The Heart of Darkness- A Mini Review.

Mini Review on – The Heart of Darkness

Book begins with a tale of the African journey taken by a gentleman Marlow, in context of some work of his company. In his way, Marlow hears about a merchant Kurtz which is a godlike image there in Congo. After meeting the merchant he realizes the devilish person inside the trader. Marlow in his journey watches the violence of the selfish, so called civilized on the uncivilized people of congo.

It is kind of short novel presenting against colonization. Its a kind of commentary on the exploitation of the westerns. Each event occurred during the journey is giving some hidden message. The unnecessary firing in the jungle shows the violence created by whitemen for their selfish motives. Moreover the description of the jungle with the difficulties occurred to Marlow creates a view about of the life of the residents. How they are made slaves to work for white people there.

The title of the novel is justified as it depicts the life of the humans in the abandoned mysterious continent of the world, titled as the place of darkness. And I thinks The Heart of Darkness here is the heart of humans doing such an injustice to humanity.

PRASANJEET SINGH.

2009ch70152

The heart of Darkness--- a mini-review

Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ is simply a rework of his own experiences in Congo, Africa. This novella explores the ‘darkness’ of colonization in Congo and the ‘darkness’ within every human being for committing dreadful crimes. In this novella Conrad writes about his own experiences in Congo through Charles Marlow’s character.
("Eight and a half years before writing the book, Conrad had gone to serve as the captain of a Congo steamer. On arriving in the Congo, he found his steamer damaged and under repair. He became ill and returned to Europe before serving as captain."
SOURCE - Internet)

This story of darkness is conveyed through a narrative within a narrative. Thus there are two narrators in the story. The novella begins with an unnamed narrator describing five men, probably colleagues. The main story follows Marlow as he recounts his Congolese adventure to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames. It is noteworthy that Marlow recounts his adventures in Congo from dusk till late night. The story concludes with showcase of how Marlow’s story had led to immense darkness (the darkening of sky).

Another major and cherished character in the novella is that of Kurtz. Through Kurtz character, Marlow explores the darkness or evil lurking in the so called ‘civilized’ (or white) people. Kurtz embodies everything that is below the human nature. His character is a showcase of the dual nature of the human beings. This is the basic theme of the novella. The idea that the Romans conquered the savage Britons parallels Conrad's tale of the Belgians conquering the savage Africans. Darkness thus lurks behind every civilized human being.

“He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision—he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath—‘The horror! The horror!’ ”
Kurtz last words “The horror! The horror!” are interpreted by Marlow as reflection of his own life. This quote from the heart of darkness is quite famous. It is used by T.S. Elliot as an epigraph.

I conclude by saying that this dark novella seems to have pushed the idea of darkness behind the human nature a little too far.

Note: I was supposed to discuss this novel and not write a review of it.

Manvar Apurva
2009ch70141

THE DUBLINERS by James Joyce

The city of Dublin is very close to Joyce’s heart, and Joyce is very close to mine; so it is with no inconsiderable glee and enthusiasm that I begin (at last!) this piece of literary review by putting ink on paper, or more honestly, virtual ink on the computer screen (so much for the good old days when techno-philic geeks hadn’t yet seen the light of day).

OK, enough! Hereby, I detach the Artist from the work of Art (blasphemy!), once and for all.

The year 1904 – Ireland, trying to escape from decades of sub-ordination and sectarianism, is going through a period of economic and political and cultural turmoil. It is in this Ireland that a twenty-two year old strapping young fellow takes up the mantle of depicting the ‘Heart of Ireland’ – Dublin, as he sees it. He is none other than James Augustine Aloysius Joyce.

This Dublin of his does not consist just of its settlements, streets and landmarks of Georgian architecture, but is one peopled by a varied and kaleidoscopic multitude. It is as if he wants to enter into their minds, be a witness of their secrets and aspirations, and to view the city from all angles and altitudes – in its full glory.

