The City & The City

The novel The City and The City explores the relationship between two city states and how the inhabitants of these two seemingly homogenous city states interact with each other. In class we discussed city states and their characteristics, and we determined that they did not have defined borders, citizenship, and may or may not have international recognition. The two city states in the book, Beszel and Ul Qoma, although certainly city states they do not actually have all of the required elements of a city state, but still behave in the same manner as a sovereign city would. “Citizens” from Beszel or Ul Qoma carry identification and comingling between the two is typically prohibited, so they do not quite fit the no-citizenship requirement. As for international recognition, Beszel is recognized by the United States but Ul Qoma is not. Defined borders however are trickier in that although citizens are prohibited from crossing over or “breaching” it is almost impossible to regulate due to the close proximity of the two.

Even though the populations of Beszel and Ul Qoma appear to be relatively homogenous seeing as they share a common language, history, and live in such close proximity (literally right next to each other), there are distinct differences between the two. These differences can be seen in the clothing, architecture, and as especially their distinct national/ethnic identity. In various readings we discussed the importance of various peoples sharing a sense of identity before they are able to manifest that identity into a physical state with borders. This quote helps illustrate this point. “It’s not just us keeping them apart. It’s everyone in Beszel and everyone in Ul Qoma. Every minute, every day. We’re only the last ditch: it’s everyone in the cities who does most of the work. It works because you don’t blink. That’s unseeing and unsensing are so vital. No one can admit it doesn’t work. So if you don’t admit it, it does. But if you breach, even if it’s not your fault, for the shortest…you can’t come back from that.” (pg310) Now although these two cities are for all intents and purposes the same, the mental sovereignty that each citizen expressed not only through their nationalism but through their compliance with the rules shows that sovereignty as well as city states is much more than defined borders, but the actual mindset and behavior of people. The example used in discussion to illustrate this point was Jim Crow laws in the U.S’s southern states. Now although blacks and whites were both Americans living in the same cities and town, every aspect of life was separate. Any type of socializing or mixing of races was strictly prohibited and the society was structured around this. While in Beszel and Ul Qoma looking across at your neighbor could get you in trouble in the Deep South not getting off when a white person walked your way would spell trouble as would looking a white women in the face. One could say there are definitely parallels between the two systems and the behaviors of the citizens.  The main point to take away is that although there was one America in reality there were two separate Americas right next to each other living in each other’s space just as Beszel and Ul Qoma.