"It's about the Congo but never once mentions the Congo?"
"Admittedly, the first time I read it was a struggle. I would have probably only said it was okay. However, I recently re-read it for a post-grad class I was teaching,"
"I'm not a literature student and I want Plain English Campaign to invest in a time machine to go protest outside the author's door when he wrote the book. Well done for making it possible to read whole paragraph of familiar words without getting any of the metaphors."
"I fail to see how this could be a story taking a jab at colonialism."
"Honestly, Conrad must have been a decent story-teller in his time. That being said, reading 'Heart of Darkness' in good ol' 2013 makes me pity the poor saps that had to sit through Marlow's tale. How the poor individuals could get through that task is simply mind-boggling."
"This was a dumb and I don't really have an opinion."
"I got the feeling that there was lots of hidden or not so hidden meanings through out the book. These, I am not a fan of. When reading books for a class, I don't mind having meanings, as long as I don't have to find it myself. I really would not suggest this book. I guess that there could be some meaning in all the symbols, and that I might be able to connect it to my life, but I doubt it."
"There were too many words"
"The writing style is a mess, it was unnecessarily complicated and the writer needs to be beaten half to death with a Syntax book ... This is not a fluid read, so be prepared to go through an experience worse than grating your face with a red hot cheese grater."
"the ending barely has any closure or character development"
"I honestly couldn't keep myself focused for more than 10 seconds while reading it. It was a bore. It didn't help that half of the time I had no idea what was going on. I still barely even know what the story was about."
Showing posts with label conrad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conrad. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim II
"I listened to Lord Jim on audiobook and found it tolerable by listening to only every second or third track."
"A strange thing happened to me as I read this book. I couldn't feel my fingers and then my toes. Soon enough my whole body started to go numb. Eventually I had to stop for fear of dying of numbness. (I read about 115 pages)."
"As much as I love Conrad's style, this one was just too long. He shouldn't have tried to write a full-blown novel."
"Never before have I been forced to struggle through a book like this one. Conrad's style is adds superfluous information that does absolutely nothing to advance the plot or symbolic significance of the story. The sentences and paragraphs were too large to be dealt with rationally. One of the chapters, which is about 4 and a half pages, is one single paragraph! While the story itself was a good one, Joseph Conrad ruins it with his esoteric and over-descriptive style of novel-writing."
"how anyone could sit through such a long and boring ramble with so litte point is beyond comprehension."
"You are smart enough. This is simply a horrible novel."
"It's downright dull and far too difficult for me to comprehend while I'm trying to make deadlines at a pace of 3 minutes a page! Joseph Conrad should have tried speaking English!"
"This is one of the worst books in the world---in my humble opinion! OK, I'm in the minority. Most of the reviewers LOVED the book. I think this book is a waste of beautiful words! Yes, Conrad had a beautiful English vocabulary. But, the 'story' is 'encrusted' with so many words you'll tire of it after awhile. OK, try the book, but now, at least, you won't feel as I did, 'What's wrong with ME that I don't like this book.' You won't feel 'alone' in your reaction ... PS: As of 1-15-07 I see that I have ZERO 'yes' votes for my review. That's 'mean'. I'm just giving my honest reaction. You don't have to agree with me but why not give me a break for spending the time and energy just to write my thoughts----thoughts which MIGHT help someone....maybe not you....but someone. Thanks."
"I gave up reading this ' Gibberish /Jargon ' at about the 125th page. Jargon is defined as speech or writing full of long,unfamiliar, or roundabout words or phrases. Jargon accurately describes this novel. If you want to read 400 pages of jargon and try to figure out what Mr. Conrad is trying to say, then this book is definitely for you. I'm sure Mr. Conrad was an excellent sailor but a writer he is not."
"A strange thing happened to me as I read this book. I couldn't feel my fingers and then my toes. Soon enough my whole body started to go numb. Eventually I had to stop for fear of dying of numbness. (I read about 115 pages)."
"As much as I love Conrad's style, this one was just too long. He shouldn't have tried to write a full-blown novel."
"Never before have I been forced to struggle through a book like this one. Conrad's style is adds superfluous information that does absolutely nothing to advance the plot or symbolic significance of the story. The sentences and paragraphs were too large to be dealt with rationally. One of the chapters, which is about 4 and a half pages, is one single paragraph! While the story itself was a good one, Joseph Conrad ruins it with his esoteric and over-descriptive style of novel-writing."
"how anyone could sit through such a long and boring ramble with so litte point is beyond comprehension."
"You are smart enough. This is simply a horrible novel."
"It's downright dull and far too difficult for me to comprehend while I'm trying to make deadlines at a pace of 3 minutes a page! Joseph Conrad should have tried speaking English!"
"This is one of the worst books in the world---in my humble opinion! OK, I'm in the minority. Most of the reviewers LOVED the book. I think this book is a waste of beautiful words! Yes, Conrad had a beautiful English vocabulary. But, the 'story' is 'encrusted' with so many words you'll tire of it after awhile. OK, try the book, but now, at least, you won't feel as I did, 'What's wrong with ME that I don't like this book.' You won't feel 'alone' in your reaction ... PS: As of 1-15-07 I see that I have ZERO 'yes' votes for my review. That's 'mean'. I'm just giving my honest reaction. You don't have to agree with me but why not give me a break for spending the time and energy just to write my thoughts----thoughts which MIGHT help someone....maybe not you....but someone. Thanks."
"I gave up reading this ' Gibberish /Jargon ' at about the 125th page. Jargon is defined as speech or writing full of long,unfamiliar, or roundabout words or phrases. Jargon accurately describes this novel. If you want to read 400 pages of jargon and try to figure out what Mr. Conrad is trying to say, then this book is definitely for you. I'm sure Mr. Conrad was an excellent sailor but a writer he is not."
Friday, March 1, 2013
Joseph Conrad - Lord Jim
"Why did I loathe this book so much... I was an English major in college. I have a master's degree in English literature. I love books!"