And what does he see? He sees a land ravaged by foreign overlords (literally: Ireland was completely deforested of its timber), a land infested by pestilence in form of social stagnation and poverty, a land firmly under the yoke of the Church and a land politically under a spell of inertia and lethargy. Leader-less and dejected, no ray of hope seems to be breaking in through the pall of gloom. It is to this city Joyce wants the world to be acquainted with.

Coming to the stories themselves – they, fifteen in all, are written in lucid and straight-forward language. An interesting feature is that they are arranged in increasing order of the narrator/protagonist’s age. That is, we move from early childhood experiences to adolescent pangs of love to youthful struggles for wealth to mature reflections of futility and regret.

Some of the most vivid pictures that stay with us are those of Father Flynn’s deterioration and his being found laughing alone in the Church in ‘THE SISTERS’; Mr. Doran’s dilemma compounded by the unflinching pressure of social standards and fear of public prosecution in ‘THE BOARDING HOUSE’ and the drunkard Mt. Farrington’s anguish at the end of his frustrated attempts to gain some pleasure out of his morose life in ‘COUNTERPARTS’. His encounters with the Englishman Weathers in the pub only rub salt on his bruises. He finally unleashes his anger on this little son. The subsequent entreaties on part of the child are very tragic and full of pathos.

One of my favorites is TWO GALLANTS – a tale of two unemployed, unprincipled swindlers. But we pity even for the irascible Lenehan as he sits musing his “poverty of mind and spirit”.

THE DEAD, the closing story, is the pick of them all. It is set during a PARTY that despite being a source of great joy and mirth every year, only deepens the deadening routine which makes existence life-less. Miss Ivors rakes up the question of IDENTITY with the culture, language and customs of Ireland. This is in sync with the parallel nationalistic movements going along at the time, which throws Gabriel, the protagonist, off balance.

Joyce presents a very fine contrast between the ‘traditional genuine warm-hearted Irish hospitality’ and the ‘modern hyper-educated, thought-tormented generation’.

The defining moment is when Gabriel gets to know about a former lover of his wife Gretta who given up his life for her. His attempts to set up a romantic mood are mercilessly quashed. Once again it happens that a Dubliner is thwarted in their quest for something, as if paralyzed by the weight of circumstances.

Finally, Gabriel has an EPIPHANY when he feels that ‘it is better to leave this world in great passion, like her lover, than to eke out a controlled and uneventful existence’.

The view of the whole of Ireland under deep snow, with all its living and its DEAD, continues to haunt one. It portrays the central theme in which the dead cross-over and influence the living in their own strange ways.

Stylistically, the narrative voice is detached and un-emotional, but highly perceptive to the minute details. Also, very many Joycean concepts are displayed along the collection. So we find the characteristic description of “obsession with words and how reality is shaped by them” in the very first paragraph; the word is ‘paralysis’ in this case.

Another trait is the usage of Free Indirect Discourse, where the narrative takes on some properties of the event or person being described. The ‘Uncle Charles Principle’ is a famous example of it. On the whole, Joyce’s deep understanding of the ways and quirks of the human nature is amply displayed. Much is conveyed through what is left unsaid!

Through these stories, Joyce has commented on several major themes. The effects of corruption on youth and their emotional and moral paralysis, as well as the decay and stagnancy of the Church are depicted. Political instability and indecisiveness are shown too.

Throughout there is an underlying theme of ‘poverty and class differences’. Moreover, this is aggravated by their general isolation and inability to communicate. This shows the feeling of APATHY prevalent among the masses.

All in all, what Joyce does is hold a mirror up to Dubliners of all ages, and from different strata and walks of life. What it reflects is not very pretty to see.

What all these images conjure up is a collage giving the impression of repressed vigor, decay, helplessness, indecision, the un-displaceable burden of servitude and an acute sense of failure in trying to achieve one’s dreams. And I begin to think –

- Is it possible for life to be so bad can such crap exist on the face of earth ain’t Joyce being too much of a cynic – who ‘looks around for a coffin when he smells flowers’ is human nature really so downright cheap and disgusting like an insect yes like a veritable creepy crawly like a beetle the Beatles were fun the awesome foursome ‘here comes the sun li’l darling, here comes the sun I say, it’s alright!’

