Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
I decided I should write something after I finish a book. Bearing this in mind, I pay more attention to notice what is the impression does the book want to proclaim. It is usually not a unequivocal manifest. Sometimes I am overwhelmed by immense feelings and they strongly prompt my emotions. Assured by the actual distance from the fictional events, I would feel relieved and start to get the gist of the story. Sometimes it works differently. I would feel I just read a really intriguing story. When the story finds its way into your mind in a moment of real life, all your attention is drawn to ponder the nuances between the story and the reality. And I will be in awe for the cunning author of how observant they are in their life. All in all, there are patterns to settle my frenzy along the read into something. And I label this book with this tag and put it into the shelf.
All this being said, Conrad is nowhere to fit in this spectrum of mine to understand a novel. And I know he would not want to. He clearly took pride of his Congo experience that can not be understood from most human beings. It is easy for readers to assume that his novel is merely an imaginary extention of his trip. However, this is questionable, given that all his depictions and sketches are almost never put into use in the novel. The content of the novel itself, can be developed into its current form without any of his knowledge from his trip. The distinction between Conrad’s factual material and imaginative source is still debated today.
With even all my effort to just understand the motivation of this novel, it is not even a start to peek into what this book is leading you to. It lurks in a place that Conrad himself must take to be a unique corner. If anything I might audaciously take away from this book, it is that Conrad wrote in a reckless way, given that it might not resonate with anyone or anyone’s piece of life and he knew it. But he must suppose that, in a solitary moment of one’s life who has read the book, will hear his words swell almost threatingly in the air. Those symbolic words are strongly suggested by Conrad himself, a strong believer of that all creativity comes from an imaginative revision into one’s past experience, reside in the darkness of our hearts.
09.03.2024
homepage 