Finally this boat get's going!
But I have to say, there was none of the fanfare that I was expecting and secretly wanted. There was not even a "Woohoo! We're finally moving down the river and away from this hellish station." Marlow only expressed that he was "then rather excited at the prospect of meeting Kurtz very soon." Oh goodie. Yet again, the lack of climax in this book disappoints me.
For what this book lacks in interest, it makes up for in imagery. In Chapter 2, the imagery of the environment Conrad presents is positively riveting. The condensation of such powerfully rich details, "vegetation rioted on earth," "an empty stream,""the brooding waters flowed through like a mob," contributed greatly to the claustrophobic, anxious feel of the passage. The savage, otherworldly atmosphere is made even more frightening with the looming presence of the natives. I honestly got goosebumps (or goosepimples as Katie Philpott would say) when Marlow states "They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was the thought of their humanity-like yours-the though of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar." It's a scary reality to come to that lying within all of us is a primal, raw, stripped down form of humanity that is both "monstrous and free."
Hey, hey there--
ReplyDeleteOnce again, you bring up amazing points, and I am left being jealous of your intelligence.
But the thing with the imagery making up for the lack of interest...I disagree. Respectfully, of course. I feel as though the imagery only adds to the monotonous feel of the diction and tone, like "Oh great, here goes Marlow, out on another description kick." A nice dose of imagery here and there would be perfect, but I believe that since Conrad uses so much of it, at least for me, it kills the image he is trying to describe.