The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Chronicles #4 ｜ Joseph Conrad： Heart of Darkness

00:00:00.000 Hello, and welcome to this episode of Chronicles, where we're going to be discussing the 1899

00:00:19.800 novella, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, a very, very famous and wonderfully controversial

00:00:27.460 text. So I suppose let's just begin with a little bit about Joseph Conrad himself. Joseph Conrad was

00:00:34.980 actually not British by birth, although it became his adoptive country later in his life, and he

00:00:42.360 became one of the most remarkable writers in the English language. Conrad's birth and heritage was

00:00:49.220 actually Poland, and specifically Poland as annexed by the Russian Empire and partitioned. And so his

00:00:58.180 father was very, very instrumental in constantly rebelling against the Russian Empire. And this

00:01:05.160 meant that Conrad grew up without very much stability in his life. In fact, in 1865, he and his family

00:01:14.640 were even forcibly exiled to northern Russia as punishment for rebellion. And he lost his mother

00:01:22.440 at quite an early age. From then on, when Conrad was eight years old, his father took on work

00:01:31.040 translating texts into Polish, and one of the first was Shakespeare. And so Conrad grew up from an early

00:01:40.160 age, slowly being inculcated with a love of the English language itself. He also watched his father work

00:01:48.160 as he translated other works by Victor Hugo, Dickens and Thackeray, and other such famous writers of the age.

00:01:57.920 And so Heart of Darkness is very much a tale, a novella inspired by Conrad's own personal life,

00:02:07.440 because from there and moving away from Poland and towards Western Europe, Conrad went on to

00:02:15.280 have a great deal of time seafaring, sailing across the world very, very extensively, might I add. He

00:02:22.480 went as far as Borneo and the Caribbean and Singapore, and most importantly, for the texts that we're going

00:02:30.800 to be discussing, the Congo. And this is a tale where Conrad's experiences in the Congo is not necessarily

00:02:41.280 autobiographical, but it is a story born out of his impressions of what he saw firsthand with King

00:02:50.160 Leopold II of Belgium's personal private colony, which was the only one in the world at that time,

00:02:57.360 and possibly ever, although don't quote me on that. But it was certainly the only private colony

00:03:02.960 that actually existed in the world at that time, as in it wasn't managed by the Belgian state,

00:03:09.600 but rather by direct diktat from King Leopold II. Conrad had a very complicated relationship with

00:03:18.800 colonialism, even though at the very, very end of the 19th century, it very much simply was the default

00:03:28.160 European worldview of the time. But this shouldn't be interpreted as Conrad being akin to modern-day

00:03:38.160 post-colonialists who seem to just use the history from 150 years ago to whip European nations today

00:03:48.640 into submission. Heart of Darkness, rather, is a very contemplative text that addresses both the pros and

00:03:57.200 cons of civilization. And ultimately, it is a very psychological, very cerebral text, written in a

00:04:07.280 style of writing that was very, very popular back at that time, which was Impressionism, which was most

00:04:13.520 famously associated with writers like Conrad and Virginia Woolf. And it's this Impressionistic style

00:04:22.320 that moves away from what you would consider third-person omniscient narration and focuses much more

00:04:29.920 narrowly on the senses and the particular experiences, the emotional experiences of one character. And in

00:04:39.920 this case, that character is the protagonist, Charles Marlowe, who is introduced in the Heart of Darkness

00:04:46.400 and would actually go on to be a reoccurring character in some of Joseph Conrad's later works.

00:04:53.040 So, with all of this background just filled in, let's begin discussing the plot of the Heart of Darkness.

00:05:06.160 The story begins in England, at the port of Gravesend on the estuary of the Thames,

00:05:11.840 where the tale's protagonist, Charles Marlowe, is aboard a boat with a small company of travellers.

00:05:17.840 But, due to the tides, they cannot sail on the Thames. That river, we are reminded by the text,

00:05:24.560 had known and served all the men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John

00:05:30.400 Franklin, knights all, titled and untitled, the great knight-errant of the sea. It had borne all the

00:05:38.080 ships whose names are the jewels flashing in the night of time, from the golden hind returning,

00:05:44.560 with her rotund flanks full of treasure, to be visited by the Queen's Highness, and must pass out 1.00

00:05:51.680 of the gigantic tale, to the Erebus and Terra, bound on other conquests, and that never returned.

00:05:59.840 It had known the ships and the men. They had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Aerith.

00:06:05.280 The adventurers and settlers, kingships and the ships of men, on change, captains, admirals,

00:06:13.120 the dark interlopers of the eastern trade, and the commissioning generals of East India fleets.

00:06:19.840 Hunters for gold, or pursuers of fame. They all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword,

00:06:27.680 and often the torch. Messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire.

