'Try to be civil, Marlow," growled a voice, and I knew there was at least one listened awake besides myself.
"I beg your pardon. I forgot the heartache which makes up the rest of the price. and indeed what does the price matter, if the trick be well done? You do your tricks very well. and i didn't do badly either, since i managed not to sink that steamboat on my first trip. It's a wonder to me yet. Imagine a blindfold man set to drive a van over a bad road. I sweated and shivered over that business considerably, I can tell you. after all, for a seaman, to scrape the bottom of the thing that's supposed to float all the time under his care is the unpardonable sin." Page 106-107
I don't understand what the other speaker is asking or what he is responding to. Wasn't Marlow having personal thoughts before this? I also don't understand Marlow's response specifically what he means by the trick and his metaphor with the van. What is Marlow trying to communicate and what is the larger implication for this part of his journey?
Well the van s just something to try and set it in context by using a common experience, i would think
ReplyDeleteThe trick could be interpreted any number of ways, and of course that's apparently the point of every book ever
So let's go with both his performance on the boat, the collection of ivory, thehiding of what is going on, the manual work of the natives
etc.