Mailer and Conrad

Part Two—Myth and Skepticism

Abstract

The intersection of Mailer and Conrad remain elusive, as seen when considering of myth and skepticism. Two of Conrad’s novels, Heart of Darkness (1899) and The Secret Agent (1907), offer a strategic opportunity for interpretation and historical context in comparison with Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song (1979), Harlot’s Ghost (1991), and The Castle in the Forest (2007). There is also a motif of skepticism in Conrad’s life and work. Terror and globalism mark the post-Cold War era, and The Secret Agent had a peculiar resonance after the 9/11 attacks. There are many ways to describe the theme or themes that we find in Heart of Darkness—as a journey both physical and symbolic, an awakening, a biting critique of colonial myths, an odyssey into the underworld. But then Heart of Darkness is a work that precipitates such profundity—that demands a kind of meta-language. Marlow stumbles often, trying to find the words to describe his journey. In comparing, Heart of Darkness to The Castle in the Forest, a question surfaces: To what extent are darkness and evil simply metaphorical tropes and to what extent are they ontological? In other words, do these tropes chart a metaphysical or even physical reality? Both Conrad and Mailer attempt to develop such languages—trying to describe the “horrors that pass before our eyes.” They were, and still are, criticized for not knowing what they were doing.