Very insightful Greg… I so look forward to your Sunday Pages and the chance to reflect on our times through the lens of great literature. I must re-read this, I’m sure my middle-aged self will take much more from it than teenage me could have. The moral corruption, abject greed and savagery of Conrad’s mad cult leader certainly hits me from a fresh (yet fetid) perspective now in 2025… The Horror!!!
Thank you Greg for exposing me to another great work of literature and relating it to life today. The saddest takeaway for me is the analogous flickering candle. Light, darkness, light darkness. Feels like today's existence for many of us. Damnation, hope, damnation hope. The constant fear that the flicker will end, hope is illusion, damnation will prevail. Only words to describe this existence "The horror".
I am asking every substack member I belong to. Please spread this message. Asking our 40 major union and the 14-16 million members, every retail worker,bank clerks, students, non emergency medical people, all uniformed police and support staff. Join a national revolt on February 17th. Flood the streets in every town, state and DC. Resist now.
As Erin imagines, my middle-aged self will take more from it now than from reading the book in school. I wish I had had a Professor Olear to travel with, through the book and into understanding. I’ll read Greg’s compelling essay again in a little while. Should we feel comforted, less anxious, knowing that our situation is not new?
Yes, and with that knowledge there is hope for me personally that we will prevail against tyranny and oppression and will face our times with courage when pressed. That time is now. Each of us feels the steel in our backbone hardening and the willingness to sacrifice in battling evil. Heroes are born not made. We cannot all be heroes, but each of us will find a role. There will be losses but I'm personally willing to lose it all. I think it is in our DNA to hold onto our freedom and to hold onto our role as leader and protector of the free world not for status but because we are needed and what is being stolen from us has great value.
You seem to have arrived, after a purposeful itinerary, at the core of darkness in Conrad's dark tale. Greed, mendacity & savagery, all indulged to their completeness, are only the way-stations along the road (or river.) At the heart of their journeys and in their hearts, the horsemen of this cavalry of extremism ("Please allow me to introduce myself....") imagine themselves & therefore are, the vanguard of a spirituality opposing the liberalism which worships at the altar of enlightened self-interest where the modern world usually assumes godliness to be.
Thanks, Richard. Marlow is all into his feelings, but what the book says is that these stupid greedy people have gone there and destroyed themselves for teeth.
Teeth (and read Freud about them in dreams) and for a grandiose illusion of themselves, truly the black hole of the anti-soul. Truly the heart of darkness.
I found a “teachable moment” with my daughter several years ago. I was trying to prove that telling the truth was the most important thing. Instead she told me about an episode of one of her tween shows where the family (with several children) decided that they would only tell each other the truth - no lying allowed. After a few days of this, everyone was mad at each other and not speaking with lots of hurt feelings. So she concluded that telling the truth all of the time could be as damaging as telling a lie. There’s a huge difference between telling a “lie” and willful deceit. The lie Marlow told to the fiancé was not to deceive her, but to extend a kindness. The truth in that situation would have been cruel. What the miscreants in the current administration are doing, and have been doing, is downright cruel and every word out of their mouths is meant to deceive us. Chaos, confusion and illusion are the tools that they use to achieve their misguided goals. Don’t believe everything you see and hear. They are masters of deceit.
If he had told her the truth, it might’ve given her an opening to “grow up” and to accept the way things are. Also, if a woman loves a man as much as she claimed to, she would want to really know what his last words were. But this woman did not want to know. He told her exactly what she wanted to hear. Therefore, you could say he did the right thing.
Yes, there were so many ways he could have told her the truth. But, he was only dualistic in his thinking. Like the story, good and bad. When there is no nuance possible perhaps empire’s end. Like now, burn it all down instead of tweet what works.
I also wondered if he actually knew her name. He never tells it, which is unusual when the name is a key aspect of the lie. And thus my "Nellie" theory.
It's all interesting. The truth may have set her free but it might also have destroyed her...even more than she was already destroyed. False idols, I suppose, is another aspect of the book. No one is worth worshipping.
Your last caveat is exactly what I was thinking. Seems trivial when The Truth is so elusive, but sometimes a “yes, but…” is a good place to land. Especially with young people.
Once my brother and I had an arm wrestling contest. He was 16 and I was 22. I thought I could beat him, but wondered whether I should. I decided it would be condescending to let him win if he wasn’t to be the true winner. So I went ahead and put his arm down. It turned out to be a big mistake. If I had it to do over again I would’ve definitely let him win. But there are no do-overs. The moving finger writes.
Who loves a man like Kurtz? Only a woman who wants to drown herself in a fairy tale kind of love. He was right to lie and not tarnish her long held illusion. She was already lost.
I think a lot of people loved Kurtz. He was a malignant narcissist and charming and all that. The problem is that no one she ever meets can live up to the impossible, fake standard.
