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An Outpost of Progress
The story deals with two European men, named Kayerts and Carlier, who are assigned to a trading post in a remote part of the African Jungle. There they take part in ivory trading, hoping to financially benefit the company as well as themselves. With no specific tasks or important things to be done, they both become increasingly isolated and demoralized as the time goes by.
At one point in the story, the native Makola, serving as Kayerts's and Carlier's bookkeeper, initiates an exchange of slaves for ivory. Initially Kayerts and Carlier are stunned and scandalized by the idea, yet eventually they accept the deal and aid Makola for his huge profit. Both men are continuously plagued by diseases and grow very weak physically towards the end of the story. Finally, a seemingly trivial matter - sugar - sparks an irrational, uncontrolled and violent conflict between them, and ends tragically as Kayerts accidentally shoots and kills Carlier. At the end of the story, just when the company steamboat approaches the station two months later than it should have, Kayerts hangs himself out of desperation.
At one point in the story, the native Makola, serving as Kayerts's and Carlier's bookkeeper, initiates an exchange of slaves for ivory. Initially Kayerts and Carlier are stunned and scandalized by the idea, yet eventually they accept the deal and aid Makola for his huge profit. Both men are continuously plagued by diseases and grow very weak physically towards the end of the story. Finally, a seemingly trivial matter - sugar - sparks an irrational, uncontrolled and violent conflict between them, and ends tragically as Kayerts accidentally shoots and kills Carlier. At the end of the story, just when the company steamboat approaches the station two months later than it should have, Kayerts hangs himself out of desperation.
35 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1896
27 people are currently reading
581 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Conrad
2,847 books4,764 followersJoseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
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August 21, 2023
3/5
🥁🥁🥁
Me tropecé con la referencia a esta novela en el prólogo de “Nosotros”, la distopía de Evgheni Zamiatin, haciendo referencia a las brutalidades inhumanas cometidas en zonas pobres por dinero. Esa es la razón de mi interés por este relato corto de Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), escritor de origen polaco, cuya obra más conocida tal vez sea “El corazón de las tinieblas”, ambientada en las selvas africanas, y que parece que fue una línea de inspiración para la conocida película Apocalypse now , de Francis F. Coppola. La edición que yo he leído es la publicada en la colección Alianza cien , hace ya un tiempo, traducida por Javier Alfaya y Bárbara McShane. Este relato corto, considerado uno de los mejores de Conrad, se publicó originalmente en 1897.
Tanto en “El corazón de las tinieblas” como en este relato, Conrad pone el énfasis en el choque que se produce entre los empleados “civilizados” de las empresas (el progreso) que se radican en países poco desarrollados del continente africano y los trabajadores autóctonos. Esto no es algo tan anacrónico como podría pensarse si se valora la explotación del coltan, por ejemplo, como expone Alberto Vázquez Figueroa, en su novela “Coltan”. Y, efectivamente, casi al principio de la novela, su autor ya nos señala a qué se refiere con el título:
"A cierta distancia de los edificios había otra residencia. En ella, bajo una cruz que había perdido su perpendicularidad, dormía el hombre que había contemplado los comienzos de todo aquello; el que había proyectado y supervisado la construcción de aquella avanzada del progreso".
Se nos relata como Kayerts y Carlier quedan al frente de una factoría menor de la empresa, al mando de la mano de obra formada por trabajadores autóctonos, coordinados por Makola, que es el que mantiene relación con los occidentales. El Director de la empresa parte en un barco de vapor, que suele pasar por la factoría cada pocos meses, para comprobar la marcha del negocio. Aquí es donde se plantea la incomodidad que esta situación plantea a los dos occidentales.
"Pocos hombres son conscientes de que sus vidas, la propia esencia de su carácter, sus capacidades y sus audacias son tan sólo expresión de su confianza en la seguridad de su ambiente… Pero el contacto con el salvajismo puro y sin mitigar, con la naturaleza y el hombre primitivos provoca súbitas y profundas inquietudes en su corazón. A la sensación de estar aislado de la especie, a la clara percepción de la soledad de los propios pensamientos y sensaciones, a la negación de lo habitual, que es lo seguro, se añade la afirmación de lo inusual, que es lo peligroso …"
Y aquí es donde el relato nos va mostrando las vicisitudes que rodean al día a día de la factoría y las dificultades de entendimiento, entre los occidentales, por una parte, y Makola y los trabajadores, por otra, así como las diferencias de idiosincrasia entre ellos.
"Creían en lo que decían. Todos muestran una respetuosa deferencia hacia ciertos sonidos que cada cual y sus iguales pueden emitir. Pero con respecto a los sentimientos nadie sabe nada. Hablamos con indignación o entusiasmo; hablamos de opresión, de crueldad, de crimen, de devoción, de sacrificio, de virtud y nada sabemos de lo que hay realmente tras estas palabras. Nadie sabe lo que significa el sufrimiento o el sacrificio, excepto quizás las víctimas de la misteriosa intención de esas ilusiones".
El paso de los días y la espera desesperada del vapor que ha de traer al Director, va minando poco a poco a los occidentales, que se tornan inseguros y paulatinamente sentirán un miedo creciente frente a las situaciones que se van planteando:
"El miedo siempre permanece. Un hombre puede destruir todo lo que hay en su interior, el amor, el odio, las creencias e incluso la duda; pero mientras se aferra a la vida no puede destruir el miedo; el miedo sutil, indestructible y terrible, que invade todo su ser; que impregna sus pensamientos; que ronda en su corazón; que observa en sus labios la lucha del último aliento".
Y, claro, finalmente, se desatan las dramáticas consecuencias de esa evolución, que no revelaré para no desvelar el final del relato. Sólo me limitaré a insertar un pasaje que pudiera parecer bastante descriptivo al respecto... y sí, al final hay algún muerto ...
"De paso reflexionó que, de todos modos, el muerto era una bestia dañina, que diariamente se morían miles de personas, tal vez centenares de miles – ¿quién podía saberlo? -, y que en esa cantidad una muerte más no importaba; no tenía importancia, al menos para una criatura capaz de pensar. Él, Kayerts, era una criatura capaz de pensar".