"There are too many perspectives."
"This book was literally painful to read!"
"Even if I were the only person in the world who was saying that they just couldn't understand Conrad's writing, I would still say it. I would not bow to peer pressure and call his storytelling 'masterful', or even 'readable'. Reading this book made me feel like I had massive ADD, or a brain tumor, which rendered me unable to understand what was going on."
"I just don't like Conrad. He is smarter than I am"
"Jove! This book was ruined by being a story-within-a-story!"
"English to Conrad was a third language, and reading this book was like listening to a foreigner with a heavy accent. The sentence structure is odd and off kilter ... Have you ever read a novel when you were really, really high, and you have to read a paragraph three times to comprehend what is going on because your mind and attention drift? You are continuously flipping pages back and forth because you can’t remember who that character is, or where or even what they are talking about? Lord Jim reads like that, except without the drugs."
"Jim was an officer on a ship that sank. Although he wanted to be noble in going down with his ship, his survival instincts made him jump off the ship. While 800 people perished in the ship, jim feels guilty he was not one of them. His perceive moral lapse made him destitute because he did not want to accept the money he earned via being one of the ships officers."
"At first I took the novel's stubborn resistance to being read as a challenge. Lord Jim is squeezed into large chunks of paragraphs, dialogue and all, which was strangely fascinating. I've never met a book which didn't seem to want to be read. It's quite frankly a formatting nightmare. Were I the editor, I would've thrown Conrad's manuscript in his face and yelled at him for wasting my time.
On top of his utterly disastrous formatting, Conrad's prose is so painfully verbose that I was bored to tears sometimes. All of this would've been perfectly worth it if there had been a great pay off characteristic of other challenging novels like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings."
"There are too many perspectives."
"This book was literally painful to read!"
"Even if I were the only person in the world who was saying that they just couldn't understand Conrad's writing, I would still say it. I would not bow to peer pressure and call his storytelling 'masterful', or even 'readable'. Reading this book made me feel like I had massive ADD, or a brain tumor, which rendered me unable to understand what was going on."
"I just don't like Conrad. He is smarter than I am"
"Jove! This book was ruined by being a story-within-a-story!"
"English to Conrad was a third language, and reading this book was like listening to a foreigner with a heavy accent. The sentence structure is odd and off kilter ... Have you ever read a novel when you were really, really high, and you have to read a paragraph three times to comprehend what is going on because your mind and attention drift? You are continuously flipping pages back and forth because you can’t remember who that character is, or where or even what they are talking about? Lord Jim reads like that, except without the drugs."
"Jim was an officer on a ship that sank. Although he wanted to be noble in going down with his ship, his survival instincts made him jump off the ship. While 800 people perished in the ship, jim feels guilty he was not one of them. His perceive moral lapse made him destitute because he did not want to accept the money he earned via being one of the ships officers."
"At first I took the novel's stubborn resistance to being read as a challenge. Lord Jim is squeezed into large chunks of paragraphs, dialogue and all, which was strangely fascinating. I've never met a book which didn't seem to want to be read. It's quite frankly a formatting nightmare. Were I the editor, I would've thrown Conrad's manuscript in his face and yelled at him for wasting my time.
On top of his utterly disastrous formatting, Conrad's prose is so painfully verbose that I was bored to tears sometimes. All of this would've been perfectly worth it if there had been a great pay off characteristic of other challenging novels like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings."
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness IV
"This book was written by someone on drugs. It is poorly thought out, has characters that can't be understood and make no sense, and overall is a slap in the face of traditional literature."
"horrible horrible book too complicated very stange sense of literature"
"I had to read a fiction book for my Sophomore English class; we received a list of books on college and many other's top ten lists. I had scored really high on a reading test and decided that I should go for on of the harder books. Don't let the title deceive you, Heart of Darkness might seem like a murder mystery, or a dark story from a famous authors mind, but be forewarned: this book is not an easy book to get through.
...
This was written in the early 1900's and so it is also a different writing style than the kind writers use nowadays so you might not get what you'd expect. I would highly recommend being around College level before reading this. Not for the sake of understanding it, but from the tolerance high school will give you when reading boring books."
"It is no wonder that many students will nod off during this one. You can not blame their youth for this snooze-fest. It is plain and simply boring and there is much better period novels out there that deal with similar themes. I am sure swapping this one for something from Patrick O'Brian 'Master and Commander' would make the class room more attentive."
"We all know by now Conrad had a large vocabulary....
I did enjoy Conrad's eccentric use of verbatim but felt like he went overboard in some parts. Being wordy is ok as long as you don't go beyond the line of a reader's attention span."
"I was quite happy when the natives started shooting arrows at the boat. Not that I'm some simpleton that needs action and gore to be happy - that's not it at all."
"Phonies Love This Book
Not so hot; phony intellectuals are told this is a great work so they make up all sorts of lies about layering and craftsmanship, when it's really just a so-so story and the ending with the guy Marlon Brandon played in the movie (Apocalypse Now) going crazy and Conrad never explaining why there should be such a fascination with him. It might be a nice book if there was a story here. But these modern phonies do not understand that writing is supposed to be enjoyable."
"ICK
Everybody has always told me this book was great. Everybody I've ever talked to is an idiot. This book was terrible, it made no sense. I have loved other classics, thats what i read most. But this book was just bad, it was some guy rambling on and on. I think conrad was on acid when he wrote this book."
"never read this book
This book makes no sence. If you can understand this book than you are a genus. I have to read this book for school and I don't understand 1 single page of this book.
If someone out there understands this book please tell me or let me know."
"If you like entertaining stories, you will hate this one. Conrad is continually dark and depressing. In many cases, he makes the story disturbing."
