Navigating the Darkness

It's easy to get the plot of the book, a seaman named Marlow is telling of his travels through Africa. But for the life of me, as much as I read the book, I couldn't understand the allure of the book. This is when I decided to jump into the reviews and discussions a little earlier than I anticipated, and this is the moment I began connecting Marlow's strange journey to my strange journey in this unexplored area of the internet.

Connecting to other people through a book started out as an intimidating prospect. And on the flip side, connecting to the book through other people seemed even near impossible.

So when we were told to read the book "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad and use it to connect to others on the Amazon, Kindle, and Goodreads platform, I was about ready to have a heart attack.
Reading has always been a highly personal endeavor for me. Many times, I wouldn't even discuss something I read with someone like my mom. The book had become too personal, the characters were mine, and it was as though the author had become a dear personal friend. And in my mind, if I talked to someone else about these things, they would lose their value to me.

However, once I decided to overcome this and really take this assignment seriously, I was surprised to find that these other people whom I've never even met helped to drastically change the way I was connecting with the book as well as finding a new way to think about what it was I was reading at the time.

Suddenly the characters in the book were taking on new life. Other's opinions of the themes of the book made me begin to think about what was really being said behind the words, and the appreciation that this community had for this piece of literature made me even more curious as to what Marlow would do or say next. On the Kindle itself I was able to look at the most popularly highlighted quotes, many of which I would have never thought to deem important. But seeing the importance of these quotes to others created a wonder as to why they were important, and what made them so important to such a vast amount of people.

My mind started to wander, looking for new themes, or wondering what would have changed if maybe Conrad had changed even one little character trait in the mysterious Marlow, or made him take a different path. And the funny thing is, others had these same views! The views people were sharing was saying so much about them individually, until I felt as though I came to become friends with not only the author, but also the people who felt so strongly about his work as well. It was almost like finding a mutual friend that brought us together.

"They were men enough to face the darkness." -Marlow

Thanks, Marlow, I am man enough to face this darkness that is the internet.