"Sleepe after toyle, port after stormie seas,
Ease after warre, death after life does greatly please"
On this day 1924 Joseph Conrad dies of a sudden heart attack aged 66. His epitaph is fromEdmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene
Sleepe after toil....
Joseph Conrad, author of the novels "Heart of Darkness" and "Lord Jim", died on August 3rd 1924. He explored racial prejudice, moral conflict and the inevitable violence of human nature
Ease after warre, death after life does greatly please"
On this day 1924 Joseph Conrad dies of a sudden heart attack aged 66. His epitaph is fromEdmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene
Sleepe after toil....
Joseph Conrad, author of the novels "Heart of Darkness" and "Lord Jim", died on August 3rd 1924. He explored racial prejudice, moral conflict and the inevitable violence of human nature
‘Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality’ – novelist Joseph Conrad was born #onthisday in 1857. He wrote these words in his novel Under Western Eyes, published in 1911. This portrait by artist Sir Muirhead Bone was made in the 1920s http://ow.ly/V4PPO
"They wanted facts. Facts! They demanded facts from him, as if facts could explain anything."
--from "Lord Jim" (1900) By Joseph Conrad
“No, it is impossible; it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one’s existence--that which makes its truth, its meaning--its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream--alone.”
―from HEART OF DARKNESS
Lord Jim is a classic story of one man's tragic failure and eventual redemption, told under the circumstances of high adventure at the margins of the known world which made Conrad's work so immediately popular. But it is also the book in which its author, through a brilliant adaptation of his stylistic apparatus to his obsessive moral, psychological and political concerns, laid the groundwork for the modern novel as we know it. READ an excerpt here:http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/30813/lord-jim/
Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born in Terekhove, Kiev Governorate, Russian Empire on this day in 1857.
“The very young have, properly speaking, no moments. It is the
privilege of early youth to live in advance of its days in all the beautiful
continuity of hope which knows no pauses and no introspection.”
― from "The Shadow-Line: A Confession" By Joseph Conrad
The masterpiece of Joseph Conrad’s later years, the autobiographical short novel The Shadow-Line depicts a young man at a crossroads in his life, facing a desperate crisis that marks the “shadow-line” between youth and maturity.This brief but intense story is a dramatically fictionalized account of Conrad’s first command as a young sea captain trapped aboard a becalmed, fever-wracked, and seemingly haunted ship. With no wind in sight and his crew disabled by malaria, the narrator discovers that the medicine necessary to save the sick men is missing and its absence has been deliberately concealed. Meanwhile, his increasingly frightened first mate is convinced that the malignant ghost of the previous captain has cursed them. Suspenseful, atmospheric, and deceptively simple, Conrad’s tale of the sea reflects the complex themes of his most famous novels, Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness..
“The very young have, properly speaking, no moments. It is the
privilege of early youth to live in advance of its days in all the beautiful
continuity of hope which knows no pauses and no introspection.”
― from "The Shadow-Line: A Confession" By Joseph Conrad
The masterpiece of Joseph Conrad’s later years, the autobiographical short novel The Shadow-Line depicts a young man at a crossroads in his life, facing a desperate crisis that marks the “shadow-line” between youth and maturity.This brief but intense story is a dramatically fictionalized account of Conrad’s first command as a young sea captain trapped aboard a becalmed, fever-wracked, and seemingly haunted ship. With no wind in sight and his crew disabled by malaria, the narrator discovers that the medicine necessary to save the sick men is missing and its absence has been deliberately concealed. Meanwhile, his increasingly frightened first mate is convinced that the malignant ghost of the previous captain has cursed them. Suspenseful, atmospheric, and deceptively simple, Conrad’s tale of the sea reflects the complex themes of his most famous novels, Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness..
