Blog 8. Chinua Achebe. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness"

Sorry this is so late!

Chinua Achebe, the first African novelist to gain popularity in The West—Europe and American, wrote this famous essay clearly in anger. It is pretty much required reading when considering the charges of racism that have been leveled at our text in the later half of the 20th century. In my seminar this year, we debated the question of racism in the book for a whole period—and the question never quite went away.

So: what do you think of Achebe's argument? Agree? Disagree? Agree with parts? Write a paragraph in response to our question. Go ahead and quote a couple times in your response.

We'll talk about this tomorrow and maybe watch parts of Hearts of Darkness, Eleanor Coppola's documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now.

Blog #7. Heart of Darkness. "The Horror."

Haven't we heard that before? Indeed, we have!

We haven't talked about it—there's so much to talk about, isn't there?—but Brando's Kurtz is certainly not physically the Kurtz of Conrad. But maybe he works. So...

1. Did you find Brando's Kurtz true to the Kurtz of the novella—extra weight and all? In fact, could you make an argument that Brando's heft is as legitimate a physical picture of Kurtz as is the emaciated form of the novella's Kurtz?

2. What do you think of The Intended? Why is she here, do you think? And how does she compareo or contrast to The Woman back in Africa?

3. We have to ask: "The horror! The horror!" In this work, what is it? Go ahead and quote in your response—something other than, of course, "The horror! The horror!"

4. Marlow: he lies to The Intended. Why? And what does this make you think of Marlow—what does this say to you about our...hero? Whatever the heck he is in the story.

5. The last paragraph of the book. For you, how does it conclude the story? To what effect—to what purpose—does it end the book? Quote from that paragraph in your response.

We made it down the river and back. Whew! See you all tomorrow.

Blog #6 Heart of Darkness -- first half of Part III

Having spent the morning discussing Kurtz, let's give the man a rest and think instead about a couple of new characters -- characters who just happen to be closely connected to Kurtz. 

1.  What do you think about the Russian?  He has no name, only a nationality which is interesting, but what other significance do you find in this young man?

Then indulge us and watch this clip from Apocalypse Now.  Did Coppola do Conrad's Russian justice in this scene?

2. The Woman!  Yes, females do appear along this largely masculine route.  What can you say about Marlowe's description of her?  What IS this woman?  Keep in mind this is the first female we've seen since we left Marlowe's well connected Aunt back in Europe.

No Blog Tonight.

Make sure you all read to 43, and stop at the paragraph ending "The banks looked pretty well alike, the depth appeared the same...

Blog 5. Heart of Darkness Through Part 1. "Rivets!"

Poor Marlow. All he wants is to go to his new post. But his steamer needs rivets—and there are "cases of them down at the coast—cases—piled up—burst—split!" (28). But none ever make it to him. Calico, yes, but not rivets. Where is the "efficiency"(6) that he so desires—the efficiency that makes conquering so possible?

1. If Heart of Darkness is, on one hand, a commentary on colonialism—making it a commentary on Europe itself, since just about every country in Europe at this time engaged in colonizing throughout the world—what so far is Conrad's commentary? What do you think he saying about colonialism? Refer to last night's reader and anything before it—quote a couple times in your answer.

2. We spent some time at the end of class today talking about Marlow and the Africans he comes upon at the Company Station. We talked about his "horror" at what he sees—and his reaction to it: a biscuit to a dying boy and then flight to the nearest white man in authority. Those of you who talked spoke sympathetically to Marlow's plight. There are who knows how many people around him dying—what's he supposed to do? Indeed. As Clark asked, and a few of you answered—What is he supposed to do? What should he do? And what is significant, telling, about what he does do? And how does this moment in the book make you see and/or feel about our hero Marlow?

3. We finally hear of Kurtz. What is your impression of him based upon what he hear about him so far in the book? How is he being presented? Quote a couple times.

4. Any questions you have about the reading?

Okay. See you guys tomorrow.

Blog 4. Heart of Darkness Through 14.

"And this also," said Marlow suddenly, "has been one of the darkest places of the earth." (5)

And so we are introduced to our narrator Charley Marlow, the "only man of us who still 'followed the sea.'" Through his eyes will we experience the story of Kurtz (though be clear, he is not the narrator—that is the unnamed owner of the yacht these successful Englishmen find themselves on). Marlow appears in other Conrad works, most notably Lord Jim, published the year after "Heart of Darkness" is published (1899). Marlow rarely says what he thinks; he is forever trying to figure out exactly what he means—and if it is even possible to know that you means.

1. Just to finish our conversation today in class. Based on what we talked about today, and having had time to think about it, what do you think now is the "horror" Kurtz whispers at the end?

2. Response to these opening pages of the novella? Like? Dislike? Difficult? Really difficult? Why? Address all these questions. Give us a good sense of how you are dealing with this book.

3. What is the biggest question you have about the reading? What, above all else, makes no sense to you?

4. What image in the book particularly stuck out to you? Why? Quote in your response.

That's more than enough questions. See you guys tomorrow.

Blog 3. Apocalypse Now Redux. "The Horror. The Horror."

 

I've seem horrors.  Horrors that you've seen.  But you have no right to call me a murderer.  You have a right to kill me.  You have a right to do that.  But you have no right to judge me. It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror.  Horror has a face.  And you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends.  If they are not, then they are your enemies... 

