...the depths of the shadows fierce animals lurk sullenly. As Conrad said of a different continent, " It was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted and the big trees were kings." I think of it often now that the Netherland Indies are a mere pinpoint...

...return to the primeval in geographical and ethical time: 48 Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when...rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. . .We were wanderers on prehistoric earth, on an earth that wore the aspect of an unknown planet. ....

..."ichthyosaurus . . . taking a bath" (86); later he recalls that "going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when...rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings" (92-93). The primeval world which Marlow encounters is a very far cry from that of noble savages: "We...

...the detective novel, but a garden of decay, physical and moral. Conrad is very explicit about this. "Going up that river was like traveling back to the...empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. [But] the air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of the sunshine."...

...with the nonhuman ("empty stream, great silence, impenetrable forest"); and through direct metaphor ("When vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings"). It is a critical commonplace to speak of Marlow's journey as symbolic. But it is not easy to say what...

...prehistoric morning of time itself. . . . [etc.] Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness," Chapter 2, paragraph 4 Going up that river was like traveling back to the...rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings. . . . [etc.] Page 187 ay ay strangle your heart o israfel winged with loneliness Poe's "Israfel" In...

...Irigaray's terminology, as a passage to the maternal origin: "Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth. ... An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish"...

...repression. First Marlow describes the sense of irrepressible life: "Going up the river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when...rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings" (48). Next, the sense of the heterogeneity between this force and the habitual sense of reality constructed...

...steamed up the Congo, the dark aeonic time of an evil dream: Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when...forest. The air was warm, thick, heavy, sluggish. . . . And this stillness of life did not in the least resemble a peace. It was the stillness of an...

...(Î899) ... 'Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of itie woilcf, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees...great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air was worm, thick, heavy, sluggish. There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine. The long stretches of...