"Pseudointellectual myth
this book was horrible and yet gets all the praise? This book confirms my belief that most authors should retire at a certain point. Even more so that the world is full of pseudo-intellectuals who see 'depth' in anything abstruse that we dummies can't appreciate. Conrad must have have had too much praise go to his head or alcohol or something ... He must have needed rent money or tried some avant garde thing while drug addled. How utterly unbelievable that this book is famous."
"there goes 5 hours of my life i will never get back
what a waste of time who the hech was kuntz anyway"
"The innocence of children is routinely destroyed in American classrooms with books like this. The fact that imperialism (although a lot of colonialism brought many good things to various cultures also) and evil people exist in all cultures is true. But books like this seem to promote the idea that evil is somehow European. The incredible negative focus in classrooms has devastated America as well as Europe. It is just part of more than a century of self destructive western writings beginning wih Karl Marx. Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle as part of a self admitted promotion of Socialism. Unfortunately, Heart of Darkness is just another in a long line of books that promote self hate, or bitterness and rage, and event anti western sentiment that even people such as Stalin or the current terrorists use as motivation to kill 'evil western imperialists.' Ironically Communist countries use this literature to teach hatred of the west. And here in the U.S. this literature is forced on American youth by the left wing. But also this type of literature is used by Christian and conservative schools. The destruction of western youth is coming from all sides. And I have seen many statements frm young people that their self mutilation and horrible self image stems from 12 years of chronic darkness taught to them by a decrepit school system that thrives on darkness. Heart of Darkness is just dark."
"PAY ATTENTION TO THIS REVIEW!
I love how certain types like to claim how grand and magnificent this book is. Conrad's native language was Polish. I have several Polish colleagues and let me assure you it is one of the most complicated and difficult languages. That being said, Conrad wrote this book in English. He was qouted as having said that their were difficulties and complexities of the English language that had 'eluded' him. To that, I say 'yeah, we noticed'.
This book is simply poorly written. No mystery about why many hate it. It is so difficult to read because his command of grammar and punctuation is so poor. The reason people are frequently lost and re-reading passages is because he commands the idea of quoting and transitions in narration in such a weak way.
A classic? I don't think so! Maybe he should have written it in Polish and then had it translated. Sorry."
"Someone seriously should have introduced Joseph Conrad to the idea that, ideally, a paragraph ranges between about 4 and 6 sentences in length. NOT 2 pages."
"Beautiful themes and striking descriptions...if only the paragraphs could be a few dozen sentences shorter..."
"Wasn't able to get through the whole 'chapter is one long paragraph' thing"
"Conrad is one of those who liked sentences the size of paragraphs and paragraphs that went on for a page or more."
"My god that was tedious. Great novel (I get it, I do) but the lack of paragraphs was definitely trying."
HEY IDIOTS. LET ME SHOW YOU A LITTLE MAGIC TRICK. LET ME JUST FIND SOMETHING ON MY DESKTOP TO COPY AND PASTE... HUM DE HUM... OKAY HERE WE GO. NUMBER ONE: ouldn't see much in the trunk but it's a wooded area, when he let me out it was too dark to see what trees but i think pines. don't know how long i was out. i have bruises on my arms and can feel them on my face. please send help as soon as you get this. i think he's going to ea
NUMBER TWO: ouldn't see much in the trunk but it's a wooded area, when he let me out it was too dark to see what trees but i think pines.
don't know how long i was out. i have bruises on my arms and can feel them on my face.
please send help as soon as you get this. i think he's going to ea
COUNT THE WORDS, ASSHOLES
"horrible horrible book too complicated very stange sense of literature"
"I had to read a fiction book for my Sophomore English class; we received a list of books on college and many other's top ten lists. I had scored really high on a reading test and decided that I should go for on of the harder books. Don't let the title deceive you, Heart of Darkness might seem like a murder mystery, or a dark story from a famous authors mind, but be forewarned: this book is not an easy book to get through.
...
This was written in the early 1900's and so it is also a different writing style than the kind writers use nowadays so you might not get what you'd expect. I would highly recommend being around College level before reading this. Not for the sake of understanding it, but from the tolerance high school will give you when reading boring books."
"It is no wonder that many students will nod off during this one. You can not blame their youth for this snooze-fest. It is plain and simply boring and there is much better period novels out there that deal with similar themes. I am sure swapping this one for something from Patrick O'Brian 'Master and Commander' would make the class room more attentive."
"We all know by now Conrad had a large vocabulary....
I did enjoy Conrad's eccentric use of verbatim but felt like he went overboard in some parts. Being wordy is ok as long as you don't go beyond the line of a reader's attention span."
"I was quite happy when the natives started shooting arrows at the boat. Not that I'm some simpleton that needs action and gore to be happy - that's not it at all."
"Phonies Love This Book
Not so hot; phony intellectuals are told this is a great work so they make up all sorts of lies about layering and craftsmanship, when it's really just a so-so story and the ending with the guy Marlon Brandon played in the movie (Apocalypse Now) going crazy and Conrad never explaining why there should be such a fascination with him. It might be a nice book if there was a story here. But these modern phonies do not understand that writing is supposed to be enjoyable."
"ICK
Everybody has always told me this book was great. Everybody I've ever talked to is an idiot. This book was terrible, it made no sense. I have loved other classics, thats what i read most. But this book was just bad, it was some guy rambling on and on. I think conrad was on acid when he wrote this book."
"never read this book
This book makes no sence. If you can understand this book than you are a genus. I have to read this book for school and I don't understand 1 single page of this book.
If someone out there understands this book please tell me or let me know."
"If you like entertaining stories, you will hate this one. Conrad is continually dark and depressing. In many cases, he makes the story disturbing."
"Pseudointellectual myth
this book was horrible and yet gets all the praise? This book confirms my belief that most authors should retire at a certain point. Even more so that the world is full of pseudo-intellectuals who see 'depth' in anything abstruse that we dummies can't appreciate. Conrad must have have had too much praise go to his head or alcohol or something ... He must have needed rent money or tried some avant garde thing while drug addled. How utterly unbelievable that this book is famous."
