/lit/ - Literature

One of the worst books I've ever read

>>11639986
Because of the n word?

>>11639975
marlow becomes kurtz (in a manner)

>>11640201
Because he becomes detatched and disillusioned with western society after seeing the savagery and darkness of the earth? But why does he think kurtz is so remarkable?

This book is just a sad remnant from the colonial past. I'm glad we've moved on from the times when the likes which Heart of Darkness was acceptable.

>>11640349
What would you recommend to rewrite the problematic worldview that hear of darkness implanted in my brain?

>>11640384
Guns, Germs and Steel for starters. I also reccommend Pinker's work.

>>11640406
Why not list a book written by a congolese person?

>>11640427
You're absolutely right, it totally slipped my mind. I am so sorry. Of course an African perspective should be consulted. Read An Image of Africa by China Achebe.

>>11639986
Literally the best book ever written by pages-to-literary-value ratio, just leave this board and never return

>>11640406
Here we see a moron in the wilderness. Watch as it prances along, oblivious to the soul and the wretched fate it will endure in years to come.

>>11640427
Because books are not congolese culture you deprived monkeyfucker. Why don't you consult the primeval and jump off a cliff

>>11640455
kek you're delusional

I didn't get the impression that he admired Kurtz at all. I interpreted it more as a bewilderment at the madness that he was able to create.

>>11640349
You do realize that the book is critical of colonialism, right?

>>11639975
>what was the significance of the Nubian Queen with all the jewelry?
The wealth being appropriated by people like Kurtz

>the darkness yo

>>11639975
Apocalypse Now is way better than this anti-colonialist, white guilting trash.

>>11640406
But Pinker contradicts GGS in the Blank Slate.

>>11639975
Did you know Joseph Conrad was actually Polish? His real name was Józef Korzeniowski.

>>11640455
This. I don't think anything in prose is going to top HoD.

>>11642186
>Apocalypse Now is way better
reluctantly agreed
>anti-colonialist, white guilting trash.
Highly debatable. Perhaps in the sense that it contends that the white man too contains the primal and animal element emblemic of the negro, which is true. I don't believe this is to the detriment of the white man. It's not anti-colonial, at most anti-malcolonial. The company was there solely to exploit and profiteer, which isn't a noble thing.

>>11639975
>Also what was the significance of the Nubian Queen with all the jewelry?
The marriage of oneself to the baser instincts and primitive truths of humanity, the commingling of barbarity with western sophistication. Marlow admired Kurtz for lack of a better word for his sincerity, he lived genuine life.

>>11640455
>>11642199
M o b y D i c k

>>11639975
I watched Apocalypse Now before reading the book. The Russian guy's dialogue is almost exactly the same as Dennis Hopper's character. The scene towards the end when Marlow goes to Kurtz at night was confusing though, probably because I saw the movie first. Was he going there to kill him? Why did Kurtz have his hand on Marlow's throat? And why did the rest of the crew get pissed off at Marlow after they brought Kurtz back down with them on the boat? Maybe I need to re-read but there are some things at the end that didn't really make sense.

>>11642215
pages-to-literary-value though

>>11642199
What a sad meme

>>11640333
I do not take HoD as lieteral as you seem to do.
To me the entire journey into center is an awakeness to enlightment. A realization of the self and of the truth that is implied with this.
Kurtz has reached this absolute state but finds only horror, and not hust cause niggers nigger in colonial Africa and he was so shocked by what he saw; but that idea of savagery at our core is definetly a suggestion. Marlow also being infuriated by Kurtz’s widow that she can’t literally hear Kurtz’s last words shows that Marlow believes in a surreal omnipresence of everything.

>>11642766
Go suck off Joyce or Proust or something. Those hacks will never reach the unreality and obsession in Conrad's writing.

>>11640443
Chinua Achebe wasn't Congolese

>>11642538
Yes, and?

>>11643031
I felt like he was annoyed by the widow because she was a normie who could never understand what they saw and what kurtz became.

>>11642215
Damn he might be right tho even thonitsmlike 650 pages

>>11639975
Because Kurtz is an ubermensch. He idolizes him for his strenght and intelligence. He is better than all the people Marlow has met along the way. He, as an untermensch, is bound to idolize Kurz

>>11640333
>Because he becomes detatched and disillusioned with western society after seeing the savagery and darkness of the earth?

He doesn't really blame just the western society. He blames people, who colonize as a whole, that's why roman Britain is juxtaposed with the Congo. He sees the cruelty such savage places wake in people

>>11644127
If he's so great, how come he got ill?

>>11644147
Because he is still human. Ubermesch doesn't mean he's a fucking superhero. Besides, Conrad was a moral absolutist, so Kurz had to die for his sins, as all his heroes eventually do

>>11643464
ok.

Marlow idolised Kurtz because he was thought to be imposing White norms onto the blackest of Black Africans. The journey into the Heart of Darkness is that the Black Africans had imposed their norms onto Kurtz, and instead of being a Caesar training Gauls into civilisation, Kurtz was transformed into an African tribal chief, complete with Black wife, corrupted to their worst bestial nature.

The novella is a warning of the power of African corruption of White civilised norms that Conrad had witnessed as a sailor. It was a warning ignored, now Marlow could have demonstrated his story to the Thames boat crew by stepping off the ship into South London instead of telling a story about river trips to Africa.

>>11644965
>go on the literature discussion board
>hop into a thread discussing a book
>post that

Ok.

>>11645027
underrated

>>11645027
Damn

>>11640349
I'm so fucking tired of faggots like you on my board. Get out and never come back.

>>11640349
When does le narwhal bacon?

>people complaining about the book being colonialist or "anti-white"
I knew this board had become infested by plebs but not to this point

>>11645027
Laughter stops.jpg

>>11645027
That's cute but Marlow is pretty critical of the Company, a White people-run organization imposing its rule on the Dark Continent without mercy or restraint. I guess he thinks Kurtz would do it differently, better than that, carry the White man's burden proudly on his shoulders, but when he finds him the man had sunken lower than low. Not just a ruthless but pragmatic colonist, but something even worse, a tribal warchief touched by the insanity of the deep jungle. But it's not about the Blacks specifically affecting Kurtz with their icky presence, it's just about White civilization being a fragile facade which peels off way too easily in dark places and dark times. Marlow's warning is ignored, though. After all, it's the peak of the Western civilization, the turn of the century, the White man is conquering the skies and the darkest reaches of the Earth. We've risen above the primitive cruelty and barbarism. It's only going to get better in the XX century, right?

>>11645027
Weak fucking bait. Marlow criticises the colonists and pities the tortured Africans

>The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much