"The Lie" is part of the ambiguity that Bloom cites. Lots of ways to interpret this. I always felt he did her a kindness, but he seems to feel guilty for having lied. Interesting.
I haven't read Heart of Darkness since grad school. I often think, of course, of the horror, the horror. And the parallels, the parallels. How many of us are waiting for the headline that might end this: Mistah Kurtz--he dead.
It's funny: that "he dead" line was the cause of so much concern for so long, on account of its bad grammar. But now, people have gone back to talking like that slangily, and it reads like any old tweet.
I always want to say something before I read a Greg piece. I’m still handing out Beast. As a guide now to what is to come. One friend I have now refers to “Greg” as in “Greg said…”. It’s not just Heart of Darkness that needs a separate espresso. I know I’m going to read this and my time spent will make me more curious, open, wanting to know, and acknowledge my own experience of life is valuable. IT’s been a horrible (?) day so far…have to acknowledge that today, right before the Super Bowl, I have to acknowledge all that’s happening has entered into the core of my family’s obsession with not really bringing it up. Before it was because they didn’treaty know. Now they do. Same silence about it but different. Now, espresso and a quiet read. I know I’ll post again. Glad Greg read this again…same HS short book thing.
Thanks, Jackie. I think that maintaining a distance to the news is important. If we allow it to consume us, we shut down. But we can't ignore it, either. It's a delicate balance, and I think we're all of us trying to figure out how to do it, how to approach it, so we aren't driven mad...
Excellent, Greg. I remember the profound affect that book had on me when I studied it in an English class at the Memphis College of Arts (several years before Amy Carter attended). I keep seeing Marlon Brando’s character rubbing his bald head saying “the horror, the horror”. My one attempt at writing actually revolved around it’s theme. Brando’s character was sacrificed by the Natives at the end of Apocalypse Now, so, you never know how it will end for the current Captain Kurtz.
Thanks, Amy. I love the movie, but I feel like the Brando part is kind of mid. Duval is the best part of the movie, and him being more compelling than Kurtz throws off the effect. Like playing "Stairway" halfway through the set and ending with "All of My Love" or something.
The KenCen (what we locals have referred to it as for decades) has an incredible free digital stage (and if you join as a member you can have access to member-only performances, too).
FYI: Coppola's wife of years passed away this spring.
P.S. I'm currently 326 pages in to Fredrik Logevall's Pulitzer Prize-winning "JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century."
And so, espresso and a Greg read. How painful it is to go from dark to sudden light. Or be blind in a suddenly dark room. We need the gradual; the tweaking of institutions instead of the burn it all down. Or get all the white tusks you can get right now. Only Greg can make me stretch my mind like this…to include something akin to “self-care,” which gets this horrible now connected to “ok, this is not new and people got through this.” Beautiful piece that really gets me drawing out some kind of understanding in myself, that helps me cope. My God, I need that. To be so well treated by a writer… really isn’t it the best blessing?
Thanks so much, Jackie. I appreciate that. These are hard times, spiritually, and it will be perilous to deal with them these next four years. (Four YEARS? Ugh...)
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/1048336907/elephants-tuskless-ivory-poaching-africa. Elephants (particularly female) genetically changing to protect themselves by being born without tusks. Ummm. 🧐 "They've produced the smoking-gun evidence for genetic changes," said Chris Darimont, a conservation scientist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who was not involved in the research. The work "helps scientists and the public understand how our society can have a major influence on the evolution of other life forms." [I had read this article recently….it stuck in my mind. Who knows, maybe as the world population was set to increase so much, man developed more investigation or scientific study impulses to prepare. “And God then created reporters.” 🤭
Very insightful Greg… I so look forward to your Sunday Pages and the chance to reflect on our times through the lens of great literature. I must re-read this, I’m sure my middle-aged self will take much more from it than teenage me could have. The moral corruption, abject greed and savagery of Conrad’s mad cult leader certainly hits me from a fresh (yet fetid) perspective now in 2025… The Horror!!!
Thanks, Erin. My takeaway, really, is what a waste it all is. All the talent and ambition and genius, and for what? Teeth. Disgraceful.
Thank you Greg for exposing me to another great work of literature and relating it to life today. The saddest takeaway for me is the analogous flickering candle. Light, darkness, light darkness. Feels like today's existence for many of us. Damnation, hope, damnation hope. The constant fear that the flicker will end, hope is illusion, damnation will prevail. Only words to describe this existence "The horror".
Thanks, Old Man. I don't know how I missed "we live in the flicker" before. Because that's quite the line.
I am asking every substack member I belong to. Please spread this message. Asking our 40 major union and the 14-16 million members, every retail worker,bank clerks, students, non emergency medical people, all uniformed police and support staff. Join a national revolt on February 17th. Flood the streets in every town, state and DC. Resist now.