No obstante todo lo expuesto, y sin negar la indudable calidad del relato, considero que es muy inferior a “El corazón de las tinieblas”, que Conrad publicará en 1899, aunque responde perfectamente a su definición de relato corto. Particularmente interesantes son algunos de los párrafos en los que se profundiza en la condición humana, como alguno de los que he incluido a lo largo de la reseña. Por ello, mi calificación es de 3 estrellas y lo recomiendo a todos aquellos interesados en la que fue una de las grandes preocupaciones de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, como es el efecto de la implantación de empresas “avanzadas” en zonas deprimidas y desconocidas como el continente africano de entonces y también a los amantes de la novela de aventuras de occidentales en tierras africanas, en general. Por otra parte, es un relato bastante corto (no llega a 65 páginas) que se puede leer en muy poco tiempo.
🥁🥁🥁
Me tropecé con la referencia a esta novela en el prólogo de “Nosotros”, la distopía de Evgheni Zamiatin, haciendo referencia a las brutalidades inhumanas cometidas en zonas pobres por dinero. Esa es la razón de mi interés por este relato corto de Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), escritor de origen polaco, cuya obra más conocida tal vez sea “El corazón de las tinieblas”, ambientada en las selvas africanas, y que parece que fue una línea de inspiración para la conocida película Apocalypse now , de Francis F. Coppola. La edición que yo he leído es la publicada en la colección Alianza cien , hace ya un tiempo, traducida por Javier Alfaya y Bárbara McShane. Este relato corto, considerado uno de los mejores de Conrad, se publicó originalmente en 1897.
Tanto en “El corazón de las tinieblas” como en este relato, Conrad pone el énfasis en el choque que se produce entre los empleados “civilizados” de las empresas (el progreso) que se radican en países poco desarrollados del continente africano y los trabajadores autóctonos. Esto no es algo tan anacrónico como podría pensarse si se valora la explotación del coltan, por ejemplo, como expone Alberto Vázquez Figueroa, en su novela “Coltan”. Y, efectivamente, casi al principio de la novela, su autor ya nos señala a qué se refiere con el título:
"A cierta distancia de los edificios había otra residencia. En ella, bajo una cruz que había perdido su perpendicularidad, dormía el hombre que había contemplado los comienzos de todo aquello; el que había proyectado y supervisado la construcción de aquella avanzada del progreso".
Se nos relata como Kayerts y Carlier quedan al frente de una factoría menor de la empresa, al mando de la mano de obra formada por trabajadores autóctonos, coordinados por Makola, que es el que mantiene relación con los occidentales. El Director de la empresa parte en un barco de vapor, que suele pasar por la factoría cada pocos meses, para comprobar la marcha del negocio. Aquí es donde se plantea la incomodidad que esta situación plantea a los dos occidentales.
"Pocos hombres son conscientes de que sus vidas, la propia esencia de su carácter, sus capacidades y sus audacias son tan sólo expresión de su confianza en la seguridad de su ambiente… Pero el contacto con el salvajismo puro y sin mitigar, con la naturaleza y el hombre primitivos provoca súbitas y profundas inquietudes en su corazón. A la sensación de estar aislado de la especie, a la clara percepción de la soledad de los propios pensamientos y sensaciones, a la negación de lo habitual, que es lo seguro, se añade la afirmación de lo inusual, que es lo peligroso …"
Y aquí es donde el relato nos va mostrando las vicisitudes que rodean al día a día de la factoría y las dificultades de entendimiento, entre los occidentales, por una parte, y Makola y los trabajadores, por otra, así como las diferencias de idiosincrasia entre ellos.
"Creían en lo que decían. Todos muestran una respetuosa deferencia hacia ciertos sonidos que cada cual y sus iguales pueden emitir. Pero con respecto a los sentimientos nadie sabe nada. Hablamos con indignación o entusiasmo; hablamos de opresión, de crueldad, de crimen, de devoción, de sacrificio, de virtud y nada sabemos de lo que hay realmente tras estas palabras. Nadie sabe lo que significa el sufrimiento o el sacrificio, excepto quizás las víctimas de la misteriosa intención de esas ilusiones".
El paso de los días y la espera desesperada del vapor que ha de traer al Director, va minando poco a poco a los occidentales, que se tornan inseguros y paulatinamente sentirán un miedo creciente frente a las situaciones que se van planteando:
"El miedo siempre permanece. Un hombre puede destruir todo lo que hay en su interior, el amor, el odio, las creencias e incluso la duda; pero mientras se aferra a la vida no puede destruir el miedo; el miedo sutil, indestructible y terrible, que invade todo su ser; que impregna sus pensamientos; que ronda en su corazón; que observa en sus labios la lucha del último aliento".
Y, claro, finalmente, se desatan las dramáticas consecuencias de esa evolución, que no revelaré para no desvelar el final del relato. Sólo me limitaré a insertar un pasaje que pudiera parecer bastante descriptivo al respecto... y sí, al final hay algún muerto ...
"De paso reflexionó que, de todos modos, el muerto era una bestia dañina, que diariamente se morían miles de personas, tal vez centenares de miles – ¿quién podía saberlo? -, y que en esa cantidad una muerte más no importaba; no tenía importancia, al menos para una criatura capaz de pensar. Él, Kayerts, era una criatura capaz de pensar".
No obstante todo lo expuesto, y sin negar la indudable calidad del relato, considero que es muy inferior a “El corazón de las tinieblas”, que Conrad publicará en 1899, aunque responde perfectamente a su definición de relato corto. Particularmente interesantes son algunos de los párrafos en los que se profundiza en la condición humana, como alguno de los que he incluido a lo largo de la reseña. Por ello, mi calificación es de 3 estrellas y lo recomiendo a todos aquellos interesados en la que fue una de las grandes preocupaciones de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX, como es el efecto de la implantación de empresas “avanzadas” en zonas deprimidas y desconocidas como el continente africano de entonces y también a los amantes de la novela de aventuras de occidentales en tierras africanas, en general. Por otra parte, es un relato bastante corto (no llega a 65 páginas) que se puede leer en muy poco tiempo.
April 26, 2021
4,5*
#abrilcontosmil
Ali, no centro de África, travaram conhecimento com Richelieu e D’Artagnan, com o Olho de Falcão e com o Tio Goriot, e ainda com muitos outros figurões. Assim, alguns dos heróis de ficção se tornaram assuntos de conversa como se fossem criaturas de carne e osso.
