The tall marble fireplace had a cold and monumental whiteness.

to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend.

Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say

the killing him there and then, which wasn't so good

He informed me, lowering his voice, that it was Kurtz who had ordered the attack to be made on the steamer.

“She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul

Kurtz—Kurtz—that means short in German—don't it?

They adored him

'I forgot there was such a thing as sleep. The night did not seem to last an hour. Everything! Everything!... Of love, too.' 'Ah, he talked to you of love!' I said, much amused. 'It isn't what you think,' he cried, almost passionately. 'It was in general. He made me see things—things.'

ked at him, lost in astonishment. There he was before me, in motley, as though he had absconded from a troupe of mimes, enthusiastic, fabulous. His very existence was improbable, inexplicable, and altogether bewildering. He was an insoluble problem. It was inconceivable how he had existed, how he had succeeded in getting so far, how he had managed to remain—why he did not instantly disappear

You made notes in Russian?' I asked. He nodded. 'I thought they were written in cipher

He looked like a harlequin

He had been a very second-rate helmsman while alive, but now he was dead he might have become a first-class temptation, and possibly cause some startling trouble.

Perhaps you will think it passing strange this regret for a savage who was no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara.

I missed my late helmsman awfully—I missed him even while his body was still lying in the pilot-house

He had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honour

He began with the argument that we whites, from the point of development we had arrived at, 'must necessarily appear to them [savages] in the nature of supernatural beings—we approach them with the might of a deity,'

The wilderness had patted him on the head, and, behold, it was like a ball—an ivory ball; it had caressed him, and—lo!—he had withered; it had taken him, loved him, embraced him, got into his veins, consumed his flesh, and sealed his soul to its own by the inconceivable ceremonies of some devilish initiation.

There was a pause of profound stillness, then a match flared, and Marlow's lean face appeared, worn, hollow, with downward folds and dropped eyelids, with an aspect of concentrated attention; and as he took vigorous draws at his pipe, it seemed to retreat and advance out of the night in the regular flicker of tiny flame. The match went out.

he had collected, bartered, swindled, or stolen more ivory than all the other agents together?

I suppose Mr. Kurtz is dead as well by this time.'

It was the shaft of a spear that, either thrown or lunged through the opening, had caught him in the side, just below the ribs; the blade had gone in out of sight, after making a frightful gash; my shoes were full; a pool of blood lay very still, gleaming dark-red under the wheel; his eyes shone with an amazing lustre. The fusillade burst out again. He looked at me anxiously, gripping the spear like something precious, with an air of being afraid I would try to take it away from him.

The fool-nigger had dropped everything,

when I made a dash at the wheel.

A fusillade burst out under my fee

Arrows, by Jove! We were being shot at!

He sported a pair of brass earrings, wore a blue cloth wrapper from the waist to the ankles, and thought all the world of himself

The action was very far from being aggressive—it was not even defensive, in the usual sense: it was undertaken under the stress of desperation, and in its essence was purely protective

It felt like it, too—choking, warm, stifling

The glimpse of the steamboat had for some reason filled those savages with unrestrained grief.

t just then I perceived—in a new light, as it were—how unwholesome the pilgrims looked,

Their headman, a young, broad-chested black, severely draped in dark-blue fringed cloths, with fierce nostrils and his hair all done up artfully in oily ringlets

The rest of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. Just nowhere. Gone, disappeared; swept off without leaving a whisper or a shadow behind

fish leaped, and the loud splash made me jump as though a gun had been fired.

Yes, it looked like cipher. Fancy a man lugging with him a book of that description into this nowhere and studying it—and making notes—in cipher at that! It was an extravagant mystery

(with an impromptu charm, made of rags, tied to his arm, and a piece of polished bone, as big as a watch, stuck flatways through his lower lip),

The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us—who could tell?

We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.

like a sluggish beetle crawling on the floor of a lofty portico. It made you feel very small, very lost, and yet it was not altogether depressing, that feeling. After all, if you were small, the grimy beetle crawled on—which was just what you wanted it to do. Where the pilgrims imagined it crawled to I don't know.

