Impressionism and Heart of Darkness

“Poor blind idiots. They want to see everything clearly, even through the fog!” - Claude Monet, in response to criticism of his work

Waterloo Bridge, morning fog

Houses of Parliament in Fog

Venice, The Grand Canal

Rouen Cathedral

“The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not typical … and to him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings out in a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine” (5)

“I don’t like work – no man does – but I like what is in the work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself – not for others – what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means.” (29)

“All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which I shall call IMPRESSIONS and IDEAS.” - David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature Impressions = force, violence