necrobutcher
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Joseph Conrad, TS Eliot, Francis Ford Coppola and Rob Lind
This crossed my mind at work today.
In 1899 Joseph Conrad released Heart of Darkness. The story revolves around the duality of man and the ability of man to commit atrocities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness
26 years later TS Eliot writes his best known poem, "The Hollow Men." The poem is most often interpreted as dealing with the hopelessness of post
World War I Europe. It also touches on the Gunpowder Plot headed by Guy Fawkes. The final stanza is his most quoted piece:
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hollow_Men
In 1979 Francis Ford Coppola released Apocalypse Now. The story is a reworking of Heart of Darkness, changing out the Congo for Vietnam and a rogue
ivory trader with a power mad colonel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Now
If you are interested, here is a video of Marlon Brando on the set of Apocalypse Now reading the Hollow Men.
http://youtu.be/Bca5vSNyg0s
I know a lot of people on this board are fans of Blood For Blood and Ramallah and can see the influences here on his writing.
Apocalypse Now is one of my favorite movies and the Hollow Men is the only poem I like. I never put all these things together until recently. Any
thoughts?
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random
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It's late and I'm kinda hammered, but here's what I can add for now...
I've got a copy of Clavell's "King Rat" printed out, sitting on my floor, and waiting to be read. Apparently, it's a fictional account of his
experiences in a WWII POW camp in Japan. Do you remember the line from the BFB song "Redemption Denied" where Rob says, "I read somewhere that
'Without hope, man is but an animal'." I went searching for the line recently, and it seems like it's from Clavell's book. I looked him up on
Wikipedia, and it turns out he became a crazed Ayn Rand libertarian, which substantially lessens my desire to read King Rat.
Since I'm drunk and posting, I'll mention that I've been reading as a leisure activity much more recently. I read Camus' "The Stranger" a week or two
ago... kinda sucked, unless you look into Camus' philosophy in advance, which I didn't and still don't care about even after reading about his
philosophy (absurdism) even if I am sympathetic. Finally read Burgess' "Clockwork Orange" a few weeks ago... very similar to the film (credit to
Kubrick here), but the last - omitted - chapter changes the whole story.
Next things I'll probably read are finishing off William Dulaney's PhD dissertation about (non-1%er) outlaw MCs and Hunter Thompson's "Hells Angels
[...]."
If anyone has suggestions for other reading, I'd like to hear them, including Conrad and Kipling ("The Jungle Book"). The only other thing on deck is
Plath's "The Bell Jar," but no guarantee that I'll have the motivation to read it.
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necrobutcher
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Posts: 785
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Quote: Originally posted by random  | It's late and I'm kinda hammered, but here's what I can add for now...
I've got a copy of Clavell's "King Rat" printed out, sitting on my floor, and waiting to be read. Apparently, it's a fictional account of his
experiences in a WWII POW camp in Japan. Do you remember the line from the BFB song "Redemption Denied" where Rob says, "I read somewhere that
'Without hope, man is but an animal'." I went searching for the line recently, and it seems like it's from Clavell's book. I looked him up on
Wikipedia, and it turns out he became a crazed Ayn Rand libertarian, which substantially lessens my desire to read King Rat.
Since I'm drunk and posting, I'll mention that I've been reading as a leisure activity much more recently. I read Camus' "The Stranger" a week or two
ago... kinda sucked, unless you look into Camus' philosophy in advance, which I didn't and still don't care about even after reading about his
philosophy (absurdism) even if I am sympathetic. Finally read Burgess' "Clockwork Orange" a few weeks ago... very similar to the film (credit to
Kubrick here), but the last - omitted - chapter changes the whole story.
Next things I'll probably read are finishing off William Dulaney's PhD dissertation about (non-1%er) outlaw MCs and Hunter Thompson's "Hells Angels
[...]."
If anyone has suggestions for other reading, I'd like to hear them, including Conrad and Kipling ("The Jungle Book"). The only other thing on deck is
Plath's "The Bell Jar," but no guarantee that I'll have the motivation to read it. |
That's awesome, I never thought to look up the line from Redemption Denied. I need to find a copy of it. Hunter S. Thompson's Hell Angels is good but
I would follow it up with Sonny Barger's autobiography as he points out what he feels are Thompson's exaggerations.
If you go after Heart of Darkness, be ready for a thick read. The way he words his sentences makes them remarkably dense. I'm still chewing through
the book.
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random
Posting Freak
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I read Sonny's book a while back and really liked it. I've been on a bit of an MC kick for the last few months despite never having ridden a
motorcycle. I was looking for Zito's book and one by a guy who hang around some small Canadian outlaw MC for a while... I think it's Wolf's "The
Rebels," but that may be wrong. It was easier to get Thompson's book, so I did.
Heart of Darkness always seemed like Les Miserables... the kind of book everyone wishes they could read but don't have the patience to stick it out.
Only reason I stuck through The Stranger is that it was short, just like Clockwork Orange. Neither took more than a day, and I'm a really slow
reader.
If you are into MCs, Dulaney's dissertation is good (and can be found for free legitmately online).
Another book I've wanted to read recently is Kipling's "The Jungle Book." Seems to be very different than the movies we've all seen, and I'm
interested in the historical perspective on colonialism that is apparently prevalent throughout. Edit: Thought I mentioned this before but didn't
see it in my original post... seems that I was wrong and did mention it.
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