I just shared this link on blue sky… your comment. Thank you.
The 17th, got it, ok. Is there a main link?
done!
As Erin imagines, my middle-aged self will take more from it now than from reading the book in school. I wish I had had a Professor Olear to travel with, through the book and into understanding. I’ll read Greg’s compelling essay again in a little while. Should we feel comforted, less anxious, knowing that our situation is not new?
Thanks, Cynthia. It always makes me feel better, that we've been here before.
Yes, and with that knowledge there is hope for me personally that we will prevail against tyranny and oppression and will face our times with courage when pressed. That time is now. Each of us feels the steel in our backbone hardening and the willingness to sacrifice in battling evil. Heroes are born not made. We cannot all be heroes, but each of us will find a role. There will be losses but I'm personally willing to lose it all. I think it is in our DNA to hold onto our freedom and to hold onto our role as leader and protector of the free world not for status but because we are needed and what is being stolen from us has great value.
Brilliant piece, Greg. I still prefer Apocalypse Now.
Oh, I LOVE that movie, Especially Duval. CHARLIE DON'T SURF!
You seem to have arrived, after a purposeful itinerary, at the core of darkness in Conrad's dark tale. Greed, mendacity & savagery, all indulged to their completeness, are only the way-stations along the road (or river.) At the heart of their journeys and in their hearts, the horsemen of this cavalry of extremism ("Please allow me to introduce myself....") imagine themselves & therefore are, the vanguard of a spirituality opposing the liberalism which worships at the altar of enlightened self-interest where the modern world usually assumes godliness to be.
Thanks, Richard. Marlow is all into his feelings, but what the book says is that these stupid greedy people have gone there and destroyed themselves for teeth.
Teeth (and read Freud about them in dreams) and for a grandiose illusion of themselves, truly the black hole of the anti-soul. Truly the heart of darkness.
And for a 1990s ripping good tale, in a different genre but not far from the tree, you must read David Lindsey's An Absence of Light.
I found a “teachable moment” with my daughter several years ago. I was trying to prove that telling the truth was the most important thing. Instead she told me about an episode of one of her tween shows where the family (with several children) decided that they would only tell each other the truth - no lying allowed. After a few days of this, everyone was mad at each other and not speaking with lots of hurt feelings. So she concluded that telling the truth all of the time could be as damaging as telling a lie. There’s a huge difference between telling a “lie” and willful deceit. The lie Marlow told to the fiancé was not to deceive her, but to extend a kindness. The truth in that situation would have been cruel. What the miscreants in the current administration are doing, and have been doing, is downright cruel and every word out of their mouths is meant to deceive us. Chaos, confusion and illusion are the tools that they use to achieve their misguided goals. Don’t believe everything you see and hear. They are masters of deceit.
If he had told her the truth, it might’ve given her an opening to “grow up” and to accept the way things are. Also, if a woman loves a man as much as she claimed to, she would want to really know what his last words were. But this woman did not want to know. He told her exactly what she wanted to hear. Therefore, you could say he did the right thing.
Yes, there were so many ways he could have told her the truth. But, he was only dualistic in his thinking. Like the story, good and bad. When there is no nuance possible perhaps empire’s end. Like now, burn it all down instead of tweet what works.
When there is no nuance possible perhaps empires end?
Whoa
I also wondered if he actually knew her name. He never tells it, which is unusual when the name is a key aspect of the lie. And thus my "Nellie" theory.
It's all interesting. The truth may have set her free but it might also have destroyed her...even more than she was already destroyed. False idols, I suppose, is another aspect of the book. No one is worth worshipping.
The truth has more value than a lie, even if it’s a kind lie. That’s my belief.
One caveat: avoiding damaging the self-esteem of a young person is one instance where I would weigh the truth/lie belief.
“Does this look good on me?”
“Yes, but I think I like the blue one better”.
Your last caveat is exactly what I was thinking. Seems trivial when The Truth is so elusive, but sometimes a “yes, but…” is a good place to land. Especially with young people.
Yes, Cynthia. Well said.
Excellent way of saying it.
True.
Or am I lying? ; )
:D
Once my brother and I had an arm wrestling contest. He was 16 and I was 22. I thought I could beat him, but wondered whether I should. I decided it would be condescending to let him win if he wasn’t to be the true winner. So I went ahead and put his arm down. It turned out to be a big mistake. If I had it to do over again I would’ve definitely let him win. But there are no do-overs. The moving finger writes.
Take number two:
Who loves a man like Kurtz? Only a woman who wants to drown herself in a fairy tale kind of love. He was right to lie and not tarnish her long held illusion. She was already lost.
I think a lot of people loved Kurtz. He was a malignant narcissist and charming and all that. The problem is that no one she ever meets can live up to the impossible, fake standard.
