Just as a preface, I want to say that I enjoyed the book a lot and think that if anyone wants a book to read “The City and The City” would not be a bad place to start.
The premise of the book when I first began to read it seemed entirely ridiculous to me. How could anyone possibly not see someone just a few feet in front of them or not the sound of a train going by a few feet away from their window? Then I realized that this is something that humans do all the time. If you’ve ever been in a room with a ticking clock then without even thinking about it, you have “unheard” the clock. Think back to middle school or elementary school when you went to the cafeteria for lunch. Those cafeterias had hundreds of kids in them. They were extraordinarily loud but can you even remember the noise? How about the smell of all the food? Or the groups that sat around your group only feet away from you? In a way, we are all constantly unseeing and unhearing things. The Besz and Ul Qomans are just doing it in a more directed way.
Then in my research for the project I came across this article and it made a point that really stuck out to me. LASA has roughly 1000 students and about 70 more teachers and stuff for a total of over a thousand people in the school on any given day. How many of those people have you ever had an interaction with? Then let’s add another layer, one which fits the book extraordinarily well. How about LBJ, which has roughly the same number of students and staff? For most people, that number is not going to be more than 10 or 20 and, while that may be more than the zero of most Ul Qomans or Besz, there isn’t a special organization that will make you permanently disappear if you talk to someone from LBJ.
The LBJ-LASA comparison even includes some other features of the cities in the book. There are crosshatched areas or areas in both cities such as the library or cafeteria. Then there are areas like the dungeon where the two are in very close proximity but it is very clear which is which. So, despite my original thoughts about the silliness of the premise, it turns out I have been going to Besz or Ul Qoma every day for the past two and a half years without ever realizing it.
Oh my gosh, this is a great comparison for the ways in which we focus our attention every day. We have two separate administrations, sets of rules, everything. Except for the places where we converge. And then because we don't know each other, because we're not sure what the rules and norms are, those places of convergence often end up being sites of tension or negotiation.
ReplyDeleteSolid.