iMedia: "The End" - The Doors

(Lyrics to this song can be found here.)

iMedia: “The End” – The Doors

When I first chose this song I was completely unaware that it was the opening to the Heart of Darkness-based movie Apocalypse Now. The Doors are classic, and having this song in my never-ending mental iTunes library, I immediately knew it perfectly epitomized not only the novel itself, but also deeper character and plot themes.

Heart of Darkness is plagued by themes of ironic savagery: the twisted truth that those deemed as “civilized,” aka the Europeans, are actually more savage than the natives themselves. It also touches on “the horror, the horror” of colonialism and brutal foreign dominance. These are ideas are specifically demonstrated in the following lines from the song.

“This is the end

My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I’ll never look into our eyes again

Can you picture what will be

So limitless and free

Desperately in need of some stranger’s hand

In a desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain

All the children are insane

All the children are insane”

These lines touch on both the colonialist theme of the book, as well as Kurtz’s character. The lines “our elaborate plans” and “desperately in need of some stranger’s hand” clearly are referencing European dominance and unjustly taking over African lands. However, I think that not only do “elaborate plans” reference those plans of colonists, but also those of Kurtz. On page 65 of Heart of Darkness, when Marlow is with Kurtz in the forest, Kurtz says, “’ I had immense plans… I was on the threshold of great things.’” So the plans mentioned in the song also could relate to those of Kurtz, who while although a tad mad, did have a glorious dream he never really got to fulfill.

In my opinion, the most haunting lyrics from the song are “all the children are insane.” Clearly this can be interpreted in as many ways as anyone who read the book or knows about European colonialism can come up with, but I took this also as a reference to Kurtz. Toward the end of Kurtz’s life, Marlow compares his mind to that of a child, needing to be cared for yet always in a world of their own. From this idea, I took that the children were just another way of referencing all of the colonial men who came to the Congo and were hypnotized by the primitiveness of the surrounding nature. When entranced by this, Kurtz, like many men I supposed, truly went insane. It’s pretty obvious that Kurtz has pretty much jumped of the precipice of insanity and this point, and these lyrics further reflect the irony in that.

Although the song has a slower, more hypnotic sound, this parallels the egotistical and dark lyrics that together incite a creepily suspicious feeling for the listeners. The son’s ambiguity not only reflects that of the entire book, but also Kurtz as a character, as most of what we readers learn about him toward the beginning of the book are second-hand and often biased notions of his personality and actions. This is also repeated at the end of the book when Marlow is visited – and visits – all of the people who Kurtz knew, and we still cannot get a completely crystal clear picture of who he really was.

This feeling of eery complexity is one that I got throughout the book. Whether it be reading the suspicious trek down the river, the natives repetitive shrills and ceremonies, or the colonial intentions, reading Heart of Darkness left me with more questions than answers, and “The End” by The Doors just does the same. I am left to wonder whether the darkness serves metaphorically for the truth, or for blindness. Maybe both. But this song puts it into perspective. The characters and themes of Heart of Darkness constantly push the complicated, twisted, hard to accept truth at its readers. Kurtz especially is walking irony, a mish-mosh of civilization and destruction, but also blatant savagery. However, it is “The End” that oddly answers this confusion with its own added confusion, leading me to accept that there really is no answer at all. Nothing that can permeate the “heart of impermeable and impenetrable darkness.” 

Blogging Around

The first blog I responded to was miss Stephanie Smelyansky's. In her post, iMedia: Orchestral Skrillex, Stephanie analyzes the similarities between a bass-pounding modern-day controversial music style with the highly respected orchestral art form. She also talks about how many people are quick to have negative opinions about this type of music, but at the end of the day dubstep really is no different.



Stephanie, this is probably one of the coolest things I've seen in a while! So first off, thanks for showing me that, I will definitely be passing it on. 

I completely, wholeheartedly agree with everything you said. The only thing is is that I'm just not a really big fan of dubstep; it just doesn't provoke the same feeling as a folk mandolin or barely-there indie voice has for me. However, I think that many people who do not like something are quick to dismiss it as unworthy of what it really is, like the concept of dubstep being or not being music. Even though I don't personally listen to dubstep on a regular basis, and while my more reserved personality shies away from the fist-pumping, headbanging, hyped-up concert atmosphere, I would never think of disregarding dubstep as true music or art.

Who's to say what is and is not music? I may never understand full-fledged screamo or incomprehensible rap, but who am I to deny music that exemplifies so expertly inciting feeling and emotion while giving listeners an much-needed escape? Because isn't that what music is for? It's an artfully crafted medium for expression, and DJs do that rightfully so. I ask, what makes Skrillex any less genius or less creative or less worth of appreciation than Bach? What makes the crescendos of a melodic symphony any different than the bass drops or high-pitched synthesizers of an electropop-meets-metallic-meets-who-knows-what dubstep DJ? I answer, nothing. 100, 200, 300 years from now, I would not be surprised in the slightest if Skrillex - or any dubstep DJ for that matter - becomes a highly respected and fervently analyzed historical artist of the 21st century.






The second blog I responded to was Sebas's post about education. I noticed it was an extremely popular post and was very anxious to read it. He starts off by talking about the extension of school hours in Chicago, and also examines how school is transforming into a lifeless, lackluster environment when it desperately needs a splash of creativity. 


I think I'm going to get on the Sebas educational editorial bandwagon. Seven (now eight) comments on one post! You must have something going for you.

We make it no secret as students when we express our boiling hatred for school. The days are already long enough as it gets, and slowly but surely with new laws such as the extensions in Chicago, school is becoming increasingly arbitrary and redundant, which isn't at all what it should be. 

And this is why I think Academy is great. What we learn and the way class is formatted not only provokes the creativity and insight that we need to do well in the class, but also arms us with important knowledge that reaches far beyond school and applies to everyday past, present, future life. Like you said, it's not so much about what you teach but how you teach it, and when we learn in Acad's open and vulnerable environment we acquire so much more intellectual, conversational, and social skills that are normally stifled by the mundane routine of average classes. 

I often here my friends in honors or regular English classes who talk about how they are supposed to be writing an essay on why this character did that or memorizing unnecessary details on what happened on this or that page. I don't understand the seeming necessity of any of that. When we write a paper or read a book in Academy, we apply what we learn to things way beyond the text and explore ideas that coincide with the real world. 

And that system is what I think that school should be; an open environment for kids to learn actively and thoroughly. Most importantly, students need to see a purpose. Classroom ideas should constantly be reinforced as being applicable to the real world. After graduation that is the world we live in, and I would like to think that the hours I spent studying for my math test or trying to learn about chemical bonds will follow me even throughout my life, even when I may think I am no longer at need of knowing it.