No meio do meu entusiasmo pelos clássicos ingleses, o maior e mais antigo bocejo é Joseph Conrad, o que me levou a iniciar “Uma Guarda-Avançada do Progresso” de pé lá muito atrás. Espantosamente, é um excelente conto, extremamente bem desenvolvido, pondo o dedo nas mesmas feridas que “Coração das Trevas” e levando-me a pensar que talvez me dê melhor com Conrad como contista.
Dois homens acabados de chegar de Inglaterra ficam responsáveis por uma isolada feitoria em África, ponto de recolha do cobiçado marfim.
- Olha-me para aqueles dois imbecis. Deviam estar loucos lá na sede para me enviarem semelhantes espécimenes. (...) Seja como for, vejo-me livre deles durante seis meses.
Depressa se tornam grandes amigos, até que a chegada de um grupo de forasteiros carregados de marfim arrasta a ameaça da escravatura tão condenada pelos ingleses.
- A escravatura é uma coisa infame, – arriscou o primeiro com voz pouco segura.
- Abjecta, - resmungou o segundo cheio de convicção.
(...) Discutimos a opressão, a crueldade, o crime, a devoção, o sacrifício, a virtude e nada conhecemos, além destas palavras.
“Uma Guarda-Avançada do Progresso” é um conto sobre o colonialismo, a corrupção, o desespero, o isolamento e o medo.
A sensação de estar isolado na própria espécie, a clara percepção de que ninguém mais compartilha dos seus pensamentos e das suas preocupações, enfim, à negação do habitual, que ainda é saudável, acresce a afirmação do desusado, o que é perigoso: a sugestão de coisas vagas, impossíveis de verificar, que a nossa alma repele, e que são desconcertantes, excita a imaginação e põe a vibrar os nervos civilizados tanto dos tolos como dos inteligentes.
#abrilcontosmil
Ali, no centro de África, travaram conhecimento com Richelieu e D’Artagnan, com o Olho de Falcão e com o Tio Goriot, e ainda com muitos outros figurões. Assim, alguns dos heróis de ficção se tornaram assuntos de conversa como se fossem criaturas de carne e osso.
No meio do meu entusiasmo pelos clássicos ingleses, o maior e mais antigo bocejo é Joseph Conrad, o que me levou a iniciar “Uma Guarda-Avançada do Progresso” de pé lá muito atrás. Espantosamente, é um excelente conto, extremamente bem desenvolvido, pondo o dedo nas mesmas feridas que “Coração das Trevas” e levando-me a pensar que talvez me dê melhor com Conrad como contista.
Dois homens acabados de chegar de Inglaterra ficam responsáveis por uma isolada feitoria em África, ponto de recolha do cobiçado marfim.
- Olha-me para aqueles dois imbecis. Deviam estar loucos lá na sede para me enviarem semelhantes espécimenes. (...) Seja como for, vejo-me livre deles durante seis meses.
Depressa se tornam grandes amigos, até que a chegada de um grupo de forasteiros carregados de marfim arrasta a ameaça da escravatura tão condenada pelos ingleses.
- A escravatura é uma coisa infame, – arriscou o primeiro com voz pouco segura.
- Abjecta, - resmungou o segundo cheio de convicção.
(...) Discutimos a opressão, a crueldade, o crime, a devoção, o sacrifício, a virtude e nada conhecemos, além destas palavras.
“Uma Guarda-Avançada do Progresso” é um conto sobre o colonialismo, a corrupção, o desespero, o isolamento e o medo.
A sensação de estar isolado na própria espécie, a clara percepção de que ninguém mais compartilha dos seus pensamentos e das suas preocupações, enfim, à negação do habitual, que ainda é saudável, acresce a afirmação do desusado, o que é perigoso: a sugestão de coisas vagas, impossíveis de verificar, que a nossa alma repele, e que são desconcertantes, excita a imaginação e põe a vibrar os nervos civilizados tanto dos tolos como dos inteligentes.
June 15, 2025
Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings.
This is a short story by Joseph Conrad set in an isolated trading post on an African river. The river is not named; it is but a tributary to a more important river.
By deploying the title "An Outpost of Progress" Conrad probably sought to highlight the hollow pretensions of colonialism. The plot is more than enough to make modern readers cringe; indeed it was likely always intended to make readers uncomfortably self-reflective.
At its essence, this powerful short story is an exposé of complicity; how we, as humans, are conditioned to perform as members of a pack — for better or for worse. Joseph Conrad traveled to Africa and witnessed the excesses and hypocrisy of "empire," and his stories set on rivers in Africa shine an uncomfortably bright light on the worst aspects of human nature.
4.5 stars rounded up because Conrad felt it was his best work, and foreshadows Heart of Darkness.
This is a short story by Joseph Conrad set in an isolated trading post on an African river. The river is not named; it is but a tributary to a more important river.
By deploying the title "An Outpost of Progress" Conrad probably sought to highlight the hollow pretensions of colonialism. The plot is more than enough to make modern readers cringe; indeed it was likely always intended to make readers uncomfortably self-reflective.
At its essence, this powerful short story is an exposé of complicity; how we, as humans, are conditioned to perform as members of a pack — for better or for worse. Joseph Conrad traveled to Africa and witnessed the excesses and hypocrisy of "empire," and his stories set on rivers in Africa shine an uncomfortably bright light on the worst aspects of human nature.
4.5 stars rounded up because Conrad felt it was his best work, and foreshadows Heart of Darkness.
April 11, 2017
“There was nobody there; and being left there alone with their weakness, they became daily more like a pair of accomplices than like a couple of devoted friends.”
An Outpost of Progress, which was written in 1897, was the story Joseph Conrad considered to be his finest achievement amongst his short stories, and even though I would find it very difficult to select my favourite tale from Conrad’s various stories, I can understand why the author would feel that way about the tale at hand.
It is set in the middle of the African wilderness, most probably in Congo (thereby foreshadowing one of Conrad's most famous novels), where two feckless Europeans, Kayerts and Carlier, have been appointed by the director of their trading company to run a trading post of little strategic and economic value for the company. The director made his choice because he considers Kayerts and Carlier as expendable men and he does not know what else to do with these two employees, but to them he points out that the appointment holds a great chance for them, a promise that at least Kayerts most readily believes. The trading outpost is also manned with ten native station men.