Maybe, I am beginning to have some insight (an epiphany!?) into Joyce’s continued romance with Dublin, as I remember, echoed in these lines of his –

"For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal."

P.S. – As this was supposed to be a blog, I have tried to use an informal and conversational style. I would like to tender an unconditional apology for the mischief it has caused.

HELISH SHARMA

2009PH10744

Sea of Poppies - Amitav Ghosh

Sea of Poppies

The first part of the proposed Ibis trilogy, this novel by Amitav Ghosh certainly plays no small part in taking Indian English fiction to the next level. He, along with other new-found stalwarts like Kiran Desai, have made sure that Indian English fiction and Salman Rushdie will no longer be spoken in the same breath. A superbly paced novel, replete with just the right amount of elaborate details, sucks you in with its accurate rendition of India under the autocratic British rule. His previous book 'The Glass Palace' certainly paves the way for Ghosh to go out and truly realise his potential.

Rather than stick to one character and narrate the whole story through that character's point of view, Ghosh tries his hand at something unique, though, at the same time, at the risk of over-cooking his story – dillying-dallying with the stories of many characters, and patiently, merging them around the central focal point of the story, the ship Ibis. This technique serves a dual purpose, eliminating the danger of turning the novel into a drag and more importantly, the author is able to demonstrate how each strata of the society was placed at that time.

The importance of the timeline cannot be ignored. The title says it all – it was the time when the British opium network was at its pinnacle. Everything and anything in a common Indian's life was inextricably tied to opium. Deeti's marriage to an opium addict, Raja Neel Rattan's debt due to over-investment in the opium trade – all stories seem to point towards above stated hypothesis.

The story, more importantly, is set at the time when the mighty British empire was contemplating unleashing a war on the “Long-Tails”, or the Chinese, who were beginning to resist British attempts to force the opium trade on them, thus instigating what, historically, are called the Opium Wars. Before one goes criticising the British for their apparent perception of superiority, it is the reasons they give for waging this war that leaves the reader exasperated. Imposing God's word on the Chinese and the survival of the poppy-growing farmers – the very principles which the merchants violated at every step – are quoted as reasons to go to war.

Apart from the very obvious theme of British oppression of Indians, there are many a sub-plot brewing beneath this facade. For one, the society which was steeped up to the neck in superstitions is brought out to the fore with brutal frankness. One gory example of this trend is the use of the impotent Hukam Singh's brother having sex with a drugged Deeti on her marriage night, in order to consummate their marriage. While one might gasp in horror at such a prospect today, it was very much the preferred option at that time to hide the husband's inadequacies. Without fail, the author more than subtly does expose the themes of child-marriage and sati. Also, the jailing of Neel Rattan Halder shows that, despite the Empire's claims of fair justice, just how much sway the powerful merchants held over the judicial system, reducing it to a farce.

Along the course of the book, we are constantly reminded of a flourishing underground slave trade, with the slaves', called 'girmitiyas' – those who pledge their entire lives to slavery, transportation to Mauritius, being the fulcrum around which the story revolves, as it is this fateful journey on the schooner Ibis, on which our characters' story cross each other. Despite the blanket ban on employing slaves, the slave trade nevertheless continues to flourish under the tutelage of the British empire.

While reading the book, one cannot help but notice the fact that the language of the book changes dialect as the character changes. That is, a common word is deliberately misspelled to match the character's accent – so schooner becomes 'iskuner' and vice-versa 'khana' becomes 'connah' – clearly, great pains have been taken to ensure that the reader feels completely at home in understanding the character. One mistake, whether intentional or not I cannot say, is the usage of the state of Jharkhand, which was nowhere near formation at that stage.

