The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad Vol. 1

(12) 1885년 10월 13일/ Spiridion Kliszczewski [조국을 잃어버린 상황에 대한 이야기]

 

for, whatever may be the changes in the fortunes of living nations, for the dead there is no hope and no salvation! We have passed t[h]rough the gates where "lasciate ogni speranza"[Abandon all hope] is written in letters of blood and fire, and now the gate is shut on the light of hope and nothing remains for us but the darkness of oblivion. In the presence of such national misfortune, personal happiness is impossilble in its absolute form of general contentment and peace of heart.)

 

(16) 1885년 12월 19일 - 영국 총선 결과. 사회주의의 확산에 대한 두려움.

 the International Socialist Association are triumphan, and every diereputable ragamuffin in Europe feels that the day of universal brotherhood, despoliation and disorder is coming apace, and nurses day-dreams of well-plenished pockets amongst the ruin of all that is respectable, venerable and holy.

-  England was the only barrier to the pressure of infernal doctrines born in continental back-slums.

(16) Socialism must inevitably end in Caesarism.

(17) The whole herd of idiotic humanity are moving in that direction at the bidding of unscrupulous rascals and a few sincere, but dangerous lunatics.

[사회주의에 대한 혐오]

162) 9407?20/ Poradowska

Man must drag the ball and chain of his individuality to the very end. It is the [price] one pays for the infernal and divine privilege of thought; consequently, it is only the elect who are convicts in this life--the glorious company of those who understand and who lament, but who tread the earth amid a multitude of ghosts with maniacal gestures, with idiotic grimaces. Which do you prefer--idiot or convict?

[individuality]

230) It [Writing] is made up of doubt, of hesitation; of moments silent and anxious when one listens to the thoughts--one's own thoughts--speaking indistinc[t]ly deep down somewhere at the bottom of the heart.

[Edward Noble: 선원. 소설을 쓰기 시작] 950617

Hope is the best and the worst of life. Half of it comes from God and half from the devil, but it behoves men to take gifts and curses with a steady hand and an equable mind--because of such is made up Fate--the blind, the invincible.

234) I suffer now from an acute attack of faithlessness in the sense that I do not seem to believe in anything, but I trust that by the time we meet I shall be more like a human being and consequently ready to believe any absurdity.

정체성의 혼란. 의지할 부모가 없음. (Edward Garnett. 950710-15) [Schwarz 5] 자신감이 없음, 불안.

252) To accomplish it [to disclose human hearts] you must cultivate your poetic faculty--you must give yourself up to your emotions (no easy task) you must squeeae out of yourself every sensation, every thought, every image--mercilessly, without reserve and without remorse; you must search the darkest corners of your heart, the most remote recesses of your brain;--you must search them for the image, for the glamour, for the right ｅxpression. And you must do it sincerely, at any cost; You must do it so that at the end of your day's work you should feel exhausted, emptied of every sensation and every thought, with a blank mind and an aching heart, with the notion that there is nothing--nothing left in you.

[Edward Noble/ 951028]

(289)

960619 가닛

Other writers have some starting point. Something to catch hold of.

[콘래드 자신의 뿌리뽑힌 혼란스러운 상태]를 잘 나타낸 편지. 가닛.

(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 everything but pity--and some scorn--while puttind down the insignificant events that bring on the catastrophe.

(307) Edward Garnett -'You are my "father in letters" and must bear the brunt of that position. (961025)

(320) I told the unspeakable idiots that the thing halved would be as inneffective* as a dead scorpion. There will be a part without the sting--and the part with the sting--and being separated they will be both harmless and disgusting. (961121 - Sanderson) [진보를 분할하여 게재해야 하는 상황에 대해

(370) It is impossible to know anything

tho' it is possible to believe a thing or two.

(390) 971002 - 어릴 적 친구에게 보낸 편지

I haven't the taste for democracy - and democracy hasn't the taste for me.

[일반 대중들이 자신의 작품을 좋아하지는 않는다는 이야기를 하면서 빗대어 하는 말]

(424) You are a most hopeless idealist - your aspirations are irrealisable. [Graham. 97]

(425) 자연주의적 비관적 우주관

“There is a – let us say – a machine. It evolved itself (I am severely scientific) out of a chaos of scraps of iron and behold! – it knits. I am horrified at the horrible work and stand appalled. I feel it ought to embroider – but it goes on knitting. You come and say: “this is all right; it’s only a question of the right kind of oil. Let us use this – for instance – celestial oil and the machine shall embroider a most beautiful design in purple and gold”. Will it? Alas no. You cannot by any special lubrication make embroidery with a knitting machine. And the most withering thought is that the infamous thing has made itself; made itself without thought, without conscience, without foresight, without eyes, without heart. It is a tragic accident – and it has happened. You can’t interfere with it. The last drop of bitterness is in the suspicion that you can’t even smash it. In virtue of that truth one and immortal which lurks in the force that made it spring into existence it is what it is – and it is indestructible!

It knits us in and it knits us out. It has knitted time space, pain, death, corruption, despair and all the illusions – and nothing matters. I’ll admit however that to look at the remorseless process is sometimes amusing.”  [Graham. 97. 12. 20]