Precipitating The Experience

As I think back on how Heart of Darkness impacted me, I remember how it was the tale of an experience. The way Marlow introduces Kurtz, along his journey to the heart of the Congo, makes it important to highlight how this is the story of a memory. The reenactment of what once was, and Marlow’s subsequent transformation. This mirrors the relationship between a book and a reader: What is a book, other than an experience? Being a world of its own, as many of my previous English teachers taught me, a book encompasses and creates a life of its own. The transcendence and immortality of the story depend on how well the author is able to describe, to create, to force the reader to think of an alternative existence.

The Age of Wonder does just that, creates a world of the scientists’ adventures. The way we conceive a book, roots in the way we use books to communicate the deepest passions, realities and dreams of our surroundings. Richard Holmes begins by narrating how an experiment in his early years, the precipitation of a crystal from mineral salts, has had the “eventual consequence, after many years of cooling, [. . .] to precipitate this book” (Holmes, xv). This book recounts the story of Joseph Banks, a botanist who found himself in Tahiti, and who’s voyage “launched an Age of Wonder” (Holmes, 59). Capturing the transformation of this character, the connection made between a Romantic appreciation of life and science becomes Holmes’ goal. In a way, the reader observes how Banks does the same as Holmes, they both dedicate their work to showing others the beauty that surrounds them, the possible reconciliation between spirituality and science. Even though Banks doesn’t publish “his long-dreamed-of Endeavour Voyage, or any full account of his time in Paradise,” his adventures, and the impact he had on those around him, mirror that of Marlow and in a way, those of authors in general.

Furthermore, the utility of books in our daily lives can agree with the author’s purpose of writing the book, appreciating the message, adopting some of their experience into our own lives. But the author’s free will can also use books to create chairs and flower bases, as this page promotes. The possible demise of reading, the tragic end of books as waste and part of useful objects reminds us of the finite quality of writing. As long as there are writers to publish their thoughts, experiences and imaginations, I believe there will always be readers to appreciate and be influenced by them in an infinite number of unique ways.