On page 40, there is a passage that seems to scream, "Take Heart of Darkness with a grain of salt". Yet the incredible content of it, I think, made me pay attention to that book. It was that point where it stops being an assignment, and starts actually giving you satisfaction.
"It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream- making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams...."
If we read Heart of Darkness as the retelling of this dream like adventure, it accounts for all of the inconsistencies while giving strength the the real hard details in the story. While Marlow's narrative has been affected by the passing of time, as well as the components of the story that were so surreal he has had to question their existence, many observations he makes have the air of having already been analyzed. This seems to happen a lot in the retelling of dreams. I think the passage is equally as powerful when we relate it to our own lives. It articulates the frustration we tend to have with sharing what is ultimately an irreplaceable personal experience.
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