Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The City & the City, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Borders and Doubles
Seeing vs. Unseeing
Crime vs. Punishment
Urban Life and Alienation
Paranoia, Conspiracy, and Illicit Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
Borlú is driven into Copula Hall. Because he is traveling to Ul Qoma on state business, he is subject to extra scrutiny. Speaking to the border control officer, he explains that his Besź driver will remain in Copula Hall, and he points out the Ul Qoman police who will be meeting him on the other side. An Ul Qoman police car pulls up and an officer gets out, greeting Borlú in Illitan. He introduces himself as Senior Detective Qussim Dhatt, and welcomes Borlú to Ul Qoma.
In Besźel, Borlú is in a position of authority, due to his job as a senior detective with the police. However, once he crosses the border into Ul Qoma he loses most of this authority, and will be under the control of the Ul Qoman police department.
Themes
Copula Hall is an old and ornate building. It is crosshatched, with some rooms in Besźel and some in Ul Qoma (while some are in both, neither, or “Copula Hall only”). On the ground level, there is a small market and street vendors, and a “no-man’s-land” where travelers pass through to get between Besźel and Ul Qoma. Close to the Ul Qoma exit lies the Temple of Inevitable Light, which Borlú has seen in pictures and, until now, unseen whenever he has passed it in real life.
The Temple of Inevitable Light is a religion in the (nominally secular) Ul Qoma. Unlike the Besź Orthodox Church, it is an entirely fictional religion that seemingly has no connection to existing religious traditions. It is never fully explored or described in the novel. One of the only ways in which its presence manifests is when Ul Qoman characters exclaim, “Holy Light!”
Themes
The last time Borlú went to Ul Qoma was years ago. In preparation, he had participated in an “accelerated” two-day orientation, which involved lessons in Illitan and Ul Qoman history and law. The teacher he had for this trip, meanwhile, told him that “Acclimatisation pedagogy’s come a long way with computers.” Yet Borlú found the computer-based tests he was forced to take “insulting” in their easiness. Now, driving through Ul Qoma, he realizes that he had forgotten what it looked like. The landscape is noticeably wealthier and sleeker than Besźel. Dhatt asks if Borlú would like to settle in at his hotel before getting something to eat. Borlú responds by asking immediately about the case.
Although it is revealed very subtly, Borlú seems to be more seriously committed to the case than Dhatt is. It seems as if Dhatt is treating Borlú’s visit more as a kind of vacation than an extension of his work on the case. Yet for various reasons, Borlú is now deeply devoted to finding Mahalia’s murderer, and can clearly think of little else.
Themes
Dhatt clarifies that while Borlú is there, he will be treated as a “consultant” and a “guest”; the Ul Qoman militsya will be leading the investigation. Borlú asks if he can travel, and Dhatt replies that he can, but may only participate in tourist activities, and it would probably be better if he didn’t travel all. Borlú asks about Bol Ye’an and Mahalia’s fellow students, and Dhatt explains that no one from the dig or university has much information. They didn’t see Mahalia for a couple of days and didn’t think much of it.
This passage confirms that Dhatt not only wants to deputize Borlú, but seems to be taking a pretty lax approach to the case himself. Dhatt has been working on the case but hasn’t really found any leads, and doesn’t appear to feel an intense drive to solve it.
Themes
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The militsya recently got a call regarding Mahalia’s best friend, another PhD student called Yolanda Rodriguez. Yolanda seemed distraught, although her boyfriend, an Ul Qoman man, was taking care of her. However, she now hasn’t been seen for a couple of days, and nobody can contact her. When Borlú asks if she’s “disappeared” Dhatt accuses him of being “melodramatic,” but Borlú says that this is simply the accurate definition of the word.
In this passage, it almost seems as if Dhatt is actively uninterested in solving the case, considering how reluctant he is to see Yolanda’s (clearly suspicious) disappearance as suspicious. Does this put Dhatt himself in a suspicious light—or could Borlú (and the reader) be suffering from paranoia?
Themes
