surealist fiction

[kane]

I came across heart of darkness at a bookstore one day and flipped through the pages, the first thing I noticed was the strange indecisive writing style.<br>I had never heard of conrad before so after doing a bit of investigating I decided to read the book and now I am very glad I did there were moments were the words just struck me or as conrad says like a flash of lighting in a serne sky....to me heart of darkness is a confirmation of the darkness within us all, it is just how far you are willing to delve into it..like kurtz's who represents the going to far, the pure darkness and marlow who went there but was able to come back although he would never quite be the same again afterwards. 'I was allowed to draw back my ever hesitating foot'

[Historianic]

I know this is like 6 years too late, but here's my two cents worth. I think the "indecisive writing style" you commented on may be due to Marlow's difficulty to articulate and struggle to find the words to relay his experiences. Some critics/theorists are of the opinion that this is deliberate on Conrad's part as a way of establishing the modernist idea that words are unreliable. This can be contrasted with Kurtz who is often described as eloquent but all this collapses into a crude expression of violence. Where as Marlow ends, though he struggles through some inarticulateness, ends up with greater clarity.