The Heart of Darkness (on a different continent)

As I’ve been reading this month’s Non-Fiction Book Club selection: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, which tells the story of Theodore Roosevelt’s ambitious and wholly impractical journey through the wild jungles of the Amazon rain forest, I am reminded time and again of Werner Herzog and two of his most famous and frankly ambitious films: Aguirre Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo; but most especially Les Blank’s film The Burden of Dreams which is about the making of the latter (the clip above is a monologue of Herzog’s from The Burden of Dreams). If you haven’t seen them, you should. And Herzog’s recently published journals from the making of Fizcarraldo are also a treat.

I don’t mean to make these recommendations to burden you…just focus on reading The River of Doubt in advance of next week’s book club meeting on Thursday, April 7, 2011 @ 6:30PM. And then if you find the subject interesting (as I’m sure you will) you can check out Herzog’s work, post-meeting. In any case, see you next week!