"there goes 5 hours of my life i will never get back
what a waste of time who the hech was kuntz anyway"
"The innocence of children is routinely destroyed in American classrooms with books like this. The fact that imperialism (although a lot of colonialism brought many good things to various cultures also) and evil people exist in all cultures is true. But books like this seem to promote the idea that evil is somehow European. The incredible negative focus in classrooms has devastated America as well as Europe. It is just part of more than a century of self destructive western writings beginning wih Karl Marx. Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle as part of a self admitted promotion of Socialism. Unfortunately, Heart of Darkness is just another in a long line of books that promote self hate, or bitterness and rage, and event anti western sentiment that even people such as Stalin or the current terrorists use as motivation to kill 'evil western imperialists.' Ironically Communist countries use this literature to teach hatred of the west. And here in the U.S. this literature is forced on American youth by the left wing. But also this type of literature is used by Christian and conservative schools. The destruction of western youth is coming from all sides. And I have seen many statements frm young people that their self mutilation and horrible self image stems from 12 years of chronic darkness taught to them by a decrepit school system that thrives on darkness. Heart of Darkness is just dark."
"PAY ATTENTION TO THIS REVIEW!
I love how certain types like to claim how grand and magnificent this book is. Conrad's native language was Polish. I have several Polish colleagues and let me assure you it is one of the most complicated and difficult languages. That being said, Conrad wrote this book in English. He was qouted as having said that their were difficulties and complexities of the English language that had 'eluded' him. To that, I say 'yeah, we noticed'.
This book is simply poorly written. No mystery about why many hate it. It is so difficult to read because his command of grammar and punctuation is so poor. The reason people are frequently lost and re-reading passages is because he commands the idea of quoting and transitions in narration in such a weak way.
A classic? I don't think so! Maybe he should have written it in Polish and then had it translated. Sorry."
"Someone seriously should have introduced Joseph Conrad to the idea that, ideally, a paragraph ranges between about 4 and 6 sentences in length. NOT 2 pages."
"Beautiful themes and striking descriptions...if only the paragraphs could be a few dozen sentences shorter..."
"Wasn't able to get through the whole 'chapter is one long paragraph' thing"
"Conrad is one of those who liked sentences the size of paragraphs and paragraphs that went on for a page or more."
"My god that was tedious. Great novel (I get it, I do) but the lack of paragraphs was definitely trying."
HEY IDIOTS. LET ME SHOW YOU A LITTLE MAGIC TRICK. LET ME JUST FIND SOMETHING ON MY DESKTOP TO COPY AND PASTE... HUM DE HUM... OKAY HERE WE GO. NUMBER ONE: ouldn't see much in the trunk but it's a wooded area, when he let me out it was too dark to see what trees but i think pines. don't know how long i was out. i have bruises on my arms and can feel them on my face. please send help as soon as you get this. i think he's going to ea
NUMBER TWO: ouldn't see much in the trunk but it's a wooded area, when he let me out it was too dark to see what trees but i think pines.
don't know how long i was out. i have bruises on my arms and can feel them on my face.
please send help as soon as you get this. i think he's going to ea
COUNT THE WORDS, ASSHOLES
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness III
"Oh, Joseph Conrad. I find you to be ever-so-overrated."
"Not enough sex."
"Don't get me wrong, I love Apocalypse Now, but I wouldn't want to read the novelization."
"This book was very hard to understand. There were too many words. These words cluttered up what was really going on in the book. The only reason why I read it was because I was assigned it for college. If you are having trouble falling asleep, read this book. I guarantee it will put you to sleep."
"I really don't think this book had a point except to infuriate me. Nothing drew me in, and thankfully I haven't wasted brain cells remembering the characters' names."
GOT TO SAVE THOSE FOR THINGS LIKE WALKING AND BREATHING AT THE SAME TIME
"It was difficult to get through; most of the 'action' being psychological and in form of flashbacks."
"This book totally disillusions readers. Conrad makes it seem as though the atrocities which take place in this colony do so in all. This assumption which many readers get is false. For this reason I think Conrad should have made it clear that the Belgian Congo was an extreme condition."
"'The Emperor's New Clothes', no less...
Arriving at this page, inspired, enthused by Coppola's cinematic masterpiece 'Apocalypse Now'? Or maybe from the documentary 'Hearts of Darkness - A Filmmaker's Apocalypse'? Eager to learn more? maybe drink at the fountain from which perhaps the greatest piece of cinema, was born? Think again. What we have here is purely and simply a VERY mediocre novella, a work that was written not by a writer, but by a Mariner with a typewriter - a hobbyist. On no account could or should this be taken as a seminal work of either fact or fiction, and I wish those who are forever trying to have this work classified as such a literary milestone would find a real cause to champion. I mean why is this one of the supposed greats? Is it original? No! Well written? No! Does it have well-drawn characters? No! an intriguing plot, perhaps? No. Does it use language in a new or creative way? No. Does it re-define the novella? No! Does it have potential to influence, either in style or content, the works of other writers? No! - then what? What is it that reverberates so loudly? If not the work then the noise of the crowd surrounding the pedestal - eager for a glimpse of the masterpiece that (they have been told) is so revered, so special.
Between the pseudo-intellectual and the literary professor's attempts to 'interpret' this work (for interpret read: paint it their colour) there is nothing hidden, nor magical here, no genius lies between the poor structure and the even worse punctuation. A simple tale, nothing more. Had one not know Conrad actually ventured to the African Continent, one could have easily mistaken his poorly drawn figures, his stereotypical characters as being the stuff of a boyhood imagination - too many comics and children's novels read under the blanket with a torch...
The only extra-ordinary factor here is the fact that Coppola, in his undisputed genius, took this simple, fragmented tale of no real literary worth and from its inspiration produced a moment in cinematic history which will never again be glimpsed, a peak never again scaled. That is the only thing one need be in awe of here."
