A new weekly meme hosted by The Blue Bookcase.
This week's question is from Debbie @ Readerbuzz:
What is the most difficult literary work you've ever read?
What made it so difficult?
Heart of Darkness- Joseph Conrad
This is my review (click link at left for its original page):
A very disturbing novella that comes across as incredibly racist and depicts mentally feral European characters that have no sense of acceptance or even tolerance for the African cultures they are invading. The text is often taught at face value, with only the European perspective, but through a post-colonial context, the novel withholds the African perspective, leaving an obviously slanted viewpoint as Marlow’s experience is less than half the story.
Rank: (D)- Don't recommend (D for Disturbing)
Yikes! That would be difficult ethically to read... and quite an insight into the backward way of thinking back then. I haven't read it, and I don't see myself picking it up anytime soon!
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad that you didn't like this one. I've read it a few times and I would definitely interpret it as anti-colonial. I think the way he presents the Africans and the Europeans (who are totally irrational and ridiculous in this book) is definitely to make a statement about colonialism.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you didn't describe what made this book difficult for you. Was it simply the fact that you disliked it?
Anyway, thanks for participating in our Blog Hop! I love all the discussion!
Sarah~ That's exactly how I felt about it. It gave me a queasy feeling. I'm sure that was Conrad's intention but nevertheless it was too disturbing.
ReplyDeleteIngridLola~ Thanks for hosting this great meme :) To clarify, it was the approach to the subject matter that made HOD difficult for me to read. It wasn't the language or style (in fact, those components were quite extraordinary) which is something that normally trips me up on difficult books, but it just didn't settle well at all with me.
I actually enjoyed reading this. I think that for it's time, it can be read as very anti-colonialist.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest part for me was his writing style - trying to make everything poetic but just resulting in something clunky to read.
It is very dark book ,also was the idea behind apocalypse now the film ,conrad always wrote disturbing books ,all the best stu
ReplyDeleteI've never read this book but I'm glad that you brought it up in the literary book hop--it's a book that I don't think I'll want to check out. Heart of Darkness seems frightening in all of the wrong ways.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts! I loved this book. I thought of it as an anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist work. And although we might consider it as racist now, that's the way it was when the book was written.
ReplyDeleteI loved this book. It's definietly one of Conrad's easier reads. I tried 'The Secret Agent' as was so so bored with it that I haven't even bothered looknig at his other works.
ReplyDeleteYou have an interesting perspective on the book. I never really thought of it in a pro-colonial light. Maybe I was too busy concentrating on the way Conrad depicted Marlow. Marlon Brando did an excellent rendition of him in Apocalypse Now.
Boy, I caused quite a stir with this choice :D Let me point out that I read this book in a course on postcolonialism, so perhaps my perspective is biased from the start but, in my humble opinion, it could have been a much richer story from the perspective of the African people. I just felt that they were completely silenced. Also, the level of disturbance in literature that I can tolerant is only moderate--this went over the top.
ReplyDeleteNancyO~ That's interesting, because in my class when we read this, there was a debate about how much racism was deliberate (in order to depict racist characters) and how much was Conrad's own bigotry. It was hard to tell one way or the other.
Thanks for all your responses, even if you respectfully disagreed.
It has been a long time since I have read Heart of Darkness-it would be interesting to read it again after reading your post
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this, but I think you've presented a great example of how a book can be difficult read for different reasons than writing style/language.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read this, but would like to at some point.
ReplyDeleteHaven't read this either, but this would be a tough read for me too.
ReplyDeleteI read it for my English Class!
ReplyDeleteI have read a lot of classics in my school and college years. And some still remain my favorites. However, there are a few I could never get into..
Here is my Literary Blog Hop post!
I haven't read this one but I admit, I'm not real interested in it.
ReplyDeleteI've read Heart of Darkness and found it difficult too, but not for the reasons you stated. It's a great debate that you sparked.
ReplyDeleteThe language is a little antiquated, but Heart of Darkness is a book I really liked. Such a bleak and frightening look into the human spirit!
ReplyDeleteI didn't enjoy this one much, either, but I don't think the book itself is racist, nor was Conrad (that I know of). I think he wrote the Europeans as so overtly racist to make a point - that colonizing and oppressing people is wrong, and that the Europeans should wake up and get out.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that in difficulty is not in the reading, more a case of subject matter, which is why I chose 2666, as my difficult book. In both cases one can enjoy the way it's written yet still have issue's with what written. Enjoyed your write up.
ReplyDeleteThanks,Parrish
Thank you so much for your comments and for considering the novel from an African pov. It's demeaning to African sensibilities. Chinua Achebe has an excellent essay or speech that captures our sentiments for this book.
ReplyDeleteKinnareads~ I forgot about Achebe's essay on HoD, which I read for this course too. Thanks for bringing that up :)
ReplyDeleteIf I had to choose between Conrad's sensibility and Achebe's I would choose Achebe's in a heartbeat. It can be difficult to overcome our repugnance as readers for worldviews so removed from our own. Conrad obviously reflects a Euro-centric world view. I haven't read the book in many years; I'm going to look up the Achebe essay, though. Thanks for a thought-provoking (and conversation-provoking!) post.
ReplyDelete