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Besź
Ul Qoman refers to people and things from Ul Qoma. It is not the language of the city, which is Illitan.
Ul Qoman Quotes in The City & the City
The The City & the City quotes below are all either spoken by Ul Qoman or refer to Ul Qoman. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 5
Quotes
Very occasionally a young Ul Qoman who does not know the area of their city that Ul Qomatown crosshatches will blunder up to ask directions of an ethnically Ul Qoman Besźel-dweller, thinking them his or her compatriots. The mistake is quickly detected—there is nothing like being ostentatiously unseen to alarm—and Breach are normally merciful.
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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 8
Quotes
Okay I need to be a little bit careful here, Inspector, because honestly I never really, not really, thought he did believe it—I always thought it was kind of a game—but the book said he believed it […] A secret colony. A city between the cities, its inhabitants living in plain sight […] Unseen, like Ul Qomans to the Besź and vice versa. Walking the streets unseen but overlooking the two. Beyond the Breach. And doing what, who knows? Secret agendas. They’re still debating that, I don’t doubt, on the conspiracy theory websites.
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Ul Qoman Term Timeline in The City & the City
The timeline below shows where the term Ul Qoman appears in The City & the City. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...grown desolate in recent years thanks to the death of the river industry, but the Ul Qoma n part is becoming busier as the neighborhood becomes more prosperous. Borlú has the ability...
(full context)
...committing a brief, instinctive, “somatic breach,” such as jumping at the sound of a misfiring Ul Qoma n car. Drodin says that before she died, Byela said she was getting ready to...
(full context)
...both Borlú and Corwi feel “watched.” Provocatively, Borlú decides they should go to lunch in Ul Qoma town. The buildings here resemble a “parody” of Ul Qoman buildings more than the real...
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...a café, Corwi asks Borlú, “Why the fuck are we here?” Borlú replies that the Ul Qoma n atmosphere will help them with the case. After thinking for a while, Corwi reluctantly...
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Chapter 6
...saw Breach, he was 14 and witnessed a traffic accident that involved both Besź and Ul Qoma n cars on a crosshatched street. Just as he glanced at the accident, the vague...
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Chapter 12
Borlú is driven into Copula Hall. Because he is traveling to Ul Qoma on state business, he is subject to extra scrutiny. Speaking to the border control officer,...
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The last time Borlú went to Ul Qoma was years ago. In preparation, he had participated in an “accelerated” two-day orientation, which involved...
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...while Borlú is there, he will be treated as a “consultant” and a “guest”; the Ul Qoman militsya will be leading the investigation. Borlú asks if he can travel, and Dhatt replies that...
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...best friend, another PhD student called Yolanda Rodriguez. Yolanda seemed distraught, although her boyfriend, an Ul Qoma n man, was taking care of her. However, she now hasn’t been seen for a...
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Chapter 13
...notebooks, instead taking notes in the margins of the books she was reading. At the Ul Qoma n police station, Borlú was made to hand over his gun. He and Corwi have...
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As Borlú walks through the busy nighttime streets, most Ul Qoma n passersby double-take, assuming he is in Besźel from the way he looks before realizing...
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Chapter 14
...little less “aggressive.” Borlú looks out into the street, observing the different fashion favored by Ul Qomans and the greater proportion of Asian, Arab, and African faces in the crowds. He and...
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Chapter 17
...Bowden himself has. Borlú begins to speculate that the package may have been from an Ul Qoma n nationalist based in Besźel, who sent it from a Besź address in an attempt...
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Chapter 18
...“Urgent. Come ASAP. Don’t call.” The next morning, he goes back to Bol Ye’an, wearing Ul Qoma n-style dress with his visitor’s pass only just visible.
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Chapter 24
Borlú eventually realizes that they are in Ul Qoma , and that it is morning. The man he is with asks him to call...
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Chapter 26
...of this reaction, but Ashil then explains that the bus crash was intentional, Besź and Ul Qoma n unifications planned it together. This is the unificationist “insurrection,” a dramatic attempt to fuse...
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