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"Does Technology have a Heart??"

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"THE NATION OF THE SKULL."

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Heart of Darkness is an extremely subtle and complex work of shadowy people, shadowy, empty landscapes, shadowy, primitive savages all placed upon the canvas of the very beginnings of applied technological and scientific advancement and the branching out of the holder's of the torch of technological advancement, the imperialistic British-Christian conquesting empire. I directly plan to attempt to prove that Conrad approved of the betterment of society by science and admired science and technology, but was hinting that the kind of conduct represented by Kurtz, which, if into it's hands science and technology were to be placed, would brook no restraint and there would be no one to restrain science and technology's misuse by either the civilized or the savage. In presenting my argument I will quote what I find to be Conrad's Chapter 2 summary of what he is really trying to give the reader. First Marlow's {Conrad's} assessment of the unearthly savage and his "improved specimen." Then I will point out the following paragraph with his "extraordinary find" a book on the science of navigation written with a "singleness of intention" and an "honest concern for the right way of going to work." Conrad then summarizes Marlow's negative assessment of Kurtz and his savage conquest of the very morality he supposedly defended. And finally Marlow's hints at the assessment of the owner of the scientific volume on navigation, who admires Kurtz, which ends Chapter 2 and brings us into an understanding of the meaning of "Heart of Darkness" as applied to the negative use of science, the human admirations and savage ones intermingled in humans, and the savage acts of power that bring the doltish but savage admirations out either because of admiration of the savagery conquested by the savage acts or the wealth ill-gotten by them.

At the beginning of Chapter 2's book-summarizing exposition, Marlow is describing the "unearthly" world of the African savage "monstrous and free" and then describing his "improved" savage "specimen," improved, of course, because of his new found knowledge of science and technology.

Here Conrad is using Marlow to describe the two opposing possibilities for the savages. Either leave them alone with their harmless savagery or improve them by educating them on the latest advances in science. But in the middle of the paragraph he announces that he {or we} had to get the tin-pot {applied technology or the advancement and enlightenment of the world} along "by hook or by crook" and that there was only a "surface truth" to those things to save a wiser man from the beguiling savagery of the whole primitive reality the white Christians faced when attempting to conquest and educate the primitive wilds or "surface truth" to save a wiser man from even attempting it. There is a dualistic interpretation for the "surface truth" either to completely give up the scientific conquest of savage peoples or to do it ethically and point out the human flaws which get in the way of doing it ethically which Conrad is truly and frighteningly doing here. Note that even Marlow's "finer sentiments" are subordinated by the wicked thrill and power of savagery.

The 2nd chapter moves on into the next paragraph where science {in the hands of an educated white person} is discovered in the jungle.

Here Conrad brings up the issue of science, the marvels of mysterious cipher, and all this discovered out in the middle of a jungled nowhere! He is introducing us to the false and dangerous over-enthusiasm with science or even mysterious things and is preparing us for the entrance of the cultured owner of this book of science and the mystical Kurtz to make his main and major point concerning science and the dissemination of it in a free form in savage lands whether to educated men or to the savages themselves.

Marlow or Conrad begins by one fixed desire. He looks forward to "--a talk with Kurtz." Then he totally does a one-eighty and wishes to inter Kurtz for being untrue to a woman who he had intended to marry and had left back in Europe waiting for him. Kurtz was not planning to go back to her. Then Conrad makes an overt display of what he thinks of people who speak in the possessive first person singular as Kurtz does. Here there were no restraints on what Kurtz owned or possessed in his own mind. Conrad thought it was so obviously hilariously funny that the heavens would shake in a "peal of laughter." And finally, as long as we're taking good care of Kurtz, Conrad, through Marlow, describes another individual, a savage, who "had no restraint--just like Kurtz--a tree swayed by the wind."

This prepares for the final dispensation of the idea of science into the hands of a young Russian lad who admires, yet fawns away from Kurtz and Kurtz' savage doings and duties because of the utter savagery of them and the lack of improvement in the natives themselves.

This final portrayal in Chapter 2 is the giving back to a bright-natured, enthusiastic blue-eyed young Russian boy his science of navigation book with the Russian cipher characters in it. The boy studying books almost like a college lad is exuberant over getting his science book back, worried about accidents and angering people, keeping the native people off of him and his books, and devoting himself to Kurtz, the man who enlarged his mind, like a youthful enthusiastic Diva thoroughly impressed with Kurtz' entire conquest of the savage African Congo. Marlow later discovers that Kurtz has gained his notoriety with the natives by becoming almost a Voo Doo death god with the heads of rebels upon pikes surrounding and facing his hut. And this is how he extracted ivory from the natives in such great quantities. Science in the hands of this boy, in the hands of Kurtz, has become a savage game of roulette with severed human heads rolling around the roulette wheel. The boy admires Kurtz and his gruesome power over the savages. If this doesn't frighten you, it did me. It frightens me because of how easily impressed savage people, this educated boy, and even the people in competition with Kurtz can be with the inglorious glory and all the macabre fanfare the doings of this man were. It brings to mind the parading of gigantic nuclear missles in the streets of Moscow in celebration of their military, technological, and scientific power, one of those missles which could evaporate a 200-500 mile area in 10 seconds; the United States threatening to not negotiate and bomb the women & children of Iraq; or even the super-sexual, super-powerful parading of Godly or Satanic rock, rap, punk, etc. musics of the modern world produced mainly to seduce women. Heads on pikes in our very day and age.

And, yet, we have drawn the Russians into a peacable compatible state and Conrad hadn't lost sight of what the choice between bringing along science or leaving everything savage entailed. On page two of this paper I quote Conrad, through Marlow. Marlow has a choice between going ashore 'for a howl and a dance' but refrains. 'Fine sentiments be hanged!' Conrad, through Marlow, had to take care of the technology of running the steamer, steering her, 'circumventing those snags,' and getting 'the tin-pot along by hook or by crook.' The 'surface truth' of these procedures was enough to save him or even a 'wiser man.'

As far as bringing science and technology into the jungle or any savage realm, Conrad, through Marlow, thought that 'honest concern for the right way of going to work' and the procedures carried out properly were enough to save a wiser man. Talking of the savage who 'knew how to fire up a vertical boiler,' he feels that a 'few months of training had done for that really fine chap...{1st paragraph on page 69-70}'

With Conrad, you never really know whether he is making a serious statement or not, but that is because he is trying to develop in his readers the proper skepticism towards everything and a truly proper suspicion of people who do not employ an 'honest concern for the right way of going to work' on anything in life. Conrad truly knew the merits and purity of science, but also understood the frightening dangers if science is left in the wrong hands. He understood that there was proper use of science; the rest were just unthinking violent absolutists or people who worshiped them. They are absolutists too.