CrimsonSnow !
I certainly must disagree with you - I cannot find anything in Conrad's work on the horrors of the slavetrade in the Belgian Congo, "Heart Of Darkness" that could be called beautiful ...
It's a profound matter of utterly differant tastes!
rskkiya
With each step back into the jungle is a step back in time.
"Emperor Dom Pedro- his long white beard and gold-rimmed glasses gave him the appearance of an old university professor- listened sympathetically to my description of the jungle.
"The Eurpoeans talk so often about the so-called youth of the South American countries, he said with great sadness in his voice. No one of them realizes that we are hopelessly old. We are older than the world. Nothing is left, or at least nothing has been discovered so far pertaining to the peoples who inhabited this continent thousands of centuries ago. There is just one thing that will always remain in South America: the spirit of restless hatred. It comes from the jungle. It preys on our minds."
Once a Grand Duke pg. 97
The jungle so wonderfully described by Conrad
"When the sun rose there was a white fog, very warm and clammy, and more blinding than the night. It did not shift or drive; it was just there, standing all round you like something solid. At eight or nine, perhaps, it lifted as a shutter lifts. We had a glimpse of the towering multitude of trees, of the immense matted jungle, with the blazing little ball of the sun hanging over it--all perfectly still--and then the white shutter came down again, smoothly, as if sliding in greased grooves. I ordered the chain, which we had begun to heave in, to be paid out again. Before it stopped running with a muffled rattle, a cry, a very loud cry, as of infinite desolation, soared slowly in the opaque air."
The Heart of Darkness
Kurtz was Europe's greed.
"Save me! Save the ivory...." - Kurtz
Kurtz'a death-
"I saw on that ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, or craven terror of an intense and hopeless despair. Did he live his life again in every detail of desire, temptation, and surrender during that supreme moment of complete knowledge."
Few can capture the human spirit like Conrad.
"You forget, dear Charlie, that the labourer is worthy of his hire,' she said, brightly. It's queer how out of touch with truth women are. They live in a world of their own, and there has never been anything like it, and never can be. It is too beautiful altogether, and if they were to set it up it would go to pieces before the first sunset. Some confounded fact we men have been living contentedly with ever since the day of creation would start up and knock the whole thing over."
Beauty can be brutal. Look at Prince Felix. He was once Europe's most eligible bachelor. Tall, handsome, and extremely witty.
Many have described him as being beautiful.
Though one horrible night long ago, this beautiful being butchered to death an other.
Beauty is like the jungle- it preys on the mind.
Just words.
Crimson