Then there is also Makola, a native of Sierra Leone, with his wife and children – a man who has adapted to the colonist’s culture and who, at the same time, harbours nothing but scorn for Kayerts and Carlier. Since the outpost is not provisioned sufficiently, the people living there rely for part of their supplies on the generosity, and superstition, of a nearby tribe which is led by Old Gobila. Kayerts and Carlier are hardly the men to succeed in surroundings that no longer impose the routine of civilized life upon them and instead require them to make their own decisions and to find the determination to act upon these within themselves. The narrator describes them as such:
They all too soon succumb to the allurements of idleness and sloth, entertaining themselves by making scornful remarks about Gobila’s people and discussing the novels their predecessor, who is buried near the station, left there, leaving any business that happens to be done to Makola. Among the papers they find at the station, there is also a newspaper article glorifying imperialism, whose sorry representatives they are, as a the noble act of bringing the light of civilization to benighted peoples around the globe – and they surely like the idea of being the pioneers of progress, even though they cannot sustain their mere existence there without the help of Gobila.
One day, a month before the steamer is due to relieve them or bring new provisions, at any rate, their pathetic routine is interrupted by strange men arriving at the station. These newcomers take little heed of the representatives of European civilization but soon enter into negotiations with Makola – negotiations unintelligible to them. The next morning, Kayerts and Carlier find that the station men have all disappeared and that there are six monstrous ivory tusks in front of the station house. It soon becomes clear that Makola has traded these tusks for the station men, who were deliberately made drunk to be carried off as slaves by the strange men. At first, the two Europeans are horrified that Makola should have done such a thing, all the more so as one of Gobila’s men got killed in the nocturnal brawl. They do not want to have anything to do with the slave-trade, but soon they take a different view of the matter:
However, their glee at having procured so much valuable ivory is but of short duration because they soon find out that Gobila is no longer supplying any food to them, his veneration of the strange white men having now turned into fear. Since the Company steamer is not coming on schedule, their own supplies are waning, and finally, in a scuffle over some lumps of sugar, Kayerts, out of his mind with fear and despair, kills Carlier. Makola, finding what has happened, is willing to help Kayerts hush matters up but the morning the steamer arrives, the survivor of the fight goes to the cross on the grave of their predecessor and hangs himself, and the Managing Director, on going ashore, finally
The persistently derisive and ironic tone in which this narrative is written also seems to allow the presumption that the tale as such is putting out its tongue at anyone who would make the claim, which was generally still held in those times, that Europeans, in founding their colonies in Africa or other parts of the world and establishing themselves there as trading partners and rulers, were doing so in order to improve the lives of those people who another British author conveniently described as “half devil, half child”. Conrad has no time for such high-sounding, yet hollow phrases as those ventilated by Rudyard Kipling, and when Kayerts and Carlier are fattening their self-importance on the words printed in that old newspaper, the narrator wryly remarks:
In a way, those two representatives of European progress are forerunners of the legendary Mr. Kurtz from Conrad’s masterpiece Heart of Darkness, but they are not as megalomaniac and evil as this ghastly hypocrite. Instead, they are just a couple of bungling fools, mentally ill-equipped and in every possible way too weak for the task that has been allotted to them in that they have no proper understanding of the people they have set out to “civilize”, yet feeling utterly superior to them. When matters come to a head, they are half-crazy with fear and turn to aggression, dreaming of exterminating all the native population in order to turn these lands into a garden of progress and civilization.
Conrad hints that their feeling of superiority is unwarranted since the natives of Africa are no less human than they, but the idea of equality that Conrad introduces into his story is a rather pessimistic and sarcastic one, as being based on the observation that all people, be they Europeans or Africans, have a tendency to egoistically pursue their own aims and to cover this egoism up with noble words. When berated by Kayerts and Carlier for having sold the men into slavery, Makola claims that he had only the interests of the Company at his heart, and on touching the first ivory task, Carlier is soon won over to Makola’s way of seeing things. Likewise, Kayerts and Carlier’s foolish belief in euphonic pretensions of spreading progress and civilization finds its equivalent in Gobila’ superstitions about the Europeans as immortal gods – superstitions that are not even belied by the death of the first administrator of the trading post.
In Conrad’s world, and this is mirrored in the ironic title of the story, men of all skin colours are united in foolishness and vileness. Not exactly an uplifting thought but one that seems to be borne out by any newspaper you happen to open on any day of your life.
An Outpost of Progress, which was written in 1897, was the story Joseph Conrad considered to be his finest achievement amongst his short stories, and even though I would find it very difficult to select my favourite tale from Conrad’s various stories, I can understand why the author would feel that way about the tale at hand.
It is set in the middle of the African wilderness, most probably in Congo (thereby foreshadowing one of Conrad's most famous novels), where two feckless Europeans, Kayerts and Carlier, have been appointed by the director of their trading company to run a trading post of little strategic and economic value for the company. The director made his choice because he considers Kayerts and Carlier as expendable men and he does not know what else to do with these two employees, but to them he points out that the appointment holds a great chance for them, a promise that at least Kayerts most readily believes. The trading outpost is also manned with ten native station men.
”Those fellows, having engaged themselves to the Company for six months (without having any idea of a month in particular and only a very faint notion of time in general), had been serving the cause of progress for upwards of two years. Belonging to a tribe from a very distant part of the land of darkness and sorrow, they did not run away, naturally supposing that as wandering strangers they would be killed by the inhabitants of the country; in which they were right. They lived in straw huts on the slope of a ravine overgrown with reedy grass, just behind the station buildings. They were not happy, regretting the festive incantations, the sorceries, the human sacrifices of their own land; where they also had parents, brothers, sisters, admired chiefs, respected magicians, loved friends, and other ties supposed generally to be human.”
Then there is also Makola, a native of Sierra Leone, with his wife and children – a man who has adapted to the colonist’s culture and who, at the same time, harbours nothing but scorn for Kayerts and Carlier. Since the outpost is not provisioned sufficiently, the people living there rely for part of their supplies on the generosity, and superstition, of a nearby tribe which is led by Old Gobila. Kayerts and Carlier are hardly the men to succeed in surroundings that no longer impose the routine of civilized life upon them and instead require them to make their own decisions and to find the determination to act upon these within themselves. The narrator describes them as such:
”They were two perfectly insignificant and incapable individuals, whose existence is only rendered possible through the high organization of civilized crowds. Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings. The courage, the composure, the confidence; the emotions and principles; every great and every insignificant thought belongs not to the individual but to the crowd: to the crowd that believes blindly in the irresistible force of its institutions and of its morals, in the power of its police and of its opinion. But the contact with pure unmitigated savagery, with primitive nature and primitive man, brings sudden and profound trouble into the heart. To the sentiment of being alone of one’s kind, to the clear perception of the loneliness of one’s thoughts, of one’s sensations—to the negation of the habitual, which is safe, there is added the affirmation of the unusual, which is dangerous; a suggestion of things vague, uncontrollable, and repulsive, whose discomposing intrusion excites the imagination and tries the civilized nerves of the foolish and the wise alike.”
