黑暗的心查看源代码讨论查看历史
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内容简介
《黑暗的心》是康拉德以其1890年刚果之行为基础写的中篇小说，是本世纪*深刻有力的小说之一，被誉为英国文学史上首部真正意义上的现代主义小说，在这部作品中作者对人类文明以及人性这一主题作了深刻的思考。
作者简介
约瑟夫•康拉德（1857-1924），英国作家，1857年生于波兰，有二十余年的海上生涯，曾航行世界各地，积累了丰富的海上生活经验。康拉德最擅长写海洋冒险小说，有“海洋小说大师”之称。1886年加入英国籍。一共写了13部长篇小说、28篇短篇小说和2篇回忆录，代表作有《水仙号上的黑水手》《吉姆爷》《诺斯特罗莫》《间谍》《黑暗的心》（后来被改编成电影《现代启示录》）等。
原文摘录
“The earth seemed unearthly. We are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there—there you could look at a thing monstrous and free. It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote f... ”[...]我觉得我似乎在给你们描述一个梦——白费力气，因为不管我怎样叙述，都不可能表达出这个梦的感觉，那种荒谬、奇怪、困惑在一种挣扎反抗的颤抖中融成一体，那种认为梦的本质不可信的念头……“ 他沉默了一会儿。 “……不，这不可能；要想把人的一生中某个特定时期对生命的感觉——那构成生命的真实性、生命意义的东西——它那微妙儿又贯穿一切的本质，要想把这表达出来是不可能的，不可能。生活中的我们正如梦境中的我们一样都是孤独的……”
书评
Heart of Darkness]是第一人称叙事，很口语化。一个海员到非洲刚果一个贸易公司去做跑船，带领一群人开着破船去河流的上游找一个神奇的同事，一个非常有能力的连土著人都佩服他的 kurtz 先生。他们费劲力气找到先生后却发现他完全不是想象中的样子，而是做了土著人的神，压根不想回公司把自己找到的很多象牙交出去，那位先生是个（天才）疯子。疯子先生病死了他们则返回了河口。所谓“黑暗之心”说的就是非洲黑暗的丛林和比丛林更黑暗的人心，无须赘述。而这本书和[Lord Jim]之所以那么出名，除了Lord Jim的写作手法和资本主义的殖民问题，最吸引人的地方当然还是其航海主题。[Heart of Darkness]比较不纯粹是航海，不过也穿插着各种对海的感想。
当年罗马士兵开船去英国，“ lose in wilderness..have been dying like flies.” 正如英国人两千年后开拓非洲大陆。 “going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine.” 同样的所谓 civilized man开拓蛮荒，有时沿着 a mighty big river, 迷失在丛林里死去。殖民者很可怜，混的好谁去追求危险的富贵呢。
“Land in a swamp, march through the woods, and in some inland post feel the savagery, the utter savagery, the utter savagery, had closed round him—all that mysterious life of the wilderness that stirs in the forest, in the jungles, in the hearts of wild men. He has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of the abomination—you know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate.”
全书笼罩着黑色不详的气氛。在这样的气氛中生活如噩梦般不真实却被迫相信着。“ we live, as we dream, alone”。书中的寻找 kurtz先生也失去了原先的意义， “I can’t forget him, though I am not prepared to affirm the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him.” Kurtz 先生找象牙好像也没啥实际意义，如果运不出去。
除了叙述者是中性人物，没有一个好人，包括丛林里的 kurtz先生。尽管他的天才并不讨厌。全书让我有兴趣的是两点，第一是丛林里的先生，为什么他是这样 ,这个问题涉及到非洲贸易公司各种可鄙的愚笨的人和天才先生的反差，尽管所有人都有着黑暗的心；第二是（康拉德被人批评的）所谓对黑人或黑奴的歧视（ “While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands and knees, and went off on all fours towards the river to drink.” “well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman.” ),如果不那么描述的话，怎么表述 --如何对待落后民族。第二个问题涉及到殖民的所谓工作是赚钱 (“to make money, of course. What do you think?” he said, scornfully.”“the only real feeling was a desire to get appointed to a trading-post where ivory was to be had, so that they could earn percentages) 还是开化落后民族 .
