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IV-1- HD: imperialism, ancient history and Victorian era.

#44: Feb. - Mar. 2008 (Fiction)
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Robert Tulip

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Penelope wrote:Quoting Robert Tulip "I suggest that Conrad sees untouched nature as in touch with God, and the rape of nature and of those who live lightly on it as the greatest moral problem of our age."
Nope!!!! I am not having that....Conrad lived in the Victorian age when life for most people in the West was not as comfortable as it is for us now. Nature is harsh and cruel for the most part.....In order to make our lives comfortable and even to preserve them whilst we are here on this planet, we have to shield ourselves from nature. I think the 'Mother Nature' picture is sentimentality......raw in tooth and claw....more like. Nature is very beautiful......Volcanic Eruptions are very beautiful..... What makes you suggest that Conrad sees untouched nature as in touch with God? Quote me something please?
Penelope, thank you for this question. I am more used to being ignored than having to defend a claim I make, so I do appreciate your comment. I think Conrad is critiquing these Victorian values which you imply he shared. 'Shielding' ourselves from nature results in distorted pathologies, with the prime example the Genesis calls to subdue and multiply. Conrad is drawing attention to the modern consequences of the unthinking use of this biblical myth. My view is that one of the important lessons of HD is that truth (ie God) appears more within nature than within the human effort at control. The Congo River is morally superior to the King of Belgium.

I will take relevant HD quotes from those I cited at http://www.booktalk.org/heart-of-darkness-t4250-40.html page 5, posted 2 Feb.

"the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible, like evil or truth" p33

"Going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings." p48

"stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention" p 48

"inner truth is hidden, luckily, luckily, but I felt it all the same" p 49

The way I read these comments is that Conrad is presenting a critique of mainstream European thought, especially Hobbes' claim that the life of nature is nasty brutish and short. JC's experience of Africa suggests a vision of nature as "great and invincible", words which apply more to truth than to evil, perhaps a deliberate irony. It is interesting that Conrad gives us this choice though
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Penelope

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Robert said:-

The sense of disharmony on the part of Kurtz is a parable for European alienation from nature.

I don't think Kurtz was alienated from nature Robert. He chose to live in the jungle (with the 'savages') at the sharp end of it after all.

I think Conrad was showing us the shallowness of the man. He became obsessed with collecting Ivory for its own sake......not to make himself rich and comfortable. He enjoyed the Kudos of the natives' and the white mens' admiration......He seems to have just grown in base pride to the exclusion of growing any spiritual dimension. There seems to have been no kindness, no compassion, no 'depth' of character to him......he seems to have become a monster.

I am sure we can all think of instances in real life where this has happened to people......I am not naming names here. But I know what the Bible means when it says that 'Pride' is the deadliest of all the seven sins.
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