"My daughter had to read this book as part of a summer assignment for English. I, being one to read classics, looked forward to reading another good book.
Conrad's rambling tale is difficult to follow, but even more, BORING to follow.
I can more easily read a book on quantum physics. To require someone to read Conrad is more like punishment than education."
"the novel show us the reality of Europeans
realy i d'ont like this novela ,because it is very complex ,it needs a lot of atention .It shows us the primitive aspect of man ."
"I was able to get through it by force of will. This is one of those over-rated classics that were declared a classic a long time ago and now are blindly accepted as such. More than that, I see that many try to affirm it's alleged greatness by saying 'me too' in clever ways."
"How many English professors would be up a creek (you know which creek) if everybody suddenly figured out that authors like Conrad are overrated?"
"I believe I am unimpressed with this book because man has not changed in the last 100 years. Man is still just as greedy today and he was then, if not more so. Now, the deeds of men (the darkness of men) are normal practice. Maybe I am just terribly jaded."
"This book is a horrible collection of excess verbiage and meaningless slime I have ever read. The book is extremely suicidial in nature and implies that human nature is purely evil and the best thing that can happen is for us to look over the edge, discover, 'the horror, the horror' that is life, and die. My, isn't that inspiring and uplifting? The 'depth' of this book is discovered only as one looks for depth in a pond and mistakes the reflection as depth. This book is a thin veneer covering a lack of creativity due to Conrad using up all his good material in earlier writings. This book should not be combined with alcohol or other depressants. Scratch that, this book should not be combined with breathing humans. Let this book lie with its subject, dead."
"Not enough sex."
"Don't get me wrong, I love Apocalypse Now, but I wouldn't want to read the novelization."
"This book was very hard to understand. There were too many words. These words cluttered up what was really going on in the book. The only reason why I read it was because I was assigned it for college. If you are having trouble falling asleep, read this book. I guarantee it will put you to sleep."
"I really don't think this book had a point except to infuriate me. Nothing drew me in, and thankfully I haven't wasted brain cells remembering the characters' names."
GOT TO SAVE THOSE FOR THINGS LIKE WALKING AND BREATHING AT THE SAME TIME
"It was difficult to get through; most of the 'action' being psychological and in form of flashbacks."
"This book totally disillusions readers. Conrad makes it seem as though the atrocities which take place in this colony do so in all. This assumption which many readers get is false. For this reason I think Conrad should have made it clear that the Belgian Congo was an extreme condition."
"'The Emperor's New Clothes', no less...
Arriving at this page, inspired, enthused by Coppola's cinematic masterpiece 'Apocalypse Now'? Or maybe from the documentary 'Hearts of Darkness - A Filmmaker's Apocalypse'? Eager to learn more? maybe drink at the fountain from which perhaps the greatest piece of cinema, was born? Think again. What we have here is purely and simply a VERY mediocre novella, a work that was written not by a writer, but by a Mariner with a typewriter - a hobbyist. On no account could or should this be taken as a seminal work of either fact or fiction, and I wish those who are forever trying to have this work classified as such a literary milestone would find a real cause to champion. I mean why is this one of the supposed greats? Is it original? No! Well written? No! Does it have well-drawn characters? No! an intriguing plot, perhaps? No. Does it use language in a new or creative way? No. Does it re-define the novella? No! Does it have potential to influence, either in style or content, the works of other writers? No! - then what? What is it that reverberates so loudly? If not the work then the noise of the crowd surrounding the pedestal - eager for a glimpse of the masterpiece that (they have been told) is so revered, so special.
Between the pseudo-intellectual and the literary professor's attempts to 'interpret' this work (for interpret read: paint it their colour) there is nothing hidden, nor magical here, no genius lies between the poor structure and the even worse punctuation. A simple tale, nothing more. Had one not know Conrad actually ventured to the African Continent, one could have easily mistaken his poorly drawn figures, his stereotypical characters as being the stuff of a boyhood imagination - too many comics and children's novels read under the blanket with a torch...
The only extra-ordinary factor here is the fact that Coppola, in his undisputed genius, took this simple, fragmented tale of no real literary worth and from its inspiration produced a moment in cinematic history which will never again be glimpsed, a peak never again scaled. That is the only thing one need be in awe of here."
"My daughter had to read this book as part of a summer assignment for English. I, being one to read classics, looked forward to reading another good book.
Conrad's rambling tale is difficult to follow, but even more, BORING to follow.
I can more easily read a book on quantum physics. To require someone to read Conrad is more like punishment than education."
"the novel show us the reality of Europeans
realy i d'ont like this novela ,because it is very complex ,it needs a lot of atention .It shows us the primitive aspect of man ."
"I was able to get through it by force of will. This is one of those over-rated classics that were declared a classic a long time ago and now are blindly accepted as such. More than that, I see that many try to affirm it's alleged greatness by saying 'me too' in clever ways."
"How many English professors would be up a creek (you know which creek) if everybody suddenly figured out that authors like Conrad are overrated?"
"I believe I am unimpressed with this book because man has not changed in the last 100 years. Man is still just as greedy today and he was then, if not more so. Now, the deeds of men (the darkness of men) are normal practice. Maybe I am just terribly jaded."
"This book is a horrible collection of excess verbiage and meaningless slime I have ever read. The book is extremely suicidial in nature and implies that human nature is purely evil and the best thing that can happen is for us to look over the edge, discover, 'the horror, the horror' that is life, and die. My, isn't that inspiring and uplifting? The 'depth' of this book is discovered only as one looks for depth in a pond and mistakes the reflection as depth. This book is a thin veneer covering a lack of creativity due to Conrad using up all his good material in earlier writings. This book should not be combined with alcohol or other depressants. Scratch that, this book should not be combined with breathing humans. Let this book lie with its subject, dead."
Friday, August 12, 2011
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness II
"I call this one 'Fart of Darkness.'"
