One more thing, for any who might be interested:
Excerpts from Marlowe's account in the book "Heart of Darkness":
.........Truth stripped of its cloak of time. Let the fool gape and shudder - the man knows, and can look on without a wink. But he must be at least as much of a man as these on the shore (roark - here he refers to primitives doing a horrifyingly ugly and savage dance.) He must meet that truth with his own true stuff - with his own inborn strength.
You can't understand. How could you? - with solid pavement under your feet, surrounded by kind neighbours............utter solitude without a policeman - by the way of silence - utter silence, where no warning voice of a kind neighbour can be heard whispering of public opinion? These little things make all the great difference. When they are gone you must fall back upon your own innate strength, upon your own capacity for faithfulness.
I think it (ie the wilderness - roark) had whispered to him things about himself which he did not know, things of which he had no conception till he took counsel with this great solitude - and the whisper had proven irresistably fascinating. It echoed loudly within him because he was hollow at the core.
....the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness - that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified and monstrous passions.
Droll thing life is - that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself.
Then, after the adventure, and Kurtz had died:
I found myself back in the sepulchural city, resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, ...........to dream their insignificant and silly little dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretence, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew.
I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so full of stupid importance
(Sound familiar?)
All emphasis mine.
Whew.... (roark wipes sweat from forehead)....
Shit! - I almost forgot:
"The horror! The horror!"
I thought it would be a good idea to record these quotes onto this forum for posterity (and reference).....I hope someone else can find value in them.
I think 'Grinus was right (isn't he usually?) when he said something along the lines that, in our civilised societies, a MAJOR omission is rites of passage. I envisage that the Native American vision quest, for example, thrusts the kind of pain and solitude described above upon their young men, so that they can become whole, integral MEN.