INFORMATION FOR THE ACADEMIC DECATHLON TEAM 2011, STARTING AT THE TOP OF PAGE 43

I. Review of previous discussions

II. New annotations, starting at the top of Page 43

301. P. 43, continuing paragraph from Page 42: Why does the "night of first ages" leaves no sign and has no memories?
302. P. 43, first new paragraph: Jungle compared to a shackled animal.
303. P. 43: Watch this double negative: "No, they were not in human. Well, you know, that was the worst of it--this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one." Marlow is saying that the natives are, indeed, human.
304. P. 43: Note the good grammar in the previous annotation: "... the suspicion of THEIR not being human." Most speakers of English make the mistake of using THEM in this structure. Marlow is not suspicious of the natives; he is suspicious of their not being inhuman. For example: I disliked HIS doing that, not I disliked HIM doing that.
305. P. 43: Again, we have the use of the pronoun "you" where one might expect "I" or "one."
306. P. 43: " Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you--you so remote from the night of the first ages--could comprehend. And why not? The mind of man is capable of anything--because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future." This is Carl Gustaf Jung's theory of Collective Unconscious. Please look these up on your own. I will give the basic information on this.
307. P. 43: Those of you who have read Macbeth, will recognize this extended clothing metaphor: "What was there after all? Joy, fear sorrow, devotion, valor, rage--who can tell?--but 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 meet that truth with his own true stuff--with his own inborn strength. Principles? Principles won't do. Acquisitions, clothes, pretty rags-- rags that would fly off at the first good shake. No; you want a deliberate belief. An appeal to me in this fiendish row--is there?" What is the fiendish row? What is being covered up by the cloak of time and the rags that would fly off?
308. P. 43: White-lead is a poisonous powder, basic lead carbonate used in making paint.
309. P. 44, continuing paragraph from Page 43: "by hook or by crook" means by any mean possible.
310. P. 44: a vertical boiler rises as cylinder with the fire at its bottom as opposed to a horizontal boiler with the fire under the length of the cylinder.
311. P. 44: The fireman looked out of place, much like a dog in breeches walking on its hind legs with a feather in its hat. He looked like a carnival act.
312. P. 44: The fireman was adorned in the tradition manner of a Central African, He had filed teeth and ornamental scars on his face.
313. P. 44: Thrall and its related words such as enthrall come from the Old English word thrall which means slave.
314. P. 44: The fireman believes there is an evil spirit in the boiler and it will exact a terrible vengeance if its thirst is ignored.
315. P. 44: An abandoned station contains a supply of wood for the steamboat together with a warning of trouble ahead up-river.

DEUS VOLENS!