"why is this a classic? I will tell you the story in 3 sentences. Some guys are on a boat leaving London, one of them is a veteran seaman. The seaman tells of going to Africa to pilot a steamship. He hears about a crazy white man, gets attacked by natives, meets the crazy white man who subsequently dies. Oh and the whole story is being told by the seaman to his companions on a ship. Utter crap"
"one of the hardest books to read I've ever encountered."
"I don't care how good the writing, how brilliant the meaning, if it's so boring no one will ever choose to read it, what difference does it make?"
"the only thing that this book reminds me of is cod. because i spent the entire class talking about cod, and not listening to discussions about this book."
"Not a big fan of stream of conscience writing."
"I love roadtrip novels (even when the road is a river), but Heart of Darkness lacks the humor and beauty of Huckleberry Finn or the wild enthusiasm of On the Road."
"I haven't done a thorough academic dissection of the book; nor am I planning to. I think this book is one of those books that has been selected as a work of the Western canon because it's 1) boring overall ('no gripping story' signifying 'non-entertainment' and thus 'serious' literature - which distinction is complete bullshit in my humble opinion"
"torchereing high school read."
"Meh. I'm sorry, but so much 'meh' on this book."
"Often when I see modern art and am completely unimpressed (a splotch of paint? my mom's cat can do that!) I have to remind myself of how out of the box and different it was at the time it was created. It doesn't necessarily make me love it, but it does make me respect it for pushing boundaries and exposing people to something new at that time.
I think the same goes for a lot of literature. I can see how back in the day when the world didn't understand what 'colonization' really meant, this would be really intense. However because of what I know today, this book was kind of a let down. Nothing surprised me, nothing challenged me - I finished and thought, is that it? It never really engaged me or caught my interest."
"contains an excessive amount of vocabulary"
"This is one of the books I read in school I didn't really care for. I am an optimist. I like to read books where the characters go through a traumatic, trying experience and out come of it better."
"Did they not have thesaurus's in the early 1900's?"
"Also, a row of heads on stakes is actually described as a 'symbolic row of stakes.' That was a groaner-moment for me."
"I think this book was a very challenging book because of all the touh word."
"This book is ok.I liked the last part of the book, where kurtz lied to Kurtz's girlfriend.but what life did Marlow live afterwards? Did he get to marry? did he start to do the remaining of Kurts' job in Africa?"
"Has he ever written anything else? Hmm.."
"I think that you should have made the scenes in this novella less complex for your younger readers like myself."
"Most books are boring in the beginning and eventually get better. This book is not one of those."
"The whole black and white thing is cliche which degrades this book alot for me. I mean, if you are retarded and like reading about how different white people are from black people and don't already know the differences between them back in slave times then go right ahead, waste your time."
"Also i think the author wrote too much about the feeling and the envirnments, it makes me felt bored."
"I can't help but think Conrad would've really benefited from taking an anthropology class. Maybe if he'd taken a World Cultures survey or something, it would've taken the edge off a little."
"I majored in English in college and went on to get my MA. Now I'm getting my teaching certification, and I wish they would let this book die. I dread teaching it on so many levels."
"Marlow see's himself eating an actual person an that was histerical to me. Thank God that he really didnt. Would you have eaten a person even if you were starving. I know that I would!
Just kidding!"
"This book used description very well, and has made me think about the symbols of the devil.
One of the symbol was fog. It was like a devil because it hides things. It makes the morning look so dark. But fog can be good because in the story, the natives couldn't attack Marlow because of the fogs. Also, in this book, it shows how people treated African Americans back then. They treated the Africans like animals and they called them by using the names of the animals. They would use 'n' word and don't care about it. But today, in the real world, when you say that word out loud, it's considered as racist."
"Maybe I'm just not clever enough to understand what makes this book so great. On the plus side, it enabled me to catch a literary reference in an episode of Rugrats."
"This had to be one of the longest books I had to read in my academic career. I am a fan of the classics, but"
HA HA HA
"why is this a classic? I will tell you the story in 3 sentences. Some guys are on a boat leaving London, one of them is a veteran seaman. The seaman tells of going to Africa to pilot a steamship. He hears about a crazy white man, gets attacked by natives, meets the crazy white man who subsequently dies. Oh and the whole story is being told by the seaman to his companions on a ship. Utter crap"
"one of the hardest books to read I've ever encountered."
"I don't care how good the writing, how brilliant the meaning, if it's so boring no one will ever choose to read it, what difference does it make?"
"the only thing that this book reminds me of is cod. because i spent the entire class talking about cod, and not listening to discussions about this book."
"Not a big fan of stream of conscience writing."
"I love roadtrip novels (even when the road is a river), but Heart of Darkness lacks the humor and beauty of Huckleberry Finn or the wild enthusiasm of On the Road."
"I haven't done a thorough academic dissection of the book; nor am I planning to. I think this book is one of those books that has been selected as a work of the Western canon because it's 1) boring overall ('no gripping story' signifying 'non-entertainment' and thus 'serious' literature - which distinction is complete bullshit in my humble opinion"
"torchereing high school read."
"Meh. I'm sorry, but so much 'meh' on this book."
"Often when I see modern art and am completely unimpressed (a splotch of paint? my mom's cat can do that!) I have to remind myself of how out of the box and different it was at the time it was created. It doesn't necessarily make me love it, but it does make me respect it for pushing boundaries and exposing people to something new at that time.
I think the same goes for a lot of literature. I can see how back in the day when the world didn't understand what 'colonization' really meant, this would be really intense. However because of what I know today, this book was kind of a let down. Nothing surprised me, nothing challenged me - I finished and thought, is that it? It never really engaged me or caught my interest."
"contains an excessive amount of vocabulary"
"This is one of the books I read in school I didn't really care for. I am an optimist. I like to read books where the characters go through a traumatic, trying experience and out come of it better."
