Kurtz sits at the heart of the darkness in Heart of Darkness . I think Robert is correct that his descent epitomizes the true nature of the colonial enterprise laid bare, stipped of all the euphemisms and pretensions of noble purpose. But is what happens to Kurtz a descent or an actualization? Do we...

Robert Tulip wrote: There is a big difference between 'men and ships' being the subject and the stage for a novel. For Heart of Darkness they are just the stage. Of course, there is. When an author like Conrad or Melville writes about men and ships, those things are, as you say, the setting. They a...

Robert Tulip wrote:

George Ricker wrote:Conrad seems most interested in telling tales of men and ships.

I don't agree

For those who are interested, my article on the so-called "Florida Marriage Protection Amendment" ran in Dissident Voice on Feb. 18th. The url is:

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/02/a ... -marriage/

George

Conrad's portrayal of the women in Heart of Darkness is sketchy at best. When he says anything at all, he seems to reflect the chauvinistic attitudes that were probably fairly typical for the time and place. As someone else has noted, Conrad seems most interested in telling tales of men and ships. W...

Chris OConnor wrote:Thanks guys. I am on my laptop sitting next to my father in hospice. He has been totally nonresponsive for 3 full days. This is so hard.

There are no good words for such times, Chris, except to send my best wishes to you and your family. You're in my thoughts.

George

[quote="tlpounds"] Hi Boys! I simply posed the idea of Eternal Return as a possible explanation for how the Nativists can even think to argue in favor of innate meanings/words since birth. However, in trying to understand from where they might be coming, I wasn't (and I believe Dissident H...

In relation to tlpounds point, I think (ERS) might make sense in this context, vaguely, if we accept that there is a finite amount of matter and an infinite amount of time. If that is the case, then eventually every possible combination of atoms, molecules, cells, personalities, cultures, planets, ...

Not only does eternal return sound like bunk, but it also doesn't really answer the objection. We could not have had an innate word for carburetors because we have had human language for tens of thousands of years. Carburetors are very recent developments in that time scale. I think Pinker's critiqu...

Chris OConnor wrote:No Country for Old Men sounds like a really good choice.

For what it's worth, I also would be interested in a discussion of No Country for Old Men.

George