Sometimes there are
words that make music, without sound or rhythm, just by the truth they present.
Joseph Conrad uses
such musical words - “...the unseen presence of victorious
corruption...” - in his story, The Heart of Darkness,
when the narrator reaches the up-river station in the jungle and
meets the dying station master, Mr. Kurtz. He describes his
feeling about colonialist dehumanization, soulless science,
commercial exploitation, slavery and murder as follows:
“It seemed to me I had never breathed an atmosphere so vile,
and I turned to Kurtz for relief – positively for relief.
‘Nevertheless, I think Mr. Kurtz is a remarkable man,’ I said
with emphasis. He [another corrupt company official] started, dropped
on me a heavy glance, said very quickly ‘He WAS,’ and turned his
back on me. My hour of favour was over; I found myself lumped along
with Kurtz as a partisan of methods for which the time was not right:
I was unsound! Ah! But it was something to have at least a choice of
nightmares.
“I had turned to the wilderness really, not to Mr. Kurtz, who,
I was ready to admit, was as good as buried. And for a moment it
seemed to me as if I also were buried in a vast grave full of
unspeakable secrets. I felt an intolerable weight oppressing my
breast, the damp earth, the unseen presence of victorious corruption,
the darkness of an impenetrable night...”
This whole passage,
even the whole book, is a masterpiece awe-inspiring art, but this
phrase about the unseen presence of victorious corruption just rang
my soul, seemed like it expressed my whole life.
Sven Lindqvist |
“And when what had been done in the heart of darkness
was repeated in the heart of Europe, no one recognized it. No one
wished to admit what everyone knew…
“Everywhere knowledge is being suppressed, knowledge that, if
it were to be made known, would shatter our image of the world and
force us to question ourselves – everywhere there, ‘Heart of
Darkness’ is being enacted…
“You already know that: So do I. It is not knowledge that we
lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and
draw conclusions...”
Lindqvist mentions
how Conrad, who was friends with H.G. Wells at the time, had just
read Wells’ new book, “The Invisible Man,” as he was
writing “The Heart of Darkness” and this resonated with the
“invisible” aspect of the “vile atmosphere.”
I first read the
Conrad story when I was in my twenties, and then again when I was
middle-aged, but when I read it now in my old age I am able to see
infinitely more meaning and music in it. England and France
especially, the atmosphere of Triumphant Progress at the turn of the
century, then World War One and World War Two, the U.S. invasions of
other countries, and the whole wretched 20th century are
more known to me than before. My earlier readings now seem
pathetically bleak.
Just this one
phrase, “...the unseen
presence of victorious
corruption...” - strikes a dominant chord of my
experience on this planet from the time I first went away to school
right up to my contact this afternoon with the medical and banking
industries.
No comments:
Post a Comment