00:06:35.200 What greatness had not floated, on the ebb of that river, into the mystery of an unknown earth.

00:06:42.320 The dreams of men, the seeds of commonwealths, the germs of empires.

00:06:48.560 The company on board the ship lazily exchange a few pleasantries, but the atmosphere is cold,

00:06:55.200 and they soon succumb to silence. Marlow positions himself on the floor, sat with his legs crossed

00:07:02.400 and his palms open, like an idol of the Buddha, and begins to speak, providing a sermon to no

00:07:08.880 one in particular. He pontificates on Britain's history and the Roman legions who had once come

00:07:15.360 to its shores nearly two millennia ago. What must they have felt when they first gazed upon its marshes

00:07:22.080 and savage tribes? Marlow suggests the Romans would have found ancient Britannia to be an abomination.

00:07:30.240 Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency. The devotion to efficiency.

00:07:38.160 But these chaps were not much account, really. They were not colonists. Their administration was merely

00:07:44.240 a squeeze, and nothing more I suspect. They were conquerors. And for that, you only want brute force.

00:07:50.880 Nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the

00:07:56.080 weakness of others. They grabbed what they could get for the sake of what was to be got.

00:08:01.200 It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind,

00:08:08.160 as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness. But Marlow concedes that there is an insatiable drive

00:08:14.880 in the human character for adventure and discovery, and recollects memories of his childhood, gazing with

00:08:21.760 wanderlust at the unmapped interiors of the southern world. South America. Australia. Africa.

00:08:29.840 And one day, after many a voyage to the world's exotic corners, an opportunity arises for Marlow to travel

00:08:37.200 to the African Congo. The heart of darkness. The murder of a Danish captain left a place open with

00:08:45.520 a Belgian ivory trading company. After Marlow is given the job, he sails on a French steamer,

00:08:51.600 pausing at intervals to allow soldiers and clerks and more soldiers to disembark at various coastal

00:08:58.640 outposts. Eventually, his steamer reaches the mouth of the Congo River and starts down its path.

00:09:05.840 Marlow is introduced to colleagues and traders. It is a bitter introduction, with a Swedish captain 0.96

00:09:13.600 commenting that a man had hanged himself just the other day. A railway is being built nearby,

00:09:19.920 with the labour of native Africans. Assessing their condition, Marlow pitiably observes that

00:09:26.720 they were dying slowly. It was very clear. They were not enemies. They were not criminals.

00:09:33.120 They were nothing earthly now. Nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly

00:09:40.480 in the greenish gloom. Brought from all the recesses of the coast and all the legalities of time and

00:09:46.640 contracts. Lost in uncongenial surroundings, fed on unfamiliar food, they sickened, became inefficient,

00:09:55.440 and were then allowed to crawl away and rest. These moribund shapes were free as air and nearly as

00:10:02.080 thin. I began to distinguish the gleam of the eyes under the trees. Then, glancing down, I saw a face

00:10:09.680 near my hand. The black bones reclined at full length, with one shoulder against a tree. And slowly,

00:10:17.280 the eyelids rose, and the sunken eyes looked up at me. Enormous and vacant, a kind of blind,

00:10:25.280 white flicker in the depths of the orbs, which died out slowly. The man seemed young, almost a boy,

00:10:33.600 but you know with them it s hard to tell. I found nothing else to do but to offer him one of my good

00:10:38.560 swede ship biscuits I had in my pocket. The fingers closed slowly on it and held. There was no other

00:10:45.120 movement, and no other glance. Marlow then reaches the company station, whereupon he meets the

00:10:52.080 impeccably dressed and groomed accountant. The visible personification of civilized man in the wild,

00:10:59.920 uncultivated Congo. It is from this account that Marlow first hears of the man who will become his 0.99

00:11:06.800 obsession. Mr. Kurtz. A man esteemed as remarkable. He learns that Kurtz is positioned much further

00:11:14.960 down the river in true ivory country. The accountant asserts that, oh, he will go far. Very far. 0.78

00:11:23.360 He will be a remarkable somebody in the administration before long. They above. The Council of Europe,

00:11:29.280 you know, mean him to be. To reach the navigable part of the Congo River, Marlow then endures a 200

00:11:36.320 mile walk overland until he reaches another outpost, where he then meets the manager. A very ordinary

00:11:45.040 man. He explains to Marlow that there has been trouble in the interior and that Kurtz is ill. Though

00:11:52.880 Marlow suspects that not always as it seems, he is tasked with sailing into the interior to retrieve

00:11:59.760 Kurtz and the ivory. Though Kurtz may be suffering, the manager shows no great haste to retrieve him.

