I read the Heart of Darkness once about a year ago and I sat and pondered about it for the next two days and still couldn't completely understand what I had just read. I really enjoyed it and despite English being his third language there were some paragraphs that really struck me a beautiful.
I'm currently reading Heart of Darkness! I am finding it rather difficult to get through. My copy also contains some of his short stories (Youth, Amy Foster, and the Secret Sharer) and I read Youth first, and quite enjoyed it! Maybe Conrad is better in excessively small doses? As always, I'm glad to hear your thoughts Steve!
I was one of those many who were made to read Heart of Darkness in high school, and also felt like I missed something. Conrad’s prose didn’t bother me, since it lent an air of strange mystery, but somehow all that mystery didn’t seem to go anywhere for me. That said, I too have a long list of readers whose opinions I hold in high esteem that love HoD, so maybe I need to reread it someday.
That is a great edition of Heart of Darkness! This is one of those stories that no matter how many times I read it, I still don't understand it. I know this probably demonstrates a denseness on my part. Who are the savages here, the white colonists or the natives? A thousand hugs to Miss Frieda.
A call out for The Shadow Line! Maybe that is your window into Heart of Darkness, the parallel of the unnamed Shadow Line officer and Marlowe’s journeys and development? I didn’t encounter Heart of Darkness until I was in college, and our professor kept referencing it as we read Blood Meridian. It sometimes strikes me as a literary car accident people can’t look away from and then with the time invested in it feel a need to attribute more significance. My way in ended up being watching Apocalypse Now, haha. One of my friends from that college class ended up creating a pastiche using the tune from Dr. Swiss’s “The Grinch” and text references to Heart of Darkness. It was terrible but certainly an endeavor for a night.
I tried to read it last year when you did a read along. I think I got through 3 pages and gave up. Since then I did find a nice St. Martin's Press copy and want to try it again eventually. ✌️🤟
Im not a big fan either. In my junior year of college I had three classes assign this novel in the same semester: colonial lit, history of the vietnam war(s), and the psychological novel. Interesting to see the same book throttled by three different approaches at once.
Heart of Darkness never really offered up anything that moved or excited me greatly either Steve. Oddly enough for a novella, I found that for the large part, it was very slow moving. Nice beanie...I guess it must be cold in there right now!
My feeling is that some books matter for their knock on effect on culture and other writers, despite having limitations and frustrations in themselves. The Heart of Darkness is one of these isn't it?
Hmm. I'm not too well read, but I love that book for it's atmosphere and it's prose. I did need to slow down in order to catch all the odd twists in each sentence. Even as you read that section now I compared it to the prose in Jarhead which I'm currently reading and felt relieved by the proper weight and pacing Conrad uses; if anything he's got a better sense of the economy of means than Swofford. I was thinking of picking up Lord Jim when the libraries open back up
Did you read it in school, Steve? I did, and I think I became a Heart of Darkness person due to a good English teacher... Not sure how I would have reacted reading it for the first time as an adult.
How could I possibly rant against the greatest creation ever made by any human being in the history of the world, including the wheel, electricity, and antibiotics?
@@saintdonoghue I really am late to youtube and I feel I missed something fun! :( I just read Normal people and felt she tried to be eimear mcbride (whom I adore) and it was ok and I forgot it already. I hate weather by Jenny Offill and A man called ove much more!
I love how Arendt draws extensively on _Heart of Darkness_ to link the project of late-19th century colonialism/imperialism to the emergence of fascism in the 20th ( _The Origins of Totalitarianism_ ). That said, _Apocalypse Now_ is better.
I thought the passage you read was arresting. How weird that two different readers can have diametrically opposite experiences of the same passage. What was leaden about it to you? I respect your reading more than my own at this point - it's enough to listen to you talk about books for hundreds of videos to know how deep your understanding of the written word runs. I am genuinely forced to ask, "What am I missing?"
![HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad 🏴 🇵🇱 BOOK REVIEW [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KHroc758NC4/mqdefault.jpg)
Uh oh, you’re not going dude-bro on us with this new beanie, right? And Joseph Conrad... Steve, what’s happening!?
haha i was going to say something too
Not dude-bro, I promise! It's just freezing cold here in mid-May!
I read the Heart of Darkness once about a year ago and I sat and pondered about it for the next two days and still couldn't completely understand what I had just read. I really enjoyed it and despite English being his third language there were some paragraphs that really struck me a beautiful.
I'm currently reading Heart of Darkness! I am finding it rather difficult to get through. My copy also contains some of his short stories (Youth, Amy Foster, and the Secret Sharer) and I read Youth first, and quite enjoyed it! Maybe Conrad is better in excessively small doses? As always, I'm glad to hear your thoughts Steve!
