It is Marlow " the only man who still followed the sea" who situates us in the "tinpot" on The Congo, cruising along the tropical forest of the "Dark Continent".It is from Marlow that we learn that the steamer is making its slow journey up the Congo river as it is calling on every "blamed port".It is by the very same character that we are provided with our first introduction to the tropical forest which is so "dark green ,that it is almost black" and also to the inhabitants of this strange land. Joseph Conrad , has used all his cinematic skills to make the transition from the omniscient narrator to the limited perspective of the human eye. It is Marlow ,the 'seaman' who takes us to the 'outer station' with its "objectless blasting" and its " deathlike indifference of unhappy savages" a slight clinking behind me made me turn my head: Six black men advanced in a file, toiling up the path they walked erect and slow, balancing small baskets full of earth on their heads and the clink kept time with their footsteps. Black rags were wound round their lions, and the short ends behind, waggled to and fro , like tails. I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs were like knots in a rope; each had an iron collar on his neck , and all were connected together with a chain, whose bights swung between them rhythmically clinking...(p. 22) Here, the cinematic narrator , juxtaposes the " blinding sunlight" and "the puff of smoke" with the " black shapes crouched" and "half-effaced within the dim light", bringing out in a detailed vignette the fate of the the blacks ,whose "sunken eyes looked up enormous and vacant" at the camera eye looking on.From the 'outer station' , Marlow takes the reader to the 'inner station', to Kurtz. To situate the reader at the 'inner station', Conrad uses what the cinematic experts call the 'establishing shot', which situates the audience at a certain point in space and time before launching into the plot. Towards the evening of the second day, we judged ourselves about 8 miles from Kurtz's station .
Part of the Dream Weave Walk 1999-2007