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Fucking great book. My favourite passage:
Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn’t even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives—he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere.
It's good. Bear in mind this was written in the very late 1800's. Nowdays most people are aware, at least dimly, that the empire did some deeply unpleasent shit. Back then there was still an empire.
So yeah, Conrad shows colonialism for what it is. It's depicted as an atrocity. There's a bit where a warship is shelling the brush - someone's quoted it in the comments - and that sorta helps set some themes. Conrad, back in the 1800's in the heart of the empire, is writing fiction that explicitly rips the mask of colonialism. There's no earnest missionaries, no improving projects just brutal oppression and extraction of wealth.
Sure I would expect the book has its issues, but this is one instance where 'look at the time/context it was written in' is valid.
There actually was some good missionaries. e.g. William Henry Sheppard
I read the Heart of Darkness (admittedly not under ideal circumstances: for English class with a teacher that wasn't very inspiring, though that didn't stop me from liking most books)... and it consistently put me to sleep. The vaunted atrocities described are less scary than what historical accounts of the Congo show. A bunch of people get killed - maybe I'm jaded, but it didn't move me. There's doom and gloom and the European colonist feels bad about being there. Eh. The Old Man and the Sea had more action.
Maybe I should try re-reading it, because people generally like it. But I just found it entirely unappealing.
If you read this as well, also look at this as Heart of Darkness as is still pretty racist despite being a very good anti colonial book. When I read it in high school, I kinda saw Joseph Conrad both siding with very racist depictions of Africans, and Europeans being just as savage. Maybe it's because my teacher had us read this critique alongside the book.
The protagonist was a true believer until he saw that Europeans were the real monsters, and came to the understanding that Africans and Europeans are of the same moral structure as is indicated with the first dialogue of the book
That a European cannot speak the language or sing the praises of a culture he does not understand does not mean he is incapable of perceiving its inherent humanity, all the good and bad that entails
An episode of similar colonial brutality north of the Kongo is the Voulet-Chaonine Expedition of 1898. Not exactly an inspiration for Conrad or Coppola but the same 'themes' can certainly be seen.
chuds love all the racism and dehumanizing
That's not something you can fault the film for. Neo-Nazis saw Schindler's List and were like "damn how efficient," is it a failure of a film for that?
In the same way I've never heard or a rightist say anything about the film beyond "Charlie don't surf" or something to do with Flight of the Valkyries, so I have reason to believe they've only consumed it through Youtube videos
the characters usually egg each other on to commit war crimes or say nothing
A whole scene is dedicated to their commanding officer flipping the fuck out over toy arrows and ordering return fire, as a character calmly builds a headband out of one of them and puts it on and the protagonist yells at the them to stop
Appreciate a good book recommendation. If you haven't read it, and you aren't depressed enough yet, Johnny got his Gun is a great anti-war book.
guess this is how that one vic 2 dlc got its name. considering the game is basically about doing colonialism