"Did they not have thesaurus's in the early 1900's?"
"Also, a row of heads on stakes is actually described as a 'symbolic row of stakes.' That was a groaner-moment for me."
"I think this book was a very challenging book because of all the touh word."
"This book is ok.I liked the last part of the book, where kurtz lied to Kurtz's girlfriend.but what life did Marlow live afterwards? Did he get to marry? did he start to do the remaining of Kurts' job in Africa?"
"Has he ever written anything else? Hmm.."
"I think that you should have made the scenes in this novella less complex for your younger readers like myself."
"Most books are boring in the beginning and eventually get better. This book is not one of those."
"The whole black and white thing is cliche which degrades this book alot for me. I mean, if you are retarded and like reading about how different white people are from black people and don't already know the differences between them back in slave times then go right ahead, waste your time."
"Also i think the author wrote too much about the feeling and the envirnments, it makes me felt bored."
"I can't help but think Conrad would've really benefited from taking an anthropology class. Maybe if he'd taken a World Cultures survey or something, it would've taken the edge off a little."
"I majored in English in college and went on to get my MA. Now I'm getting my teaching certification, and I wish they would let this book die. I dread teaching it on so many levels."
"Marlow see's himself eating an actual person an that was histerical to me. Thank God that he really didnt. Would you have eaten a person even if you were starving. I know that I would!
Just kidding!"
"This book used description very well, and has made me think about the symbols of the devil.
One of the symbol was fog. It was like a devil because it hides things. It makes the morning look so dark. But fog can be good because in the story, the natives couldn't attack Marlow because of the fogs. Also, in this book, it shows how people treated African Americans back then. They treated the Africans like animals and they called them by using the names of the animals. They would use 'n' word and don't care about it. But today, in the real world, when you say that word out loud, it's considered as racist."
"Maybe I'm just not clever enough to understand what makes this book so great. On the plus side, it enabled me to catch a literary reference in an episode of Rugrats."
"This had to be one of the longest books I had to read in my academic career. I am a fan of the classics, but"
HA HA HA
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
"Horror, Horror!"
"Proving yet again that doing a concept first will get you immortalized, while doing it WELL will make you an unknown and forgotten writer at best, I also learned that in Conrad's time, people could drone on and on with metaphors and it wasn't considered cliched, but 'art.' I blame this book and others like it for some of the most painful literature created by students and professional writers alike.
It was like raking my fingernails across a chalkboard while breathing in a pail of flaming cat hair and drinking spoiled milk, meanwhile Conrad is screaming DARKNESS DARKNESS OOOH LOOK AT MY METAPHOR ABOUT THE DARKNESSSSSSSSSSS like a fucking goth on a loudspeaker."
"How significant is Joseph Conrad if his biggest dead guy claim to fame is, 'More high schoolers didn't read my book than didn't read yours!'?"
"Beware this book!!!! It was the worst book ever!!! Almost as worst and Twilight..."
"I can understand how this book could have been relevant in its day, but now that the horrors of imperialism have been brought to light, I'm not sure why professors insist we continue to read this."
"A journey to the heart of darkness, which is something that really just doesn't appeal to me. I don't like the names of the characters, the feel of the place, the crimes of the characters etc. This is just one book that I don't see myself in. Yes, that sounds selfish, I know. But that's just me."
"Conrad is way too in love with colons, semi-colons, commas, and dashes."
"Bottom line.....this book was just too wordy for me. I skipped half of it because I'm either too dumb or too impatient to wade through the verbal quagmire and figure out the author's deeper meanings. I'm not in high school English anymore and I have better things to do."
"Possibly the stupidest and most useless book I have ever set my hands on. I’ve never read any book whose each page makes me want to shoot myself, till now. Without all the metaphors and figures of speech, the book would be a quarter of its original size. I like the use of figurative language and all, but not when it’s used in an excess that would make me mentally incapable of anything after the first read. I read it as fast I could just so I could get rid of it. I dream of burning it. I read pages and pages and had no idea what the hell was going on. I specifically despise the author’s idea of putting a story in a story and how 99.9% of the book is a quotation. I don’t give a shit how much it influenced English literature or whatever.
They seriously should have put a 'CAUTION: Big words that will waste many hours of your life inside.' sticker on the cover for people like me."
"This was just bad writing from a bad writer conforming to the bad views of his time."
"Perhaps I'm being ridiculous and have no future as an English major if I can't appreciate this novel, but I did not like it whatsoever. The lack of paragraph breaks and the rambling narration style that was some strange jumble between autobiography, flashback, and stream-of-consciousness were incredibly frustrating. There was little to no character development and the fact that only two of the characters had names made things rather confusing at times."
"nice try, joseph. NOT."
"TOO MUCH BIG VOCAB WORDS."
"I felt so overwhelmed with the overflowing symbolism. Seriously, why do writers have to use so much of this. Just say what you mean and get on with it! If this is what great writing used to be, no wonder my generation didn't read as much as those today."
"The ways in which i hate this book are too numerous and hellish to list but i will say that it was one giant pain in the @$$ to read. There is no such thing as chronological order for Marlow and the constant aggravation of trying to decipher what the H E double hockey sticks was going on between the bouts of painfully over descriptive narrative was too much for me to take."
"The first thing that irritated me about Heart of Darkness is the whole 'story within a story' thing. The problem with that is that there is no outside story - it's just a bunch of guys sitting on a boat and Marlow tells them the main story. Utterly pointless, except as a method for Conrad to open every paragraph with quotation marks, throwing in some irrelevant comment to the audience every now and then. I could have easily done without the outer framework if it meant less agonizing text. In fact, not only was it expendable, this style was outright bad, as it constantly reminded the reader that he was being told a story, rather than allowing him to become immersed in it."
"Its very confusing because its a story within a story which is super hard to understand.I just dont like the english style writing period."
