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This was a set book for my postgraduate teacher training year. But I had been destroyed as a reader of serious fiction after studying literature at university. So I never read Heart of Darkness until some 50 years later. It struck me that this was a novel about Kurtz the slave who was the master of other slaves, but who was himself betrayed by the true master. I think of the Aussie film Breaker Morant, which is about the Australian assassin Breaker Morant (1864-1902) who was executed for extra judicial killings during the Boer War. He was doing the dirty work of empire and paid a price. The Australian film about him Breaker Morant (1980) is worth a watch. Lyndie England of Abu Ghraib notoriety would be a more contemporary version of the same phenomenon. What strikes me is that these slaves who are masters of other slaves never complain about slavery. They only complain about the lack of gratitude of the master. So one can construct an anti-imperialism from *Heart of Darkness*, but I doubt if that was the book's intention. comradely Gary _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
