Heart of Darkness: Bloodlust, Canonical Pangea and Books That Are Hard

We took nearly six months to get through a roughly one hundred-page book, because it's extremely dense, and Arrested Development is on instant Netflix? (plus, beer.) So we cliffnoted our way through (for the second time) and tried to give Conrad the respect he deserves. (Guy was writing masterpieces in his second language!) Discussed: the canon, violence in the media and Marlon Brando (obviously).

Emily: What have you been listening to lately?
I need something fresh but classic.
Prolls will return to Chicago II.
Meredith:  oh man
Nothing "new" really. Lots and lots of Sam Cooke.

There's a new Hot Chip
Serge Gainsbourg pandora station is the bomb.
Emily: Also i did my hair for this.
maybe "did" is too strong a word.
I'm afraid my hair is in an awkward riot grrrl stage.
also today I finally put it together why prostitute-chic is the norm in 2012 America, via reading articles about "the modern woman in the contemporary American dating/workplace landscape."
Apparently there are like no viable dudes, so you have to fight for them or something, and girls think that dudes want the "hottest girl" so they dress like porn stars the end.
Meredith:  that makes all-too perfect sense
like so simple
n gross
21st century amurica can't handle our infinite nature
Emily: Yesterday a few types of people that need to be removed from the planet were presented to me. Mostly people who listen to alt rock and count calories.
This is a strangely appropriate prelude to our discussion of "heart of darkness"
Meredith:  People going crazy?
Emily: Yeah, people with hearts made mostly of murderous rage
specifically
Although i guess Kurtz was mostly just insane
Readers, watch Apocalypse: Now if you want to know what happens in the book.
Meredith: Yes, don't read it
I feel like i should be encouraging literacy of all forms
ok
so
canon
cannon
canon
why is <3 of D in it
Emily:  lemme grab the book real quick
I think it answer to that question is on the back
Meredith:  Discussion topics: why is this included in "the best writing that shaped western culture?"
you weren't serious were you?
Emily: half serious
we should call this blog "chatting the blurbs"
ok so Heart of Darkness is a "literary voyage into the inner self"
Meredith:  I like the use of "voyage." way to go, back of book
Emily:  it calls it "chilling, disturbing and noteworthy"
or one of the most of the century
Meredith:  I could see it as disturbing and chilling
then noteworthy by proxy
If i were reading it at the time it was written
Emily:  I just keep thinking of Brando as chilling.

but also as my boyfriend:

Meredith:  yes
but this kind of tapped into the unknown, and our fear and projection of it.
liiiike there's fuckin' savages out there, man.
Emily: I spose Africa was basically another planet when Conrad published this, in 1902.
So another theme, "corruptibility of humankind"-- so says the back of my edition.
Which is actually why I did actually like this book.
For lack of a better word, it's dark.
Its thesis is that humanity is not a morally pure species, and that humans are ready to come unhinged at any given moment.
Meredith: yes
"unhinged"
and what causes this
what caused it in Kurtz?
Emily: So apparently "Conrad intentionally made Heart of Darkness hard to read. He wanted the language of his novella to make the reader feel like they were fighting through the jungle, just like Marlow fought through the jungle in search of Kurtz." -- cliffsnotes
which makes me like the book more and also makes me question my own literacy.
Meredith:  WOWWWW!!!!!!!1
WOWOWOW
HAHAHA
omg that's awesome
I definitely felt like a crazy
Emily: I kinda felt like a fourth grader.
Meredith:  that's really interesting
I love a good intentional structure.
Emily:  right! thats pretty postmodern of him
Using the media as the message, etc.
Meredith:  Do you think he just made that up after the fact though...
jk!!
Emily:  right?! when everyone was like, umm actually this is really hard to get through.
Meredith:  I just read that it explores 3 types of darknesses
1. the darkness of the congo; the unknown and the literal darkness of unexplored territory
Emily:  Types Of Darknesses: our band.
Meredith:  2. the darkness of the treatment of the europeans toward the natives
and the darkness possible within us
was 3
to which i say

Emily:  what about the kind of darkness thats on the edge of town?

