Achebe on Conrad

[kevin at limits.org]

> Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2000 23:10:02 CDT
> From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Achebe on Conrad
> 
> 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."
> 
Not to mention that Europe seems just as mythic and unreal as Africa in
_Heart of Darkness_.  The only place in the book that is, literally,
anchored to reality is the boat on the Thames.

However, Achebe does have a very good point.  _HoD_ may be very
well-crafted, moving, and artistically interesting, but by Achebe's
standards, this is not enough.  A great amount of _HoD_'s tensions are
driven by perspective, and it is worthwhile to criticize it from
perspectives not found in the book.
> 
> >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."

Kevin Troy

"If compassionate conservatives don't know the meaning of 'is,' how will
they handle the more important helping verbs?"
--Peter Weyler, quoted in _Modern Humorist_