I was one of those many who were made to read Heart of Darkness in high school, and also felt like I missed something. Conrad’s prose didn’t bother me, since it lent an air of strange mystery, but somehow all that mystery didn’t seem to go anywhere for me. That said, I too have a long list of readers whose opinions I hold in high esteem that love HoD, so maybe I need to reread it someday.
That is a great edition of Heart of Darkness! This is one of those stories that no matter how many times I read it, I still don't understand it. I know this probably demonstrates a denseness on my part. Who are the savages here, the white colonists or the natives? A thousand hugs to Miss Frieda.
I think both are, according to Marlow.
@@ThatReadingGuy28 I think you are right.
A call out for The Shadow Line! Maybe that is your window into Heart of Darkness, the parallel of the unnamed Shadow Line officer and Marlowe’s journeys and development?
I didn’t encounter Heart of Darkness until I was in college, and our professor kept referencing it as we read Blood Meridian. It sometimes strikes me as a literary car accident people can’t look away from and then with the time invested in it feel a need to attribute more significance.
My way in ended up being watching Apocalypse Now, haha. One of my friends from that college class ended up creating a pastiche using the tune from Dr. Swiss’s “The Grinch” and text references to Heart of Darkness. It was terrible but certainly an endeavor for a night.
I tried to read it last year when you did a read along. I think I got through 3 pages and gave up. Since then I did find a nice St. Martin's Press copy and want to try it again eventually. ✌️🤟
Steve, Steve, Steve; the eyebrows Steve, the eyebrows. Fingernail clippers works wonders.😂🙄🤦🏽♂️
He is matching Frida's
Why should I clip them? What have they ever done to deserve that?
Im not a big fan either. In my junior year of college I had three classes assign this novel in the same semester: colonial lit, history of the vietnam war(s), and the psychological novel. Interesting to see the same book throttled by three different approaches at once.
Heart of Darkness never really offered up anything that moved or excited me greatly either Steve. Oddly enough for a novella, I found that for the large part, it was very slow moving. Nice beanie...I guess it must be cold in there right now!
It's downright freezing!
My feeling is that some books matter for their knock on effect on culture and other writers, despite having limitations and frustrations in themselves. The Heart of Darkness is one of these isn't it?
I've read this book a few times but, try as I might, I just can't get enthusiastic about it.
Hmm. I'm not too well read, but I love that book for it's atmosphere and it's prose. I did need to slow down in order to catch all the odd twists in each sentence. Even as you read that section now I compared it to the prose in Jarhead which I'm currently reading and felt relieved by the proper weight and pacing Conrad uses; if anything he's got a better sense of the economy of means than Swofford. I was thinking of picking up Lord Jim when the libraries open back up
What's the current situation with libraries in your area? Any talk of limited re-openings, maybe curbside pickup?
@@saintdonoghue They've got the drive through's open, but they're automatically renewing all check-outs until June 30
I love Heart of Darkness.
But not as much as I love Frieda Bean.
I approve this comment! My Bean is adorable - she made me smile again after my girls, and she's kept right on doing that every day!
Did you read it in school, Steve? I did, and I think I became a Heart of Darkness person due to a good English teacher... Not sure how I would have reacted reading it for the first time as an adult.
Have you done a rant video on Normal People? I really need to see it if it exists. XD
How could I possibly rant against the greatest creation ever made by any human being in the history of the world, including the wheel, electricity, and antibiotics?
@@saintdonoghue I really am late to youtube and I feel I missed something fun! :( I just read Normal people and felt she tried to be eimear mcbride (whom I adore) and it was ok and I forgot it already. I hate weather by Jenny Offill and A man called ove much more!
I love how Arendt draws extensively on _Heart of Darkness_ to link the project of late-19th century colonialism/imperialism to the emergence of fascism in the 20th ( _The Origins of Totalitarianism_ ). That said, _Apocalypse Now_ is better.
I thought the passage you read was arresting. How weird that two different readers can have diametrically opposite experiences of the same passage. What was leaden about it to you? I respect your reading more than my own at this point - it's enough to listen to you talk about books for hundreds of videos to know how deep your understanding of the written word runs. I am genuinely forced to ask, "What am I missing?"
Hah! You didn't find that passage a bit clunky, even if it was viscerally effective?
@@saintdonoghue I'll have to listen again, more closely…
I think Frieda 💚🐾 is jealous of your fingerless gloves 🌞 I will not be reading Heart of Darkness... I don't think Anyway... Who knows