• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Apocalypse Now & Heart of Darkness

Sin said:
I agree with novella.
I have just finished The Heart Of Darkness the other day and I am still baffled about the book.
Why is everybody considering Kurtz so extraordinary? Conrad didn't explain anything about it.
I know that book is full of metaphors but in my opinion "darkness" metaphor is overused in this book.
Click to expand...

I agree with that assessment.
 
I had watched the movie first...It was really difficult for me to get into the book at first...I was expecting too much like Apocolypse Now...
 
Justin91 said:
I had watched the movie first...It was really difficult for me to get into the book at first...I was expecting too much like Apocolypse Now...
Click to expand...

True. I was expecting something good when I read Heart of Darkness.
 
sparkchaser said:
Oh, and Holy Thread Resurrection, Batman!
Click to expand...

Hahahahahahahha!! That is funny.
I resurrected a few threads myself here when I started. I had never participated in an online forum before and I thought every topic had just been posted yesterday. Even though they have dates on them.

Anyhow, I read Heart of Darkness in high school and saw Apocalypse now as a young adult and never even knew the movie was based on the book. So I don't think it matters which one you enjoy (or don't enjoy) first.
 
Isn't it better to resurect an old thread then to begin a new one?
It's not my fault I haven't read it in 2005 :)
 
If you posted without resurrecting this thread someone would have been showing you how to use the search tool...

Your darned if you do, darned if you don't:lol:
 
No, I think it's great. I'd rather see an old thread brought back than a new one started.
 
Sin said:
I agree with novella.
I have just finished The Heart Of Darkness the other day and I am still baffled about the book.
Why is everybody considering Kurtz so extraordinary? Conrad didn't explain anything about it.
I know that book is full of metaphors but in my opinion "darkness" metaphor is overused in this book.
Click to expand...

Kurtz is special because his going mad symbolizes the futility of the mission(s) to Africa; basically saying that going to Africa is insane and will only bring the explorers/imperialists misery and death.
And I don't think it is up to the author to explain his motives for making a certain character act a certain way, it's up to the reader to find out.


O and I never watched Apocalypse Now.
 
Polly Parrot said:
Kurtz is special because his going mad symbolizes the futility of the mission(s) to Africa; basically saying that going to Africa is insane and will only bring the explorers/imperialists misery and death.
And I don't think it is up to the author to explain his motives for making a certain character act a certain way, it's up to the reader to find out.


O and I never watched Apocalypse Now.
Click to expand...


You are missing one hellova Movie...
 
Polly Parrot said:
Kurtz is special because his going mad symbolizes the futility of the mission(s) to Africa; basically saying that going to Africa is insane and will only bring the explorers/imperialists misery and death.
Click to expand...

Well, it's in our human nature to explore new places and grab all natural resources we can find out there. That's how civilization was born and is still sustained. It doesn't matter is it gold, ivory, oil or whatever. The story of feeling entitled to all resources in the world is repeated by all big civilizations.
I like how Conrad at the beginning of the novel remembers that for old Romans Britain was the same "dark and savage" place as the Africa was for Victorian era English explorers. So tomorrow it may be Africans rampaging “wild and white” Europeans, or whoever, it doesn’t matter. We are all the same when get the "opportunity".

And I don't think it is up to the author to explain his motives for making a certain character act a certain way, it's up to the reader to find out.
Click to expand...

What I felt the story was lacking was an explanation, or at least more hints, why everyone considered Kurtz such a great man? Obviously it was not just because he collected more ivory then all other agents together. Marlow mentioned some great words of wisdom but all we got from him was his last words: "The horror! The horror!"
And at the end, when Marlow meets with Kurtz's fiancée, he tells her that his last words were her name?!? Why for God's sake did he say that? I didn’t get it.

O and I never watched Apocalypse Now.
Click to expand...

I would definitely recommend it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top