In a novella which remains highly controversial to this day, Conrad explores the relations between Africa and Europe. On the surface, this is a horrifying tale of colonial exploitation. The narrator, Marlowe journeys on business deep into the heart of Africa. But there he encounters Kurtz, an idealist apparently crazed and depraved by his power over the natives, and the meeting prompts Marlowe to reflect on the darkness at the heart of all men. This short but complex and often ambiguous story, which has been the basis of several films and plays, continues to provoke interpretation and discussion. Heart of Darkness grew out of a journey Joseph Conrad took up the Congo River; the verisimilitude that the great novelist thereby brought to his most famous tale everywhere enhances its dense and shattering power. Apparently a sailor’s yarn, it is in fact a grim parody of the adventure story, in which the narrator, Marlow, travels deep into the heart of the Congo where he encounters the crazed idealist Kurtz and discovers that the relative values of the civilized and the primitive are not what they seem. HEART OF DARKNESS is a model of economic storytelling, an indictment of the inner and outer turmoil caused by the European imperial misadventure, and a piercing account of the fragility of the human soul.
English
奥地の出張所に着いてみると、25歳のロシア人青 年がいた。青年はクルツの崇拝者だった。青年から、クルツが現地人から神のように思われていたこと、手下を引き連れて象牙を略奪していたことなどを聞き出 した。一行は病気のクルツを担架で運び出し、船に乗せた。やがてクルツは "The horror! The horror!"[2]という言葉を残して息絶えた。
注釈[編集]
Heart of Darkness - Google 圖書結果
Joseph Conrad - 2004 - Fiction - 76 頁... make, and rather less pretty in shape, but I had expended enough hard work on her to make me love her. No influential friend would have served me better...
Joseph Conrad was born on this day in 1857.
《黑暗的心》 (Heart of Darkness ,1899)王潤華譯 ，台北:志文， 1970， 18元 新潮文庫
我之所以能夠知道這篇演講，是讀了DAVID BROOKS在紐約時報(2010年12月23日)寫的The Sidney Awards作品簡介: 去年, William Deresiewicz 在美國西點軍校發表一場反建制文化觀點的演講:他告訴那些在”狂熱的成就偏執”的體制下長大的幹部，如何與之抗衡之。它探討如何成為領導人而不致淪為組織人。
(It’s about how to be a leader, not an organization man.)以下WilliamDeresiewicz的演講”孤獨與領導 (Solitude and Leadership)”。
它是去年10月對美國西點軍校一年級生所作的，隨後刊登於The American Scholar (2010年春季號。原文可參考http://www.theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/)
它是去年10月對美國西點軍校一年級生所作的，隨後刊登於The American Scholar (2010年春季號。原文可參考http://www.theamericanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership/)
.....但我覺得這一領導力想法是錯誤的，甚至是危險的。為了解釋為什麼，我想花幾分鐘談論小說《黑暗之心》(Heart of Darkness)，也許你們當中很多人讀過它。如果你還沒讀過的話，你大概看過改編自它的電影《現代啟示錄》(Apocalypse Now)。小說中的馬洛(Marlow)在電影中化身為威拉德上尉(Captain Willard，由Martin Sheen飾演)。小說中的庫爾茨(Kurtz)在電影中為庫爾茨上校(馬龍白蘭度Marlon Brando扮演)。但是，這本小說的背景不是越南，而是關於比利時殖民地剛果，事情比越南戰爭早三代前。馬洛不是軍官，而是民間商船的船長，他是取得比利時皇家經營專利權的公司派出的船長，沿剛果河上溯去找一位藏身於叢林並自立為土匪的經理，他的行徑就像電影裡的庫爾茲上校。 ......
