Essay Questions

This novel is at one level a crime thriller, but what is the ultimate crime that can be committed in either of the two cities at the center of its narrative?

The narrative conceit of the novel is that two different cities—Beszel and Ul Qoma—both occupy the same geographic space simultaneously. They co-exist within this space as a kind of mirror of each other but are utterly autonomous. In other words, each features its own independent law enforcement system, its own educational system, and features separate languages and cultures.

The weirdness of this arrangement is simplicity itself: on any given street one structure might belong to Beszel while its next door neighbor “exists” in Ul Qoma. Unlike, slightly-but-not-quite-similar sister cities such as Minneapolis and St. Paul, however, one cannot simply move about freely as citizens of both cities. In fact, the single greatest crime that can be committed in Beszel is acknowledging the existence of Ul Qoma while the greatest crime that can be committed in Ul Qoma is acknowledging the existence of Beszel. This is a criminal offense known as breaching in both cities. What might be a fun idea for a four-day vacation at a theme park proves less so in everyday practice.

What is dopplurbanology?

Dopplurbanology is a term used just once in the novel, but it hints at the postmodernist sensibility working beneath the text. Dopplurbanology is the term which has been given to those lives outside the borders of the two cities as non-residents of either who have developed a compulsive interest in extraordinarily unique and unusual relationship between Beszel and Ul Qoma. More than merely compulsive, actually, dopplurbanology verges on being used to describe a cultish fascination that is driven by conspiracy theories that, tellingly, spawned a massive number of websites featuring information that officials in both cities routinely attempted—usually unsuccessfully—to censor or ban access to by their own citizens.

What is profoundly ironic about the Oversight Committee?

The Oversight Committee is the name of the institution which is the main governing body of both Ul Qoma and Beszel. Its very existence would seem to be the very definition of committing the crime of breaching since it is comprised of officials from both cities and is located in one of the very rare structures that shares the same name in both: Copula Hall. An additional level of irony in addition for its meetings seemingly violating the supreme law of the land that is shared is that physically it exists as a concrete presence in both Ul Qoma and Beszel, but its rather shadowy purpose lends it the sense of belonging to neither city but rather existing as an singular anomaly.