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Breach
Copula Hall is a very large, ornate building that symbolizes the arbitrary and irrational nature of borders and the comic yet sinister nature of government bureaucracy. One of the few places in both Besźel and Ul Qoma, it is the only place where the border between the cities can officially be crossed (without committing breach). In order to do so, travelers must have a visa and be checked by staff at the border. In this sense, Copula Hall is no different than many other border crossings that exist in the real world, including border checkpoints inside divided cities and nations such as Berlin and the West Bank. However, what makes the border checkpoint at Copula Hall somewhat unique (and arguably uniquely irrational) is that Besźel and Ul Qoma occupy the same geographic space, such that it would be possible (but illegal) for a citizen to step in and out of each city within moments. The fact that officially crossing the border requires going all the way to the ornate, imposing establishment of Copula Hall thus becomes a symbol of the illogical, inefficient, and arbitrary nature of borders. This is further illustrated by the fact that Copula Hall itself is crosshatched, such that some of its rooms are in Besźel and some in Ul Qoma, meaning that simply walking through the building involves crossing and re-crossing the border between two entirely different worlds. The fact that Copula Hall is the meeting site of the Oversight Committee—a committee formed of half Besź and half Ul Qoman politicians charged with adjudicating matters that concern both cities—makes it a symbol of the strained unity between the two cities.
Copula Hall Quotes in The City & the City
The The City & the City quotes below all refer to the symbol of Copula Hall. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6
Quotes
A Besź dweller cannot walk a few paces next door into an alter house without breach.
But pass through Copula Hall and she or he might leave Besźel, and at the end of the hall come back to exactly (corporeally) where they had just been, but in another country, a tourist, a marvelling visitor, to a street that shared the latitude-longitude of their own address, a street they had never visited before, whose architecture they had always unseen, to the Ul Qoman house sitting next to and a whole city away from their own building, unvisible there now they had come through, all the way across the Breach, back home.
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Chapter 23
Quotes
“Yorjavic didn’t breach, Borlú. He shot over the border, in Copula Hall. He never breached. Lawyers might have an argument: was the crime committed in Besźel where he pulled the trigger, or Ul Qoma where the bullets hit? Or both? He held out his hands in an elegant who cares? “He never breached. You did. So you are here, now, in the Breach.”
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Copula Hall Symbol Timeline in The City & the City
The timeline below shows where the symbol Copula Hall appears in The City & the City. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6
...committee meets in one of the only places that is the same in both cities: Copula Hall , an ornate building that lies in both Besźel and Ul Qoma’s Old Towns. The...
(full context)
...want to travel between Besźel and Ul Qoma must go through the official border at Copula Hall even if the place they want to go is right next to their own house....
(full context)
Chapter 10
...shows him a surveillance videotape of Khurusch’s van. Borlú can make out the edge of Copula Hall , and sees the van drive in and out. This means that the van went...
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...Breach. The statement describes the discovery that the van passed through an official checkpoint at Copula Hall , which means that breach did not occur. Smuggling does not inherently involve breach, although...
(full context)
Chapter 12
Borlú is driven into Copula Hall . Because he is traveling to Ul Qoma on state business, he is subject to...
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Copula Hall is an old and ornate building. It is crosshatched, with some rooms in Besźel and...
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Chapter 17
...from a post office “grosstopically” close, although it would have travelled a long distance via Copula Hall to arrive at Bol Ye’an.
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Chapter 20
...Besźel, along with another officer who’s “undercover.” He asks Corwi to discreetly meet them at Copula Hall . Corwi reluctantly agrees, and adds that someone has been calling and asking questions about...
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Chapter 21
...and if he wants to leave, he should meet them by the traffic gate outside Copula Hall at 7pm the next day. On that day, Borlú doesn’t check out of his hotel....
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...her to warn Aikam that he’s not coming, because he doesn’t want “a scene at Copula Hall .” When Yolanda tells him this Aikam protests, but she promises to call him from...
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Chapter 28
...the country. When Dhatt calls back a second time, he says that Bowden is at Copula Hall ; apparently he has been there for hours. However, the staff don’t know what to...
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...in a car, driving as fast as possible. Dhatt is only ten minutes away from Copula Hall , but he doesn’t want to approach Bowden for fear of breach, either. Borlú cannot...
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...actually believed in Orciny. He accuses Bowden of telling Buric that Yolanda would be at Copula Hall —information that got her killed. Bowden asks where Buric is; Borlú replies that he is...
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