They all too soon succumb to the allurements of idleness and sloth, entertaining themselves by making scornful remarks about Gobila’s people and discussing the novels their predecessor, who is buried near the station, left there, leaving any business that happens to be done to Makola. Among the papers they find at the station, there is also a newspaper article glorifying imperialism, whose sorry representatives they are, as a the noble act of bringing the light of civilization to benighted peoples around the globe – and they surely like the idea of being the pioneers of progress, even though they cannot sustain their mere existence there without the help of Gobila.
One day, a month before the steamer is due to relieve them or bring new provisions, at any rate, their pathetic routine is interrupted by strange men arriving at the station. These newcomers take little heed of the representatives of European civilization but soon enter into negotiations with Makola – negotiations unintelligible to them. The next morning, Kayerts and Carlier find that the station men have all disappeared and that there are six monstrous ivory tusks in front of the station house. It soon becomes clear that Makola has traded these tusks for the station men, who were deliberately made drunk to be carried off as slaves by the strange men. At first, the two Europeans are horrified that Makola should have done such a thing, all the more so as one of Gobila’s men got killed in the nocturnal brawl. They do not want to have anything to do with the slave-trade, but soon they take a different view of the matter:
”’It’s deplorable, but, the men being Company’s men the ivory is Company’s ivory. We must look after it.’ ‘I will report to the Director, of course,’ said Kayerts. ‘Of course; let him decide,’ approved Carlier.”
However, their glee at having procured so much valuable ivory is but of short duration because they soon find out that Gobila is no longer supplying any food to them, his veneration of the strange white men having now turned into fear. Since the Company steamer is not coming on schedule, their own supplies are waning, and finally, in a scuffle over some lumps of sugar, Kayerts, out of his mind with fear and despair, kills Carlier. Makola, finding what has happened, is willing to help Kayerts hush matters up but the morning the steamer arrives, the survivor of the fight goes to the cross on the grave of their predecessor and hangs himself, and the Managing Director, on going ashore, finally
”[…] faced Kayerts, who was hanging by a leather strap from the cross. He had evidently climbed the grave, which was high and narrow, and after tying the end of the strap to the arm, had swung himself off. His toes were only a couple of inches above the ground; his arms hung stiffly down; he seemed to be standing rigidly at attention, but with one purple cheek playfully posed on the shoulder. And, irreverently, he was putting out a swollen tongue at his Managing Director.”
The persistently derisive and ironic tone in which this narrative is written also seems to allow the presumption that the tale as such is putting out its tongue at anyone who would make the claim, which was generally still held in those times, that Europeans, in founding their colonies in Africa or other parts of the world and establishing themselves there as trading partners and rulers, were doing so in order to improve the lives of those people who another British author conveniently described as “half devil, half child”. Conrad has no time for such high-sounding, yet hollow phrases as those ventilated by Rudyard Kipling, and when Kayerts and Carlier are fattening their self-importance on the words printed in that old newspaper, the narrator wryly remarks:
”They believed their words. Everybody shows a respectful deference to certain sounds that he and his fellows can make. But about feelings people really know nothing. We talk with indignation or enthusiasm; we talk about oppression, cruelty, crime, devotion, selfsacrifice, virtue, and we know nothing real beyond the words. Nobody knows what suffering or sacrifice mean — except, perhaps the victims of the mysterious purpose of these illusions.”
In a way, those two representatives of European progress are forerunners of the legendary Mr. Kurtz from Conrad’s masterpiece Heart of Darkness, but they are not as megalomaniac and evil as this ghastly hypocrite. Instead, they are just a couple of bungling fools, mentally ill-equipped and in every possible way too weak for the task that has been allotted to them in that they have no proper understanding of the people they have set out to “civilize”, yet feeling utterly superior to them. When matters come to a head, they are half-crazy with fear and turn to aggression, dreaming of exterminating all the native population in order to turn these lands into a garden of progress and civilization.
Conrad hints that their feeling of superiority is unwarranted since the natives of Africa are no less human than they, but the idea of equality that Conrad introduces into his story is a rather pessimistic and sarcastic one, as being based on the observation that all people, be they Europeans or Africans, have a tendency to egoistically pursue their own aims and to cover this egoism up with noble words. When berated by Kayerts and Carlier for having sold the men into slavery, Makola claims that he had only the interests of the Company at his heart, and on touching the first ivory task, Carlier is soon won over to Makola’s way of seeing things. Likewise, Kayerts and Carlier’s foolish belief in euphonic pretensions of spreading progress and civilization finds its equivalent in Gobila’ superstitions about the Europeans as immortal gods – superstitions that are not even belied by the death of the first administrator of the trading post.
In Conrad’s world, and this is mirrored in the ironic title of the story, men of all skin colours are united in foolishness and vileness. Not exactly an uplifting thought but one that seems to be borne out by any newspaper you happen to open on any day of your life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 4, 2018
Τρίτη επαφή με το έργο του Τζόζεφ Κόνραντ, μετά το εξαιρετικό μυθιστόρημα "Η καρδιά του σκότους" που διάβασα το 2011 (θέλω κάποια στιγμή να το ξαναδιαβάσω αυτό) και την πολύ καλή νουβέλα "Ο κρυφός συνταξιδιώτης" που διάβασα φέτος τον Ιανουάριο, και δηλώνω ξανά ικανοποιημένος, τόσο από την ιστορία αυτή καθαυτή, όσο κυρίως από τη γραφή, τα κοινωνικοπολιτικά μηνύματα και τα αλληγορικά στοιχεία. Είναι ένα διήγημα που γράφτηκε λίγα χρόνια πριν το (κατά τη γνώμη μου) αριστουργηματικό "Η καρδιά του σκότους", και αποτελεί κάτι σαν προπομπός για το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο. Η όλη ιστορία διαδραματίζεται σε έναν απομονωμένο εμπορικό σταθμό στην καρδιά της Αφρικής (μάλλον στο Κονγκό) και πρωταγωνιστούν δυο Λευκοί Βέλγοι, γενικά μέτριοι και μάλλον παρατημένοι από την εταιρεία τους, που είναι εκεί για το εμπόριο και την κατά κάποιο τρόπο μετάδοση των πολιτισμικών αγαθών της Δύσης στους ιθαγενείς. Όμως το άγριο φυσικό τοπίο, η απομόνωση και ουσιαστικά η μοναξιά, τους φθείρει, με την κατάληξη να είναι μάλλον τραγική. Είναι ένα διήγημα που έχει κάποια σημαντικά πραγματάκια να πει για την αποικιοκρατία, τις αξίες του Δυτικού πολιτισμού, την κάθε είδους εκμετάλλευση των αδυνάτων, και πάει λέγοντας. Η γραφή είναι πάρα πολύ καλή, οξυδερκής και με βάθος σε νοήματα και εικόνες.
