Heart of Darkness

Depressing! I read this in my teenage years and hated it!

This is a short, yet profoundly dark novel. It follows a seagoing narrator, Marlow, who travels up the Congo River during the height of European imperialism in Africa to reach a secluded trading post led by a man named Kurtz. Conrad describes the depravity and horrors of imperialism as Marlow goes further up the river, but this novel carries deeper and darker layers of meaning.
A philosophical reading of Marlow and Kurtz reveals a discussion of facing the terrible nature of Western civilization and concluding with a lack of meaning in life; look out for these elements in Marlow’s philosophizing and Kurtz’ character. An even more grave contention of Conrad’s in Heart of Darkness is the idea of phenomenological independence-- basically that no one can truly communicate anything to anyone, and that our experiences are un-understandable; this is shown throughout the novel in the characters’ interactions and Marlow’s beliefs.
This is a really, really dense read-- there’s a lot to unpack here, and at times it’s difficult to comprehend what is even going on at a surface level. But there are plenty of riveting ideas and profound conclusions to come from this novel-- not least in analyzing Conrad’s treatment and depictions of the Congolese and other African people.
Whether you agree or disagree with Conrad’s portrayals of certain groups and his contentions in Heart of Darkness, this novel is certainly worth a read and carries immense relevance to our lives today.

Regarded by most as Joseph Conrad’s masterpiece, Heart of Darkness is a tale of colonialism and apathy. The main character is changed on his journey through the heart of the Congo, and what he sees and experiences turns him into a different man entirely. He spends the majority of the time fascinated by the enigmatic head of the station, and his interactions are symbolic of a lot more than meets the eye. With mysterious storytelling and enough packed into the words to spend months analyzing, Heart of Darkness is a short read that can last longer than seems possible.

There's so much going on in this short novel / story. The horror of European pillaging in Africa. The petty concerns of selfish functionaries whose only talent, only virtue, only superpower is to stay physically healthy in a place that routinely kills other Europeans through indigenous people's attacks, through disease, and through technology break downs.
As you no doubt know, the movie Apocalypse Now is based on Heart of Darkness with some exact quotes but moved around. The phrase "for my sins" is much later in the book, and the movie uses it differently, for example.
But the questions of Truth and of moral responsibilities are posed in both the book and the movie. It's a short enough read, so give it a go and see what you think.
In these times where persons of color are writing their own view and voice of some Western Civ stories and tropes, I wonder how someone of that culture(-al) background might re-tell a similar story?

As with much of Conrad's work, so much has been written about this short novel that I feel compelled to ignore the obvious and meander farther afield, if for no other purpose than to place "Heart of Darkness" into a more personal context, a viewpoint that expresses its relevance to me, at this particular moment in my life. The fact that I've just read it now, in the second week of self-imposed quarantine while a ruthless virus-driven pandemic stalks the world, has cast upon Conrad's work an astringent atmosphere, a somber illumination over and above the lugubrious shades created by the writer. The tale related by Conrad's protagonist Marlow is permeated by a sense of inevitability, of an impenetrable world beyond the control or even the comprehension of 'civilized' man. Such is also the case with this COVID-19 event: neither its future course nor its impact upon each of us personally and on our known world can be predicted with any degree of confidence. What we can say is that it has already changed us, as did Marlow's experience along that river of darkness.
As I followed Marlow's moment of decision, when he was obliged to take one side or the other in the grim contest of wills between Kurtz and the Manager, a choice that may well have determined whether he would survive, I'm acutely aware of the importance of choices that I, my family and the leaders of society are making each day. Marlow had nothing but his own instincts and his grasp on some remote cosmic reality to guide him. The situation he faced was entirely new to him. He was surrounded by a population whose beliefs and state of mind he could not penetrate and with whom he could not even communicate directly. He had no points of reference and his decision could not be delayed.
We are today also trying to find our way through a very dark valley. How appropriate!

This book was a difficult read as the endless metaphors became tedious and therefore, the plot was hard to follow. I struggled to stay engaged and did not enjoy the style of writing. I may try and re-read this book in a few years, once I am more comfortable with the mature language.

One of my favourite books to read and to teach. When I first read it umpteen years ago I found it hard work, but I've since realised that that is the point, really. You have to read it slowly, reread parts of it, digest it. Put it into context. And also note what we are told in the book of the internal narrator Marlow's tales, that they are not straightforward in meaning. That applies to the text as a whole. Read it and absorb it all, and you will be amply rewarded. If you want something to read quickly for fun, look elsewhere, folks.

a pleasant journey into the depth of wild +++

How the author could put that story together is a mystery.

Am I glad to be done with this awful book.

To be clear, I enjoy classics. I'm big fan of The Idiot and Dracula, and I read quite a bit and usually very quickly. But this book took me a long time considering its rather short length, and it was a snooze. The prose is so thick as to be impenetrable. There is only ever so much useless, pointless pontification which I can take in with my two eyes before the superfluous excess of verbiage overwhelms my senses reducing me to an aching pile of why the crap am I reading this?

And this also,” said Marlow out of nowhere, “has been one of the darkest places of the earth.” Vivid, hallucinatory, haunting.