So I just relistened to Heart of Darkness. A few thoughts

Kurtz strips away the bullshite pretenses of society, returning to the heart of darkness that’s found at the end of the river/primal natural stage of the human race. There’s so much to unpack in
It about human nature, societal norms, imperialism, nature vs nurture, etc.. etc.. it’s definitely not an easy read though, especially with the meta
Narrative structure to start things. Just watch Apocalypse Now. It does it better.

quote:

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I think it’s a little odd they have dumb high schoolers read this.

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I had to read this in 9th grade because the teacher that ran the honors English dept at my high school (not my teacher that year)was insane. I tried y’all, I really did. But I had a tough time making sense of it. I wrote my essay, and we had to take a test on it, which I bombed. My parents were furious with me, especially my mom for some reason. After much arguing, i slammed the book down on the table and yelled, “Fine. You read it and tell me if it makes sense to you.”

She took the book. Few days later I got home from school and walked in the kitchen. She produced the copy of the book, set it down in front of me, and said “I’m sorry. I don’t even know what to say.”

My English teacher would later tell us that they used that book in one of her graduate level college classes and she thought it was insane to expect kids fresh out of middle school to be able to grasp the nuances of the story, character development, etc. Thankfully the lady retired, and that book was replaced.

I think we had Heart of Darkness, Great Expectations, Animal Farm, and Silas Marner that summer.

I was totally lost when I read it in college until the professor made an offhand remark that "Apocalypse Now" was loosely based on it and then it all made sense.