The discussions we've had during the study of the two literary works we've had in class have been quite pleasant for me. I've really enjoyed hearing everyone's thoughts and perceptions and find class time quite insighful and enjoy the supplemental ideas and observations. With that in mind, let me just say that going into Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart I found myself to be quite guarded simply because of my views on Achebe himself. The guy appears to be an arrogant ass when it comes to his opinion of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I was skeptical as I started to read TFA and was sure I would find hostility layered throughout the text. I was wrong.

TFA was a beautifully written story and I found it easy to sympathize with Okonkwo. I don't know why I was so surprised that I would enjoy this text. I know Achebe isn't the first person to come across as grumpy yet still produce amazing art. For instance, I'm sure everyone is familiar with Ludwig Van Beethoven. Known for his temper and being difficult, yet he still was able to compose tear enducing work. His Symphony #7 in A can get me a little weepy.
For your listening enjoyment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdfNTO_o-3k

Another artist that I've been told was a grumpy was author Norman Maclean. I had a professor at Walla Walla University tell me he met one of Macleans son and was told that he was just plain mean sometimes. And yet his opening paragraph to A River Runs Through It is one of the most incredible openings to any book I've every read. I can't tell you why I like it so much, I've reread it numerous times and I still don't understand half of it but I recognize that it's significant and important.

Chapter 1
Paragraph 1
In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in western Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ's disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.

I don't know, maybe it's just Brad Pitt in my subconcious, but I'm pretty sure it is the language that touches me.

A passage in TFA really stood out to me. It wasn't because of its purpose or significance to the text, it was just the fluid use of Achebe's words and the imagery. I'm going to sound beyond pretentious and cliche here, but I felt as if I was there, within the tribe.

Chapter 13
Paragraph 1
Go-di-di-go-go-di-go. Di-go-go-di-go. It was the ekwe talking to the clan. One of the things everyman learned was the language of the hollowed-out wooden instrument. Diim! Diim! Diim! boomed the cannon at intervals.
The first cock had not crowed, and Umuofia was still swallowed up in sleep and silence when the ekwe began to talk, and the cannon shattered the silence. Men stirred on their bamboo beds and listened anxiously. Somebody was dead. The cannon seemed to rend the sky. Di-go-go-di-go-di-di-go-go floated in the message-laden night air. The faint and distant wailing of women settled like a sediment of sorrow on the earth.

The last line is one of the prettiest assemblage of words in literature that I have ever read. The use of alliteration and personification adds a poetic feel to it. With Achebe describing Okonkwo's villiage and people in that way, it's easy for me to see why he was willing to fight for his land, family and traditions.

Here are some closing thoughts for my Free-for-All blog post. I couldn't help but think of the lyrics to Leonard Cohens song "Hallelujah". Maybe the Biblical references are a bit of a stretch, but I felt the songs message was parallel to Okonkwo's quest to preserve everything he knew. In the end, maybe his death was his final "hallelujah". God, I'm cheesy.

Here's some Jeff Buckley covering Mr. Cohen. I think of all the variations this song has had, this is the best interpretation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AratTMGrHaQ
"Hallelujah"
Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like thisThe fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied youTo a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Baby I have been here beforeI know this room,
I've walked this floorI used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah
There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of lightIn every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Blog Post #2: What's the deal with Heart of Darkness?

I'm going to start out with throwing my own personal opinion out there as to whether or not we should read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Anything that provokes multiple discussions, critical essays and entire classes based off of one man's work, must be deemed worthy of reading. I've heard multiple references to this text, and now I can hold my own in a conversation because I know what the hell people are talking about. This book can be broken down not only for it's literary structure, such as the themes, metaphors, symbols, character development, etc. but for the feelings it invokes in those that read it. This book is not necessarily something I would want to read again, but I feel that in the discussions we've had in class, it's enough to prove that this piece of literature is worth the arguments and analysis that have been thrown around for the last 100 + years.

I'm going to bring up Chinua Achebe, clearly this guy is not a fan of Conrad's. His use of the term "racist" while referring to HoD show's one man's opinion of the issues brought up within the text. In his critical essay 'An Image of Africa' he claims that "Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as "the other world," the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man's vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality." (338)Not necessarily the opinion I share, but it is an opinion. His own literary work, Things Fall Apart, shows a more personal approach to the life the Africans lived and we are introduced to some traditions and means of survival within African tribes rather than learning of their culture through brief refrences of the savagery and bare feet.

J. Hillis Miller brings up an interesting point in his essay 'Should we read "Heart of Darkness?"' when he states "There are certainly ways to read "Heart of Darkness" that might do harm".(474) It is easy to pick out certain examples from the text that could make it easy for people to call Conrad racist, misogynistic, ignorant or whatever else you want to blame him for. But he does go on to say that it is up to the reader as to whether or not we should read it.

Back to my opinion, why wouldn't you want to read it even if only to get into an interesting/heated discussion? Everything that this book entails can be scrutinized many different ways. For example, I don't think Marlow is all that great. To me, he is a simple man that becomes corrupt due to his obsession with Kurtz. He appears to be all noble, yet I see very little emotion in him. In Francis Ford Coppola's Apocolypse Now, Martin Sheen really captures Marlow the way that I read him. The opening scene shows him going obsolutely insane and then as soon as he's given a job, he has something to focus on. As I read this, I kept thinking of Johnny Depp's character in The Ninth Gate. Depp plays Dean Corso, a book dealer that specializes in rare editions and prints. The guy really doesn't have much to offer other than his expertise in book dealing but is given a task to locate books to have been written by the Devil himself. He becomes obsessed with his task just as Conrad does and people die in his search.

I'm getting off topic now, but this is just my illustration of how there are many ways to interpret this work. Even Buffy the Vampire Slayer makes reference's to Conrad's work. In season 4, episode 22 entitled 'Restless', Xander makes a suggestion that the gang watch Apocolypse Now and Willow replies "Can't we watch something a little less Heart of Darkness-y?" Xander then has a dream that is straight out of the film and you get to see Armin Shimmerman (Quark from Deep Space Nine) recapture his role as Principle Snyder playing Marlon Brando's Col. Kurtz. If you happen to be a giant nerd like me, I suggest you watch it. Pretty funny.

That concludes this weeks blog assignment. I think people should read Heart of Darkness then talk about it. It won't be a boring discussion.

My desperate attempt to write about Wallace and Conrad

Wallace concludes his invigorating and captivating (sorry for the sarcasm, it's late and I'm bored) article 'Are Humans One Race or Many?' that "we are fully entitled to maintain the common origin of all mankind." (224) Throughout the piece he uses the typical examples of natural selection and survival of the fittest to support his theory that at one time, humankind may have been made up of "several distinct races of man" (223) but that the development of the brain, language and feelings led to an "homogeneous race." (223) He states that natural selection becomes less of the deciding factor to human preservation and logic, emotions, and intellect has taken over for survival. With that said, I'm going to start rambling on about my opinions of racial issues in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."

I'm torn as to whether I believe that Conrad thought that the natives to the Congo were a separate race or not. He was certainly a man of his time and found the African's to be simple and less advanced. He refer's to them as savages and describes them the way I would describe an alien or something else completely foreign. Scientifically speaking, humans are the same, yet culturally there are many demographics, colors of skin, and behaviors that are unique to each continent. Perhaps that is how he viewed them. With their dark skin, crude weapons and bare feet he could have seen them simply as a less civilized group rather than a inferior race. I can't really conclude my opinion of Conrad's writing on this issue, maybe if I read it a few more times...