00:12:07.600 Over time, Marlow comes to understand that the manager wants Kurtz to die, being bitterly jealous

00:12:13.600 of his talents and the prospects of promotion. Repairs on the steamer are slow. Eventually,

00:12:19.600 a group known as the El Dorado Exploring Expedition comes through with necessary materials. Their talk,

00:12:26.560 however, was a talk of sordid buccaneers. It was reckless without hardiness, greedy without audacity,

00:12:34.240 and cruel without courage. There was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole

00:12:41.760 batch of them. And they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world. To tear

00:12:48.640 treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it

00:12:54.720 than there is in the burglar breaking into a safe. Who paid the expenses of the noble enterprise,

00:13:01.520 I don't know. But the uncle of our manager was leader of that lot. Eventually, Marlow and the

00:13:08.720 manager set out, with four pilgrims and a troop of natives, on an odyssey to the heart of darkness

00:13:14.720 to find Kurtz. The Africans were cannibals, and Marlow dryly remarks of them that,

00:13:20.400 they were men one could work with, and I am grateful to them. And, after all, they did not eat each

00:13:27.200 other before my face. Further on, in a thick fog, the steamer is assaulted by a tribe of native Africans, 1.00

00:13:34.640 arrows fly, and the African crew member steering the ship is killed. The natives then retreat back into 1.00

00:13:41.120 the impenetrable camouflage of the forest. Sluggishly, they persevere on, until they reach the inner station.

00:13:49.200 They are greeted by a Russian, Kurtz's last man. He speaks with Marlow, telling him of Kurtz's long

00:13:56.720 expeditions and the local tribes submitting to his power. He was not afraid of the natives.

00:14:03.600 They would not stir till Mr. Kurtz gave the word. His ascendancy was extraordinary. The camps of these

00:14:10.640 people surrounding the place and the chiefs came every day to see him. Before long, some African tribesmen

00:14:18.080 come to the outpost bearing a sickly, malnourished Kurtz. With a host of armed men following behind 0.97

00:14:25.680 them, he is taken to his cabin. In the fleeting scene, a Congolese woman passes by, obviously a

00:14:33.440 mistress of Kurtz. But seeing the European arrivals, she returns to the wilderness. The manager voices his 0.51

00:14:41.120 distaste at Kurtz's operation and it becomes clear that he is aware of Marlow's strange sense of loyalty

00:14:49.760 to this sickly man. The Russian then reveals to Marlow that it was Kurtz who had ordered the recent 0.67

00:14:56.480 attack on the boat for fearing of being taken away. Night falls, darkness at the heart of darkness.

00:15:04.480 Marlow is jolted awake suddenly by a sense of trouble. Kurtz is missing. Marlow finds him crawling

00:15:11.760 away, bemoaning the fact that he had immense plans. And Marlow recalls, I tried to break the spell,

00:15:18.800 the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness that seemed to draw him into its pitiless breast by the awakening of

00:15:26.400 forgotten and brutal instincts. By the memory of gratified and monstrous passions. This alone,

00:15:33.440 I was convinced, had driven him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards a gleam of fires,

00:15:40.080 the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations. This alone had beguiled his unlawful soul beyond the

00:15:48.000 bounds of permitted aspirations. Forlorn. Kurtz and the ivory are brought aboard the vessel, 1.00

00:15:54.800 and they begin the journey back. Between his duties, Marlow visits the cabin for what will be

00:16:01.040 Kurtz's final moments, to share them with this shell of a man who has diverted his whole fascination for

00:16:08.240 months. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation and surrender during that

00:16:15.040 supreme moment of complete knowledge? He cried, in a whisper, at some image, at some vision. He cried

00:16:22.720 out twice. A cry that was no more than the breath. The horror. The horror. That same evening, a small

00:16:31.520 African boy comes into the men at dinner and utters that famous line, Mr. Kurtz. He did. The manager seizes 0.85

00:16:41.040 most of Kurtz's papers, but Marlow manages to save a few letters and a picture of his once betrothed.

00:16:48.240 Upon returning to London, the fiancé meets with him, still adorning morning black. She begins to

00:16:55.120 divulge her most private regrets about the passing of her love. She talks lengthily of the remarkable man

00:17:01.520 she once knew, and eventually asks Marlow what his last words were, and Marlow lies, and tells her that

00:17:08.720 Kurtz's last words were her name. I couldn't. I could not tell her. It would have been too dark. Too dark altogether.

00:17:20.720 I couldn't. I couldn't. I had to. I thought her grew up.

00:17:36.320 Titus ravus nhďjczekas, why? 1.00

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - July 05, 2025

PREVIEW： Chronicles #4 ｜ Joseph Conrad： Heart of Darkness

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