We had enlisted some of these chaps on the way for a crew. Fine fellows—cannibals—in their place. They were men one could work with, and I am grateful to them

“Try to be civil, Marlow,” growled a voice, and I knew there was at least one listener awake besides myself.

you lost your way on that river as you would in a desert, and butted all day long against shoals, trying to find the channel, till you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once—somewhere—far away—in another existence perhaps. There were moments when one's past came back to one, as it will sometimes when you have not a moment to spare for yourself; but it came in the shape of an unrestful and noisy dream, remembered with wonder amongst the overwhelming realities of this strange world of plants, and water, and silence.

Long afterwards the news came that all the donkeys were dead.

snapping ivory from the natives.' Who was it they were talking about now? I gathered in snatches that this was some man supposed to be in Kurtz's district,

'I am as harmless as a little child, but I don't like to be dictated to. Am I the manager—or am I not? I was ordered to send him there. It's incredible.

I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself. Your own reality—for yourself, not for others—what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.

hooked nose set a little askew,

no man here bears a charmed life

That animal has a charmed life,'

or he judged it necessary to inform me he feared neither God nor devil, let alone any mere man.

ncredible which is of the very essence of dreams...

You know I hate, detest, and can't bear a lie, not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appalls me.

indefatigable

“'The chief of the Inner Station,' he answered in a short tone, looking away

But there is a way of looking at a halter that would provoke the most charitable of saints into a kick.

philanthropic pretence of the whole concern

He struck a match, and I perceived that this young aristocrat had not only a silver-mounted dressing-case but also a whole candle all to himself.

'take advantage of this unfortunate accident.'

“I strolled up. There was no hurry. You see the thing had gone off like a box of matches. It had been hopeless from the very first. The flame had leaped high, driven everybody back, lighted up everything—and collapsed. The shed was already a heap of embers glowing fiercely. A nigger was being beaten near by. They said he had caused the fire in some way; be that as it may, he was screeching most horribly

rapacity

The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it.

He was a common trader, from his youth up employed in these parts—nothing more. He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect. He inspired uneasiness. That was it! Uneasiness. Not a definite mistrust—just uneasiness—nothing more.

volubility

Zanzibaris

When one has got to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages—hate them to the death.'

creatures

He had tied a bit of white worsted round his neck—Why? Where did he get it? Was it a badge—an ornament—a charm—a propitiatory act?

The man seemed young—almost a boy—but you know with them it's hard to tell

moribund

They were dying slowly—it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now—nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom

“I avoided a vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope, the purpose of which I found it impossible to divine. It wasn't a quarry or a sandpit, anyhow. It was just a hole. It might have been connected with the philanthropic desire of giving the criminals something to do.

alacrity

A horn tooted to the right, and I saw the black people run. A heavy and dull detonation shook the ground, a puff of smoke came out of the cliff, and that was all. No change appeared on the face of the rock. They were building a railway. The cliff was not in the way or anything; but this objectless blasting was all the work going on.

declivity

Who knows? The sun too much for him, or the country perhaps.'

The other day I took up a man who hanged himself on the road. He was a Swede, too.'

speaking English with great precision and considerable bitterness.

It was like a weary pilgrimage amongst hints for nightmares.

They were a great comfort to look at.

they had faces like grotesque masks

black fellows.

The edge of a colossal jungle, so dark-green as to be almost black,

I watched the coast. Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma. There it is before you—smiling, frowning, inviting, grand, mean, insipid, or savage, and always mute with an air of whispering, 'Come and find out.'

I won't say of hesitation, but of startled pause

a queer feeling came to me that I was an imposter

It's queer how out of touch with truth women are.

erroneous

'Ever any madness in your family?' he asked, in a matter-of-fact tone. I felt very annoyed.

I would let him measure my head

Morituri te salutant

door of Darknes

uncanny and fateful

knitted black wool feverishly.

“I began to feel slightly uneasy. You know I am not used to such ceremonies, and there was something ominous in the atmosphere. It was just as though I had been let into some conspiracy—I don't know—something not quite right; and I was glad to get out

knitting black wool.

There was a vast amount of red—good to see at any time, because one knows that some real work is done in there, a deuce of a lot of blue, a little green, smears of orange, and, on the East Coast, a purple patch, to show where the jolly pioneers of progress drink the jolly lager-beer.

somnambulis

cause of progress got them, anyhow

killed in a scuffle with the natives.

The snake had charmed me

snake

It had become a place of darkness

a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over.

the most blank, so to speak—that I had a hankering after.