This multi-dimensional novel leaves the reader gasping for more, which anyway is the author's ultimate task. If 'Sea of Poppies' is anything to go by, certainly the remaining two books will fetch Amitav Ghosh the Booker he was denied for his first book.

Parag Goel

2009PH10730

NEVER LET ME GO-KAZUO ISHIGURO

Never Let Me Go (2005) is a novel by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. Time magazine named it the best novel of 2005 and included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.Throughout the novel the author gives only parts of the truth which creates a confusion about what is actually happening in the story.

The novel is narrated by 31-year-old Kathy H. as she reminisces about her childhood at the sheltered boarding school Hailsham, as well as her adult life after leaving.The story takes place in the mid-1990s in Britain, where human beings are cloned to provide donor organs for transplants. Kathy and her schoolmates have all been created for this purpose.There is no actual mention of the word 'clones' but the author has given facts like the students in Hailsham couldn't have children and the choice ahead for them after school was to become a carer and after wards a donator which makes the reader feel something is not right with them.

Divided in three sections- the novel has three main characters-Kathy,Ruth and Tommy and mainly focuses on the friendship and love relationships between them. When they are young, the students in Hailsham are made are to create works of art which are seleted by a mysterious "Madame" who takes away the best creations for her own personal gallery.This personal gallery and this creations of art find a prominence later in the novel.

In this section too, at their young age the students know that they are born to be donors. In the second section, when the students move to the Cottage, where they write essays, they come in contact with students from other establishments who have been also been bred for the same purpose.In the third section, Kathy has become a carer and first she becomes a carer for Ruth and then for Tommy.Later on she had a romantic and sexual relationship with Tommy as wanted by Ruth.Ruth realises that Tommy and Kathy were meant for each other and she had been acting as an obstacle between them.At the end, both Ruth and Tommy have completed(euphemism for death) after their second and fourth donation respectively and Kathy realises that she is also bidden for the same fate.

Through the novel, not directly but some vestiges of truth can be found.Like Madame who was afraid and shuddered at the sight of the students and Keefers, the caretaker of the Cottage who treated them with disdain and didn't think that they needed any firewood etc. to keep themselves warm.Also there is some lack in details about emotions and feelings of different people.Throughtout the whole novel,the reader feels that there is something wrong,something amiss with the students.Once when they go to Norfolk, they tell an old woman that they were art students and not actually what they were.Also they were searching for their possibles- people whom they cloned from.From my reading i thought that maybe the author was talking about dopplegangers but the large difference in age between Ruth and Ruth's possible sort of dissuades this perception.As seen in Ishiguro’s other works, the truth of the matter is made clear only gradually.The students are not treated as equals by their counterparts like when they were donors, in some of the hospitals they were treated to unhygienic conditions like a toilet was converted to a room for Tommy. It was only in Hailsham that they were they treated as actual students. Although the basic theme of the novel seems to be dark and sombre but the actual narration doesn't comes out to be so which can be said to one of hope, trying to find their true selfs, their spirits as against the establishments.The author has not overtly used harsh truths leaving the reader to surmise for himself what the actual truth might be.The title of the novel seems to be appropriate coming from Kathy' love for the song "Never Let Me Go" by fictional singer Judy Bridgewater.Many years later, during the final confrontation between Kathy, Tommy, and Madame, she asks Madame about her tears after seeing her that day , years ago dancing to that song

Madame replies that the image she had seen was of a little girl facing the new world that was emerging, an efficient but cruel world, and asking the old world not to let her go.The novel manages to raise some questions like if clones might have souls.At the end, the novel comes to be one portraying people who are trying to find some hope and solace and contentment in the face of their impending doom.

