In
China Miéville’s 2009 speculative novel, ‘The City & The City’ the two
cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma exist in the same grosstopography but belong to
separate jurisdictions, neighbouring states. Unlike divided cities, such as
Berlin after WWII, Besźel and Ul Qoma overlay and in places crosshatch each
other. But from childhood, the citizens of each state are taught to unsee the
people, and civic artefacts – architecture, vehicles, clothing, language, etc. –
of their topolganger. That is, to see (so that you do not walk into them, do
not get hit by their cars) but not see; to register but not register. To
studiously not look at what is right in front of you, for fear of swift
reprisal. It is an interesting allegory of our ability to see only what we want
to see, and to police what others see.
While
a political novel, it can also be read theologically, and in particular in the
light of Advent, that season of waiting in readiness for the return of Jesus,
who first came into the world in the event we celebrate at Christmas. A season
of learning to see realities we have been taught, from childhood, to unsee:
faithfulness, lovingkindness, justice, events that have no place in a world
shaped by rapacious greed and self-interest, by the oppression anyone branded ‘the
other’ by powerful men. To believe that the state we have been told is superior
is, in fact, only one side of a whole, and drab when compared to the vibrancy
that is all around us yet prohibited. To not fear transgressing borders, in the
hope of unification, while recognising that what is good news for many is an
existential threat to those most actively invested in (benefiting from) the
status quo.
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