes to the final scene where the dreidel does not fall, I think this is a perfect example where Cobb decides he wants to live in a certain dream with his kids. We are left to decide if reality is a dream or not. I think the "reality" we see throughout the entire movie is not a dream, but its the one Cobb chooses. It's his nightmare.

Heart of Darkness Quotes

"I did not betray Mr. Kurtz -- it was ordered I should never betray him -- it was written that I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice." (81)

"I felt I was becoming scientifically interesting." (35)

"After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings." (31).

"The snake had charmed me." (23)

"We live in the flicker -- may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday." (20)

Heart of Darkness Quotes

“He lived then before me; he lived as much as he had ever lived – a shadow insatiable of splendid appearances, of frightful realities; a shadow darker than the shadow of the night, and draped nobly in the fold s of a gorgeous eloquence” (Conrad 90)
“I shall see this eloquent phantom as long as I live, and I shall see her too, a tragic and familiar Shade, resembling in this gesture another one, tragic also, and bedecked with powerless charms, stretching bare brown arms over the glitter of the infernal stream, the stream of darkness." (93-94)
“I tell you…this man has enlarged my mind” (70)
“I could not tell her. It would have been too dark — too dark altogether…” (94)
“I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror-of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge?” (86)

Important quotes from Heart of Darkness

1. "There was nothing either above or below him, and I knew it.  He had kicked himself loose of the earth.  Confound the man! he had kicked the very earth to pieces.  He was alone, and I before him did not know whether I stood on the ground or floated in the air."  (83)

2. "The horror!  The horror!" (86)

3. "I was within a hair's- breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say."  (87)

"His was an impenetrable darkness.  I looked at him as you peer down at a man who is lying at the bottom of a precipice where the sun never shines." (86)

"I tried to break the spell of the wilderness--that seemed to draw him into its pitiless breat by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions.  This alone, I was convinced, had driven him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations; this alone had beguiled his unlawful soul beyond the bounds of permitted apirations" (83)

"his intelligence was perfectly clear...his soul was mad" (83)

"It seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile, and I turned mentally to Kurtz for relief--positivey for relief.  'Nevertheless, I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,' I said with emphasis.  He started, dropped on me a cold heavy glance, said very quietly, 'He was,' and turned his back on me.  My hour of favour was over; I found myself lumped along Kurt as a partisan of methods for which the time was not ripe: I was unsound!  Ah!  but it was something to have at least a choice of nightmares." "I had turned myself to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz, who, I was ready to admit, was as good as buried." (79)

"The mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in i, all the past as well as the future." (52)

"Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegitation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings."(49)

favorite quotes from Heart of Darkness

1. The Earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could look upon a thing monstrous and free. 91

2. "who was not his friend who heard him speak once?" she was saying. "He drew men towards him by what was best in them." She looked at me with intensity. "It is the gift of the great" 147

3. Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capabilities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity. Restraint! What possible restraint? ... No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is 99

4. I don't like work - no man does - but I like what is in the work,- the chance to find yourself. Your own reality - for yourself, not others - what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it means. 80

Heart of Darkness Quotes

So, last Friday on my assignments notebook I wrote down "Blog. Quotes for heart of darkness." and Im not exactly sure if I meant to blog about quotes from Heart of Darkness or Blog and start looking up critical quotes for Heart of Darkness so I figure Ill just stick with option #1...

Near the end when Marlowe is in the innerstation he reflects that "it was something to have atleast a choice of nightmares"(Conrad 79). This quote, which is a very direct parellel to what the main army guy in Apocolypse Now says, strikes me as being an almost central theme of the novel. When stated, Marlowe means the nightmares to be following the manager's ways or following the ways of Kurtz. But I think that one can even broaden that more and describe the two nightmares as the savage Congo and the civilized England. From the beginning, the reader is faced with the comparison of England and the Congo. As Marlowe travels deeper into the Congo, he travels deeper into what he calls the heart of darkness, and then at the end of the novel they find themselves back on the riverboat on the Thames river heading back to port in England and he describes their path as "seem[ing] to lead into the heart of an immense darkness"(Conrad 95). So he's pretty much saying that the Congo is darkness and England is darkness and wherever you go, you just can't win. Choosing between which country you want to live in, in this case, is much like choosing between two dark nightmares. It seems that Marlowe is saying that all of life is a nightmare and survival all boils down to choosing which one to live through and sticking to that decision-- pretty depressing if you ask me.

One last thing I wanted to point out was that when Marlowe is talking to Kurtz's widower, he lies about Kurtz's final words. The widower remembers Kurtz as how he was before he realized the darkness of the world which drives him to do treacherous deeds. Instead of telling the widower that Kurtz's final words were "The horror! The horror!"(Conrad 94), he tells her that "[t]he last word he pronounced was- your name"(Conrad 94). I found this very interesting that he made up such a lie because it was he who earlier says "I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie"(Conrad 42). He sacrifices his moral affinity not to lie so that he may leave the widower's memory of Kurtz untainted by the effects of the jungle.

Vassey's Favorite Dark Quotes

1) "The offing was barred by a black band of clouds, and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed sombre under an overcast sky - seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness"(Conrad 117).

2) "It is strange how I accepted this unforeseen partnership, this choice of nightmares forced upon me in the tenebrous land invaded by these mean and greed phantoms"(Conrad 102-3).

3) everything belonged to him. It made me hold my breath in expectation of hearing the wilderness burst into prodigious peal of laughter that would shake the fixed stars in their places.... The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over" (Conrad 73).

4) "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"(Conrad 50).

Reading Assignment 1

" 'The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too.' 'Hanged himself! Why, in God's name?' I cried. He kept onlooking out watchfully. 'Who knows? The sun too much for him, or the country perhaps.'

In both Apocalypse Now & Heart of Darkness, there is an underlining theme of self-destruction. What is the cause of this? At what point does the mind break? Are these individuals looked over? Below I posted a link to CNN; it discusses the alarming rate of American Soldiers suicides.

Article

Reading Assignment 1

I am extremely interested in the women in the Sea trade office and their significance.

"Two women, one fat and the other slim, sat on straw-bottomed chairs, knitting black wool." (Conrad 24)

"Often far away there I though of these two, guarding the door of Darkness, knitting black wool as for a warm pall, one introducing, introducing continuously to the unknown, the scrutinising the cheery and foolish faces with unconcerned old eyes. Ave! Old knitter of black wool. Morituri te saluntant."

I believe that these women are a mythological allusion; they are the Greek Fates. They weave a dark cloth  the way the fates weaved the futures of the humans. The cloth of the Fates foretells the future of the individual; and the cloth color of the women's is Black with foreshadows the fates of all who enter the office and sign up for this venture into the jungle.

Heart of Darkness

Evil Students, as you  begin reading Conrad's novel and as we begin viewing Apocalypse Now, I look forward to your posting your responses and questions.  Please remember to place them under the "category" of Heart of Darkness.