[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 60 KB, 353x526, heartofdarkness.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10961924 No.10961924 [Reply] [Original]

What is the point of this novella? I know it's rather basic literature, but I've read it a few times and can't seem to grasp a very major meaning. He just seems to be pointing out that the men conducting the imperial venture are just as evil and savage as those they claim to be "civilizing", and that the mission of "civlizing the savages" is a hypocritical pretense for exploitation. Am I missing some deep meaning?

>> No.10961938

>>10961924
The Horror!

>> No.10962148

it's a fun exercise in racism

>> No.10962177
File: 76 KB, 1080x1164, cd0abcd2.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10962177

>Stories have to have "a point"
>Not indulging in art for arts sake
Pleb detected

>> No.10962196

>>10962177
I do read for pleasure, but I feel like a brainlet if I don't actively try to analyse while reading. It leads to me having mental anguish over whether or not I'm truly appreciating what I'm reading that I just don't read in the first place

>> No.10962206

>>10961938
But... what was "the horror"? Why did he never explain what was so horrific? What did Kurtz do? Fuck chimps?

>> No.10962327

>>10962177
art always has a point though.

>> No.10962382

it's a compound of sympathy for humankind and a high tragical disgust
we are persuaded there is something, after all, something essential, waiting for all of us in the dark alleys of the world

>> No.10962401

>>10962206
yeah. exactly. mankind? imperialism? the savages? whatever the 'heart' of darkness really was. something aboriginally loathsome, immeasurable, and certainly, nameless

>> No.10962419

>>10961924
Niggers LOL

>> No.10962426

>>10962401
It was the fact that despite all of Europe's progress towards civilization, men are still wild, horrid creatures. That chaos had not been conquered, merely hidden, and indeed could not be conquered.

>> No.10962440
File: 1.24 MB, 367x277, 1504795118005.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10962440

>b-but evil imperialism!

Conrad's point was that it doesn't matter how civilized we think ourselves because man's true nature is unalterable.

>> No.10962505

>>10962401
So Lovecraftian...

>> No.10963190

Conrad is shit m8, read Robert Louis Stevenson he is what Conrad would be if he was a good writer

>> No.10964600

>>10962177
The only good post

>> No.10964683

>>10961924
>reading for 'what the author was REALLY trying to say'
Worse than reading for plot tbphwy

>> No.10965052

>>10964683
i think that's actually the only decent reason for reading

>> No.10965791

>>10965052
In that case why would you read the original text and not the Wikipedia page?

>> No.10965827

>>10965791
because you'll probably get a better idea from the book. all art is really a conversation with the artist.

>> No.10965848

Dammit, what's that quote about the 'meaning' behind art? Something like a composer is asked what the meaning behind his latest piece is, and he replies 'if I could tell you that in a few words, my dear, I wouldn't have composed it'. Could have been a painter instead. There's also at least one similar line from a novelist or poet.

>> No.10965872

>>10965827
Ah, I thought you meant reading for a single super-secret 'message' which renders actually reading the thing redundant. Eg OP refers to a 'major meaning', as if Conrad had planned to write 'civilisation is a wafer-thin veneer over man's natural barbarity' and accidentally a whole novel with a dude and a boat instead.

>> No.10965880
File: 8 KB, 191x263, milkman333.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
10965880

>>10961924

Here's Heart of Darkness in 2 sentences:

Sure is boring on this boat, anybody know a good story?
That was quite a story.

>> No.10966986

>>10961924
Well, I think there's another more subtle suggestion that the attempt to civilize savages far away helps corrupt the civilizers, but you've got most of it.

Really, the best part of the book is the excellent prose that he uses while exploring the intended meaning.

>> No.10967330

>>10962426
This. It's about by nature of man.

>> No.10967448

>>10961924
It's either about the corrupting influence of corrosive institutions; or about the inherent darkness and lust for power and domination in all men, regardless of race. Or both. I don't know. I haven't read it in a long time.

>> No.10967479

it's about how people like to distance themselves from certain types of people, when under it all we have the same capacity for barbaric action. we are all capable of doing everything every human has ever done. pretty good book desu

>> No.10967630

secretly appalled

>> No.10967642

>>10962177
Phase undergraduate Marxist service wage slave detected

>> No.10968143

charlie don't surf!

>> No.10968184

>>10967479
>we are all capable of doing everything every human has ever done
yep

>> No.10968233

>>10961924
hey I'm doing an essay on this right now for my 3rd year bachelors in literature. There are many different ways to read this book, and though the one you touched on (and that most people in this thread are commenting on) may be the most straightforward, post-colonial interpretation, you can also read Heart of Darkness as a commentary on literary ambiguity, modes of representation, or as a question- maybe asking what "humanity" is. Some fun symbols you can check out on the reread might be the usage of mist and fog, or maybe exotism and the east (see Marlow as the Buddha), or maybe even the usage of shadow as a means to explore certain concepts which may be intentionally left obscure. Its a pretty fun book, if a little bit racist

>> No.10968290

>>10962177
why is she so literally perfect brehs