January 1, 2017
Relato interesante y muy bien llevado, enmarcado dentro del mundo de "El corazón de las tinieblas" Al ser una historia breve (no más de cincuenta páginas) no hay mucho por contar sobre la trama que no revele parte del contenido fundamental de la misma. Lo que si puedo decirles es que aquí se encuentra el mismo sentimiento de opresión, de desolación e injusticia que me abordaron a leer la obra maestra de Conrad.
En pocas palabras se describe la degradación del hombre, la desintegración del ser "civilizado" hasta dejar solo los peores residuos de esa humanidad, los desechos corrompidos de la naturaleza que al mimetizarse con el ambiente salvaje se fusionan para sacar el peor costado del hombre. Aquí las peores acciones no son las de los nativos sino las del hombre culto que pretende llevar "el progreso" (y aquí uno se pregunta qué es el progreso) a las poblaciones africanas y con ello las falencias, los vicios, los sentimientos y los deseos consumistas de la civilización capitalista.
Me agradó mucho el juego de evolución de los personajes y el final donde el circulo parece cerrarse con una maestría sin igual.
En pocas palabras se describe la degradación del hombre, la desintegración del ser "civilizado" hasta dejar solo los peores residuos de esa humanidad, los desechos corrompidos de la naturaleza que al mimetizarse con el ambiente salvaje se fusionan para sacar el peor costado del hombre. Aquí las peores acciones no son las de los nativos sino las del hombre culto que pretende llevar "el progreso" (y aquí uno se pregunta qué es el progreso) a las poblaciones africanas y con ello las falencias, los vicios, los sentimientos y los deseos consumistas de la civilización capitalista.
Me agradó mucho el juego de evolución de los personajes y el final donde el circulo parece cerrarse con una maestría sin igual.
June 28, 2020
Como el año pasado con El corazón de las tinieblas, disfruté mucho la escritura de Conrad, la elegancia del tono narrativo y la manera sucinta de generar un ambiente opresor en el que los personajes están imbuidos sin siquiera darse cuenta. (No a tiempo, al menos, encerrados como están en su idea de civilización, como una estructura que los acompaña y protege perpetuamente). Y, sin embargo, como en la novela, me quedé con la impresión de que tengo que releer para terminar de entender capas de significado que en una primera lectura se me escapan.
August 15, 2020
Such a fine short novel, a story of African isolation in a trading post, just two white men of no skills nor abilities, with an inability to cope with the remote outpost conditions and natives leading to tragedy. Ivory is central to this tale, for it is by far the major valuable commodity which draws the absentee company owner to try to do business in this desolate outpost, hiring and placing there to unprepared incompetents to handle the good native operator, drawing thieves and other "bad men" to this outpost - with dire dreadful consequences.
This is a simple dramatic story of two European city men of no abilities, hired to go into the Congo in search of profits, who become responsible for a trading post, and, without due training, they must get in touch with and employ indigenous people of the place. The previous manager died of the severe outpost conditions, and these two replacements face their fears and doubts which the disease and loneliness created day by day in their minds. Left alone, the two men go through this - IN CONRAD'S WORDS:-
"The two men watched the steamer round the bend, then, ascending arm in arm the slope of the bank, returned to the station. They had been in this vast and dark country only a very short time, and as yet always in the midst of other white men, under the eye and guidance of their superiors. And now, dull as they were to the subtle influences of surroundings, they felt themselves very much alone, when suddenly left unassisted to face the wilderness; a wilderness rendered more strange, more incomprehensible by the mysterious glimpses of the vigorous life it contained. They were two perfectly insignificant and incapable individuals, whose existence is only rendered possible through the high organization of civilized crowds. Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings. The courage, the composure, the confidence; the emotions and principles; every great and every insignificant thought belongs not to the individual but to the crowd: to the crowd that believes blindly in the irresistible force of its institutions and of its morals, in the power of its police and of its opinion. But the contact with pure unmitigated savagery, with primitive nature and primitive man, brings sudden and profound trouble into the heart. To the sentiment of being alone of one’s kind, to the clear perception of the loneliness of one’s thoughts, of one’s sensations—to the negation of the habitual, which is safe, there is added the affirmation of the unusual, which is dangerous; a suggestion of things vague, uncontrollable, and repulsive, whose discomposing intrusion excites the imagination and tries the civilized nerves of the foolish and the wise alike."
The language portrays the mental deterioration of the post manager Kayerts, and it shows Conrad's skill with feelings and his superior handling of the English language. The two men left for months to manage he outpost station had no ability to mange it. A distant tribe bought the ten dumb station assistants to leave with them, and the station went into decline. Then other threatening tribes came, left large cache of ivory. The two men were scared, distrusted each other, one wanted the remaining sugar for his coffee, the other kept it for sickness, one threatened the other for sugar, one took his pistol, a shot was fired, one died by their bedrooms and other wended it at the grave of the previous manager of the outpost of progress. thus did it stand when the director's steamship came with periodic supplies and t collect the valued ivory.
This short tale can be seen as the prototype two years later for Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness."
