Awkward...

Throughout Waiting for the Barbarians there is an odd sexual tension. The magistrate himself is just generally an awkward man, with creepy lustful thoughts. His relationship with the blind slave-girl is full of unanswered sexual tension. She even attempts to come on to the magistrate but nothing comes of her efforts. The sexual tension is more or less put to rest when the girl and the magistrate are finally together on their way to bring her home, but still there lingers a weird sexual vibe throughout the book. The lack of specific names of people or groups in the book gives more emphasis on the actions in the book and aside from the brutal torture and imagery, the theme of awkward sexual tension prevails.

Articles

"Conrad's Ethics and the Margins of Apocalypse Now" by Louis Grieff

• Despite the many violations of the novel's shape and substance, Coppola manages to pay homage to Conrad's work in unexpected ways.

1. There is a "creative imitation of the Conradian frame" in the form of a disembodied voice at the beginning and end of the film.
2. In contrast to the book, the film portrays Kurtz as a solid, dedicated man while Captain Willard(Marlow) is more fragmented and corrupt. Neither major character in the film can be seen as a good example of Conradian ethics in the Heart of Darkness.
3. Coppola uses 4 minor characters--Chief, Chef, Lance, and Kilgore--with largely un-Conradian names to depict the conflict of "good craftsman and hollow man" as it is in the Heart of Darkness between the two main characters.
4. Chef and Chief give the perfect combination to depict Marlow's ethical craftmanship of discipline mixed with imaginative artistry.
5. Though Lance and Kilgor are outward opposites, they are equally as hollow and empty on the inside. 
   

"'To Boldly Go': Heart of Darkness and Popular Culture" by Linda J. Dryden

• The main idea of The Heart of Darkness and the ethical issues within have been reused and reiterated through popular culture over the last hundred years.

1. Apocalypse Now obviously uses the book to convey the same message about US involvement in Vietnam that Conrad was about imperialism in Africa. The popularity of the movie actually boosted the meaning and popularity of the book, and the depth of Conrad's words made a much more meaningful movie.
2. The television show the Simpsons even has an episode named "The Bart of Darkness" and another that references the novel The Lord of the Flies, which in fact owes part of its influence to... yupp you guessed it, the Heart of Darkness.
3. The influence present in the television show Star Trek is much more subtle than that in the Simpsons, but it is also more common. Throughout the series a main topic, just as in Heart of Darkness, is the question of what it means to be human. Star Trek uses aliens to discuss the moral issues and dilemmas present in the novel, and bits and pieces of the plots even correspond with the novel. 
4. Long story short, Conrad's Heart of Darkness has not only influenced much of out pop culture, it has become a "part of our heritage".

Not So Different After All

Up to this point in The Heart of Darkness the natives are considered to be "savages". They are uncivilized cannibals that need to be taught and controlled by the white men who have come to save them. Yet, in section two we see a slight change in this view. Marlow even comments on the "suspicion of their not being inhuman". It is a new idea to him that perhaps these people are reasonable, even possibly more so than the white men. The conspiring Marlow witnesses and the stories of Kurtz's actions throughout his voyage lift up the rug on the true character of the white men and make the contrasting natives seem more civilized. Marlow isolates himself from the white members of his crew and begins to get better acquainted with his native crewmembers. He even notes that his fireman, a native, is basically the same as a poorly educated white man doing the same job. Even when told bluntly that the cannibals want to eat the people in the fog, Marlow's reaction is one of understanding. He knows that they did not have much food, so he seems to understand their desire to eat people. It is clear to me at this point that the devils Marlow will continue to encounter on his journey are largely the white men around him, but can we see signs that there will be native devils encountered? If not, will Marlow continue to get closer to the natives and maybe even become more like them? His friendship with the African helmsman resulted in Marlow throwing away his shoes, is this in some way symbolic or is Marlow just melodramatic? 

More Fun This Way

The Sound and the Fury is certainly a difficult novel to understand. Lawrence Bowling's article gives a view into the debate as to whether or not the difficulty is a necessary one. Could Faulkner's writing be just as moving and get the same point across to the reader had he written it in a more normal fashion? In my opinion, no it could not. First, much of what the reader gets out of the book is through the reactions of the different characters. These reactions are only seen the way they are by the individual narrator at any given time. A different narrator may very well have seen the scene in a completely different way. The cynicism of Jason, depression and confusion of Quentin, and the innocence and lack of intellect of Benjy all contribute to their narrations. Each give a different view of individual actions and of life, and Faulker depicts them all perfectly through the eyes of the characters. In fact, Faulkner often gives us examples of this occurrence and lets the reader piece it all together. Furthermore, the piecing together of events is a large part that makes this book such a fun one to read and analyze. To be honest, I probably would not have read it outside of class, and if I had I would certainly not have gotten as much out of it as I did through our group analysis, but I definitely enjoyed the work. 