"After watching a few interviews with well-established black authors I learned how this book is just a half-assed attempt to make up sorry excuses for imperialism. It makes anyone who reads it sympathize with the oppressor and I just can't fall back on that slippery slope of brainwashing."
"Not a great book. Ok, the imagery is beautiful, but it's so outdated it's very hard to get lost in the book. I never really believed the story could happen and that just made it all quite boring."
"I know that this is a classic piece of literature, but I simply could not stand this book. Everything is archetypal, so every single little color, action, etc. in this book has a meaning. While I've had these archetypes drilled into my head since 8th grade, I did not like the fact that after every page, I had to go back through to figure out exactly what the author meant in order to understand the book."
"Yet another work of literature forced upon students which basically calls all of our ancestors pigs while criticizing colonialism and imperialism, conveniently forgetting that without either of these we would not have a country let alone the freedom to bash things like colonialism and imperialism."
"I absolutely, postively HATED this book. I was an English major in college, so I love reading. I absolutely loathed this book. It took me considerable effort to read this book and it probably took me just as long to read, to, let's say, a book 5 times as long."
"Proving yet again that doing a concept first will get you immortalized, while doing it WELL will make you an unknown and forgotten writer at best, I also learned that in Conrad's time, people could drone on and on with metaphors and it wasn't considered cliched, but 'art.' I blame this book and others like it for some of the most painful literature created by students and professional writers alike.
It was like raking my fingernails across a chalkboard while breathing in a pail of flaming cat hair and drinking spoiled milk, meanwhile Conrad is screaming DARKNESS DARKNESS OOOH LOOK AT MY METAPHOR ABOUT THE DARKNESSSSSSSSSSS like a fucking goth on a loudspeaker."
"How significant is Joseph Conrad if his biggest dead guy claim to fame is, 'More high schoolers didn't read my book than didn't read yours!'?"
"Beware this book!!!! It was the worst book ever!!! Almost as worst and Twilight..."
"I can understand how this book could have been relevant in its day, but now that the horrors of imperialism have been brought to light, I'm not sure why professors insist we continue to read this."
"A journey to the heart of darkness, which is something that really just doesn't appeal to me. I don't like the names of the characters, the feel of the place, the crimes of the characters etc. This is just one book that I don't see myself in. Yes, that sounds selfish, I know. But that's just me."
"Conrad is way too in love with colons, semi-colons, commas, and dashes."
"Bottom line.....this book was just too wordy for me. I skipped half of it because I'm either too dumb or too impatient to wade through the verbal quagmire and figure out the author's deeper meanings. I'm not in high school English anymore and I have better things to do."
"Possibly the stupidest and most useless book I have ever set my hands on. I’ve never read any book whose each page makes me want to shoot myself, till now. Without all the metaphors and figures of speech, the book would be a quarter of its original size. I like the use of figurative language and all, but not when it’s used in an excess that would make me mentally incapable of anything after the first read. I read it as fast I could just so I could get rid of it. I dream of burning it. I read pages and pages and had no idea what the hell was going on. I specifically despise the author’s idea of putting a story in a story and how 99.9% of the book is a quotation. I don’t give a shit how much it influenced English literature or whatever.
They seriously should have put a 'CAUTION: Big words that will waste many hours of your life inside.' sticker on the cover for people like me."
"This was just bad writing from a bad writer conforming to the bad views of his time."
"Perhaps I'm being ridiculous and have no future as an English major if I can't appreciate this novel, but I did not like it whatsoever. The lack of paragraph breaks and the rambling narration style that was some strange jumble between autobiography, flashback, and stream-of-consciousness were incredibly frustrating. There was little to no character development and the fact that only two of the characters had names made things rather confusing at times."
"nice try, joseph. NOT."
"TOO MUCH BIG VOCAB WORDS."
"I felt so overwhelmed with the overflowing symbolism. Seriously, why do writers have to use so much of this. Just say what you mean and get on with it! If this is what great writing used to be, no wonder my generation didn't read as much as those today."
"The ways in which i hate this book are too numerous and hellish to list but i will say that it was one giant pain in the @$$ to read. There is no such thing as chronological order for Marlow and the constant aggravation of trying to decipher what the H E double hockey sticks was going on between the bouts of painfully over descriptive narrative was too much for me to take."
"The first thing that irritated me about Heart of Darkness is the whole 'story within a story' thing. The problem with that is that there is no outside story - it's just a bunch of guys sitting on a boat and Marlow tells them the main story. Utterly pointless, except as a method for Conrad to open every paragraph with quotation marks, throwing in some irrelevant comment to the audience every now and then. I could have easily done without the outer framework if it meant less agonizing text. In fact, not only was it expendable, this style was outright bad, as it constantly reminded the reader that he was being told a story, rather than allowing him to become immersed in it."
"Its very confusing because its a story within a story which is super hard to understand.I just dont like the english style writing period."
"After watching a few interviews with well-established black authors I learned how this book is just a half-assed attempt to make up sorry excuses for imperialism. It makes anyone who reads it sympathize with the oppressor and I just can't fall back on that slippery slope of brainwashing."
"Not a great book. Ok, the imagery is beautiful, but it's so outdated it's very hard to get lost in the book. I never really believed the story could happen and that just made it all quite boring."
"I know that this is a classic piece of literature, but I simply could not stand this book. Everything is archetypal, so every single little color, action, etc. in this book has a meaning. While I've had these archetypes drilled into my head since 8th grade, I did not like the fact that after every page, I had to go back through to figure out exactly what the author meant in order to understand the book."
"Yet another work of literature forced upon students which basically calls all of our ancestors pigs while criticizing colonialism and imperialism, conveniently forgetting that without either of these we would not have a country let alone the freedom to bash things like colonialism and imperialism."
"I absolutely, postively HATED this book. I was an English major in college, so I love reading. I absolutely loathed this book. It took me considerable effort to read this book and it probably took me just as long to read, to, let's say, a book 5 times as long."
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