Heart of Darkness

I first read this waaaaay back in my first semester of college in English Lit 101. The theme of the class was “Apocalyptic Literature.” I think what I got from it at the time was something like “river...natives...crazy guy...movie made about book.” I probably wrote a five paragraph essay about it. I've been sort of curious about it since then and picked up again, it's a quick read.

It's hard not to wonder what you'd do if you were in Kurtz's situation. Up a river in the Congo, suddenly finding yourself free of any social mores and among a primitive people who alternate between worshiping you and wanting to kill you. The Thames couldn't feel further away and the allure of the jungle is strong. I don't know. I can see myself going native.

These are some of my favorite quotes:

Supernatural fear in the darkness of the Congo:

...then the usual sense of commonplace, deadly danger, the possibility of a sudden onslaught and massacre, or something of the kind, which I saw impending, was positively welcome and composing. It pacified me, in fact, so much that I did not raise an alarm.

But both the diabolic love and the unearthly hate of the mysteries it had penetrated fought for the possession of that soul satiated with primitive emotions, avid of lying fame, of sham distinction, of all the appearances of success and power.

I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable greyness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamour, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid scepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be.