Heart of Darkness

I believe I had written a bit ago about reading "Pippa Passes" by Robert Browning. I did finish it -- after reading it twice and getting the computer back to look up obscure Italian references.

So, now I understand that Pippa was to be sold into prostitution on that very day, Jan. 1, the only day of the year she gets off from the silk mills, and is saved by a strange string of events that culminate with a dying bishop calling out his assistant who had killed someone for the bishop's brother.

Who says those Victorians didn't know drama?

So, after that, keeping with the theme of moral failure and redemption, I picked up (again) Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."

This is a tough read -- lots of implied action, lots of action taking place inside the narrator's mind and soul -- but worth the effort. I'm always up for a stinging indictment of imperialism and a test of my own spirit.

Above is a drawing of the steamer as it makes it way into the Congo.

I wonder if Marlowe, the story teller here, should have told Kurtz's intended what he really saw. There is the heart of the story.

Now for something completely different

I've been shoveling snow the last few says. More to come.

Clearing snow is like mowing the lawn. I don't like to do either. At least snow removal has a practical purpose -- not to slip or get the car stuck in the mess. Lawn mowing is just tedious and really serves no purpose except to meet some middle-class view of what a community should look like.

The horror! The horror!