Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2003-07-18 09:17 am
azurelunatic) wrote2003-07-18 09:17 am
Why _The Heart of Darkness_ could be written:
The story of Kurtz's descent into darkness was made possible, in that setting, by good, old-fashioned fear-of-the-Other, and the inherent belief that British society was the best, the only, way for an Englishman to conduct himself. To slip from that, to see things through the eyes of the Other, to become tyrant over the Other and, in doing so, yourself become the Other, was unthinkable, horrible.
Shrunken heads are displayed about the house. The idea implied is that Kurtz put them there himself, or caused them to be placed there. This is horrible to the British sensibilities, and perhaps a step beyond what the original tribe would have done themselves?
There was this horror of 'going native'. It was not only a paradigm shift, a change in thoughts, but it was a betrayal of all that the culture held to be good, true, and right. To be an Englishman was to sit at the top of society. There was no imaginable better outlook on life but that of God. To deny this heritage, to abandon it, was to betray it.
I found that the novel hinted of dark deeds, and a great evil, but I found in there just a rather lot of culture clash, and one man going slowly nuts.
As he believed that to go native was to become evil, he found evil within himself, and embraced it. It stands today as an example of the power of the mind, the power of preprogrammed preconceptions.
Shrunken heads are displayed about the house. The idea implied is that Kurtz put them there himself, or caused them to be placed there. This is horrible to the British sensibilities, and perhaps a step beyond what the original tribe would have done themselves?
There was this horror of 'going native'. It was not only a paradigm shift, a change in thoughts, but it was a betrayal of all that the culture held to be good, true, and right. To be an Englishman was to sit at the top of society. There was no imaginable better outlook on life but that of God. To deny this heritage, to abandon it, was to betray it.
I found that the novel hinted of dark deeds, and a great evil, but I found in there just a rather lot of culture clash, and one man going slowly nuts.
As he believed that to go native was to become evil, he found evil within himself, and embraced it. It stands today as an example of the power of the mind, the power of preprogrammed preconceptions.
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As he believed that to go native was to become evil, he found evil within himself, and embraced it.
Excellent point, and as he was not the native, even after "going native," he had power. It was that power, which he got by virtue of not being native, that corrupted him.
I like Conrad. Nice to see another J.C. reader :)
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