Weekly "what are you reading" Thread #56

Kurtz was interesting. Before reading the book I heard a lot of hype about how cool he is, so, like Marlow, I was super hyped to see the legend in the flesh. Yet his arrival had little fanfare (the attack on the steamboat was meant to prevent his arrival, it was not part of it) and the demigod was bedridden. His grand skills as an orator escaped him as he stared down death, weeping about his grand dreams he was soon to rudely wake from. He died afraid. Kurtz is often compared to Judge Holden from Blood Meridian and while I see the similarities, the two of them serve vastly different thematic purposes. The Judge has (seemingly) surpassed his own humanity, he says that he will never die. Kurtz has forgotten his humanity and is forced to face it, unprepared. The way characters speak of his thought process is like how people spoke of Alexander the Great, someone who always seems to see a bigger picture than the rest of us. Like Alexander, he died not in battle but of disease. The end of the book is a conversation between Marlow and Kurtz' fiance. Not once did Kurtz mention her. She saw the greatness in him, just like all others, and she loved him for it. She mentions how the pursuit of wealth was so important to him, which makes Marlow wonder if he had perhaps grown up poor. Marlow notices just how little he has heard of Kurtz before his career in the Congo. This makes me think of Jeffrey Skilling of Endron fame. Supposedly Skilling had a modest upbringing and was an unpopular nerd for much of his youth, but around the time he was hired by Endron, had reimagined himself as a larger-than-life business tycoon. This is also not unlike the story Elon Musk tells about himself. I think the point of Kurtz is that people focus too much on the "man" part of "great man." Behind the facade of omnipotence impressive leaders put up, they must struggle and die just like the rest of us. I like to imagine Kurtz loved his intended.