Babel

Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

eBook, 560 pages

Published Aug. 22, 2022 by Harper Voyager.

ISBN:
978-0-06-302144-0
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Goodreads:
57945316

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4 stars (12 reviews)

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828- Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is …

2 editions

Captivating

5 stars

For a good chunk of it, it's a coming-of-age and "magic school" tale with a pinch of the chosen one narrative. The later gets subverted in a very interesting way. And soon there are more unexpected and emotional twists which lead to a confrontation with the imperialist and racist authorities. The magic system Kuang came up with is very original and intriguing. Often, with magic, language or the right words play a role but basing it on the power of translation seems quite unique. I loved all the in-depth discussion of language and translation. It inspired a friend and me to come up with our own word pairs and speculate about what those pairs would do. It's also one of the few fantasy stories that deals with how magic would be used in a capitalist society in a realistic manner. My only major point of critique is that the narrative …

Babel

5 stars

This is a historical novel about a small group of scholars (mostly of color) in Oxford in the 1830's, with an added fantastical element of magical silver powered by language and translations. Historically, it covers a modified industrial revolution, British colonialism, opium wars with China, and even gets into the Luddites, all impacted and warped by the British empire being powered by silver. What I especially appreciated is that the magic silver mostly just exacerbated issues and functioned as a metaphor for power in all of these historical situations; this is not a book about historical divergence due to magic but rather a book where the magic is used as a metaphor to reexamine things in a fresh light.

The idea of magic silver here powered by translations is just so well done. Scholars (and thus language) are extracted from colonies to power silver magic as a parallel to other …

Coming of age anti-colonism fantasy

4 stars

The story follows a Chinese boy pulled from his home and trained in the magic of translation to power silver ingots. As he matures, he questions his role in supporting the colonism that wrenched him from his home land.

It's well written, interesting and thought provoking read. It's not an escapist fantasy, and parts of it go into the day-to-day life of a scholar a bit too much for my taste. I enjoyed it but wouldn't recommend if you like your fantasy full of daring exploits and wizardly magic.

A postcolonial, antiracist Harry Potter

4 stars

Kuang's story surprises. This coming-of-age (and coming-of-revolution) story introduces us to a world where the the 19th-century Industrial Revolution is made possible not by steam and worker oppression but by the magical powers of translation and colonial exploitation. The experiences of the protagonist, a Cantonese boy that adopts the English name Robin Swift, lead us to an imagined Oxford that is as intriguing as Hogwarts but that has sins that Kuang not only does not whitewash, but makes the centerpiece of her novel. The historical notes and especially the etymological explanations are fascinating, if occasionally pedantic. Once you get your head around this world and how it works, you'll want to hang on to the end to see how a postcolonial critique during the height of the British Empire can possibly turn out.

Review of 'Babel' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This memorable novel is both ingeniously creative and importantly timely in its message. R.F. Kuang weaves together a story that injects magical realism into a novel that is both historical and revisionist. That is, this is a story that asks us to imagine the road not taken at a certain time in history, and the ethics of the decisions of those in power–and question how and why such power came to be, in the first place.

I felt that the characters were well-developed and realistically complex, making it possible for the reader to feel the emotion in their stories. The plot was also well crafted and paced.

Instead of summarizing the plot, I want to simply recommend this novel, which I knew nothing about before I started reading. Part of the magic, for me, was simply reading on to discover the shape of the world as it is created by …

Review of 'Babel' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It was good, really good. The characters were interesting and three dimensional and enjoyable, the setting and plot was engaging and high stakes, and the translation lectures were tailor made for language nerds like me.

However, don’t do like I did and go into this expecting a fantasy novel. This is, mostly, historical fiction with a magic system reskinning technological progress in Victorian England.

This is not a knock on it, though, saying that it’s superfluous; it has a very interesting, if specific effect on the reader’s relationship with the world. It moves all of the varied goods and services that imperial Britain used to maintain power over their colonies into one spot and one profession: Oxford translators. As I see it, the silver magic system mostly exists to move the political center of Britain into this area. And I enjoyed it if only for this facet, if not for …

provoking, but in a good way

5 stars

I did feel like this violated the dictum "show don't tell" a bit too much, but it has interesting characters and a gripping plot to go with it's anti-colonialism message. Can be read as a straight forward critique of imperialism, but there are also interesting connections (or at least possible interpretations relating) to the role of technology and technology driven capitalism in contemporary society.

Good, but not without flaws

4 stars

Some frustration with footnotes (both spotting the asterix and how Kuang was using them - particularly early on - but there was a moment of clarity later on… but then Chapter 31 happened?!?) and that the queer characters were killed off and never able to tell each other they were head-over-heels (and not in a tragedy style way either)… but otherwise really good.

I love translation and the thought that goes into it - much of which is covered here.

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rated it

4 stars
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rated it

4 stars
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rated it

5 stars