247: Heart of Darkness

Graeme Donaldson (0:09)

Hi, and welcome to Classical Stuff You Should Know, a podcast about classical world, classical education, old books, old ideas, but casted in a new way. In fact, casted as a pod to you, the listener.

A.J. Hanenburg (0:25)

You connected the dots. I'm really impressed.

Graeme Donaldson (0:27)

Hey, you gotta pull your microphone there, big guy.

And I am joined with my two buddies, AJ. Hanenburg.

A.J. Hanenburg (0:34)

That's me.

Graeme Donaldson (0:34)

And Thomas Fletcher Magbee. Hello.

A.J. Hanenburg (0:36)

Hello.

Graeme Donaldson (0:36)

And today, gentlemen, from what I see, we're gonna be delving deep, deep into the dark hearts of the jungle. I, for one, am apprehentious about going so deep into the psyche of man.

A.J. Hanenburg (0:50)

What was that word?

Graeme Donaldson (0:51)

Apprehentious.

A.J. Hanenburg (0:52)

Apprehensive?

Graeme Donaldson (0:53)

Apprehentious is pretty good, though.

A.J. Hanenburg (0:54)

I don't think that's a word. Should we find out?

Poor Graeme is trying to-

Graeme Donaldson (0:59)

Apprehentious?

A.J. Hanenburg (1:00)

Is this not a word? Definitely not a word. Definitely not a word. What?

Apprehensive.

Graeme Donaldson (1:04)

I realize apprehensive is a word, but apprehentious can't be a word as well? It could be, but I don't-

A.J. Hanenburg (1:10)

I think, I mean, it's one of those things where-

Graeme Donaldson (1:12)

Google my shame, both of you.

A.J. Hanenburg (1:14)

Apprehentious.

Graeme Donaldson (1:15)

Do you see anything?

A.J. Hanenburg (1:16)

Showing results for apprehensive. But here's the thing.

Graeme Donaldson (1:20)

I definitely don't wanna-

A.J. Hanenburg (1:21)

I was gonna let it roll, I can't believe you. Yeah, what's going on? I think Shakespeare did the thing. My rule is as long as the audience knows what you're talking about.

I think it passes the test.

Graeme Donaldson (1:31)

I think it passes the test, although currently in this audience, someone, both of you, jumped out of the woods to be like, my little gotcha bears.

A.J. Hanenburg (1:37)

Did I say a thing?

Graeme Donaldson (1:39)

You did not say a thing.

A.J. Hanenburg (1:39)

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, don't.

Graeme Donaldson (1:40)

It's all right, my heart is real dark right now. And so I'm looking forward.

A.J. Hanenburg (1:46)

Should we restart it?

Graeme Donaldson (1:47)

No, restart it.

No, that's right. No, no, we don't get to restart. My intro is apparently when AJ flubs his lines, he has to restart all the live long day.

A.J. Hanenburg (1:58)

You wanna pay for the...

Graeme Donaldson (1:59)

A fair point, fair point. All right, we are gonna be reading, or AJ has read and is gonna be talking to us about Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Apocalypse Now.

And I love this book and I'm looking forward to it. So AJ., take it away, big guy.

A.J. Hanenburg (2:14)

Okay, I'm excited. I read this book a little while ago when I was, oh, probably in college, maybe just out of college. And I was like, well...

Graeme Donaldson (2:21)

That's not a little while ago there, friendo.

A.J. Hanenburg (2:24)

What?

Graeme Donaldson (2:28)

My tats are my tats. Unbelievable, unbelievable.

A.J. Hanenburg (2:39)

Keep it going, not roll with it. This is unbelievable.

Graeme Donaldson (2:42)

All right, let's get less boogie.

A.J. Hanenburg (2:44)

Oh man, you're right, it's long ago now. I'm getting up there. Oh my word.

Graeme Donaldson (2:49)

I need to sign Lord of the Cries.

A.J. Hanenburg (2:51)

Are you tearing up over there, buddy? I tell my students that a tear has to fall.

Graeme Donaldson (2:57)

Tears not falling, no.

A.J. Hanenburg (2:59)

Graeme is the one who's 40 though, so you're the aged one here. I'm close, man, a year and a couple of months.

Not there yet, not there yet.

Anyway, I read it probably after, sometime post-college, and I only sort of half understood it and finished it and thought, that was a good book. And then I put it down and never thought about it again until we started doing the podcast and I'm looking for things that people have probably studied at some point in college or high school, and this makes the cut. And so I decided to dive back into it and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially since I've read other Conrad since. I read Lord Jim, which if you have been a reader of Heart of Darkness, I cannot recommend Lord Jim more. I won't say it's an easy book. It is not an easy book, but it's an incredibly good book. And I mean, just the themes, and if you think Heart of Darkness.

Graeme Donaldson (3:47)

So what's Lord Jim? Can you give us like a movie trailer version?