Joseph Conrad

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i have a book report due on joseph conrads the heart of darkness and the secret sharer, i just need to know a little about the book so that when it comes time to take the test, i wont fail. What is the plot and i need to know a little about the characters.

>>By jamie   (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 13:00)



I want to know if a book of Edward Said can be applied to Heart of Darkness and how?

>>By nadine   (Saturday, 25 Jan 2003 13:00)



Heart of darkness is one of the best tales that the human imagination had written. I reccomend it to all of yours. Movies like Apocalipse now or Alien were inspired in this amazing book.

>>By Meliadus   (Tuesday, 11 May 2004 19:57)



I have just stated reading Heart of Darkness and i am enjoying it, but am finding it a difficult book to read. I thought that if i read some of Conrads other books it might help me, so can anyone suggest any other books of his, please help.......thanku.

>>By Peni   (Monday, 13 Dec 2004 21:10)



conrad is a scapists means to befuddled forests of the human psyche..a revelation of horros unbenounced..minds suffocated, with them..clouds contaminating inhabitants

>>By LINZ OF ASTRA   (Tuesday, 14 Dec 2004 19:49)



Contrad had a Colonial overview when he wrote "Heart of Darkness".
A Post Structuralist reading could is the best way to approach the book.
Ofcourse it could be critically read along with Edward Said's books.

>>By mint   (Friday, 17 Dec 2004 04:08)



(I don't exactly remeber the character names, I read the book long back ago)

Marlow is the central character of the story and he sets to find another adventurer (His name I don't remember). The theme is that when the Marlow finds the man, he had become beast-like with the influence if a native cult.

The undertones in the book is that even the "Ideologically driven" Whiteman could be fall into the darkness with the influence of the African -Civilization.

Blackness-Strangeness-fearness all these factors play vital roles in the critical reading of book.

"Clearly a Western Centric book"

>>By mint   (Friday, 17 Dec 2004 04:23)



more psychitic-essentialist-centric book in my view

>>By LINZ OF ASTRA   (Friday, 17 Dec 2004 15:05)



western centric...
Well of course, it's hard for a western man (like Conrad) to be eastern.
But the point of the book is not that Africa is strange and fearful, but that someone can be sucked in by something or some place that is, no matter what or where. It's about the proces of leaving your own safe life behind and discovering dangerous places, not the least in your own head.
Conrad of course used Africa to fill in that strange place, because he apparantly thought it to be that way. Now i ask you: who would say even today that large parts of Africa are NOT dangerous?

>>By saeby   (Friday, 17 Dec 2004 15:59)



"Dangerous" is a very much relative word.

Strange-fear-Danger are all closely associated.

The most prominent fear of a humanbeing is towards Strange, unexplored things.

This unexplored nature of Africa induce "Dangerous" feeling in Westerners.

This theory is some what appicable to Westerners (not all), overview towards east.

It is nobody's fault but human nature.

The best way to tackle a Strange thing is not fearing it but trying to understand it.

>>By mint   (Saturday, 18 Dec 2004 12:21)



About the book -
Contrad himself was a Sailor and who got inspiration from his time and sailed after the calls of unexplored lands.

The book is an attempt to unexplore the territories of human mind but the point of view he used to narrate the book is outdated.

I will even dare to say that the book lost its relevence after Contrad's time. Ofcourse we could read it as an Adventure book.

>>By mint   (Saturday, 18 Dec 2004 12:38)



I'm currently writing an essay on it. The portrayal of Africa and Africans is outdated sure, Conrad was a child of his times. But that's not the most important aspect of the book. It is really about human weakness and fear of the unknown.

>>By Flagg   (Tuesday, 5 May 2009 00:00)



Just a general observation . . .there is a novel by Naipaul that I think would be a Great Contrast/Comparison i.e. "foil" for a reading of "Heart of Darkness. I have "A Bend in the River" in mind here. When I first read HoD, I was quite fascinated by the style . . .but I had read "Secret Sharer" earlier, having seen a short film adaptation with James Mason [late late night movie on TV]. In the case of HoD there is an Impressionistic Palette which is quite Symphonic with leitmotifs a-plenty . . .I just enjoying working those out . . .I recall the "permutations" and development of the Ivory Theme is quite complex . . .I would think that Conrad's "Secret Agent" would be a Great Follow-Up . . . I'm not quite content with anyone's "political" reading of the book . . .I couldn't see much in Conrad's "politics" at all . . .but he did delve quite deeply into the human Psyche . . .some background in Jung's Archetypes might be useful . . . in many ways I find "Secret Sharer" to be much satisfying aesthetically/stucturally . . .these are general opinions. I do believe that reading various Conrad Texts was quite formative on my intellectual development as a late teenager . . .I guess the next major authors that I got into after Conrad were Joyce and Pynchon . . .and I still Revere Joyce . . .I guess that just kind of stays in the blood . . .once one breaks through the Mask of Reason . . .to the Core beneath . . ."Heart of Darkness" . . .perhaps.

>>By satorotas   (Friday, 29 May 2009 00:00)



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