Boredom on Board
Interestingly, the novel both begins and ends on imagery related to boredom. Since the men who are in this state of boredom are not working class sailors, but men of means cruising for leisure and pleasure, however, it is perhaps connotatively inappropriate to describe this “state of dull and languid repose” with such a vulgar term. Call it instead ennui: the world-weary tedium of those with enough status and wealth to have enough free time on their hands to get bored. Considering the distinction that is drawn between them and the low status of wealth and acquisition within the unknown civilization written about in the strange manuscript, the decision by the author to open and close his story with this imagery is probably pertinent.
Cannibalism
Cannibalism plays a major role in the narrative, but its effect as imagery is multi-faceted. The fact that this strange secret society is situated as the polar opposite of western civilization and that the primary defining characteristic of their society is a rejection of capital-based status and power implicates cannibalism imagery as a metaphor: the ideal among these people is to be consumed rather than to consume. At the same time, however, the abject rejection of cannibalism as an abomination also lends the imagery religious meaning: while the Christian characters place this aspect of that society as the most distasteful of their strange practices, the worship of that very religion places a symbolic cannibalism as among its most holy rites. So the imagery of the literal cannibalism of the indigenous people also serves a satire of Christian hypocrisy as well as capitalist greed.
The Wind
Variations of the phrase “off like the wind” recur throughout the narrative described in the strange manuscript to the point that it almost take on a kind of totemic ritual meaning. Meanwhile in the framing narrative which opens the novel, the second paragraph commences with the assertion that “the wind had failed” which kicks off two long paragraphs detailing that state of ennui described above. The power of the wind or the lack thereof plays an elemental role in examining how the frame narrative and the manuscript narrative both wind up discovering the secret civilization of Kosekin. The implicit suggestion is that great discoveries of men may be far more dependent upon the impulses of nature than the impulses of human curiosity.
A Plea to Understand
Repetition is used as imagery in a bid to make a plea to the reader to try to work harder at understanding the unfamiliar rather than judging it. Nearly two dozen iterations of phrases which end with either “not understand” or “don’t understand” pepper the narrative and these recurrences gradually produces a cumulative effect that transcend the narrative. The constant refrain of these phrases passes from effective motif to irritating repetition. A typical reader will inevitably reach a point of frustration at characters who simply voice this lack of comprehension again and again rather than addressing the problem itself.
