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Heart of darkeness.

Posted by Smokey Stover on May 21, 2004

In Reply to: Heart of darkeness. posted by ESC on May 20, 2004

: : : READ INTO -- informed of, briefed about. "Fewer than two hundred operatives and officials, were completely read into the program, the former intelligence official said. "We're not going to read more people than necessary into our heart of darkness."
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: : : WHITE -- the opposite of covert.
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: : : From The New Yorker, The Gray Zone," May 24, 2004, Page 39.

: : Can anyone tell me if the phrase "heart of darkness" antecedes its use by Joseph Conrad? I don't mean casual use, unbeknownst to Conrad, but used conspicuously enough to have inspired Conrad. It's interesting to hear it in the context quoted by ESC. Who knew that intelligence officials read Conrad? Or did he get it somewhere else? SS

: The Dictionary of Allusions (Merriam-Webster) includes the title "Heart of Darkness." But it doesn't say anything about the origin of the title. I looked in "Now All We Need is a Title" but it didn't have this one.

I've concluded that the intelligence official was, indeed, alluding to Conrad, indubitably coiner of the phrase "Heart of Darkness" , title of a story about Europeans in the Congo, probably his finest short story. Conrad (1857-1924) was born to Polish parents named Korzeniowski, and went to sea after his boyhood, giving him much material for his mostly pessimistic tales. In 1878 he was cast up on English shores, speaking little English, and made England his home. He began writing in 1895, always in English. I may be entirely wrong, but it seems to me that the English are less enthusiastic about Conrad than Americans are. (I've got to be wrong!) SS

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