Report on the Threatened City

by

Doris Lessing

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Report on the Threatened City makes teaching easy.

The Technicians Character Analysis

The envoys visit the Institute for Prognosis and Prevention of Earth Disturbance, where they encounter a group of “highly skilled” geological technicians who study earthquakes. These technicians live and work close to the fault line in the city, the most dangerous place to be if there’s an earthquake. Their equipment enables them to diagnose tremors and convulsions, and it is their duty to warn the public before earthquakes, which they do with great accuracy. Despite their advanced knowledge and awareness that the city will not survive a major earthquake, they seem content to live in this dangerous area, and they are more emotional about the city’s economic concerns than about potential disasters.

The Technicians Quotes in Report on the Threatened City

The Report on the Threatened City quotes below are all either spoken by The Technicians or refer to The Technicians . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Perception and Belief Theme Icon
).
Report on the Threatened City Quotes

For it is as if the mechanism fear has been misplaced from where it would be useful—preventing or softening calamity—to an area of their minds that makes them suspicious of anything but the familiar.

Related Characters: The Envoys (speaker), The Technicians
Related Symbols: The Earthquake
Page Number: 251
Explanation and Analysis:

But, very shortly, a strong emotion was raised by phrases and words of which we list a few here: profit motive, conflicting commercial interests, vested interests, capitalism, socialism, democracy—there are many such emotive words. We were not able to determine, or not in a way that our economic experts would recongise as satisfactory, the significance of these phrases, since the emotions became too violent to allow the conference to continue.

Related Characters: The Envoys (speaker), The Technicians
Page Number: 255
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Report on the Threatened City LitChart as a printable PDF.
Report on the Threatened City PDF

The Technicians Quotes in Report on the Threatened City

The Report on the Threatened City quotes below are all either spoken by The Technicians or refer to The Technicians . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Perception and Belief Theme Icon
).
Report on the Threatened City Quotes

For it is as if the mechanism fear has been misplaced from where it would be useful—preventing or softening calamity—to an area of their minds that makes them suspicious of anything but the familiar.

Related Characters: The Envoys (speaker), The Technicians
Related Symbols: The Earthquake
Page Number: 251
Explanation and Analysis:

But, very shortly, a strong emotion was raised by phrases and words of which we list a few here: profit motive, conflicting commercial interests, vested interests, capitalism, socialism, democracy—there are many such emotive words. We were not able to determine, or not in a way that our economic experts would recongise as satisfactory, the significance of these phrases, since the emotions became too violent to allow the conference to continue.

Related Characters: The Envoys (speaker), The Technicians
Page Number: 255
Explanation and Analysis: