Studies in Short Fiction; Newberry, S. C. Vol 3, No 3. (Spring 1966): 314-20.
(정리)
톨리의 이 논문은 내가 본 것으로는 [진보]를 본격적으로 논한 최초의 글이다. [그랜드 매거진]에 실린 콘래드가 이 작품을 자신의 최고의 단편으로 뽑은 이유 전문을 옮겨놓고 있어서 좋은 참고 자료가 되며, 특히 원주민을 세 부류로 나누어 자세히 분석한 부분이 탁월하다.
이 작품에 대한 콘래드의 불분명한 견해에도 불구하고, 필자는 one of Conrad's best pieces of the "long short story/short novel" length라고 보면서도, [어둠]에 비해서는 "부정할 수 없이 열등한" 작품으로 보고 있다.
[인용]
314) My Best Story and Why I Think So
- This story, for which I confess a preference, was difficult to write, not because of what I had to write, but of what I had firmly made up my mind not to write into it. What I have done is done with. No words, no regretss can atone now for the imperfections that stand there glaring, patent, numerous, and amusing. The story was written some ten years ago. And yet I remember perfectly well the inflexible and solemn resolve not to be led astray by my subject. I aimed at a scrupulous unity of tone, and it seems to me that I have attained it there. It is possible that I am deceiving myself, and that I have missed even that qualified success. But the story is endeared to me by the well-remembered severity of discipline and by one or two moments of flattering illusion.
And all this cannot possibly matter anything to the most benevolent soul amongst the readers of stories.
[The Grand Magazine, v (1906), 87.]
- J. D. Gordan - JC: The Making of a Novelist(1940)
- 결혼 후 신혼 여행을 갔던 브리타뉴 지방에서 씀.
[다음 편지들 참고]
(291) Garnett. 960722
- I am sure You will understand the reason and meaning of every detail. 이하 부분. 책 읽는 장면. Carl이 무장하지 않은 이유
(294) [96. 7. 22] Fisher Unwin [Outpost of Progress]
All the bitterness of those days, all my puzzled wonder as to the meaning of all I saw - all my indignation at masquerading philanthropy have been with me again, while I wrote.
--It is a story of the Congo. There is no love interest in it and no woman-only incidentally. The exact locality is not mentioned. All the bitterness of those days, all my puzzled wonder as to the meaning of all I saw--all my indignation at masquerading philanthropy have been with me again, while I wrote. The story is simple-- there is hardly any description. The most common incidents are related--the life in a lonely station on the Kassai. I have divested myself of eveverything but pity--and some scorn--while putting down the insignificant events that bring on the catastrophe.
(295) 960805 Garnett
글쓰기의 불확실성
(300) 960814
- You are right in your criticism of OP
- It's very evident that the first 3 pages kill all the interest. And I wrote them of set purpose!! I thought I was achieving artistic simplicity!!!!!!! Now, of course, the thing--the res infecta(the imperfect thing)--is as plain as a pikestaff. It does not improve my opinion of myself and of my prospects. Am I totally lost? Or do the last few pages save the thing from being utterly contemptible? You seem to think so--if I read your most kind and friendly letter aright. ]
315) [Jocelyn Baines: Joseph Conrad (New York, 1960)]
- In 1910 he said that Tales of Unrest, in which OP appeared, were the stories he liked least of all his work. He found himself too derivativ(derivatif) in them.
- 이 작품에 대한 콘래드의 불분명한 견해에도 불구하고, 필자는 one of Conrad's best pieces of the "long short story/short novel" length.
II
316) K 와 C라는 이름: 실명에서 따왔다는 것도 인용할 것.
317) 두 사람 다 inner driving force of his own - 하지만 이런 것이 있었다면 그들이 처한 상황을 쉽게 극복.
- vulnerablility of apparently well-established patterns of thought and behavior.
- the way the men's weakening "grasp" of the ordinary features of life is slowly put before us.
- 고독과 정글이 우선 그들을 지치게 함(wear down).
- the immense, pointless fertility of the jungle--its power and its indifference.
[They lived like blind men in a large room]
- The jungle is full of chaotic life that threatens to swamp the small space in which men have succeeded in imposing order on that life.
[문명이 자연 앞에 위태롭게 있음. 이러한 상황과 주제는 콘래드의 작품에서 흔히 볼 수 있는 것이라고 필자는 주장.]
318) 세 부류의 원주민 유형
- the natives of the jungles, the traders from the coast, and Makola
form a commentary in themselves on the value of the "civilizing" mission of the day.
(이 세 부류에 대한 논의도 상당히 흥미로운 부분. 잘 참조할 것)
1) 문명화의 손길이 닿기 이전의 원주민
2) 문명화의 세례를 맛본 원주민(resemble "the speech of civilized men")
3) Makola - the most ironic comment on "civilization"
[머콜라가 주도권을 갖고 주재소를 운영하는 것]
- The "civilizing" theme is also developed beyond the touches of direct satire in the story. The three contrasting types of natives, the natives of the jungle, the traders from the coast, and Makola, the station clerk, form a commentary in themselves on the value of the "civilizing" mission of the day. There are the men from the friendly local tribe, whose chief, Gobila, worships his dark gods and is at a loss to understand the white men. They represent the natives in their original state, before the "civilizers" have arrived. Contrasted with them are the slavers from the coast, who have experienced "civilization." They carry firearms; and perhaps we are intended to see them as bringing some of th diviousness of "civilization." What seems menacing about the men is the uncanny resemblance of their speech to "the speech of civilized men."
But it is Makola, the Negro assistant, who consitutes the most ironic comment on "civilization." He was a "Sierra Leone nigger, who maintained that his name was Henry Price."
319) essay-like asides에 대한 비판
[That sombre theme had to be given a sinister resonance, a tonality of its own, a continued vibration that, I hoped, would hang in the air and dwell on the ear after the last note had been struck.] Author's Note
- HD가 OP보다 훨씬 뛰어난 작품이라고 이야기.
- OP is a much more usual and a much more explicit story than HD. It is also undeniably inferior.
- Just because OP is more explicit than HD, it can help to show the sorts of feelings Conrad had about his experiences in the Congo, and, thus, help to establish a sense of the "idiom" of HD.