Just finishes reading this. Is it good?

se on paskaa

File: lelreferences.jpg (342KB, 878x658px) Image search: [Google]

342KB, 878x658px

No, Jimmy.

>>7631102
It's horribly outdated and racist.

>>7631102
Very problematic and the author is some old dead white guy.

Just finished reading the book. Was it a book?

A dead white European male was teaching a class on English literature, known tool of imperialist oppression.
“Before the class begins, you must get on your knees and worship King Leopold II, greatest monarch the world has ever known, even greater than James Monroe!”

At this moment, a black, female, transgendered, cis-hetero-homoflexible Latino transvestite man who has over 20,000 Tweets and 12,000 Tumblr posts stood up and held up a novel.

“What is this book?”

The professor smirked oppressively and smugly replied “Heart of Darkness, by Polish-British writer Joseph Conrad, an intelligent and insightful study of the primitive mind of the African peoples.”

“Wrong. The book is a racist and oppressive piece of propaganda designed to dehumanize the proud peoples of the African continent. Conrad is a bigot. If the book truly had merit as you claimed, Oprah would’ve reviewed it on her show already.”

The professor was visibly shaken, and dropped his chalk and Iron Cross. He stormed out of the room crying those DWEM crocodile tears.

The students applauded and all registered Marxist that day and accepted Martin Luther King Jr. as their lord and savior. An okapi pounced into the room and stood next to a south-up map centered around Africa. The students joined hand in hand and sang Toto’s Africa several times, and Jesse Jackson, king of all black people, showed up to enact affirmative action across the country.

The professor lost his tenure and was fired the next day. He died of a giant black nigger dick up his ass was tossed into the Sahara desert for all eternity.

That student’s name? Chinua Achebe.

Hakuna Matata.

>>7631204
These crack me up everytime.

File: edward r murrow.gif (26KB, 130x137px) Image search: [Google]

26KB, 130x137px

>>7631204
3/10.

>>7631204
Fuck, whenever I tried to bring up Heart of Darkness at Uni, the default conversation would be:

>It's shit

>But why?

> Go read Chinua Achebe's criticism of it.

>Okay I went and read those, but I disagree with it in these ways and still think HoD is a good book for these reasons...

> LOL White people always think they have a right to criticize the lived experiences of native Africans like Achebe. Come back when you're as acclaimed as Achebe. Discussion is over.

This is why I changed my major.

>>7631225
Read Edward Said's critique dumbass.
Geez you really need to stop getting spoonfed

I enjoyed reading the literary criticism that came with the version of the book I had more than the actual book. Although I do remember one striking scene describing a nude African woman in the sunlight as the crew sails away from the center of the continent.

>>7631225
achebe's criticism is hilariously awful though it's like he didn't even read the book.

wouldn't be surprised if that was actually the case actually

achebe's a hack

I have mixed feelings about this joke

>>7631322
>he thinks he knows better than a literary genius like Achebe

>>7631327
>achebe
>literary genius

o i am laffin' lad

File: 1451520419535.jpg (44KB, 640x480px) Image search: [Google]

44KB, 640x480px

I've actually never read Heart of Darkness besides a few passages in college.

>>7631327
Does he actually write something of value? I've only heard of him because of Heart of Darkness and he is only brought up whenever Heart of Darkness is the topic of discussion.

>>7631374
he wrote a bunch of "white people are evil" books, most of famous of which is things fall apart, or, yams: the manifesto

>>7631378
You know he criticized Africans too in his books?

>>7631374

>Novel

Things Fall Apart (1958) No Longer at Ease (1960) Arrow of God (1964) A Man of the People (1966) Anthills of the Savannah (1987)

>Short stories

"Civil Peace" (1971) "Vengeful Creditor" (1972)

File: abdalqadir.jpg (55KB, 359x480px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 359x480px

>The genius of Joseph Conrad is that he sees that point where the individual’s life and crisis become the same as the crisis of the age he lives in. The appalling horror of capitalism in Africa and the private agony of the exploiter become the fundamental condition of the mortal man. It is this visionary grasp that eludes modern readers who follow the ideology-blinded scribbling of Achebe, the Nigerian novelist who cannot see beyond the anti-racist doctrines that blighted the last century and were themselves the racism of the hated enemy. Today, of course, black police fire on South African miners, Rwanda boasts a genocide of blacks by blacks. Central African Republic is in total anarchy. Congo is in civil war. The Europeans still hover, but the new exploiters, the Chinese, are kow-towed to by black governments. Capitalism today has a many-coloured face.

