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Posted by Ishmael on July 24, 19100 at 01:47:29:
In Reply to: Re: The "flabby devil" posted by LA on July 24, 19100 at 01:31:12:
HA ha ha! Did you really think that I meant that the fat man was Marlow's "flabby devil"? Well, in a way he was, but I meant it as a joke, get it? fat man?...flabby? nevermind.
term, Conrad/Marlow does not use it here to describe the fat man.)]
: Just a remark:
: Very early in the novella, in one of his many prolepses, Marlow tells his audience on the Nellie that he became "acquainted with a flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil of a rapacious and pitiless folly". However, this is neither a reference to the "fat man" as Ishmael seems to believe, nor is it a reference to Kurtz as several other readers believe. Michael Levenson, for example, believes that this "comment furnishes a second reference to Kurtz’s fall" and that "Marlow invokes Kurtz as the most 'insidious' manifestation of the 'flabby, pretending, weak-eyed devil' " (Norton Critical Edition 393).
: I'm afraid that both Ishmael and Levenson are making a mistake here. Marlow’s reference is clearly not to Kurtz or the "fat man" but to the manager of the Central Station. "Flabby," "pretending," and "weak-eyed" are certainly not features that characterise Kurtz. The manager, on the other hand, is an incarnation of inefficiency, hypocrisy, incompetence and pure selfishness. Furthermore, when Marlow arrives at the Central Station and sees the neglect and the chaos, he remarks that "the first glance at the place was enough to let you see the 'flabby devil' was running that show".
: LA