“It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.”
“My task which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel — it is, before all, to make you see.”
The above quotes are from Lord Jim. Definitely worth the read.
Jim does something that he never imagined he was capable of. Something wretched. He always imagined himself a hero, but that bloated image of self was shattered in the blink of an eye.
Leaving everything and everyone behind, he sets off to put the pieces together…to forget who he was and find out who he can become.
The first Joseph Conrad book that I read had his biography in the preface. Very interesting! Basically, he writes from his experiences.
Orphaned at the age of 11. Struggling in school, struggling with chronic poor health, physical and mental. At the age of 13 he announced his intentions to become a sailor. 3 years later, he took to life at sea.
Attempted suicide at 20 years of age…a revolver to the chest.
Heart of Darkness ,Victory, Lord Jim, Point of Honor…the more I lean about Conrad, the better I his appreciate his stories…his struggles.
He faced some real challenges but that didn’t hold him back, didn’t get in the way of his dreams. He pressed on.
