06.14.09
More Ramblings and My Comments on Heart of Darkness and A Fist Full of Diamonds
Today wasn’t as gloomy, thank God! Yesterday was very gloomy and even rained a little. Actually our yard really could use the rain, so I really should be thankful. I guess I’ve just been really looking forward to sunny days.
Today we headed out to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market to grab some veggies and some herb starters. So this afternoon I did a little transplanting, and hopefully they take well and I didn’t kill any. So far I have some sage, chamomile, peppermint, and chives. Brian picked out a couple other plants, but I’m letting him figure out what he wants to do with those, so those are still in the plastic containers. I took some cuttings from the rosemary bush out in front and am now propagating some of those for the backyard, which unfortunately is a big mess right now, so needs lots of work. Our string bean vines and crook neck squash are already bearing fruit. We have already eaten several pickings from them. We have more picked today for tonight, too. And since we went to the Farmer’s Market today we have some Chinese broccoli to add to that, too, yum.
Okay, so I finished reading two more books–Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and A Fist Full of Diamonds by John B. Robinson. I enjoyed both books. As usual, I don’t intend to write what the stories are all about. Anyone can read the storyline on any book review, so I basically just write “my” comments and what stood out to me.
While the stories of both books are very different, there are some similarities in that they are both situated in Africa. Particularly, both of them touch upon central Africa–the Congo. Robinson even refers back to “Conrad’s nightmare” when a view of the Congo River was seen from the air. Both stories are fictional, but apparently drawn from personal experiences from each author. It’s interesting so see the similarities since both books were written about 100 years apart. Not to say that the storylines were similar, because they weren’t. They were very different in tone, characters, and plot. But the corruption and evil, and downright disregard for life is still the same. It’s amazing. During Conrad’s time (1890’s), ivory was the prime commodity, but in Robinson’s time (while the book was published in 2008, the story was situated in 2001) the prime commodity was diamonds for the purpose of buying weapons. That reminded me of the movie Lord of Wars starring Nicholas Cage. It all just blows my mind, and I don’t think I’ll ever look at weapons and diamonds/jewels the same again.
As I mentioned, the plots and styles of both books are very different. Conrad’s story delved into the mind and psyche more than Robinson’s book did. But the graphic details of what they “saw” is very similar–lots of death. Another odd “slightly” similar aspect of the two books is the view of the “female.” Conrad actually doesn’t mention females much in his book, but the two areas where they do come up, I found the scenes interesting. And that is the difference between men and women and how we view life. Robinson’s book also touched on this. Now I know that these are generalizations, but still I found it interesting. I was left with the impression that they thought that women don’t see reality the way men do. Here’s a excerpt from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Marlow’s aunt is discussing her expectations of Marlow’s trip to the Congo with him. (Marlow is Conrad’s lead character and alter ego).
“. . . She talked about ‘weaning those ignorant millions from their horrid ways,’ till, upon my word, she made me quite uncomfortable. I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit.
“‘You forget, dear Charlie, that the labourer is worthy of his hire,’ she said, brightly. It’s queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it world go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over.”
At the end of Heart of Darkness the second female character is introduced. She was Kurtz’s “intended.” Marlow was delivering letters from the late Kurtz to her after a year since his passing. She is still dressed in mourning clothes and the conversation had turned to how well connected she was to Kurtz. That she knew Kurtz better than anyone even himself. She then commented how Marlow was with Kurtz to the very moment he died, and so she wanted to know what his last words were. Marlow didn’t have the heart to tell her what his real last words were, and instead said that Kurtz’s last words were her name. . . In reality his last words were “The horror! The horror!” And it didn’t appear to have anything to do with his “intended,” but perhaps more to do with the store of ivory he had for himself that he didn’t want to give to the “Company.” It’s not completely clear what the “horror” was all about, but it could have been “how” his ivory was collected as well. Anyway, what I saw in that was the “female” again was “out of touch with reality.” Somehow I think she would have been horrified to know what Kurtz was capable of doing and had been doing down in the Congo. Whether Conrad meant it to be that way or not, I don’t know, but that’s what it essentially boiled down to.
