Fictions of Empire

8/10

This is a concoction of works from a bunch of different authors covering a variety of themes. The main focus of the book centers around three short stories: 'Heart of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad, 'The Man Who Would Be King' by Rudyard Kipling, and 'The Beach of Falesa' by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The first half of the book is a bunch of different essay or story excerpts from various authors. Letters from different dudes are also included. Mostly some pretty bland stuff in my opinion. I'll just come out and say it...I'm not a big fan of excerpts. There, I said it. I have a hard time getting into stuff without having read the entire thing. So mostly I didn't really care too much about all these super brief and random chunks I was reading because I couldn't really invest myself into caring about it. I'm sure they were fairly insightful and even appropriate, but I was mostly just wanting to get to the short stories. And I guess I should clarify that they are actually novellas, short novels, rather than short stories.

The first story was awesome: 'The Man Who Would Be King'. It's about these two guys who randomly decide to go and become kings of these tribes out in the middle of nowhere. It's pretty awesome and entertaining. Also contains an exhilarating and crazy conclusion. This is the only Kipling story I've read but makes me want to read more of his stuff. A pretty cool movie with Sean Connery and Michael Caine of this story is worthwhile.

Second story is good: 'The Beach of Falesa'. I wasn't blown away with it. And to be honest, I don't really remember too much about it. I remember it didn't stink up the joint either though. A guy goes to an island and gets into some mischief and then I think other stuff happens. It seemed like mostly some sort of commentary on racial issues? Hmmmm, I'm too lazy to go review it to refresh my memory, so this will have to suffice. I need to read more of Stevenson's works though because he's supposed to be pretty sweet. This is his only story that I've read.

The last one was by far the best: 'Heart of Darkness'. If you haven't read this story then you should really consider it. It is insanely awesome in so many ways. It starts with this guy Marlow sitting around with some comrades and he decides to relate an experience of his. The rest is a narration from this Marlow character. This stylistic technique by Conrad is one of the main appeals of this story. Marlow tells of journeying in this boat up a river in the middle of Africa to go find some rogue Army-type guy named Kurtz. His experiences in the 'heart of darkness' amongst completely uncivilized savages is very entertaining. It is pure madness. Seriously. It is from this story which comes the famous line from Kurtz when he is finally found: "The horror! The horror!". (Seinfeld fans will recognize this reference.) This brief run-down isn't meant to do justice to this story. Everyone should experience the terrifying madness of 'Heart of Darkness'. I completely endorse and recommend this story to one and all. Just go in ready and prepared to experience a touch of insanity. An acclaimed movie called 'Apocalypse Now' is based on this story.

A quote from Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness':

"There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies."