...greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible,...firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the eight-inch guns ; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny...

...the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible,...little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile give a feeble screech — and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity...

...bush. 1t appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. . . .1n the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, wonld go one of the sis-inch gons: a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would...

...makes its way along the coast, he sees a French man-of-war "shelling the bush": "In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible,...happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding. "32 On his journey into the interior, Marlowe comes upon a steam boiler "wallowing in the grass" and...

...greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible,...continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small ll.mir would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a...

...The ship's "ensign dropped limp like a rag," and her "thin masts" swayed on the "greasy, slimy swell there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent....screech — and nothing happened. Nothing could happen" (41). European military-phallic power is ludicrously impotent here, in the realm ruled by the power...

...appearance of the former in this setting is unnatural; the sounds which accompany its sight, ludicrous: "Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame...would give a feeble screech - and nothing happened." A remark Marlow hears aboard the steamer, made by somebody "assuring me earnestly there was a camp...

...One instance of this folly is seen in the image of the French man-of-war firing on the African coast: "There she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent....happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding" (28). Another instance is found in the effort to construct a railway: "A heavy and dull detonation...

...themselves when Joseph Conrad took a trip into the heart of darkness nearly one hundred years ago: Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech — and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was...

...participant. Even then, he saw the fatuity of the "civilized" French manof-war's shelling the bush: "Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame...would give a feeble screech — and nothing happened." Soon, more than Marlow's Calvinistic belief in the redemptive powers of purposeful labor was offended....