James De Mille's A Strange Manuscript Found In A Copper Cylinder

James De Mille’s A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is a tale of two complex interplaying narratives that De Mille uses to portray the critical shortcomings of certain characters as readers. Fundamental to De Mille’s critique is the use of Plato’s allegory of the cave, wherein Plato alludes to three individuals chained inside a dark cavern deeming the shadows of passing objects as real, until one of them is released and realizes the outside world as real, albeit the remaining prisoners are hostile to this change in philosophy (Plato 317-20). Plato uses this image as an allegory of members of society being too comfortable in their ignorance and hostile towards matters that might challenge their perceptions of the world; in turn,

During More’s time on Lava Island, More views the world around him through his colonial discourse, as his first thought to witnessing the Kosekin’s engage in cannibalism is to believe that survival was only accomplishable through “rule by terror- to seize, to slay, to conquer” (De Mille 78). Such hostility illustrates More’s stubborn mindset of rejecting beliefs and values that differ from him, instead perceiving them as beneath his “superior race” of people (De Mille 198); hence, he cannot comprehend the cannibalism in any other manner than to denounce it. In its place, More desires to find similarities between the world of the Kosekins and his world (De Mille 194), in order to be comfortable in his own ignorance and remain blind. An illustration of this is his substantial trust of the Kosekins, as More remarks that the Kosekins “are eager in their acts of kindness… [and] had no feeling save pity, sympathy, and a desire to alleviate” distress (De Mille 147). It is clear that More craves to “love them” because he cannot fathom how such people, whose cherishing of altruism and hospitality align greatly with what he values are so brutal (De Mille 149). Moreover, even when the Kohen explains the Kosekin’s culture, More cannot comprehend what the Kohen states, since More is too fixated on his culture being the

With a scientific background, Congreve worships hard-facts (De Mille 177-79), and engages in what Gwendolyn Guth correctly terms as “insufferable anatomizing” of the manuscript’s authenticity (45). Likewise to More’s inability to view the Kosekin’s world through a different perspective, Congreve’s over-anatomizing is a result of his inability to interpret More’s work out of the realms of expertise he is familiar with. For instance, Congreve prefers to take “More’s statements at their utmost value” in order to divulge into a deep dissection of rationalizing monsters that More creates (De Mille 109; 105); rather than perceive the novel as valuable due to it (social crticisms of society) truths in criticizing aspects of society, and not notion of a strange place. In a sense, by staying within the realms of realism and hard-facts, Congreve locks himself in the shackles of the cave and is blind to everything unfamiliar, causing him to fail in correctly interpreting More’s