Note-I was supposed to comment on the book, not to write a review on it

-Samarth Sarsar

2007ME10523

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

Winter's Night is a meta-fictional book consisting of 'unfinished' stories written in the second person. To summarize the plot is difficult and really doesn't tell much, but essentially it’s about a character called the reader (the narrator addresses him as "you”) and his search for the endings of many different first chapters of books that we get a peek at. These unfinished stories are good. They don't feel incomplete or anything, they capture and maintain your interest and connect to the larger themes of the book. They also include characters similar to the ones in the main story which is great and really gives the whole thing a sense of thematic coherence. By the time we reach the midpoint the main story is about a counterfeiting conspiracy and the whole thing becomes a little confusing. This part of the book seemed tonally disconnected from the rest of the book, and it felt much more conventional as compared to the rest of the book. Then we get back to a library and the ending picks up in a hilariously abrupt way.

The style of writing in second person is very difficult, innovative and interesting, but by the end I felt that the second person narrative technique in general, is a little useless. Although I really enjoyed reading ‘Hema and Kaushik’, a short story in Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, which consists of three parts in which the first two parts are in second person written by two different people – in the first part, Hema is the narrator and she refers to Kaushik as ‘you’ and it’s vice versa in the second part, so it seemed more like reading their diary, and I didn’t feel too directly involved. Here's why I think the style did not work for this book: the second person narration purpose is twofold- to help you identify with the main character (how can you not, its 'you' after all) and also to keep the book from being confusing when narration shifts seamlessly from one story to another. When I saw that Calvino was using it for the first purpose, I felt like this was just a slight of hand trick devised to distract me as a reader and throw me off guard, so the effect was quite the opposite. It put me on my guard and I started seeing the "you" as a separate character. The effect was that it actually divorced me from the character of the reader. Was this the effect Calvino was shooting for? Hard to say, but I would guess no. And he backs up from the second purpose by digressing from the reader's story for most of the second half before he realizes what he's doing and sticks him back in but its disjointed and doesn't quite fit with how well he handled it at the beginning and the very last part of the book.

Another thing which needs to be mentioned is that I feel this book is meant for a male reader because Calvino uses second person narrative and YOU – the reader is assumed to be a male. There would be an almost instant alienation, for a female reader, and she wouldn’t be able to relate to the book. Also, the character of the female reader is in fact, not a reader but something to be read, an inscrutable enigma. It reminded me of Stephen Dedalus’s fascination with the Eileen character (and the two others, of course), and was not particularly interesting or fun.

There are a lot of duplications in this book. There are two authors, both of whom I take to represent Calvino, two female readers (other readers) who I think represent the ideal reader and the desiccating academic school of criticism, and two YOUs, the one actually reading the book and the "you" that acts in the book and is actually just a character you identify with, and sometimes a stand-in for the real you. Then there are all the short stories featuring facsimiles of these characters. I'm not quite clear on the point of these duplications. Maybe Calvino is making a point about how art duplicates things from other sources while making variations? There is definitely some tension between these duplications, as though Calvino challenges us to choose where between them we place ourselves on the continuum.

To sum it up, I did enjoy the book in parts, and felt that it was very interesting and different. It's not like anything I've read before.

Anirudh Mendiratta
2007PH10596

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri has returned with another emotionally jolting masterpiece Unaccustomed Earth after her Pulitzer Prize winner Interpreter of Maladies. Unaccustomed Earth is a brilliant collection of short stories and one aspect of Jhumpa Lahiri’s talent lies in the fact that she can get you to intimately connect to the characters even in a short story. Jhumpa Lahiri uses commonplace language and style to create a emotionally chilling effect. Personally I felt an individual and markedly depressing character in each of her stories.

Unaccustomed Earth is a case study of human nature specifically focussing on her characteristic Bengalis-living-abroad setting. Unaccustomed Earth has close correspondence with Jhumpa Lahiri’s life if only in the little things. The stories deal with issues which the second generation of emigrating Bengalis face abroad. Jhumpa Lahiri herself was caught in the same situation, born in London to emigrating parents and then moving to Long Island at the age of three. Her stories deal with the stigma she faced, torn between being brought up in western culture and her mother’s constant nudging to stay in touch with Bengali culture. Also, this review would be incomplete without the mention of a recurring sub-theme in Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories which is that of marriage and relationship of an Indian with a foreigner and how their parents or elders react to the situation. It was present in most of her stories in Interpreter of Maladies, in The Namesake, and also in Unaccustomed Earth.