>http://www.shaykhabdalqadir.com/2014/02/10/syria-the-horror/

Achebe getting BTFO by a Muslim cleric of all people.

>>7631403
damn that's based

achebefags literally in flames right now

>>7631154
that's the funniest response I've seen on /lit/ in years, not even memeing rn

>>7631403
>by a Muslim cleric of all people.
whats that suppose to mean, buddy?

>>7631459
>whats that suppose to mean, buddy?
Nothing in particular, it's just an unexpected source for a quote like that.

>>7631204
>The students joined hand in hand and sang Toto’s Africa several times

my sides

>>7631204
>good, but would've been better if it had said "Latinx" instead of "Latino."

Anyone saying it's racist probably hasn't read the book.

Except for Achebe, I'm convinced that guy is actually retarded.

>>7631204
The okapi part always gets me.

I don't get why this is so highly rated, or at least I don't understand the points that people indicate. For example the horror/fear aspect, I never felt scared or on edge while reading the book, I found it very dull desu.
Also I don't understand the part of being racist. Is it just because it shows the use of slaves? Shouldn't it be expected if we're reading about colonialism?

I don't know if OP is joking or not, but I want to discuss this book.

>>7631102
No, it's just a takeoff of the Vietnam War

>>7631551
muh prose

>>7631154
Thanks for the upboat, brother.

>>7631551
> I never felt scared or on edge while reading the book,

This book tries to do that but it kinda fails.

Real horror is in the mundane.

One is the fact that in a post apocalyptic world the destruction of knowledge through death of their keepers or destruction of the institutes that housed them and the horror doesn't hit you immediately, but it just hits you right after you establish some normality.


Real horror is learning that you will never return to your previous way of life and all the shit like TV, Video Games, Proper health care and safety are all concepts completely foreign to kids born in the post destructions or kids where they were too young during the destruction.

>>7631592
Fuck, meant to quote >>7631449

>>7631154
Kek'd. *Heartily*.

>>7631521
I don't understand racism in this context. I mean, I read a book fully knowing its written in a different age when people thought differently about things. Is it really so hard for some people to use their brains to acknowledge this simple fact?
Did we really come to a point where we have to devalue any work because of it and categoricaly reject it because of our temporary views that may not be this edgy in 20 or 50 years from now.

>>7631682
thanks for your meandering and arbitrary analysis of horror

File: Noname.jpg (51KB, 306x239px) Image search: [Google]

51KB, 306x239px

>>7631381
He never criticized the Yamly Endowed, you racist

>>7631342
I read it in high school. Was pretty fucking based desu. It's one of those stories about how there's evil in all men, lurking beneath the emperor's robes of civilization we dress ourselves in.

>>7631747
Achebe feels that because Conrad uses the African natives as an example of the primordial darkness inherent to man as a contrast to the enlightened civilization of Europe it's racist. Achebe feels that since Conrad ignored actual African civilizations (that he would explore in his own works such as Yams Fall Apart) in place of portraying them as "primitives" that Conrad explicitly depicted the African peoples as racist.

>>7631682
>real horror is having to grow up out of my NEET life
Fucking pussy

>>7631459
Muslims are higher on the progressive totem pole of moral authority right now, at least if you're a European, so a Certified Muslim's opinion is super effective at defeating a Genuine African's argument. If you can show that Achebe was gay, his argument might become relevant again.

>>7631866
tl;dr: KANGZ

>>7631551
It's got some great sentences and even a great paragraph or two.

>>7631403
>Shi'ism is anti-islam
Smelly dumb sunni scum

>vicious and lethally determined tribe clinging to power
Implying the alawites and assyrians aren't literally fighting for survival

>>7631156
That's what makes it fantastic.

