Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Stephen King said, ” The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them.”  I feel like the whole story Marlowe tells us is such a struggle for him because of this sentiment.  Going through his tale, Marlowe cannot explain what has happened to him outside of the facts, and expresses his frustration over and over again.  The whole book is a journey inwards, physically, emotionally, psychologically.  Even the name Marlowe itself alludes to Marlow, a gorgeous little town upriver from London, on the Thames.  Marlowe is trying to explain the depths of his soul and simply can’t because language itself prevents him from doing so. 

Conrad has left us a lot of obvious talking points in this story: Colonization, Exploitation, Racism, Morality, and the depiction of Africans as mindless savages.  I believe these subjects are better in the hands of more qualified people like Chinua Achebe, who took up the argument against Conrad’s view of Africans in his own wonderful book Things Fall Apart and his 1975 lecture, An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”.

Regardless of the differing opinions on what this book means, what it says is said so well and with such great skill that I couldn’t help but appreciate it.  Second time around was well worth it.