This is a simple dramatic story of two European city men of no abilities, hired to go into the Congo in search of profits, who become responsible for a trading post, and, without due training, they must get in touch with and employ indigenous people of the place. The previous manager died of the severe outpost conditions, and these two replacements face their fears and doubts which the disease and loneliness created day by day in their minds. Left alone, the two men go through this - IN CONRAD'S WORDS:-
"The two men watched the steamer round the bend, then, ascending arm in arm the slope of the bank, returned to the station. They had been in this vast and dark country only a very short time, and as yet always in the midst of other white men, under the eye and guidance of their superiors. And now, dull as they were to the subtle influences of surroundings, they felt themselves very much alone, when suddenly left unassisted to face the wilderness; a wilderness rendered more strange, more incomprehensible by the mysterious glimpses of the vigorous life it contained. They were two perfectly insignificant and incapable individuals, whose existence is only rendered possible through the high organization of civilized crowds. Few men realize that their life, the very essence of their character, their capabilities and their audacities, are only the expression of their belief in the safety of their surroundings. The courage, the composure, the confidence; the emotions and principles; every great and every insignificant thought belongs not to the individual but to the crowd: to the crowd that believes blindly in the irresistible force of its institutions and of its morals, in the power of its police and of its opinion. But the contact with pure unmitigated savagery, with primitive nature and primitive man, brings sudden and profound trouble into the heart. To the sentiment of being alone of one’s kind, to the clear perception of the loneliness of one’s thoughts, of one’s sensations—to the negation of the habitual, which is safe, there is added the affirmation of the unusual, which is dangerous; a suggestion of things vague, uncontrollable, and repulsive, whose discomposing intrusion excites the imagination and tries the civilized nerves of the foolish and the wise alike."
The language portrays the mental deterioration of the post manager Kayerts, and it shows Conrad's skill with feelings and his superior handling of the English language. The two men left for months to manage he outpost station had no ability to mange it. A distant tribe bought the ten dumb station assistants to leave with them, and the station went into decline. Then other threatening tribes came, left large cache of ivory. The two men were scared, distrusted each other, one wanted the remaining sugar for his coffee, the other kept it for sickness, one threatened the other for sugar, one took his pistol, a shot was fired, one died by their bedrooms and other wended it at the grave of the previous manager of the outpost of progress. thus did it stand when the director's steamship came with periodic supplies and t collect the valued ivory.
This short tale can be seen as the prototype two years later for Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2015
"He reveled in his new wisdom while he sat by the man he had killed." Phenomenal writing.
July 5, 2020
This book introduces to an Outpost in the colonial period of Africa and people who live there. Slowly paced the book feels light at start. But don't be judgemental. If you patiently wait till the end there is something you wouldn't have expected. Since this book is small I would recommend it to anyone who I want to give the knock off reality.
June 21, 2024
Karanlığın yüreğindeki hikayeye benzer bir hikaye. Vahşi doğanın içine kurulan bir karakolda yerlileri "modernleştirmek" tabiri caizse ehlileştirmek için göreve başlayan beyazların vahşileşmesi hikayesi.
March 6, 2023
Παρά πολύ καλό
May 30, 2020
Este relato trata de cuestionarnos qué es la civilización y lo civilizado, y hasta dónde el hombre "civilizado” es capaz de llegar por sus superiores y eso llamado progreso.
Pero lo que más me gustó el libro fue la evolución de los protagonistas, que conocen la soledad y se desconocen en el salvajismo. Me recordó un poco a The Lighthouse, la película.
Pero lo que más me gustó el libro fue la evolución de los protagonistas, que conocen la soledad y se desconocen en el salvajismo. Me recordó un poco a The Lighthouse, la película.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2023
Conrad considered it his best tale, and I can see why. This short story of two white men posted in a remote trading station in Congo perfectly illustrates what kept Conrad - after his confrontation with the brutalities of colonialism - preoccupied for the rest of his life: the horror of how people who are left to their own devices lose their innocence and integrity, and slowly become agents of corruption, cruelty and madness.
March 20, 2017
This is a powerful piece, containing lots to think about. It is rich with insight into the human condition, darkly brooding, and it has such black humour that the tragic ending made me laugh out loud! It often comes packaged with ‘Heart of Darkness,’ to which it is in some ways similar, in other ways different.
August 14, 2023
AN OUTPOST OF PROGRESS-JOSEPH CONRAD
✒️"the director touched his cap to the two agents, who stood on the bank waving their hats, and turning to an old servant of the Company on his passage to headquarters, said, "Look at those two imbeciles. They must be mad at home to send me such specimens. I told those fellows to plant a vegetable garden, build new storehouses and fences, and construct a landing-stage. I bet nothing will be done! They won't know how to begin. I always thought the station on this river useless, and they just fit the station!"
✒️"but fear remained. Fear always remains. A man may destroy everything within himself, love and hate and belief, and even doubt; but as long as he clings to life he cannot destroy fear: the fear, subtle, indestructible, and terrible, that pervades his being; that tinges his thoughts; that lurks in his heart; that watches on his lips the struggle of his last breath."
✒️"Kayerts stood still. He looked upwards; the fog rolled low over his head. He looked round like a man who has lost his way; and he saw a dark smudge, a cross-shaped stain, upon the shifting purity of the mist."
🐘Ova pripovetka je Srce Tame u malom,mala samo po obimu. Ako vam se svideo Heart of Darkness,preporučujem,jer ista je tema i isto maestralno obrađena.
🐘Imamo dva lika koje je Kompanija poslala da naprave stanicu za trgovanje slonovačom.
🐘Život u Africi za ljude koji ne znaju ni ekser da zakucaju nije nimalo lak.
🐘Tu je i urođenik Makola koji je posrednik između "civilizovanih" i "divljaka", jako zanimljiv lik.
🐘A onda stvari krenu od zlog nagore,od nesnalažljivosti do očaja.Sitnica je dovoljna da dvojica ljudi,usamljenih i beznadežnih,puknu.
#7sensesofabook #bookstagram #knjige #readingaddict #literature
✒️"the director touched his cap to the two agents, who stood on the bank waving their hats, and turning to an old servant of the Company on his passage to headquarters, said, "Look at those two imbeciles. They must be mad at home to send me such specimens. I told those fellows to plant a vegetable garden, build new storehouses and fences, and construct a landing-stage. I bet nothing will be done! They won't know how to begin. I always thought the station on this river useless, and they just fit the station!"
✒️"but fear remained. Fear always remains. A man may destroy everything within himself, love and hate and belief, and even doubt; but as long as he clings to life he cannot destroy fear: the fear, subtle, indestructible, and terrible, that pervades his being; that tinges his thoughts; that lurks in his heart; that watches on his lips the struggle of his last breath."