Emily: so basically Conrad was a total badass, because he was like IMPERIALISM IS MORALLY BANKRUPT like 100 yrs before that mode of thoughtwas embraced by crustpunks and subscribers of The Nation. I love realizing that artists that we in the modern world think are old and boring were actually the punks of their day, like the Impressionists. And now Conrad!
Meredith:  I can't explain all the feelings Conrad made me feel.
also i returned the book because i owe around $23.
BUT so i'm on the bus reading.
and it's this action scene that i had had to read about 4 times over because i felt like i forgot how to read
but it was a crowded bus and i was sitting next to someone eating a burger that smelled realll good
and, for the sake of the story, i will say that he was (and still is) black
and i'm reading about how they went to this strange land and were basically tying up people and beating them
and i see the word "nigger" a couple times
and shut the book kinda quickly
was definitely being over sensitive
but
it felt funny
because we are clearly living in a post-racial society
Emily: which leads us to:
the Canon.
IS IT STILL VALUABLE?
Meredith: i picture The Canon as a chart
a line graph
so on your x axis (horizontal?) there's time
On the vertical line at the bottom is old white dudes
up to bell hooks up top
so over time, are we still adding to the same canon? or is there a new canon?
because we've gone in a whole new direction
are people really still saying that their favorite book is Catcher In The Rye, STILL
Emily: welllllllll, it is a great book
Meredith: but it's shifted so much, the canon
like pangea
FUCK YEAH
canonical pangea
metal band
Emily: kinda feel like if there is a "new canon" its still rife with all the same old conventions-- imperialism, glorified misogyny, etc etc. so if we're talking "modern classics" in the sense that they are illustrative of a specific time in our culture, something like American Psycho would be part of it.
which, are you fucking kidding me.
Bret Easton Ellis is the yuppie posterboy.
hes not necessarily trying to tear anything down.
Meredith:  it seems like he's kind of this pseudo-punk icon for unsafe Wall Street types to read while vacationing in the hamptons
but what did he do with literary norms?
he did some stream of consciousness writing which maybe introduced some people to something new?
Emily: I guess I just think he's a joke because American Psycho is so pathologically misogynist its almost amusing
Meredith: it's sick
is he participating in it or questioning it?
eh
don't answer that
Emily: It's the same with mob movies.
or war movies.
Most of them mean to act as caveats against the violence of those settings, but the bloodlusty audience gets lost in the glamour and wishes they could take a baseball bat to a head at any given moment, a la Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.
People should at least admit that they get off on it.
Meredith:  no that makes total sense
messages get lost on audiences all the time, so one that's hidden pretty well in a glorified character is almost guaranteed to be lost
Emily: exactly. you could even look to the movie adaptation of the book we're discussing!
Meredith:  let's!

Emily: kid firing rounds to the tune of "Satisfaction"
VIOLENCE=SEX etc
from the comments: "This is an anti war film...but everytime I watch it, it motivates me to participate in war! God damn you hollywood! You have brain washed me into a deep desire to conduct war. I lust after it. I have always craved the glory of war! Deep down, I feel a strong love for mankind...yet at the same time I want to destroy it. Thank you sir! Fuck you and I love you!"
how convenient. Also, that has to be a joke.
Meredith: Obvi franky ford coppola saw the anti-imperialist message in Conrad's novella
god, artistic intentions are a rickety ole ladder
it's funny that scene with "Satisfaction" gives me goosebumps while it makes some people want to "shoot shit"
Emily: I feel like the whole "violence in the media is really unhealthy" is SUCH an unpopular argument, I get my ass handed to me all the time.
like, JUST BECAUSE I WATCH TORTURE PORN DOESN'T MEAN I WANT TO TORTURE PEOPLE
which, i guess.
but, really?
Meredith:  I know I know
it's how I learned the word "desensitized"
Emily: Whether you want to inflict violence on someone else or not, it's still going to numb the shock of seeing 33 AFGHANI CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED on the front page, until it's something that we're used to and accepting of, and not able to connect with what that actually means and is.
Meredith:  ugh yes
So that's kinda weird, like, how much of what is important in the canon is lost on us
Emily: ie the anti-imperialst message of Heart Of Darkness?
Meredith:  Precisely
Emily: yes, very true. perhaps every message that's difficult to comprehend is bound to be hidden under layers of whatever hollywood needs to wrap it in to make it a sellable product to idiots who will eat it up.
Conrad thought imperialsm was wrong and framed a book around that view. Coppola turned that book into a movie about an imperial war and ostensibly about why it was bad.
People are excited about violence after watching it. 
Meredith:  Do you think a true auteur is one that doesn't try to appeal to the masses?
Emily:  yes.


Emily: what have you been reading?
Meredith: Just Kids
And the sci-fi edition of the New Yorker
how about you?
Emily: I've been reading Cherry by Mary Karr and Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon.
which are both great
Meredith: Are they in the canon?!
Emily: Maybe subcategories of the canon!
like, Other canon
Female memoir and Native post-On-The-Road American travel-core
Meredith: can there be only one canon though, you know?!
Emily:  hmmm, yes.
I think you're right
!
Meredith:  But it's like, how dare we put American Psycho and Their Eyes Were Watching God in the same canon?
Emily:  good point.
"plurality of perspectives in American letters" or some sht
Meredith:  I get that, yeah. maybe I'm just rebelling/don't get why we have a canon still
Emily: well, "postmodernism" was/is? a dismantling of the canon.
so I guess we don't?
Meredith:  how so? because won't we just end up considering Paul Auster or Thomas Pynchon part of the canon
It shaped our cultural conscience.
Emily: I think by definition, the Canon is basically prewar white dudes. Your Hemingways and Faulkners. After WWII, the floodgates opened and sort of replaced or refuted everything that came before.
Suddenly, women and non-europeans had access to that club and kind of just made the originals look stale.
Meredith:  I like thinking of it as Pangea.
It just seems like it would be crazy to have it remain the same.


Next Time on Chattin The Classix!: You think you know Sci Fi? Well, we don't! Join us on an adventure into the future, the year 1992, where we'll explore the dark heart of the android and the electric sheep of which they may or may not dream.