>So why this focus on the individual, as if the purity of Conrad's
>soul counted for much
>of anything?
I don't think that's what Achebe's doing. He's talking about Heart of Darkness more than Conrad. Conrad's dead and buried, the book lives on.
I think this thread has been tainted by the Guardian tagline that used the word racist, not by what Achebe was really trying to get at. I'm not saying he never said Conrad was racist, because he did many years ago in the lecture that marks his going public about this topic. Of course, that's what gets quoted every time the subject comes up, just as it quickly became the focus here. When I first posted the Guardian tagline I chose it because it highlighted "discussion" and "epiphany." I think there's some *Meconnaissance systematique de la realite* working in this thread.