Though given the opportunity, I'm going to try to avoid ranting here, but it may be difficult. What really drives me crazy in the literature I read, particularly Heart of Darkness, is how much people care about everything, and in a shallow way: themselves, their circumstances, their money, their food, their comfort, their image, everything!
Particularly the character of the Manager is illustrative of this caring. He's so obsessed with the way the Company is seen and the way he is seen and how easy or difficult everything is, that he has absolutely no understanding of anything going on around him. He's so focused on the tiny little details of his life that he can't step back for clarity. It's like looking at a Renoir painting from an inch away; all you'll see is the blurry brush strokes, not the beautiful masterpiece it is from afar.
There is an issue when you can only see the big picture and none of the aspects which make up the whole, and in a way, this is very superficial. But this obsession with details is even more superficial, even though one would think it would be deeper.
The reason this rubs me the wrong way is that I have lately been trying to open my eyes to the bigger picture of my life, trying to "go with the flow", so to speak. With college-thinking and AP exams and sports all coming up on me at once, I'd go crazy if I tried to keep a view of all those little things in depth. I self-evaluate and ask myself, "does this really matter to my future? Will my life be worse because I couldn't accomplish this?" And the answer is usually no.
So the basis of my issue with over-caring stems from the fact that I could manage it and these people, like the Manager, don't even try. I know it's necessary to have some character dynamics; otherwise, the book would be flat. There's no way all the key players can have a perfect insight into their life. But I find it unbearably frustrating to be forced to experience this narrow-mindedness along with the character, and feel powerless as they get caught up in all the little details that you, as a reader, know don't matter.
I guess I'll just have to deal with this because I know that it adds something to the story, though it may drive my crazy. I have to face the fact that the book wasn't written to my taste; I have to trust the author to resolve this issue before the conclusion of the novel. I just have to go with the flow.
Anna, although I agree with you on your take on the over-caring on the mundane details of life, I would have to disagree on its application to literature. I would argue that you are ~supposed~ to feel frustrated with The Manager on his small mindedness. That you aren't supposed to identify him, but see him in the way that you do, with a sense of almost disgust. In "the Little Prince", the little prince visits multiple planets on the way to Earth. On each of these lives an adult who each do a similar over-caring over tedious insignificant things.
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