Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity. Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear-or some kind of primitive honour? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patienceContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Hungry Cannibals (Joseph Conrad)”
Tag Archives: RKS literature
RKS Literature: Penetrating the Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there. At night sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if hovering in the air, high over our heads, till the first break of day. Whether this meantContinue reading “RKS Literature: Penetrating the Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS Literature: Fine Fellows These Cannibals (Joseph Conrad)
I don’t pretend to say that steamboat floated all the time. More than once she had to wade for a bit, with twenty cannibals splashing around and pushing. Fine fellows-these cannibals-in their place. They were men one could work with, and I am grateful to them. And, after all, they did not eat each otherContinue reading “RKS Literature: Fine Fellows These Cannibals (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS Literature: The Fascination of the Abomination (Joseph Conrad)
Or think of a decent young citizen in a toga-perhaps too much dice, you know-coming out here in the train of some prefect, or tax gatherer, or trader even, to mend his fortunes. Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, had closed aroundContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Fascination of the Abomination (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS Literature: Conquerors and Buccaneer Colonialism (Joseph Conrad)
This devoted band called itself the Eldorado Exploring Expedition, and I believe they were sworn to secrecy. Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they didContinue reading “RKS Literature: Conquerors and Buccaneer Colonialism (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS Literature: Conquerors, Colonists and Aggravated Murder on a Grand Scale (Joseph Conrad)
What saves us is efficiency-the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were conquerors, and for that you want brute force-nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accidentContinue reading “RKS Literature: Conquerors, Colonists and Aggravated Murder on a Grand Scale (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS British Literature: Jojo the Scottish Lady (John Fowles)
I saw a round cheeked face, no make-up. A fringe of brown hair pigtailed at the back, thick eyebrows, very dirty fingernails holding a fag-end. When the lights went on and we waited for the next feature she tried, with a really pitiable amateurishness to pick me up. She was dressed in jeans, a grubbyContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Jojo the Scottish Lady (John Fowles)”
RKS British Literature: London the City of Drab Dead (John Fowles)
If Rome, a city of vulgar living, had been depressing after Greece, London, a city of the drab dead, was fifty times worse. I had forgotten the innumerability of the place. Its ugliness. Its termite density after the sparsities of the Aegean. It was like mud after diamonds, dank undergrowth after sunlit marble; and asContinue reading “RKS British Literature: London the City of Drab Dead (John Fowles)”
RKS British Literature: The Nakedness and Humanity of Greece (John Fowles)
In my mind Greece lay weeks, not the real hours, behind. The sun shone as certainly, the people were far more elegant, the architecture and the art much richer, but it was as if the Italians, like their Roman ancestors, wore a great mask of luxury, a cosmetic of the over indulged senses, between theContinue reading “RKS British Literature: The Nakedness and Humanity of Greece (John Fowles)”
RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): “Emperor Bokassa murders 153 schoolchildren”
Emperor Bokassa murders 153 schoolchildren Nice little baby Come here little sweetheart Want a big kiss from mummy Little chicken tidbits for a delicate sweetie Daddy poo wants to take you for a walk No big doggie will molest our little baby And when you return home a cookie Oh you are such a wonderfulContinue reading “RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): “Emperor Bokassa murders 153 schoolchildren””
