a tropical iceland

I knew I’d finally come full circle back to the Heart of Darkness. Anyway, after finishing Portrait of Jennie, I stopped at a couple of sections that reminded me of the the visual, and exterior motifs we as a class discussed after reading (and watching) The Glass Key. I’ll cut and paste 2 parts to compare these two:

“The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.” – Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (Paragraph 2)

“One must sometimes believe what one cannot understand. That is the method of the scientist as well as the mythic; faced with a universe which must be endless and infinite, he accepts it, although he cannot really imagine it. For there is no picture in our minds of infinity; somewhere, at the furthermost limits of thought, we never fail to plot its end. Yet–if there is no end? Or if, at the end, we are only back at the beginning again?” -Portrait of Jennie, Robert Nathan (page 60)

The first section paints a beautiful picture of the Thames River emptying out into the sea. Marlow, the main character of HOD, states plainly in the beginning of the novel of his intentions to never see past the image, or look to the interior for meaning. This is one of the basic arguments of the novel. If one was to look at something and dissect and “see beyond” it, we’d be searching for meaning or a higher truth. However, Marlow sees this as impossible; and yet we are lead to discuss imagery not only on a purely asthetic level—but at the general level of the picture itself. We see what Marlow sees, and that window allows us to paint pictures in our minds that give us all the knowledge we need to guide us through the book.

Now, what does that have to do with The Portrait of Jennie? Right. Ok. So, reading the 2nd section in comparison with the first (and the knowledge of how Marlow percieves things) the two gave me a sense of timelessness and infinity. Eben’s question: “If there is no end? Or if, at the end, we are only back at the beginning again?” Marlow’s beautiful picture is just a picture in a series in his life, if we don’t stop to examine it. Eben’s loss of time is accentuated with Jennie’s aging faster and faster, yet he says “there is no picture in our minds of infinity.” At this I’d say Conrad would easily fit his portrait of the Thames River bank. It’s a picture, and it is something anyone can understand and see in the sequence of their lives.

I hope the connection I made became more clear as I rambled. Perhaps I’ll re-read this madness in the morning and…well, re-do it.