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My general notes on this book . . .
This doesn't really interest me much; kinda' wordy, unnecessarily wordy, IMO.
It depresses me too . . . just the way these men think they're the greatest thing since pop-up toasters - like these foreign lands are just waiting for them to arrive and show them how to live and what faith they ought to be following.
Anyway, in all fairness, I'm giving it to the end of this chapter, then if I still don't like the book (still find it a tedious read), I'm closing it.
You know what they say - so many books, so little time.
Last edited by WildCityWoman on Mon Feb 11, 2008 2:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Feeling better about this . . .
Out seeing 'The Golden Compass' today with my granddaughter - enjoyed it immensely.
Anyway, I've just looked over the first few pages of HD - I feel better - I think the reason I considered it to be too wordy is because some of the paragraphs are so long and everything seems crammed together.
I think I'll take a good crack at it tomorrow and see how far I get with it.
Maybe it's because I've already read so much this year (at least 5 books) and have done myself in.
The material in HD is so different from what I've been reading lately - that's probably throwing me off too.
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Section 1 Part II
Page 16
They were dying slowly -- it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now -- nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom. Brought from all the recesses of the coast in all the legality of time contracts, lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient, and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. These moribund shapes were free as air -- and nearly as thin.
OK - now it's GOT me . . . I'm caught up in the story.[/i]
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Section 1, Part 3
Page 13
(I'm going by the way the online version I'm reading is marked)
A nigger was being beaten near by. They said he had caused the fire in some way; be that as it may, he was screeching most horribly. I saw him, later, for several days, sitting in a bit of shade looking very sick and trying to recover himself; afterwards he arose and went out -- and the wilderness without a sound took him into its bosom again.
This infuriates me! Who the hell did our white ancestors think they were anyway? Gods?
The story is obviously taking place in a time when the English, French, etal, considered black people to be nothing more than animals.
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Page 16
Same section, of course . . .
By heavens! there is something after all in the world allowing one man to steal a horse while another must not look at a halter. Steal a horse straight out. Very well. He has done it. Perhaps he can ride. But there is a way of looking at a halter that would provoke the most charitable of saints into a kick.
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Sect 1 Part 4
Page 3
"What a row the brute makes!" said the indefatigable man with the moustaches, appearing near us. "Serve him right. Transgression -- punishment -- bang! Pitiless, pitiless. That's the only way. This will prevent all conflagrations for the future. I was just telling the manager . . ."
Good grief! Just the description of these men with their candles, the bamboo, etc., makes you know what probably started the fire.
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Section 1, Part 4
Page 17
In the actual version of the book I have, this is the end of what I thought was 'chapter'. The next page is merely marked as being II.
Kurtz has finally arrived . . .
As somebody once said in an old movie - what's so important about this chap? You know - the one where somebody else says 'Managing all right, are you?'
For somebody who said she was ready to send this book back to the library and forget it, that somebody being yours truly, I'm really enjoying the story.
It's Sunday night (Monday morning really) 1:20 am and I'm loathe to quit.
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Section II Part 1
The narrator overhears the uncle and nephew talking together - about Kurtz - for heavens' sake! I thought the uncle was 'Kurtz'. Well it shows ta' go ya', what I know.
The ivory . . .
"Anything since then?" asked the other hoarsely.
"Ivory," jerked the nephew; "lots of it -- prime sort -- lots -- most annoying, from him."
What do they mean by that - I thought they were getting ivory there - or are they saying Kurtz has 'found' ivory?
Did they 'receive' ivory at the camp? I'm not sure.
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Sect II Part I
Page 7
I like this bit of sarcasm . . .
In a few days the Eldorado Expedition went into the patient wilderness, that closed upon it as the sea closes over a diver. Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals.
Guess the 'less valuable animals' were the humans.
I was then rather excited at the prospect of meeting Kurtz very soon.
OK - I see . . . Kurtz isn't there yet. I'm curious to meet this guy too.
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Sectr 2 Part 1
Page 13
It was unearthly, and the men were -- No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it -- this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity -- like yours -- the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar.
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Yes, that is how this book got me.....didn't know whether I loved it or hated it but had to read on.
Shows that all books are not just for entertainment.....
I think the way they treat the black people, is how we treat battery hens now (in England anyway). We know it is cruel and wrong - but we do it and keep buying the bloody chickens. I can't swallow it after I've been lazy and bought it and cooked it. No, it's free range for me in future.
Kurtz - now what to make of him. Mad....well to me it is mad to suffer and spend your life searching for such god awful stuff as Ivory. Useless as well as cruel. I got so mad at Conrad - for it being Ivory that I felt he deserved what he suffered......and yet...and yet...I liked him, because I could empathise with his bewilderment. At least he seemed to be asking why ......he was asking why we treat our fellow-man in that way. I was asking why go for the bloody Ivory in the first place. Sorry about the bad-language.....I don't say it in real life.....but that is the effect the book had on me.
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Thanks, Penelope . . .
I never think about chickens and hens - guess I should, but I like to believe that the rules set down by our society here in Canada, are obeyed and our meat comes from animals which are killed in a humane painless fashion.
I study Buddhism, love meditating and listening to dharma talks, but could never become a true Buddhist or a member of Hari Krishna - I like my meat, especially chicken.
My other vices - I smoke and drink lotsa' coffee (decaf, as ordered by the heart doc).
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