September Book Discussion - Heart of Darkness

lemon_sherbert

Hi everybody, I'm still reading Heart of Darkness, but for anyone's who has read the book, this month or in times past, and wants to kick off discussion about what you thought of the book here's the place to do it.:)

buck65

This book made me feel ill at times - you know ... queasy. Good literature should have an effect.
If you like this try Celine's "Journey to the end of the night".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_to_the_End_of_the_Night

narrowgate

Heart of Darkness is an excellent book on so many levels - it challenges our concept of what is civilisation, it reveals the ambiguity of morality and draws into sharp focus the darkness of our hearts and our world - 'the horror! The horror!"

I read Conrad's 'Lord Jim' and was dissappointed.

'Apocalypse Now' is based on the Heart of Darkness with Brando giving an memorable performance as Kurzt

MarkB

I didn't find the book particularly interesting. Not a whole lot happens and for me the language was overly descriptive. What was the message the author was trying to get across. Was it that venturing into and living in the heart of the Congo was to risk madness? If this was the message I don't think the reasons why the heart of the congo is 'the heart of darkness' are clear. Forgetable.

narrowgate

Conrad is not arguing that to venture into the congo is to enter the heart of darkness. The heart of darkness is the potential for evil within each man. At first glance Conrad seems to spouting the early 20th century line that the 'primitive' man is evil while the 'civilised' european is the beacon of moral superiority.

In fact what he reveals is that the 'civilised' man has developed more ways of being corrupt.

John

I recognise the merits of the book but I really, really, really hate Conrad's writing style. Turgid, verbose and overwrought in the worst ways.

MudSkipper

His message on civilization, morality and the evil of men was not lost on me and I can see why it is classed as a classic.

Reading it was a hard slog tho, I could not read more than a dozen or two pages at a time. The writing style was too verbose, pretentious and never failed to make my eyes heavy.

Hmm, must dig it up and put it beside the bed for when I can't get to sleep :pac:

narrowgate

Granted, it is not a light read but I found the insights in it quite rewarding.

What are you making of it Lemon Sherbert?

lemon_sherbert

narrowgate wrote: »

What are you making of it Lemon Sherbert?

To be honest, I'm not really enjoying it. As has been said, the style is very dry and I can't really sit down and get into the book, I only read a page or two at the time. Some of the scenes are terribly upsetting too.

raah!

Alas! I have not managed even to start this due to time consuming end-of-holiday debauchery. I realise this is no contribution to the thread, but I thought I may as well explain myself since I said I'd be participating in this weeks thing-job.

BossArky

Heart of Darkness .... I found this a very very tough book to get through a few years ago. I don't remember enough to give any sort of a review. Bad sign.

Probably not the best choice. The book club could probably do with some more accessible books which people can fly through instead of getting bogged down and put off.

narrowgate

Probably not the best choice. The book club could probably do with some more accessible books which people can fly through instead of getting bogged down and put off.[/quote]

Well in that regard may I suggest a book which I am currently re-reading entitled 'Crome Yellow' by Aldous Huxley. It is a light, short and enjoyable read?

ally2

I'm still reading and enjoying it so far. The language is very descriptive but pretty impressive when you consider he only learned English at 20 and started to write in English when he was in his mid-30s!