The Two Cities
Two different cities each occupying the same geographical space with the population of each city going about their business without constantly running into the reality of the other city. It seems to be such an absurd literary conceit upon which to build a story in which that concept is not even the main plot as to be even beyond the reach of symbolism. What could one possibly extract from such a ridiculously impossible state of affairs that could be applied even on a symbolic level to our real lives?
This might have been a difficult question to answer in 2009 when the novel first appeared, but less than a decade later not only did it no longer seem absurdly impossible, it seemed to be the state of America. By the year of Covid and the 2020 Presidential election the symbolism of the twin cities was suddenly something that was impossible to “unsee” as in the novel: two Americas existing in the same place, side by side, with each operating under completely different rules of reality.
The Third City
Further connecting the symbolic status of the novel to the actual reality that America would be short after the book’s publication is revelation of how easily people fall for outlandish conspiracy theories while at the same time managing to be so being blind to the actual criminal behavior the conspiracy theories are created to distract them from. Central to the murder investigation that is the centerpiece of the actual plot is a controversial book that posits the theory that a third city, Orciny, also shares this space. This theory turns out to be part of a complicated conspiracy designed for distraction, predicting the complex layering of gullibility among those occupying one side of the two Americas who proved capable of believing the most ridiculous of theories while rejecting the truth playing out before their very eyes.
Breaching
Breaching is the term for illegally crossing from one of the cities to the other. It is the equivalent of illegally cross over the border separating two countries. It is literally the equivalent of that because just as it is almost always easy to cross any border separating two countries, so it is easy to cross between these two cities. Except that since it the highest crime in the land—in both cities—to do this, it is not done out of fear, not out of any difficulty. Breaching becomes the symbol of the lunacy of borders which only exist if they actively guarded and protected. Borders are illusions that a population pretends are real for the sake of preserving the larger fiction that these governments and nations also exist except by collective agreement that they do.
Copula Hall
Crossing between the two cities is technically allowed and can legally be done, but only through the official border checkpoint. That is a building called Copula Hall and though it is not the only place in the cities where one can pass into the other (because, of course, it is possible but illegal to do that literally anywhere) it the physical location that one must travel to in order to make the passage. Because making everyone who wants to pass between cities for whatever reason no matter what the time and their circumstances is a purposely and unnecessary inconvenience, Copula Hall comes to symbolize that the establishment of borders separating nations is nothing but an exercise of authority over individual freedoms.
The Murder
The irony of this police procedural is that the murder being investigate is not considered nearly as serious a crime as breaching. Both cities are profoundly corrupt because attention is focused on a crime which exists only for the singular purpose making sure the population knows they are subject to its authority. Meanwhile, actual criminal behavior capable of real harm to that same population is downplayed and overlooked. What this symbolizes in regard to the real world also just happened to play out on a national scale about a decade after the book appeared when a poor man was publicly executed by a law enforcement officer for the crime of using a counterfeit $20 bill while a self-professed billionaire managed to evade paying income tax without even being questioned by law enforcement.