When I grow up I will go there

At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth,

I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration.

strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.

he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and without a lotus-flower—

avagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men.

cold, fog, tempests, disease, exile, and death

a sea the colour of lead, a sky the colour of smoke,

trireme

We live in the flicker—may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday.

for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.

sedentary life

He was the only man of us who still “followed the sea.”

“And this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.”

lurid

Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire

interlopers

venerable

The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light;

diaphanous

difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom.

He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified

We four affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward.

biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.

prisons, military, court systems or police.

human identities are born before humans themselves

Church, Family, Media, and Culture.

White, heterosexual, financially-sound men are at the top of society’s pyramid

This concept is understandable–in fact, it is indicative of human nature.

to believe that all women fall under the same umbrella of oppression is not just false,

“I don’t see color,” run rampant throughout modern society

Since she’s able to fit an entire sword down her throat, she must have had practice. She can’t simply be a talented sword swallower; surely she must have experimented with oral sex in order to perfect her practice. This assumes that the only phallic object that belongs in a womans throat is a penis.

As long as a girl is pretty, she can finesse a patriarchal ride to the top. We’re showing this movie to toddlers. Just a friendly reminder.

A green monster is behind her, covering her mouth. This may represent an inner demon that stops her from speaking the truth, and encourages her to lie and be fake in order to gain acceptance in a shallow society.

questioned why there were four insults and then “feminist.

a freak with three boobs, a ringleader, a sword-swallower, a bearded lady, and a jester. Each of these women have their own bright red label. According to their labels, what we really have here is a fake woman, a bitch, a slut, a feminist, and a crazy woman

came back from the dead

OT A PROBLEM OR SURPRISE THAT HER MOTHER IS ALIVE FROM THE DEAD AGAIN?

grasping at straws here

the movie pretty much sets up Sole as the sole (ha) character that will be the one that they screw with the most with the uncanniness of the plot.

I don’t know how to start these posts because I have ideas, but I want the post to be funny, but I also just want it to be intellectual and over so here we go pals, here’s my post with the most awkward opening line ever

of upturned noses and sighs that I have heard is ridiculous.

Despite being saved by the very people whose land he set out to invade,

It did not matter that her dreadful experience was a result of a last-ditch effort by the Native Americans to cease a genocide caused by people like her.

American narrative that has been subtly (and not-so-subtly) propagandized for hundreds of years.

overdose of sorrow, disillusionment and hypocrisy to the unsuspecting reader

Blessed be the Lord for it, for great is His power, and He can do whatsoever seemeth Him good

Ipswich

And now God hath granted me my desire. O the wonderful power of God that I have seen, and the experience that I have had.

The chief and commonest food was ground nuts. They eat also nuts and acorns, artichokes, lilly roots, ground beans, and several other weeds and roots, that I know not.

scourge

Englishman stripped naked, and lying dead upon the ground, but knew not w

He told me he saw him such a time in the Bay, and he was well, but very melancholy.

laid upon me less than I deserved.

she threw a handful of ashes in mine eyes.

He answered me that such a time his master roasted him, and that himself did eat a piece of him,

papoose

his squaw gave me some ground nuts; she gave me also something to lay under my head, and a good fire we had; and through the good providence of God, I had a comfortable lodging that night.

Boston

“Nux,” which did much rejoice my spirit.

she snatched it hastily out of my hand, and threw it out of doors

she gave me a piece of bear. Another asked me to knit a pair of stockings, for which she gave me a quart of peas.

I offered the money to my master, but he bade me keep it; and with it I bought a piece of horse flesh.

“No,” said he, “none will hurt you.” Then came one of them and gave me two spoonfuls of meal to comfort me, and another gave me half a pint of peas;

for we were near thirty miles from any English town, and she very big with child, and had but one week to reckon, and another child in her arms, two years old, and bad rivers there were to go over,

He answered, yes. So I took the Bible, and in that melancholy time, it came into my mind to read first the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy,

they had buried it.

It being about six years, and five months old.

my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life on Feb. 18, 1675.

“your master will quickly knock your child in the head.”

through the blessing of God

they

God was with me in a wonderful manner, carrying me along

merciless enemies

resemblance of hell

Now away we must go with those barbarous creatures,