*****http://www.campus.org.tw/public/cm/cm10/0110/0110-11.htm
《黑暗之心》
歌珊 (歷史工作者)
真理隱身於黑暗。
清理軍旅期間遺留的筆記本。六大本生命黑暗時期的紀錄。泛黃、黯淡的扉頁，內容有我從卡夫卡、康拉德、扥瑪斯曼、福樓拜等的作品抄下來的句子。還有一本小冊子，摘錄當年聽華格納音樂的片段感想。此外是一大批父親寫給我的信，散發著腐敗的氣味。
「看柯拉波導演的《現代啟示錄》，改編自康拉德《黑暗之心》的越戰電影。黃昏如死亡之初吻。電影散場了，夾在擁擠的人潮裡感到無比的孤單。好冷台北。他們大概都要回家了罷。我無家可歸。」一九八三年十一月二十三日的筆記，是在一家廉價的旅館留下的隨興之作。
我二十歲，自高雄北上服兵役。應該就是那時候迷上了康拉德(Joseph Conrad, 1857~1924)。不知道是從陳蒼多或是王潤華的翻譯本開始的，《黑暗之心》(Heart of Darkness ,1899)的第一幕也是黃昏的場景，船長 馬羅向他的朋友述說他的非洲之旅。沿著剛果河，馬羅尋找一個叫克如智的謎樣人物。克如智深入原始叢林，為一家比利時貿易公司收購象牙。當地的土著將它視若 為神並奉為領袖。馬羅感到他與克如智之間有種神秘的關聯，一路追尋。河流宛如電纜一般蛇行至剛果的內陸商站，深入西方帝國的地圖。不過當馬羅來到克如智的 象牙王國，克如智已經瘋狂且奄奄待斃。克如智並不像傳說中是「同情、科學與進步的使者」、「為了歐洲委託我們身上的主義的帶路人」；他在叢林稱王，巧取豪 奪，殺人如麻。
事實上存在兩種形象的克如智。一個是帶有理想色彩的克如智。祂吟唱著吉卜林的詩人《白人的負擔》(The White Man's Burden)：「你如何將我們自枷鎖、自摯愛的埃及的黑夜解放出來？」克如智強加白人的「文明」給非洲土著，但卻不願真心與他們融合。他本身脫離了文明生活，長年沉溺於孤獨而靈魂終至腐蝕殆盡。克如智不只是殖民主義的共犯，同時也是受害者。這是另一個墮落的克如智。
馬羅的追尋彷如是歐洲人探索自內心幽暗世界的旅程。理想的克如智終於與貪婪無度的帝國主義者面對面了。克如智彌留之際的遺言「恐怖啊，恐怖啊」，似乎是對吉卜林詩句的詮釋，是對西方支配型態的一個註腳。
《現代啟示錄》(Apocalypse Now)建立在康拉德故事所傳達的一個文化強加另一個文化的後果及其隱喻。克如智穿上軍服成寮越邊界自組土著軍隊的殺人魔。維勒上尉奉命捕殺克如智而展開黑暗之旅。或者說，這部電影是探索美國殖民主義在遠東失敗的曖昧理由。
「讀康拉德的小說，《明天》、《追憶法爾克》、《亞密福斯特》、《颱風》。康拉德的文字實在難以征服。」一九八四年三月三十日的軍中筆記。
從中壢到台北，服役的假期我總是到台大附近買書，或跑到西門町二輪戲院看電影，然後固定到一家廉價旅館住下來。夜燈初上，飄搖似鬼火。我在黑暗中追尋我的 良人。旅館房內氤氳著對街霓虹燈水氣，藻荇交錯。康拉德的遊魂總在我身旁行走。他說故事的方式很特殊：故事中的人物不是單線進行，而是以該人物某一時刻的 出現給予人留下深刻的印象開始，之後忽前忽後、多線迂迴的敘述使該人物的形象漸趨豐滿成熟。
康拉德聲調淡淡的說著一個又一個海上冒險的故事，有時就在旅館角落安靜的抽煙。他說他的確到過剛果，圓了兒時的夢：「深夜裡，在非洲的河岸邊，在一艘可憐的小蒸氣船上，星空下一片黑暗，我立於非洲大陸的中心，點燃煙草，感覺很孤獨。」我閱讀了康拉德的《剛果日記》。
「我覺得就像我也被埋在一個寬大、充滿說不出口的秘密的墳墓裡。我感覺到一種不可容忍的重量壓著我的胸部，潮濕泥土的味道，我無法看見的但存在的勝利的腐敗，一個穿不透的夜晚和黑暗.....。」我抄自《黑暗之心》的軍旅筆記。廉價旅館裡我抄寫所讀過的書，並經常做夢，夢見父親巨大的身影在樓梯口背光而立。他轉過身出示他手掌不可告人的命運，反覆說著：「恐怖，恐怖」。
我追溯自身生命的河流，淵面黑暗，而上帝的恩典在水面上行走。
從軍隊退伍多年了。有時候朦朧間，我夢見自己是一隻蝸牛匍伏在犀利的刮鬍刀鋒，迷失了路。到如今，這夢的重量仍在我心底發出沉重墮落的響聲。