In this description note that everything is present only in bits or halves. It
is a nice evocation of awakening creativity, inspired by the lure of mystery and
the desire to fill in the blanks, but it is also possible that Conrad's "something
to write about" concerns precisely the missing portions, the parts
of the physical world that aren't there, although we believe they are. The thrust
of the novel is that the only full reality is subjective experience, and note
that here, the only undivided image is of "men's passions."