I remember when I was with Special Forces—it seems a thousand centuries ago—we went into a camp to inoculate the children. We’d left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio and this old man came running after us and he was crying, and he couldn’t see. We went back there and they had hacked off every inoculated arm and there they were in a pile, a pile of little arms and I remember I, I, I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I want to remember it, I never want to forget it. I never want to forget, and then I realized like I was shot, like I was shot with a diamond—a diamond bullet went through my forehead—and I thought, my God, the genius of that. The genius, the will to do that. Perfect, genuine, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand it. These were not monsters, these were men, trained cadres, who have children, who are filled with love. But they have the strength, the strength, to do that. If I had ten divisions of these me then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time able to use their primordial instincts to kill without, feeling, without passion, without judgement, without judgement.  Because it’s judgement that defeats us.

This is Kurtz's last speech. After this he tells Willard: "And if I were to be killed...I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything...Everything I did. Everything you saw. Because there's nothing I detest more than the stench of lies. And you understand me, Willard, you will do this for me."

 So we finally get to the end of the journey. It isn't pretty. It wasn't pretty on the movie set either as Coppola, as Clark said, madly wrote and wrote to come up with an ending. The ending he filmed hasn't pleased everyone. But we like it. I like it.

1. Questions you had brought up by this last section of the film?

2. Reaction to the film? Like? Dislike? Why?

3. "The horror. The horror." These are Kurtz's last word—as they will be in Conrad's story. What do you think the horror is that he's talking about? And why—how so? 

4. Willard and Lance go home—or at least I assume they do. Imagine—as it happens in Conrad's story—we get to see Willard at home. What do you think we'd see? What would he be like? 

At the end of a recent film on the Iraq War, The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow brings her soldier home and we see what it's like for him to have gone from disarming bombs to buying cereal.

How would Willard react to this, I wonder? Or Jerry?

Have a good weekend, and we'll see you all Monday. Have this done by 5 on Sunday.

Blog 2. Apocalypse Now Redux. "It Was A Way We Had of Living With Ourselves..."

"...We'd cut them in half with a machine gun and give them a band-aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw of them, the more I hated liars. Those boys were never gonna look at me the same way again, but I felt like I knew one or two things about Kurtz that weren't in the dossier."

Today was some pretty disturbing stuff as we go further down the river with Willard and the gang. We've come a long way from Willard comically stealing Kilgore's surf board and the sound of Kilgore himself pleading for Lance to return the board. As we said in class today, the selling of the playmates was not in the original: nor was the scene above, the French plantation scene. Perhaps they do nothing to advance the plot—in fact, one can argue they impede the plot as they slow down Willard's and our fated introduction to Kurtz. But we like them: we think they make the movie richer and more nuanced. And they are beautifully composed and shot. I know I think they help the film.

Several questions:

1. What is your reaction to the massacre of the Vietnamese on the junk?

2. What is your reaction to the crew—to Chief, Chef, Lance, and Clean? Some of you said you were unmoved by them: fair enough. But they get almost as much screen time as Willard. Coppola put them there for some reason. Interestingly enough: two black men, two white men. Two of them are members of what we call the underclass today: Chef with his eighth grade education, and Clean, who is from "some shit hole in the Bronx." Lance is a world famous surfer—who often appears to have not a thought in his head. Chief is the professional: maybe a lifer in the Navy, but he certainly is the most polished, professional, and sharpest of the crew. And he seems to almost be a father-figure to Clean. So: what do you think of each of them? And: why do you think Coppola put them and their prominence in the movie?

3. Your reaction to Wllard now? Has it changed since you wrote about him on the first day? If so—how so? If not—why not?

4. What is your reaction to the plantation scene, part of which is above? Why do you think it's in the movie?

5.  Finally. After the massacre scene, there is a slow, steady fade to black: and it stays black for several seconds. When the screen comes back to light, it is on the boat in the darkness heading down the river. Your sense of why Coppola did this? Or: what was the effect of this fade and the darkness that follows it?

Again, take 20-30 minutes to write. We'll see you tomorrow.

Blog 1. Apocalypse Now Redux. "Terminate. With Extreme Prejudice."

We're beginning our investigation of the "heart of darkness" with the 2001 film Apocalypse Now Redux, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Coppola and John Milius, with narrative by Michael Herr, and starring Marlon Brando as Kurtz, Martin Sheen as Willard, Robert Duvall as Kilgore, Frederic Forrest as Chef, Albert Hall as Chief, Sam Bottoms as Lance, Lawrence Fishburn as Clean, Dennis Hopper as the Photo Journalist, Aurore Clement as Roxanne, Christian Marquand as Marais, Cynthia Wood as Playmate of the Year, Colleen Camp as Miss May, Linda Carpenter as Playmate, GD Spradlin as Gen. Corman, Harrison Ford as Col. Lucas, and Jerry Ziesmer as the CIA operative. This is the extended version of the 1979 original. Both versions begin with this breathtaking scene.

Just to be clear. This is no CGI. This is a real forest, those are real helicopters, and that is a real explosion. It's a close-up of the napalming of the tree line we saw at the end of the class today.

So to begin the journey:

1. Questions? What do you want to know here that doesn't make sense? What questions do you have about anything you saw in the first 45-50 minutes of the film? What do you need—want—to know that isn't clear?

2. What do you think of our protagonist, Captain Willard? Like? Dislike? What kind of person is he—a word or phrase that best describes him for you and why?

3. We asked today about your reaction to the phrase, "heart of darkness." What's your reaction to the phrase, "apocalypse now"? What does this make you think of? Imply?

4. How did what you see today connect to what we said about "heart of darkness"?

5. Your reaction to what you saw today? What scene or moment or image particularly stayed with you—and why do you think that?

Take about 20-30 minutes to answer these questions—before 10 PM. We'll continue down the Nung River tomorrow with Team Willard as they search for the Kurtz. See you then.