My personal favourite would be the trio of stories Hema and Kaushik. It is written in second person, distinguishing it from her other stories. Hema and Kaushik is a collection of three short stories linking the fate of two Bengalis, whose family’s only connection is by the virtue of their coexistence in a strange land. The second person narrative creates a completely different atmosphere and one can relate intimately to the characters and their tragedies.

Nobody’s Business is another brilliant work exploring a complex love triangle.Paul, a shy literature graduate has a repressed infatuation with his roommate, Sang who is already involved in a relationship with an eccentric Farouk. Meanwhile another vertex is added to this triangle as Paul find out that Farouk, Sang’s boyfriend is also involved with another girl, Dierdre. I think that this story was all about how Paul handles the power he now holds over the couple. Should he tell Sang, leading to Sang and Farouk’s break-up and him having a chance with Sang but leading to her heart-break or keep it to himself. At these crossroads, Paul (owing to Jhumpa Lahiri’s creativity), does neither. But the rest is best explained by reading the story itself so I’m just going to stop here.

I found Unaccustomed Earth, the short story, interesting because it looks at several things from a viewpoint which was completely new to me. After her mother’s death, Ruma thinks that she will have to look after her father and her own nuclear family would suffer from the added responsibility on her. This, I believe is a direct consequence of her maternal instinct. Ruma cannot jeopardize her child and family’s future to take care of her father. On some level, she blames her father for issues like opposing her marriage to a non-Indian, not even being in touch with her for the last 38 years etc. But the real surprise comes when at the end of her father’s short visit, she discovers that all the while He was taking care of her family and now she wants him to stay. Another thing which caught me off guard was the concept of one getting into a relationship just because one had “gotten used to the companionship”. This is the reason given by Ruma’s father for what he felt for Mrs. Bagchi, a lady he had met on his tours of Europe.

Hell-Heaven, the second short story of the book, is about a housewife’s one sided love with a younger family friend. Aparna, the narrator’s mother had had an arranged marriage to Shyamal, the narrator’s father. Soon afterward’s Shyamal had left India to complete his studies and finally landed in Massachusetts as a Researcher. Aparna and the narrator’s meeting with Pranab Chakraborty a lonely Indian student also living in Massachusetts results in his becoming a close friend of the family. During his regular visits to the narrators house, Pranab began to look upon Aparna and Shyamal as his mentors but Aparna developed an infatuation with Pranab. Hell-Heaven is a well-narrated story of how Aparna reacts to heart-break after nurturing hopes which she new would be broken.

A Choice of Accommodations is the story of a couple’s rekindled love after a strained night attending Amit’s High School crush’s wedding. Amit and Megan are a Married couple with two daughters. This is a story in which years of pent up jealousy and insecurity leading through a day of misunderstanding lead in a moment of truth to a passion unexplored in the most intense of relationships.

In Only Goodness, a sister frees herself from years of guilt and repentance in a moment when she realizes that her fledgling family had been at stake for what she considered her fault as a sister. She had been the one who had introduced her brother to alcohol and after he became an alcoholic, started blaming herself for it.Years later, she didn’t even telling her husband because she thought he would hold her responsible for it. It is an emotionally charged tale: parents broken-hearted on seeing their brilliant son losing his grip on a meaningful life, a guilt-ridden sister and her new family still in infancy and at its core : a boy destined for greatness falling into a self-destructive pattern and affecting everyone around him as he falls.

All in all, Unaccustomed Earth is a great book exploring human nature at its best and its worst. Certainly not a recreational pass time but a serious book to be pondered on and thought over. Indeed one can feel the weight of the emotions dripping through the pages as the stories weave on through dark alleys and great planes of human nature.

Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri a.k.a. Jhumpa Lahiri