So the reader is left to grapple alone, with the world created, with the nature and the quality of the speaker and ofcourse with its ultimate meaning. This narrative stance approach then not only creates an immediacy of effect but an intensification of the illusion of reality. And more than that it creates the impression that any given story was somehow telling itself and simultaneously guiding and and controlling the reader's response by restricting the narrator's knowledge so that the reader is never privy to what is beyond him. In theory, Conrad's strategy is to isolate and freeze his material for our scrutiny : To snatch in a moment of courage , from the remorseless rush of time, a passing phase of life, is only the beginning of the task. The task approached in tenderness and faith is to hold up unquestionably without choice and without fear, the rescued fragments before all eyes in the light of a sincere mood. In practice, however, Conrad draws assorted details in the context of a narrative line, which like a good movie editor he controls in terms of sequence, duration and tempo. The result is often to establish lines of movement within an overall composition. He did not pull for the narrow strand where he had landed with Decoud and afterwards alone on his first visit to the treasure.. He made for the beach at the other end and walked up the regular and gentle slope of the wedge-shaped island.Giorgio Viola whom he saw from afar, sitting on a bench under the far wall of the cottage lifted his arm slightly to his loud hail. He walked up. ' It's good here; said the old man, in his austere far-away manner. Nostromo nodded, then after a short silence 'You saw my schooner pass in not two hours ago? Do you know why I am here before , so to speak, my anchor has bitten into the ground of this post of Sulaco ?...I have come to ask you for...A sudden dread came upon the fearless and incorruptible Nostromo. He dared not utter the name in his mind..."For my wife...His heart was beating fast...He(Giorgio) got up slowly. His beard unclipped since Teresa's death, thick snow-white covered his powerful chest. He turned his head to the door and called out in his strong voice: Linda. Her answer came sharp and faint from within; and the appalled Nostromo stood up too, but remained mute gazing at the door He was afraid. he was not afraid of being refused the girl he loved...He was afraid of being forbidden the island. He was afraid and said nothing ...(p 438) So here we see Conrad, creating movement effectively through the ordering of a succession of pictures - the mute Nostromo, the austere Giorgio with his unclipped beard, the sharp Linda. These images take us back to Teresa's death to the imminent corruption of Nostromo and forward to the death-vice of corruption which entangles Nostromo in its San Tome curse .
Part of the Dream Weave Walk 1999-2010