When Valencia outgrew its ancient core, its citizens took the opposite approach to those of many mediaeval towns: they demolished the walls but kept the gateways. It was a symbolic act, from which today’s nationalists (and those who oppose them) would do well to learn.
I love fortified gateways but it was only when I visited Valencia that I realised why. It’s not so much about architecture: it’s about intent. Walls are there to keep people out. Gateways are there to let them in. The fortification is to control the flow. What a perfect analogy for our current obsession with immigration and whether to integrate people or keep different groups apart.
All you really need to know about Trump is that he wants to build walls. If the man had any love for people, or for increasing the flow of trade and discourse, he would focus on the difficult issues of how many people to let in, and who, and when, and how to regulate it all. He would be talking about building gateways.
The ultimate examples of this are to be found in the Italian city of Lucca and the Chinese city of X’ian. Lucca became not merely famous for its walls but defined by them. An obsession with security and control meant that gatekeepers were forbidden on pain of death from allowing any outsider to spend the night in their gatehouse. The place was very safe but the resulting introspection restricted the city’s growth and turned it into a museum.
In contrast, X’ian became for some centuries the largest city on earth. It’s walls are so huge that one could put a four-lane highway along the top: but that was nothing compared to the gateways. They were built to contain and process camel caravans coming in from the Silk Road. An outer set of gates allowed the caravan to enter a vast courtyard that was entirely enclosed by an extension of the walls. They were crenellated on both sides, so that archers could dominate the caravan whilst it was inspected. Once it had been assessed (and any threat dealt with), it was taxed. Then the inner gates opened and the caravan was welcomed into the city. By both promoting and regulating the movement of people and goods, X’ian thrived.
Whilst I despise the mentality of the wall-builders, I also believe that free movement is no longer an option, now that we have failed to control population growth, climate change and the depletion of natural resources. Yet right now it’s not clear if we want our gates open or closed, or who we want to allow in, or why: and the rules keep changing. Our future depends upon answering those questions and keeping our gateways open as much as we dare and yet well guarded. It requires a deeper debate than we are used to, driven to the point of making hard choices and translating them into clear policies that we all accept. That process has a name: democracy.
As a writer, I have always been interested in connecting across cultures. So I guess my choice of which book to focus on next has already been made. The Happy Dancer is all about two people struggling to connect with each other across a huge divide. I realise now what I have to do, to make the book work. I have to look deep inside myself and come up with honest answers to some of those questions. I think I’m going to learn just how hard it is, to be a good gatekeeper.
Alan Brunstrom, Author Site 