How many great novels in English were written by someone for whom it was a third language? Jeez. Even Nabokov spoke English as a youth, along with Russian and French.
I think the question of "history" is very interesting. Personally, I'd much rather read the Master and Commander series a third time than read a boring history of the Napoleonic Wars. But Conrad's books are always regarded as "fiction" even though you learn an awful lot about life back then, which you wouldn't get from a history book.
O'Brien wasn't actually alive during the Napoleonic Wars- so how did he get the details to write his stories? He read history and had enough imagination to interpret it, rather than look at it as a 'boring' recitation of facts.
He's actually interviewed on YouTube, amazingly enough.
When he was young, he was sick and confined to his house, where they had a complete collection of the Gazette and lots of other stuff. Basically, he spent his entire life learning about the period.
So he digested all that stuff that we'd probably never get to. What's your point?
Tl;dr: Conrad wrote books similar or related to experiences he actually had, and some aspects of those things are similar to experiences you can have today.
Conrad wrote a story about a boat trip in the Congo during which he witnessed violence. Jasanoff also went on a boat trip on the same river, and although not witnessing the sort of violence Conrad wrote about, felt feels she gained insight into the "look and feel" of the landscape Conrad wrote about.
Okay, not sure I see the point of any of this, except to say that Conrad wrote about things similar to his life experiences. But I think that's table-stakes knowledge for anybody reading one of Conrad's books.
I’m trying to imagine how many people have done any degree of “table stakes” background reading on Conrad, and read more than HoD in 7th grade, even among HN super-achievers (the name Nostromo notwithstanding), and feel confident commenting on an article from a literary quarterly which, let’s be honest, surely assumes readers have undertaken — and possess the tools and fruits of — vast and deep cultural scholarship. Basically five, amiright?
Which is to say, there’s a lot to talk about here, but how to present it? Who to? I noticed similar themes while reading Thucydides on my lunch hour. Pfft.
How many great novels in English were written by someone for whom it was a third language? Jeez. Even Nabokov spoke English as a youth, along with Russian and French.
I think the question of "history" is very interesting. Personally, I'd much rather read the Master and Commander series a third time than read a boring history of the Napoleonic Wars. But Conrad's books are always regarded as "fiction" even though you learn an awful lot about life back then, which you wouldn't get from a history book.