Cities

Cities play in an important role in this story collection. Cities represent interconnection, multiplicity, and possibility. They are communities where people of all likes interact and cross paths. They allow for an exchange of goods, ideas, and experiences. In "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," we see a city that is captured as a place of great diversity. As the narrator says, "Oh, it is the thing that will seem most fantastic to you, friend: the variety! The citizens of Um-Helat are so many and so wildly different in appearance and origin and development. People in this land come from many others, and it shows in sheen of skin and kick of hair and plumpness of lip and hip" (5). Um-Helat is captured as a place populated with people coming from all over and living together in harmony. Of course, by having such a plentiful city secretly...