File: 1409182244896.jpg (48KB, 532x427px) Image search: [Google]

48KB, 532x427px

>>7631204

>>7631225
that never happened

>>7632093
Have you ever actually met Shi'ites in real life? They're the scummiest Muslims you'll ever meet by a long shot.

And that guy is a Sufi. Sufis are top-tier Sunnis. Sufis are way better than Shi'ites in any case. I'll take Hafiz or Ibn Arabi over whatever the hell post-revolutionary Iran has produced in art (oh yeah, nothing).

>>7632093
>Smelly dumb sunni scum
Assad's hot wife is a Sunni though.

>>7632204
I'm just memeing but yeah Sufis seem to be pretty great, so do the Ibadis.

I know very little about this subject to be honest, I've only read Lewis' first book about arab history and recently started reading Vernet's book about the origins of Islam. Are there any books you recommend?

Honestly it bored the ever loving shit out of me. Hated the "movie" as well. Maybe I'll give it a shot again some day though

>>7632394
it's like 100 pages u finish it before u have a chance to even think if it's boring or not, u wanna read some boring shit read some russian shit

>>7632282
The Venture of Islam by Marshall Hodgson is pretty great.

>>7631102
Love it. Second fav of all time but today
I was leafing thru this exact book and read the last line
>and it seemed to lead into an immense Heart of Darkness.
(or something)

I fucking died, and you ruined it /lit/
OP, run away while you still can.

>>7631102
YOU finished the book.
YOU tell US.

When I was a teenager reading /lit/ - this book, Bill Shakey, or watching /movies/ - stuff like Herzog, Tarkovsky, Mizoguchi, etc., I literally told myself

"You're a stupid fucking kid with naive views, so don't get caught up in the 'what', as in meaning, just react to the 'how', as in craft"

In this vein, I read Heart of Darkness three times in quick succession, and really enjoyed the aesthetic experience of the prose.

I didn't find any overt hatred on Conrad's part, and really it seemed a pretty morally neutral piece at the time, but now as the years passed I've wondered if I need to review all of my earlier art absorbing from a new perspective.

>>7631102
did you think it was good?

>>7631225
>>7631322
>>7631327
Not even lying, my GCSE english teacher was once taught my Achebe. Makes me want to ask that teacher what he thought of HOD.

>>7631696
It's too late, your shitpost failed. Happens to the best of us.

>>7632093
Also the Syrian Army is majority Sunni.

Isn't the point that all men have violent and barbaric tendencies when they are allowed power? Hence the bit at the end where London is shrouded in darkness?

>>7631156
It's a fucking critique on colonialism and you snowflakes can't handle it because it says mean things about black people. Grow up.

>>7631102
>Just finishes reading this
>Is it good?
>Just finishes
>Is it good?
>Just
>Finished
>Is
>It
>good
>?

>>7631459
Feminiggers can't dismiss it as "lol whyt ppl"

>>7631747
It's not that.

Most people, when confronted with something considered bad or taboo, immediately use it to display themselves as relatively good / moral / culturally-celebrated.
It's just an ego-jerk

Really really boring once you've seen thru it

>>7631911
The saddest thing about this post is you're actually right.

>>7631225

I had this argument with a girl once who had read neither Heart of Darkness nor Chinua Achebe's essay, whereas I had read both. She still refused to admit that I, a white male, had any real argument.

>>7633410
I feel you bro

>>7631102
I love this meme.
Only thing better is
>Just finished reading this. What did I think of it?

>>7631102
Its one hell of a trip, I'll say that.

>>7631156
>>>/tumblr/

>>7631204
take my sides

>>7631225
I know the feel. I love books, but this damnable liberalism is killing any enthusiasm I once had.

>>7631403
fucking savage

>>7633424
That guy is a white Muslim though, and also really old. Look up Ian Dallas/Shaykh Abdalqadir. Intersesting life story. He was in Fellini's 8 1/2 and used to hang out with Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. If I remember correctly, he gave Clapton a copy of the Sufi poem Layla and Majnun which is where Clapton got the title for Layla.

Achebe missed the point of the novel, the point of the novel is the 'Heart of Darkness'. Remember what that is, and how it is expressed in the story.