✒️"Kayerts stood still. He looked upwards; the fog rolled low over his head. He looked round like a man who has lost his way; and he saw a dark smudge, a cross-shaped stain, upon the shifting purity of the mist."
🐘Ova pripovetka je Srce Tame u malom,mala samo po obimu. Ako vam se svideo Heart of Darkness,preporučujem,jer ista je tema i isto maestralno obrađena.
🐘Imamo dva lika koje je Kompanija poslala da naprave stanicu za trgovanje slonovačom.
🐘Život u Africi za ljude koji ne znaju ni ekser da zakucaju nije nimalo lak.
🐘Tu je i urođenik Makola koji je posrednik između "civilizovanih" i "divljaka", jako zanimljiv lik.
🐘A onda stvari krenu od zlog nagore,od nesnalažljivosti do očaja.Sitnica je dovoljna da dvojica ljudi,usamljenih i beznadežnih,puknu.
#7sensesofabook #bookstagram #knjige #readingaddict #literature
August 8, 2022
não sei inglês
March 4, 2010
An Outpost of Progress is a beautifully crafted short story with a misleading title. The twenty odd pages by Joseph Conrad look closely at two Englishmen employed to work at a remote trading station in Africa, along with ten Africans from a distant region and one local. In the six months between the steamer bringing the new Englishmen and its return, almost everything goes wrong that can to the twelve men dropped in a strange land with no guidance or proper resources.
The title implies a grand theme about the industrialization or otherwise of Africa, but the real focus is on the two very ordinary Englishmen. This was back when Western Europe routinely dealt with men “surplus to requirements” by sending, sentencing or persuading them to leave Europe. One of the men in this story is a discharged solider unable to get a civilian job; the other is a company clerk, whose wages are inadequate to pay for his daughter’s marriage. Without his help, her options would have been dismal.
The title implies a grand theme about the industrialization or otherwise of Africa, but the real focus is on the two very ordinary Englishmen. This was back when Western Europe routinely dealt with men “surplus to requirements” by sending, sentencing or persuading them to leave Europe. One of the men in this story is a discharged solider unable to get a civilian job; the other is a company clerk, whose wages are inadequate to pay for his daughter’s marriage. Without his help, her options would have been dismal.
Society, not from any tenderness, but because of its strange needs, had taken care of those two men, forbidding them all independent thought, all initiative, all departure from routine; and forbidding it under pain of death. They could only live on condition of being machines.The ten Africans, having signed a contract with the trading company they clearly did not understand, fare little better than the Europeans. Conrad does not sentimentalise the situation. The African who survives, like the trading company, understands perfectly the relative values of trading goods and unproductive employees. This is no fairy tale with a happy ending.
August 6, 2016
Even though it is much shorter than Heart of Darkness Conrad manages to convey the horror and insanity of colonialism and imperial ambition as vividly as in his famous novel. The shorter text is more easily read, since the challenging topic and demanding language in which both are written are frankly exhausting.
September 30, 2021
Ya se había ido la mala gente, pero aún quedaba el miedo. Siempre queda el miedo. Puede uno erradicar cuanto hay en su fuero interno: el amor y el odio y la fe, y hasta la duda; pero mientras se apegue a la vida le es imposible erradicar el miedo: el miedo, sutil, indestructible y atroz, que invade su ser, que impregna sus ideas, que ronda su corazón, que presencia en sus labios el forcejear de su último aliento.
October 6, 2014
This is the first Conrad I have read - a short novella which seems to be quite related to "Heart of Darkness" and also drawn on the author's experience in Congo. It is very readable and shows Conrad's ironical stand to colonialism, while apparently suggesting that the writer did not think much of the Africans, either.
September 26, 2023
Is Conrad's narrator racist or not?
November 2, 2021
Due schizzi del mondo coloniale spesso descritto da Conrad nelle opere maggiori. “Un avamposto del progresso” immagina la vita di due occidentali in una stazione commerciale sperduta nella Malesia: di fatto ricostruisce i presupposti di un fatto di sangue realmente accaduto, partendo da elementi fortemente radicati nella realtà. “La laguna” inserisce un apologo su amore e morte in una descrizione paesaggistica.
March 15, 2025
Krótka, ale wartościowa. Bardzo dobrze zarysowane postaci głównych bohaterów, a raczej antybohaterów. Nie są karykaturalne, przez to dobrze obrazują głupotę i hipokryzję, spotykaną u wielu do tej pory, jeśli chodzi o rasizm.
September 26, 2018
Этот рассказ Конрад считал своим лучшим. Если этот хороший, какие тогда худшие?..
Даже Heart of Darkness расхотелось читать.
Даже Heart of Darkness расхотелось читать.
February 22, 2025
He is just not my thing
June 18, 2025
I really don't like this man guys… (not) sorry
May 17, 2020
Corto e interesante relato, con el título ironico de una avanzada del progreso. Lo encuentro más que nada una crítica al mal llamado progreso a su frustrante introducción en otras culturas.
June 4, 2022
I heard of this short story through John Gray’s The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths and it suits his philosophy down to a tee. He loves Conrad and it’s easy to see why as this prelude to Heart of Darkness again reminds us that civilisation has so thin a crust.
Even the title is taking a sarcastic sideswipe at the colonial ambitions of enlightenment and progress. None of the above is to be found as primitive superstition clashes with African slave traders, clueless Europeans who are fishes out of water and ultimately greed. The elephant tusks pile up all the while as a global commodity and there are no good guys to be found here in Darkest Africa.
‘Society, not from any tenderness but because of its strange needs, had taken care of those two men, forbidding them all independent thought, all initiative, all departure from routine; and forbidding it under pain of death. They could live only on condition of being machines.’
Even the title is taking a sarcastic sideswipe at the colonial ambitions of enlightenment and progress. None of the above is to be found as primitive superstition clashes with African slave traders, clueless Europeans who are fishes out of water and ultimately greed. The elephant tusks pile up all the while as a global commodity and there are no good guys to be found here in Darkest Africa.
‘Society, not from any tenderness but because of its strange needs, had taken care of those two men, forbidding them all independent thought, all initiative, all departure from routine; and forbidding it under pain of death. They could live only on condition of being machines.’
August 17, 2022
não entendi nada.
EDIT: entendi sim. interessante.
EDIT: entendi sim. interessante.
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