Listen Up! #Audiobook Review: One Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron https://twimom227.com/2023/06/listen-up-audiobook-review-one-good-dragon-deserves-another-by-rachel-aaron.html #AudibleStudios, #Audiobooks, #HeartstrikersSeries, #JenReview, #RachelAaron, #VikasAdam @Twimom227

Listen Up! #Audiobook Review: One Good Dragon Deserves Another by Rachel Aaron

https://twimom227.com/2023/06/listen-up-audiobook-review-one-good-dragon-deserves-another-by-rachel-aaron.html

#ListenUp #RatingB #UrbanFantasy #AudibleStudios #Audiobooks #HeartstrikersSeries #JenReview #RachelAaron #VikasAdam

Listen Up! #Audiobook Review: Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron https://twimom227.com/2023/06/listen-up-audiobook-review-nice-dragons-finish-last-by-rachel-aaron.html #AudibleStudios, #Audiobooks, #HeartstrikersSeries, #JenReview, #RachelAaron, #VikasAdam @Twimom227

Listen Up! #Audiobook Review: Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron

https://twimom227.com/2023/06/listen-up-audiobook-review-nice-dragons-finish-last-by-rachel-aaron.html

#ListenUp #RatingB #UrbanFantasy #AudibleStudios #Audiobooks #HeartstrikersSeries #JenReview #RachelAaron #VikasAdam

I read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad during my classics catch-up period in England during the late 1980s. While I remember little of the story, I recall being in awe of Conrad's evocative description of the steamboat journey up the forested Belgian Congo.

I am aware of the criticism of Conrad and the novel as racist. However, I was intrigued when I saw the audiobook version of Heart of Darkness "performed" by Kenneth Branagh (Audible Studios 2010). Would I still find the writing evocative? Or would the story be too racist?

The answer was yes to both for me. And while the derogatory description of African people and the abuse by their colonial overlords is repulsive, if I excised those parts of the book from my consciousness, I was still in awe of Conrad's writing.

One thing that struck me was that I couldn't tell where the protagonist Marlowe's sympathies lay. His generalisations are racist, though they could be said to be "of their time". But he also expresses disgust at the colonial brutality.

I'll leave this for others to debate. However, I don't regret revisiting The Heart of Darkness as an audiobook. And Branagh's "performance" had me relisten to it a second time.

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