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BOOKS

Conrad in Asia

Voyages through new hearts of darkness

By Rita Joshi

The Eastern Stories By Joseph Conrad Ed by Ban Kah Choon Penguin Price: Rs 295 Pages: 356

But why conrad now? For the first time you have in one volume the stories born out of his travels through Southeast Asia as a young sailor between 1883 and 1889.

The stories contained in this collection form Conrad's minor repertoire but represent key aspects of his work which must now also be viewed from a postcolonial angle. Conrad demystifies the notion of the white man's burden by revealing that the white man's superiority was a cultural myth, and the westerner in the East, an exploiter and often a renegade. In this context, the re-publication of his stories gain special significance because of the introduction by Ban Kah Choon of the National University of Singapore. Choon brings to light some key new biographical details. It is learnt, for example, that the famous novel, Lord Jim, is based on Conrad's experience aboard the rotten schooner, Jeddah.

Yet another anecdote explains that the Palestine, a ship carrying coal from Falmouth to Bangkok aboard which Conrad was a passenger, became a floating firebomb. The theme of the rotten ship, which subverts the Biblical image of Noah's Ark, figures in Conrad's fiction as representative of modern man's condition.

These stories justify Choon's claim that Conrad "confronts his readers with the dilemmas of existence-loyalty, betrayal, greed, the perverse impulses of the heart and other moral issues".

Each tale is marked by adventure and a testing of the inner strength of the protagonist. "Youth" introduces Conrad's familiar narrator, "Marlow". The story dramatically describes a fire on a ship and the effect that it has on the lives of the people aboard. "Karain" focuses on the obsession of the protagonist with a girl for whose sake he kills his friend who later haunts him. "The Lagoon" is a tale of love, remorse and revenge by lead player Arsat, who runs off with his ruler's servant girl.

This is the nature of the emotion, adventure and conflict these tales present which make this collection, particularly in the Eastern context, a very worthwhile read. Conrad in Asia is as compelling as Conrad in the heart of darkness elsewhere.

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