Alan Simmons' on Conrad, Casement, and the Congo Atrocities

--Both Joseph Conrad and Roger Casement were profoundly influenced by their time spend in the Congo Free State

--Casement and Conrad were friendly towards each other, both spoke very respectfully of one another and expressed pleasure regarding their acquaintance

--Both spoke of the horrors and atrocities of the Congo but went about it in different ways and for different reasons, both mutually detested the atrocities

--Inconsistencies in the works and letters of both Conrad and Casement, especially regarding the degree of “mutilations” that each person witnessed in the Congo

--Questioning of Conrad’s basis for some parts of “Heart of Darkness,” big question on whether parts where drawn from Conrad’s own experiences or simply from reports and rumors of atrocities in the Congo

--“Profound change in [Casement’s] attitude towards the Africans,” how Casement’s attitude and sympathy towards the plight of the natives grew and changed

--Casement’s leadership in the Congo Reform Association, the developing of it, how he used Conrad, Conrad’s letters, and “Heart of Darkness” to help the cause and the important role of Conrad

--The general importance of “Heart of Darkness” as a story and what it meant

--The language of atrocity; how Conrad and Casement went about describing the “unspeakable actions” in different ways, questioning how one even talks about atrocities, how the innate shock and disbelief of stories from the Congo comes from lack of context to draw from in Europe