TFA Reflection

Honestly, this is the first time that I've read a review and felt inclined to exclaim, in the middle of reading it at the kitchen table while a myriad of other family activities were taking place, "Wow! This is really interesting!" Achebe is a gifted novelist, a point which is evident after reading Things Fall Apart, but he is a similarly gifted essayist. I was predisposed in the the first time I heard Achebe's argument to feel as though he was being overly critical, but after reading his essay my opinion has been changed, although not entirely.
What makes Achebe's assertions so provocative and compelling is the fact that he always backs everything he says up, in some way, and, as he did in his novel, he presents a bit of both sides of his argument. I though his comment on the way Conrad portrays the action and humanity of the Africans to be especially interesting. He makes a point of how Conrad only describes the Africans as doing wild things in his work, and additionally he only grants a slightly brighter description to the Africans he feels have "the merit of being in their place." Achebe displays the segment about the African fireman, who is undoubtedly not in HIS place, and Conrad's description of this character is notably disagreeable. As far as Conrad's assertion as to the humanity, or rather the sort of 'sub-humanity', of Africans goes, Achebe reflects on Conrad's effort to elicit a disquieted response from his reader's at his suggestion that even they have a "remote kinship" to the wild Africans which Conrad describes in one passage. While I hadn't considered it earlier, it is especially interesting that Conrad utilizes the words "remote kinship." This as far as he will go in description of his relation to the Africans and what he describes as, "Ugly." This is especially provocative for me, making me almost upset, and I feel it is one of Achebe's most gripping and compelling arguments. Achebe also utilizes a recounting of Conrad's own history in arguing that he was an unwavering racist and again, the evidence is significant. He describes his first encounter with an Englishman, asserts Achebe, in unconditionally positive light while remarking on his introduction to a man of a darker complexion as having quite unsettled him. Achebe's argument that this is undeniable evidence that there was a sort of racist predisposition in Conrad is convincing, as such.
I really also loved Achebe's argument that there is a psychological attitude of Africa, as the portrait is to Dorian Gray. For those unfamiliar with it, the Portrait of Dorian Gray is a novel in, on a most basic level, where a portrait accrues ages and years instead of the novel's namesake. To assert that Africa is a sort of dumping ground for the shortcomings and evils of European society is, to me, innovative, as I have never heard such a thing before, and logical. European society, and as an American perhaps I should lump myself into this, makes the assumption that Africans are inferior and primitive, even prehistoric. As Achebe points out we even assume initially that Africans don't possess a language as highly evolved as our own when in actuality,as is partially revealed by Achebe's novel, they possess a language and culture as deep and which even potentially predates our own.
While my reflection has been overwhelmingly positive up to this point, I'd like assert a few criticisms. I feel that there a moments in the essay where Achebe stretches to assert that everything in the novel is nearly irrelevant in light of Conrad's racism. He describes discourse where someone argued that the intention of Conrad's novel was not to paint a racist image of the Africans, but rather to make a criticism of the European colonization movement in the continent. Achebe glosses over this and states that Conrad's intent only contributes to the fact that the novel is racist, which is a point I think is underdeveloped. What's more is that while Achebe agrees, with a sort of glowing accord, that Conrad was a highly gifted writer he feels that the literary and artistic merit of Conrad's novel is diminished to a point where it has none of other because of either. There is a school of thought which suggests that art should be judged indefinitely independent from intention,  a sentiment that I partially agree with, but the fact of the matter being that Conrad wished to present the concept of the fallibility of the human heart, I feel that his being racist (he almost certainly was in my opinion) does not tarnish the artistic merit of the work.
As I have stated throughout this reflection, I felt Achebe's essay was incredible. It was well written and compelling. While not free from some questionable assertions it was thought-provoking, and in the end: isn't that what any good essay should be?