# I really don't see why people think "Heart of Darkness" is such a great book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2007, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-dont-see-why-people-think-heart-of-darkness-is-such-a-great-book/427022 "2007-11-19T10:14:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-dont-see-why-people-think-heart-of-darkness-is-such-a-great-book/427022/41 "2007-11-23T20:34:56Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] Precisely. There’s a fine line between “savage” and “civilization” and the two territories are always very close to spilling over into each other at any given time. That’s one of the reasons that “we” use those distinctions; to quickly separate “them” from “us”. In reality, there’s little to no findamental difference. The only difference comes from culture, and in the big scheme of things, that’s irrelevant. [/QUOTE] Are you talking about the book? Because I don’t remember the ‘savage’ and ‘civilized’ dichotomy being important thematically; I remember it as foreshadowing and ironic external reflection of the internal conflict. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-dont-see-why-people-think-heart-of-darkness-is-such-a-great-book/427022/42 "2007-11-23T22:53:41Z")
You don’t see a lot of people reading _The Nigger of the Narcissus_ on the bus or subway these days. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-dont-see-why-people-think-heart-of-darkness-is-such-a-great-book/427022/43 "2007-11-23T23:04:30Z")
[QUOTE=Larry Borgia] You don’t see a lot of people reading _The Nigger of the Narcissus_ on the bus or subway these days. [/QUOTE] Nor in those days, allegedly. Found this tidbit in the Wiki article: > [@](#): > > In the United States, the novel was first published with the title The _Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle_, at the insistence by the publisher, Dodd, Mead and Company, that no one would buy or read a book with the word nigger in its title[4]. > **[The Nigger of the "Narcissus"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nigger_of_the_%27Narcissus%27#_note-Orr)** > > The Nigger of the "Narcissus": A Tale of the Forecastle\[a\] (sometimes subtitled A Tale of the Sea) is an 1897 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad. The central character is an Afro-Caribbean man who is ill at sea while aboard the trading ship Narcissus heading towards London. Due to the offensiveness of the word nigger in the title, it was renamed The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle for the 1897 US edition. The novella dignifies the men in the forecastle and "explo So... ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-dont-see-why-people-think-heart-of-darkness-is-such-a-great-book/427022/44 "2007-11-24T01:09:35Z")
_Which_ people think Heart of Darkness is a great read? I tried to read this on my own and tossed it aside - after having been told by at least a score of other english majors that it was terrible. One of the professors at our college was extremely lazy and only used that book for critical analysis of literature, so I knew many people who had spent an entire semester on the book. Who told the OP that it was great? ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2007, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-dont-see-why-people-think-heart-of-darkness-is-such-a-great-book/427022/45 "2007-11-24T06:20:44Z")
[QUOTE=elfkin477] _Which_ people think Heart of Darkness is a great read? I tried to read this on my own and tossed it aside - after having been told by at least a score of other english majors that it was terrible. One of the professors at our college was extremely lazy and only used that book for critical analysis of literature, so I knew many people who had spent an entire semester on the book. Who told the OP that it was great? [/QUOTE] Lots and lots of English Majors at Uni, people I know who like books; and rather a lot of people in this thread whose opinions agree with theirs- I didn’t make up the assertation that HoD is a “Great Book” out of thin air. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-dont-see-why-people-think-heart-of-darkness-is-such-a-great-book/427022.md?page=2)