In Robinson’s book, the character Alice also seemed to have a degree of naivete as well. She didn’t seem to believe or grasp how evil people can be. And the main character’s (Lonny) soon to be ex-wife, Cass, also had a strange view of reality in that she didn’t even care what it took for her comforts. I liken it to a mafioso’s wife, who doesn’t care and doesn’t want to know where the money is coming from so long as she can continue living luxuriously. Who cares attitude of how many people have to die or what people have to do so that you can have that diamond ring.
Now I know that may not be the view of all men about women, but there is an interesting trend. This reminds me of past conversations I’ve had with Brian where he feels that men are sometimes more evil than women are because they “know” they are doing things wrong, and continue to do them, while women tend to “think” they’re doing right, so inadvertently do things wrong. Eh, again, I know that’s a generality since I’m sure there are a lot of evil women out there who know exactly what they are doing! But I’m just thinking this in line of what the Bible says about women and why men should lead because the woman (Eve) was deceived, but the man (Adam) was not. Even though Adam was not deceived, he sinned anyway. . . And interesting how the “woman” can influence men to sin. . . Anyway, I thought it interesting.
So that was sort of a “detour” from the main plots of the two books. . . so back to the books. There is another part in Robinson’s book that stood out to me, and that was when he was describing the “tour” of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The pictures on his “map guide” were said to be very graphic of the murders during the genocide. At the sites skulls and bones were piled up in heaps six feet high. Other sites had the bodies still in the same place where they fell six years prior. In one location Lonny couldn’t bear it anymore. They were touring a church where hundreds of people who were trying to take refuge in the church were massacred. This is an excerpt from that scene as Lonny imagined the phantom figures of those massacred:
“. . . He waded through the phantoms, imploring, “Pardon,” until he reached the light. The sugary, sickly odor of the church filled his nostrils. His throat was tight and dry. His temples throbbed with sharp spiders of pain.
“He burst though the door and past the pyramids of skulls. The spirits did not follow him. It was only then he understood the odd smell that had saturated his clothing from the moment he stepped off the plane in Kigali: death. The odor of decomposed flesh, rotten blood, drying marrow. It hung over the entire country like a mist. Millions of souls fertilized the red dirt with their bodies. Even when their rib cages and pelvises were carted to landfills, the enormity of the crime could not be erased.”
This scene reminded me of Cain and Abel when after Cain had murdered his brother Abel, the Lord came to him and asked him where Abel was. The Lord said, “His blood cries out to me from the ground.” I never really thought about how blood could “cry out,” but it’s true that there is a smell to it. I remember when I was in the hospital for aplastic anemia. I was in one of the BMT wards, and one of the BMT nurses was telling me how she didn’t like the smell of marrow. She said it had a distinct odor. And that seems to fall in line with blood sacrifices. Animals were sacrificed to the Lord in the OT. For instance after the flood, Noah built an altar and made animal sacrifices to God. It was described as a “sweet aroma to the Lord.” And from that God said that he would not curse the ground for man’s sake.
One last comment, is that in addition to Robinson’s book being interesting and entertaining (it was like a modern-day action, thriller movie, which I wouldn’t be surprise to see come out on the big screen one day), I learned something I didn’t know. And that is that after the 1994 Rwandan genocide, it didn’t end there. I knew that many more people died afterwards after being displaced. But I thought it was due to unsanitary conditions and lack of food and all. But according to Robinson, after the 100 days of Hutus murdering the Tutsi, the Tutsi’s got the upper hand and chased the Hutu out towards Uganda. But it didn’t stop there because the tables just got turned and the Tutsi started to take revenge and massacre the Hutus. This second genocide of the Hutus we don’t normally hear about. So not only was Robinson’s book entertaining (the inner workings of diamond trading was interesting), but I found Robinson’s book enlightening. I will never look at diamonds and weapons the same again. I don’t ever plan to ever buy another diamond in my life. I can see why the Bible tells us not to adorn ourselves with costly goods. And little by little I think I’m starting to get a better understanding of the mysteries of Central Africa. That is “mysteries” to me. There have been so much that I didn’t understand, so Robinson’s book is another piece of the puzzle for me.
I give two thumbs up for both Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and A Fist Full of Diamonds by John B. Robinson.
Marlakins