康拉德把刚果丛林描述为黑暗的(魔法)森林，住着人一样的原始生物。和童话中擅闯此地的人一样，殖民者利欲熏心而猥琐胆小，唯一两个例外是 kurtz先生和叙述者，一个利欲熏心却精神强大的驯服了土著并且让他们具备了“攻击”的能力（所以他并不算是守财奴的堕落），叙述者也许不是故事中真实存在的人物，而是一只眼睛。整个故事真的很黑色童话。一个正直的骑士进入黑森林变堕落，或者干脆变成了魔王，用象牙诱惑贪婪的人类，当他们受尽折磨找来时他却死去了；或者说贪婪的人为了象牙进入森林却被下了咒语，堕落成财宝的奴隶了等等。
之所以觉得是童话是因为我尚无法接受他的疯狂仅仅是因为贪婪和为钱的不择手段。不如说是因为他在欧洲不得志而来处女地开疆扩土，却被愚蠢的贸易公司和陌生的丛林整垮了。但是这个答案听起来也不好。
对于 kurz, 书里是这么说的，“ All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz; and by and by I learned that, most appropriately, the international society for the suppression of savage customs had entrusted him with the making of a report for its future guidance. And he had written it, too…..but this must have been before his—let us say—nerves, went wrong. Kurtz 自己的攻略是， “the white must necessarily appear to them[savages] in the nature of supernatural beings—we approach them with the might as of a deity.” 他成功了。这么看他确实可以作为贪婪野心殖民者的极致，代表他们强力的一面，对比于其他殖民者的无力的一面。可是 “I went a little farther, then till a little farther, till I had gone so far that I don’t know how I’ll ever get back.” 不敢说这一定是对英国殖民 pointlessness的质疑，或者作者只是觉得人只会被环境改变，而不是相反。作者觉得这是一种悲哀或许，无论如何一群可怜人为了追求一些东西，伤害了自己和别人，最后也不是想要的结果。
除了kurtz先生，船上其他的人当然也拥有黑暗之心，不过平庸些罢了。 The banality of evil. 对这种 evil叙述者说了两点，第一是说谎“ you know I hate, detest, and can’t bear a lie. Not because I am straighter than the rest of us, but simply because it appals me. There is a taint of death, a flavour of mortality in lies—which is exactly I have and detest in the world—what I want to forget.” 说谎和死亡连在一起。第二点是人在困境中表达出的恶劣品质。 Lack of restraint from lingering starvation. “catch’im….eat’im!” “Say! We must have made a glorious slaughter of them in the bush, Eh? What do you think? Say?” 平凡人的屠杀并不建立在野心引起的恨上，甚至可以说野心本身是不导致恨的。平凡人因为害怕而恨，是自卫，但是自卫听起来很不霸气。
当然也可以说丛林就是一棵巨大的黑暗之心，炼狱，大怪兽，etc.哈哈哈
康拉德对土著的描写杜绝了很多读者同情的可能性，如果真的接受他的描写的话。与其说土著是一个文化或者社会，不如说他们是刚果丛林的生物，至少那个时代人的定义尚且争议，他们除了体型和最基本的思维别的也不大像人。和印第安土著不一样，（至少在书里）他们的心是空的，眼神也是空的，对陌生有本能的害怕，没有攻击性的弱小的不文明生物。 “the action was very far from being aggressive—it was not even defensive, in the usual sense; it was undertaken under the stress of desperation, and in its essence was purely protective.” 所谓他们的宗教也许在西方人的眼里简单的不成宗教，只是莫名其妙。可怕的是森林，却不是森林里的人。人并不是刚果森林的万物之灵而是之一。没有老虎可怕。他们的作用只是让人困惑他们到底是人不是。 “We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness. It was very quiet there. At night sometimes the roll of drums behind the curtain of trees would run up the river and remain sustained faintly, as if hovering in the air high over our heads, till the first break of day. ” “an irresistible impression of sorrow.”
虽然文化在不同的环境中会有不同的发展和局限，不可否认文化本身有强大弱小之别，不管是侵略性，连续性，还是统一性或者规模大小。而欧洲文化在任何一个方面都可以轻易的铲除非洲文化（至少在书里来说），如果是这样的话文明之间的歧视，文明人对不文明人的歧视，至少是有理由的。在充分了解非洲文化的价值前，奴役也很正常。从社会制度来说，就算欧洲人也会觉得自己三千年前的原始社会很低等，那么认为一个外族原始社会低等也不算歧视吧。欧洲人对殖民地确实是掠夺性的，和他们的文化一样，谈不上教化。不过如果连互相理解都不能也很难教化吧。这点非洲和美洲是有区别的。再者，就算现在全世界都承认非洲人的地位了，他们的生活比一百年前又好了多少？所以愿望和行为效果真的没啥直接关系。虽然社会达尔文主义听起来满残忍，但文化确实是互相侵吞的。是否可以这么说，一个人对待其他（低等）文化的态度取决于他自己的文化种类。当然什么文化称得上低等也是一个争议话题。不得不说现在这样的文化越来越少了。 [1]