A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder · Chapter
XIX: The Wonders of the Amir explained
The narrator and Almah are taken to the great city of the Kosekin, where they are housed in a vast cavern complex.
What happens
The narrator and Almah are taken to the great city of the Kosekin, where they are housed in a vast cavern complex. The narrator meets the Kohen Gadol, a man of 'advanced views' who is selfish and averse to Kosekin values, and his daughter Layelah, the Malca (queen), who is beautiful, ambitious, and deeply admiring of the narrator. Layelah and her father question the narrator about the outer world, and Layelah reveals her revolutionary aspirations, seeing the narrator as a teacher. The narrator finds hope in their selfishness, which contrasts with the self-sacrificing Kosekin norm.
Themes in this chapter
Inverted Social Order
The Kosekin value poverty, darkness, and self-sacrifice; the Kohen Gadol and Layelah are lowest in status because they are selfish and love light, which the narrator sees as a potential advantage.
Colonial Exploration and Otherness
The narrator is seen as a superior being from a 'race of light,' and Layelah treats his words as divine wisdom, reflecting colonial dynamics of cultural superiority and fascination.
The Role of Music and Art
The Kosekin have a written alphabet and Layelah writes down the narrator's sayings, highlighting the role of writing and record-keeping in their culture.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Describes his arrival at the Amir, his meetings with the Kohen Gadol and Layelah, and his hope in finding selfishness among the Kosekin.
- Almah
Accompanies the narrator to the Amir; is taken to her own chamber but assured she can remain near the narrator; Layelah ignores her.
- Layelah
Daughter of the Kohen Gadol, Malca (queen) of the Kosekin; beautiful, ambitious, and deeply admiring of the narrator; she writes down his sayings and plans to revolutionize the empire.
- The Kohen
The Kohen Gadol, a man of advanced selfish views; he is curious about the outer world and hopes the narrator can help him; he is the lowest in Kosekin society due to his lack of their virtues.
- The Kosekin
The Kosekin people are described as self-sacrificing and averse to light; the narrator finds their values alien and hopes to find selfish individuals among them.
Key passages
“I could even bear being condemned to live forever in the light. Oh, my friend, it is the conviction of right and the support of conscience that strengthens one to bear the greatest evils that man can inflict.”
Layelah declares she could endure even eternal light, as her conscience supports her against the worst punishments the Kosekin can impose.
Layelah's inversion of Kosekin values: she sees light as a punishment, but her conviction makes her brave.
“She seemed to be a new Semiramis—one who might revolutionize an empire and introduce a new order of things.”
The narrator compares Layelah to the legendary queen Semiramis, seeing her as a potential revolutionary.
Highlights Layelah's ambition and the narrator's hope for change.
“If I could only find someone who was a coward, and selfish and avaricious—if this Kohen Gadol could but be he—how much brighter my life would be!”
The narrator wishes the Kohen Gadol were selfish and cowardly, as that would give him an ally against the self-sacrificing Kosekin.
Reveals the narrator's desperate hope for a like-minded individual.
