Occasional Views, Volume 2 by Samuel R. Delany

Author:Samuel R. Delany
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: 2022-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 3:30 PM

Samuel Delany

To: Vincent Czyz

Subject: PS

PS—The white fog at the head of the river, the heart of darkness, IS on the outside, as you pointed out, not inside. That you got right.

& more hugs—

—Chip

Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 7:04 PM

Vincent Czyz

To: Samuel Delany

Subject: Darkness

Apparently I misquoted!

Now I will have to re-read.

I know about the river mist, but, until I read it again, I’ll find it hard to believe the darkness is a reachable place on a map or that it is even a single, pin-downable thing. If it is, as I’ve said, it’s rather a disappointment. And from what I’ve read of my master’s essay, it doesn’t seem it will be that simple. Conrad isn’t just concerned with mere hollowness or heartlessness; he could have set his story in many other places for that. He wanted civilization pressed up against primitive societies. He talks about being accustomed to seeing something monstrous shackled, but there (Africa) you could see something monstrous and free. He talks about the gratification of monstrous passions. He talks about confounding the beating of one’s heart with the drums in the jungle.

Still, I need to re-read it.

Vince

PS—I am beginning to see the Europeans in the story as representative of appearance—appearance there to hide unpleasant truths. And civilization as a mosaic of appearances—from starched collar’s to table manners—there to hide the id’s discontents, as it were. The black natives, for the first time, seem to me representative of a truer reality. Indeed, when the civilized man gets too close for too long to deeper realities, what civilization has given him falls away like rags. There are a number of references to nakedness and frankness. Anyhow, this is mostly something new I’ve come up with … could be all bosh.

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