> Adam Hochschild's book _King Leopold's Ghost_ is 100 times more
> interesting than Heart of Darkness, and 10 times more enjoyable to read.
Conrad's canonization is a separate issue, but he could definitely write. "Heart of Darkness" is spine-chilling precisely because it moves directly from the heart of Empire to its colonies, in ways Dickens or Gissing couldn't imagine. Sure, the text is as ambiguous as Conrad's own position, as a Polish emigre who flees the Russian Empire and take up residence in Britain, a far wealthier Empire. The ambiguity is also its greatness: it registers the utopian allure of the Empire, as well as its ultimate emptiness.
Achebe is gently satirizing the Conradification of postcolonial literature, as it were.
-- DRR