I've realized something through this forum... I must enjoy dark and disturbing works. I liked both Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies

I didn't think I was going to like it, but once I got rolling into it, I found it intriguing.

(I did NOT like Lord of the Flies)

Just to let you all know...I just cannot get into the book . Conrad's prose is waaay to annoying for me to make it more than 20 pages. It is kinda tedious...at least right now.

I might still read this in the future...but I just cannot right now...especially while trying to plow through Pinker.

Hello Mr P,

I do sympathize, I really had a hard time reading Heart of Darkness.


Not to worry though, help is at hand: Carly mentioned that she had listened"" to a recording of the book on the Gutenberg project site.
I tried, and I really liked it and wished I had known earlier.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9343

Ophelia wrote:Hello Mr P,

I do sympathize, I really had a hard time reading Heart of Darkness.


Not to worry though, help is at hand: Carly mentioned that she had listened"" to a recording of the book on the Gutenberg project site.
I tried, and I really liked it and wished I had known earlier.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9343

Thanks for the link. I will give it a go...but I am an avid avoider of audio books. Just do not like them.

Though it has been more than a decade since I read Conrad's classic, it still resonates.

I will never forget having to argue with one of my high school teachers in 1988 that Apocalypse Now! was based on the work. Besides the timeless portrayal about imperialism, what always struck me the most was the murky issue of the credibility of not just all of the characters, but even of the narrator and protagonist, Marlow.

Though he spends a lot of time questioning the motives of others, you soon begin wondering just how reliable Marlow is. Martin Sheen did an excellent job in his role throughout Apocalypse Now, like when he has his boozy, hallucinatory breakdown in a sweaty Vietnamese hotel.

In most works, we take it for granted that narrators are giving us truthful, reliable accounts of the events they describes. Conrad brilliantly suggested that even his own protagonists cannot be trusted.

Ophelia wrote: I do sympathize, I really had a hard time reading Heart of Darkness.

I never suspected, Ophelia. You maintained your teacherly neutrality very well!
DWill

Hello Geoffhenley, and welcome to booktalk!

Would you like to tell us a little about yourself by writing an introduction in the Introduction threads?

geoffhenley wrote: In most works, we take it for granted that narrators are giving us truthful, reliable accounts of the events they describes. Conrad brilliantly suggested that even his own protagonists cannot be trusted.

I wish you'd been around when we read the book, Geoff. I can see now that we were circling around this issue, but never really brought it out.
DWill

Geoff and Will,

I have very fond memories of our Heart of Darkness discussion. I disliked reading the book as a college student, but I was thrilled by the discussion at Booktalk.
Geoff, I'm glad you mentioned Apocalypse Now in connection with the book. I tried and tried to get other readers to discuss the film with me at the time, but to no avail!

geoffhenley wrote:

In most works, we take it for granted that narrators are giving us truthful, reliable accounts of the events they describes. Conrad brilliantly suggested that even his own protagonists cannot be trusted.

Yes, this is interesting. Geoff, would you have quotations from HD?

The question of the reliability of the narrator is something we'll be paying attention to in the discussion of Nabokov's Lolita.