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/lit/ - Literature

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3999445 No.3999445 [Reply] [Original]

So I just finished of this and I gotta say, I don't get it. I mean it was a nice read and all but I don't understand what everyone says about it.

I was under the impression that it was to be a journey into the horrors, savagery and darkness in the heart of man. That Kurtz was to be a character of profound meaning.

Instead I got what seemed to be a lazy trip up a river where nothing much happened, certainly nothing horrific or savage so as to make you question the nature of man as I was lead to believe I would feel after reading. Most disappointingly of all, Kurtz was barely even a character at all. Having less than a paragraph of dialogue in total and pretty much no mention of things he'd done or experienced, it didn't inspire in me at all the characters of the novel seem to feel, that I was supposed to feel.

Am I just too shallow to get it? Is the novel laden with subtext that I skimmed over somehow? Someone explain this book to me because I just didn't get it.

>> No.3999532

Apocalypse Now was better

>> No.3999541

It's more about the racism present in colonialism that was so common in Conrad's day.

>> No.3999634

>>3999541
Well that's boring

>> No.3999652

I feel ashamed to say that I feel the same way as you OP.
I had just started to delve into literature and Heart of Darkness was my first liaison.
I feel as if I missed something by the end of it since it had no impact on me whatsoever.

>> No.3999679

>>3999652
Well at least I'm not the only one. It's just so disappointing because I was really excited to read it.

>> No.3999683

Not enough gunfights for you, OP?

Heart of Darkness subverts the ideas of nobility, God, civilization, authority, greatness, and ambition all in under 200 pages. It's the greatest literary critique against imperialism of all time.

>> No.3999690

>>3999683
Chill out man, he isn't saying it sucks and "lol its just boring shit for hipsters this book is gey :DD", he's just saying he didn't get it and to be honest neither did I.

>> No.3999699

>certainly nothing horrific or savage

>those heads on pikes
>his black friend dying
>Kurtz going mad in the jungle
>the savage attack on the boat
>the pilgrims who started shooting the savages for shits and giggles

>> No.3999700

>>3999683
But how does it do those things? I didn't get any of that reading it.

It just seemed like it was no deeper than exactly what it was. A guy telling a story. I mean at the end when he's explaining how he felt after returning from Africa I couldn't for the life of me understand how he came to those feelings. Certainly not from Kurtz because he experienced basically nothing with or of the man.

I just don't get it.

>> No.3999705

>>3999690
What's there not to get? This is high school reading. AMERICAN high school reading.

>> No.3999706

Conrad did a lot more with the symbolism and metaphors in the description of their journey through the environment and the people they encounter then he did with the dialogue and actions of the characters

>> No.3999707

>>3999699

How was the idea that Kurtz had gone mad conveyed though? He didn't really do or say anything at all. The only meaningful thing he said was "the horror" and I feel that hardly wholly communicated the message the book was trying to send.

>> No.3999711

this must be an elaborate rusing

>> No.3999720

>>3999699

Even Marlowe himself said the heads on pikes didn't take him aback. He was merely surprised because he was expecting wooden knobs.

Hmm...Maybe that was the point though now that I think about it.

>> No.3999721

>>3999707
He was an ivory trader who had a chance of getting a high function at the trading company, he dropped all that ambition because he'd rather wanted to be some spiritual leader to savages. The 'darkness' transformed him into a mad human being who lost all contact with reality

>> No.3999733

>>3999721
I suppose. I guess I was just expecting so much more from his character. It seemed to me all he did was say "The horror!" and then died.

>> No.3999749

>>3999733
Well, that's kind of the point I believe. Marlow thought Kurtz was the only great human being in the 'darkness' and instead Kurtz was some thin, ill, dying, mad man

>> No.3999770

>>3999733
Yeah, I was too. But after thinking about it, the way we see Kurtz at the end is more in line with the book. The jungle ate away at him and turned him into a shadow of his former self.

>> No.3999781

I feel like heart of darkness is meant to evoke the feeling of fighting through a jungle. Taking a mental machete to Conrad's dense, impassable prose allows you realize the futility of

Okay I hated this book. It was dry, boring, and not as horrifying as it seemed to think it was. Also, did it really need two framing devices?

>> No.3999787

>>3999541
No it isn't. If that's all you got from the book I feel bad for you son.

>> No.3999831

>>3999541

>I just got through reading this in my high school

>> No.3999873

true artists don't make it easy for the reader, OP. search the details, the subtle brilliance, context and message and read it again.

>> No.3999882

>>3999652
>>3999445

Heart of Darkness was my first literature as well and I loved it. To me it seemed helpless being in that Congo, surrounded by savages who are lost in their own instinctual emotions; and here comes Kurtz, a man whose more savage than the savagrs, he goes into darkness head first, and comes out with heads on pikes. He doesn't do it because of primitive instict or pleasure, but by damn does that man have a will to accomplish what he needs (wealth, ivory)

>> No.3999910

>>3999721

>he dropped all that ambition because he'd rather wanted to be some spiritual leader to savages

M8 the reason why he became their spiritual leader was to drive his ambition further (and the reason why he got so much ivory). The man welcomed darkness until it overcame him

I think the problem is there are many hidden references in the book, and I had a book that would explain them to you in the end notes (like about the white sepulcher (from the bible), the snake river (congo), the colors on the map (signifying who owns what territory) and many more)