The Eagle Ray Sensation

Heart of Darkness is filled with paradoxes. I though the word “paradox” meant “a popular belief, a universal truth” but I was wrong. According to Princeton (haughty haughty) a paradox is “a statement that contradicts itself”. For example, when Marlow says he is “tired of resting” (p.70) we can say it is a paradox because being tired of resting beats the purpose of resting in the first place.
Or is it irony?
Princeton defines irony as being an “incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs”, so if Marlow rested he expected to be revitalized but ended up getting tired of that too it would be irony. If I look at the types of irony I don’t see this fitting in any of them but at the same time it stand pretty close to each without really stepping fully inside of a definition.
Another example of this paradox/irony comes in the phrase “the serenity became less brilliant but more profound” (p. 66). Since we’re talking about seamen I find it appropriate to point out how this immediately made me think of the sea. In shallow waters everything is vibrating, all the tiny little rainbow fish are friendly and you can see them even form the surface but one you go deeper, you can’t see much and you’re skin is covered in goose bumps but once a big, gray eagle ray swims by it makes sense you’d submit to the shivering and the boredom. The contradiction comes in as the “serenity” loses some qualities but gains others of a completely different nature and manages to remain serene.
The reason I don’t feel satisfied no matter how much I read is how Conrad takes a simple phrase and turns it into a never-ending philosophical debate between me and myself. As you look at every single bit closer you find that a single idea branches off in a million directions that have branches of their own which give me headaches.
~wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn