Inaccessibility: Fiction and Miller
Inaccessibility
Brook Thomas in his essay Preserving and Keeping Order by Killing Time in Heart of Darkness extends J. Hills Miller’s “unveiling” (Miller 220) of Conrad’s narrative. Miller’s essay Heart of Darkness Revisited demonstrates how Heart of Darkness “belongs to the genre of the parabolic apocalypse” (Miller 217). Thomas responds to Miller’s unveiling “a lack of decisive unveiling in Heart of darkness” (Miller 220) by reading “historically the narrative that Conrad weaves” (Thomas 239) so that we might be able “to come closer to a truth” (Thomas 239). Thomas presents the possibilities of decisive unveiling, which Miller claims, Heart of Darkness lacks. Miller’s questions what makes Heart of Darkness an apocalyptic parable? Subsequently Miller analyzes Conrad’s narrative “in light of these generic classifications” (Miller 207). Thomas is cautious in interpreting Conrad’s narrative and questions the possibility of being able to glimpse into an essential truth by placing the text in historical context.
Thomas quotes Miller, to synthesise “Conrad’s fiction in the context of the history of ideas” (Thomas 242), and later on takes up Miller’s suggestion in the evaluation of The Nigger of the “Narcissus” by Conrad to demonstrate that there can be “decisive unveiling” (Miller 220). Although Thomas does not mention Miller’s essay Heart of Darkness Revisited he quotes Miller’s The Disappearance of God and Poets of Reality. In addition to Thomas quoting Miller, both critiques adopt similar approaches in their essays. One of the first passage they quote from Heart of Darkness is Marlow informing us “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 a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine” (Heart of Darkness p.20) both critiques examine Conrad’s writing and his purpose of writing. Miller’s
Brook Thomas in his essay Preserving and Keeping Order by Killing Time in Heart of Darkness extends J. Hills Miller’s “unveiling” (Miller 220) of Conrad’s narrative. Miller’s essay Heart of Darkness Revisited demonstrates how Heart of Darkness “belongs to the genre of the parabolic apocalypse” (Miller 217). Thomas responds to Miller’s unveiling “a lack of decisive unveiling in Heart of darkness” (Miller 220) by reading “historically the narrative that Conrad weaves” (Thomas 239) so that we might be able “to come closer to a truth” (Thomas 239). Thomas presents the possibilities of decisive unveiling, which Miller claims, Heart of Darkness lacks. Miller’s questions what makes Heart of Darkness an apocalyptic parable? Subsequently Miller analyzes Conrad’s narrative “in light of these generic classifications” (Miller 207). Thomas is cautious in interpreting Conrad’s narrative and questions the possibility of being able to glimpse into an essential truth by placing the text in historical context.
Thomas quotes Miller, to synthesise “Conrad’s fiction in the context of the history of ideas” (Thomas 242), and later on takes up Miller’s suggestion in the evaluation of The Nigger of the “Narcissus” by Conrad to demonstrate that there can be “decisive unveiling” (Miller 220). Although Thomas does not mention Miller’s essay Heart of Darkness Revisited he quotes Miller’s The Disappearance of God and Poets of Reality. In addition to Thomas quoting Miller, both critiques adopt similar approaches in their essays. One of the first passage they quote from Heart of Darkness is Marlow informing us “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 a haze, in the likeness of one of these misty halos that sometimes are made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine” (Heart of Darkness p.20) both critiques examine Conrad’s writing and his purpose of writing. Miller’s