"The Lie" is part of the ambiguity that Bloom cites. Lots of ways to interpret this. I always felt he did her a kindness, but he seems to feel guilty for having lied. Interesting.
I haven't read Heart of Darkness since grad school. I often think, of course, of the horror, the horror. And the parallels, the parallels. How many of us are waiting for the headline that might end this: Mistah Kurtz--he dead.
Back on my TBR list.
Ha!
It's funny: that "he dead" line was the cause of so much concern for so long, on account of its bad grammar. But now, people have gone back to talking like that slangily, and it reads like any old tweet.
The parallels, the parallels...
And oh, the poor, poor elephants. We can tickle the ivories without thinking of the slaughter behind them. Billserle.com
Seriously.
Yes, Bill, the brutal, senseless massacre of the Elephants. It's haunting to think about. It's no wonder Kurtz lost his humanity if he ever had any.
Another brilliant writing.
Conrad is always an excellent choice.
Thanks, Cal. SECRET AGENT is his best book IMO.
I always want to say something before I read a Greg piece. I’m still handing out Beast. As a guide now to what is to come. One friend I have now refers to “Greg” as in “Greg said…”. It’s not just Heart of Darkness that needs a separate espresso. I know I’m going to read this and my time spent will make me more curious, open, wanting to know, and acknowledge my own experience of life is valuable. IT’s been a horrible (?) day so far…have to acknowledge that today, right before the Super Bowl, I have to acknowledge all that’s happening has entered into the core of my family’s obsession with not really bringing it up. Before it was because they didn’treaty know. Now they do. Same silence about it but different. Now, espresso and a quiet read. I know I’ll post again. Glad Greg read this again…same HS short book thing.
Thanks, Jackie. I think that maintaining a distance to the news is important. If we allow it to consume us, we shut down. But we can't ignore it, either. It's a delicate balance, and I think we're all of us trying to figure out how to do it, how to approach it, so we aren't driven mad...
Your next assignment, Greg, is Blood Meridian.
Have only read THE ROAD. Can't seem to get through the others.
Suttree is positively lyrical. The Border Trilogy too.
But Blood Meridian is violence and death -- and based on a true story besides.
"The Judge" is an American Kurtz, but with all the depraved details spelled out.
I admire McCarthy's writing -- and Gaiman's -- but am starting to think their fascination with depravity was not entirely literary.
Excellent, Greg. I remember the profound affect that book had on me when I studied it in an English class at the Memphis College of Arts (several years before Amy Carter attended). I keep seeing Marlon Brando’s character rubbing his bald head saying “the horror, the horror”. My one attempt at writing actually revolved around it’s theme. Brando’s character was sacrificed by the Natives at the end of Apocalypse Now, so, you never know how it will end for the current Captain Kurtz.
Thanks, Amy. I love the movie, but I feel like the Brando part is kind of mid. Duval is the best part of the movie, and him being more compelling than Kurtz throws off the effect. Like playing "Stairway" halfway through the set and ending with "All of My Love" or something.
Bless you, Greg!
Here's a link to the 2024 Kennedy Center Honors with Francis Coppola being one of the awardees https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/honors/
The KenCen (what we locals have referred to it as for decades) has an incredible free digital stage (and if you join as a member you can have access to member-only performances, too).
FYI: Coppola's wife of years passed away this spring.
P.S. I'm currently 326 pages in to Fredrik Logevall's Pulitzer Prize-winning "JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century."
Thank you. When Coppola brings it, he brings it.
And so, espresso and a Greg read. How painful it is to go from dark to sudden light. Or be blind in a suddenly dark room. We need the gradual; the tweaking of institutions instead of the burn it all down. Or get all the white tusks you can get right now. Only Greg can make me stretch my mind like this…to include something akin to “self-care,” which gets this horrible now connected to “ok, this is not new and people got through this.” Beautiful piece that really gets me drawing out some kind of understanding in myself, that helps me cope. My God, I need that. To be so well treated by a writer… really isn’t it the best blessing?
Thanks so much, Jackie. I appreciate that. These are hard times, spiritually, and it will be perilous to deal with them these next four years. (Four YEARS? Ugh...)
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/1048336907/elephants-tuskless-ivory-poaching-africa. Elephants (particularly female) genetically changing to protect themselves by being born without tusks. Ummm. 🧐 "They've produced the smoking-gun evidence for genetic changes," said Chris Darimont, a conservation scientist at the University of Victoria in Canada, who was not involved in the research. The work "helps scientists and the public understand how our society can have a major influence on the evolution of other life forms." [I had read this article recently….it stuck in my mind. Who knows, maybe as the world population was set to increase so much, man developed more investigation or scientific study impulses to prepare. “And God then created reporters.” 🤭
I had no idea this was happening! Thank you so much for the article! Go Female Elephants!!
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Mais oui.