Connecting Through Common Misery

I love to read. But Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad was hard for me to get into. I’m the kind of person that likes to snuggle up on the couch and read for hours. When I tried to do that with this book, I knew immediately that I would fall asleep. I needed to find a way to read the book and actually be interested in it. And so, I decided to do something I had been planning to do for some time. I bought a gym membership. Reading while working out on the elliptical machine has always helped me focus and so I decided to try it out with Heart of Darkness. It worked! I was able to focus on the story and understand what was going on. I discovered a new love for the kindle as well. When you bring a hard copy of a book to the gym you have to hold it open on the treadmill or elliptical, but a kindle is small enough to be set on top of the machine so that you can read hands free.

Reading on an elliptical machine.
Link to: {http://karenrussell.typepad.com/my_lifejust_not_on_the_ro/2009/01/the-little-stuff.html}

Part of the assignment of reading Heart of Darkness was to look up reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. My favorite part of looking up reviews for Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad on Amazon was the titles of the reviews. It was a blast! I found that I empathized so well with the people that hated the book and I respected those that loved the book. Some of the critical review titles actually made me laugh out loud. For example, here are some of my favorites:

"Well, that was depressing."

"Colonial misery, misery, and more misery."

"Classic?"

"The horror and the hope."

The reviews on Goodreads were much the same, but I found one comment on a review particularly helpful. A woman named Charlene wrote –

"In an effort to class up the joint, I listened to this audio book performed by Kenneth Branagh.

I say performed, because it wasn't just a plain reading of the story. He added depth to the observations and took what I might have found to be a boring story and breathed life into it.

I enjoyed this quite a bit and would recommend this audio version to anyone interested in this classic tale."

In all my searching of different editions of Heart of Darkness, I hadn't found an audiobook. Charlene’s comment really made me want to listen to Heart of Darkness rather than read it. We’ve recently been discussing in class the differences in reading something and seeing it performed. Heart of Darkness could be an amazing performance.

Finding the reviews and comments about Heart of Darkness on Amazon and Goodreads helped me to connect with strangers. I could relate to their opinions and I could understand more about the story through their love of the book. Amazon and Goodreads can also lead to new discoveries – like finding out about an audiobook for Heart of Darkness.

From Reading to Comprehending

There are moments in childhood, like the skipping of a tape or CD, when the smooth soundtrack of playgrounds and pretend is interrupted by a shocking glimpse of life in the real, outside world.  To children, everyone is a potential playmate and the world is made for laughter until proven otherwise by an outside influence.  I had one of these experiences when I was about ten years old and read the book, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor, for the first time.

The story of a young girl, Cassie Logan, then about my age, was something that took me out of my own perspective and opened my eyes to history.  Cassie is a black child living in the midst of a racist South.  Society’s disgraceful mistreatment of her family and neighbors is told through the eyes of a little child, and I understood it as such.  I was shocked, along with Cassie, to discover that not everyone got to go to the same school or use the same books or eat the same food or have the same friends…and that sometimes, people had their houses set on fire just for being different.  I couldn’t figure out why, and that bothered me.  

So I read the book again.

And again.

Each time I read, I found myself comprehending better the motives and injustices of Cassie’s world.  I began to recognize the author making points about acceptance and the need to defend moral values, even when opposed by your supposed friends.  

The principles that I learned early on through Cassie’s struggles stuck with me more than I expected them to when I grew up.  I began to easily see those who were downtrodden and unaccepted by society, and though no houses were burning or midnight floggings were happening, ostracism, disdain, and belittlement were the punishment for those who were unfortunate enough to be different.  Each time I saw that, I think I subconsciously remembered Cassie’s wounds and understood how powerful the soothing balm of acceptance is.  Thanks to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, I gained my best friends because I knew to look for more than that which is easily seen and only, truly, skin-deep.

 

I love this book not because it gave me comfort or immediate joy, but because it gave me a comprehension of tolerance that matured as I did.  Through lines such as the following, from Cassie’s father, I learned that sins of the past should not be repeated by those, like me, with the power to erase them:

"Still," he said, "I want these children to know we tried, and what we can't do now, maybe one day they will."