Achebe on Conrad

[David Morris]

This seems to me a kind of novel-fascism.  It reeks of a "politically 
correct" yardstick.  Mythic places ARE!  We take them where we find them.  
If they MOVE YOU, that's all that matters.  The "why do they move me?" is a 
great subject to explore, but let's not downgrade art for choosing the 
"wrong" mythic "backdrop."

DM

>From: "jbor" "Achebe [...] does not deny Conrad's "great talents," 
>evidenced even in
>*Heart of Darkness* itself. But he vigorously criticizes using
>
>    Africa as setting and backdrop which eliminates the African as human
>    factor. Africa as a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognizable
>    humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril. Can
>    nobody see the preposterous and perverse arrogance in thus reducing
>    Africa to the role of props for the break-up of one petty European 
>mind?
>    But that is not even the point. The real question is the dehumanization
>    of Africa and Africans which this age-long attitude has fostered and
>    continues to foster in the world. And the question is whether a novel
>    which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of
>    the human race, can be called a great work of art. My answer is: No, it
>    cannot."
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