• Faulkner: Technique of "The Sound and the Fury"

• Lawrence Edward Bowling
• The Kenyon Review, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Autumn, 1948), pp. 552-566
• Published by: Kenyon College

Inner Dialogue?

The end of part two left me pretty dazed and confused. At first, the section with no punctuation reminded me, unfortunately, of Beloved. The first time I read the passage, I thought Quentin was using lower case "i" to show his low self worth. I considered it a representation of his suicidal tendencies, but when I read it a second time I realized the conversation taking place. Once again, Quentin's thoughts return to the idea of incest and his love for Caddy. The "he", to me, refers to his father. In the scene Quentin is reflecting on a conversation he had with his father about Caddy, the past, and the future. However, I still have a few questions about the passage.

What exactly did we learn about Quentin's relationship with "he"? For that matter, who exactly is he? Lastly, why is Quentin reflecting on this now?

No Redemption in Sight

John Cheever’s The Five-Forty-Eight is a chilling story that shows the unwillingness of man to change despite imminent danger and despite irreversible damage done to others. The main character, Blake, has spent years using and abusing the people around him with no real regard for their feelings. Inevitably, he finds himself in a position to change his ways and to apologize for at least one of the terrible things he has done, but fails to see the error of his conduct. When faced with someone he has hurt, Blake only thinks of himself, and when faced with death, he only thinks of the things he will miss.

Blake finds no harm in the way he treated Ms. Dent, so when she confronts him he makes no effort to redress or rectify what has happened. In fact, Blake is so unmoved by his actions that he manages to kick Ms. Dent while she is down when he ignores her at his office. It is clear that this is not the first time Blake has done something like this. He had encounters similar to this with “many women…picked for their lack of self-esteem” and had never cared for any of them.(505) When Blake does finally see Ms. Dent after their night in her apartment, she begins to weep as she had before. Once again, Blake notices her weeping, but does nothing. He does not even attempt to show signs of sympathy for her situation or regret for what he has done to her. The regret he does feel, however, is for not realizing she was crazy. At no point does the effect of his actions run through his head, instead his thoughts consist only of how he could have avoided seeing her on that day or avoided being with her before. To Blake, his error came not in his selfish and demeaning actions towards Ms. Dent or anyone else in his life, but instead in his lack of discernment in choosing the insane assistant as his vice.

Blake may well have been able to escape his moving prison while on the train with Ms. Dent had he not severed ties with all the people he knew, yet he still never repents or changes in any way. Both Mr. Watkins and Mrs. Compton were in a position to help Blake in his predicament, but because of the way he treats his wife and because of his arrogance when dealing with Mr. Watkins, he is left to his own seemingly imminent demise. Even when Blake is standing directly next to them, “neither of them spoke to him,” or when he is in the rain “none of them offered to give him a ride.”(511) Finally, after years of treating his wife irrationally, years of false egotism, and years of treating women he had relations with rudely, Blake is forced to face all of his mistakes at once. Yet, he does not know that is what has happened. When he begins to weep, it is not for regret of his actions, but for fear of death itself.

Anais Nin once said, “people living deeply have no fear of death” but Blake is not living deeply, a fact that he himself fails to realize. His whole life is on the surface, as shallow as his taste in women. His evaluations of people are short and judgmental and he a controlling user, which is why Ms. Dent’s actions fail to change Blake. Life went on before his episode with her, and it will either go on the same way after the episode, or it won’t at all. When all is said and done, Blake “picked up his hat from the ground where it had fallen and walked home”(512) showing that nothing had changed. It was just a weird day for Blake but now that it was over he could begin his walk home as he did every day before.

1/2 Blog

I have read only a couple short stories, but i have managed to find ones that I have greatly enjoyed. The one i have enjoyed the most is Light Sweet Crude by Christopher Feliciano Arnold. It won the Playboy College Fiction Contest in 2009 and was published in the October issue. It follows an oil contract trader and is an exciting depiction of the behind-the-scenes oil industry. I also enjoyed reading In His Own Woods by Scott Turow. It is about a man's dream to own land and the adventures he finally has in his own woods with his daughter. I have not had much time to read other stories since i have been busy making up missed work, but I am excited to read more and see what others I can find.