Babel, or The Necessity of Violence

Oh Babel, you book of towering ambition, how have you faltered in your lofty pursuits, leaving us ensnared in the web of unmet expectations.

Venturing to the fields of semi-fictional Oxford are four heroes so alike in character. The protagonist Robin from China, his best friend Ramy from India, Victoire from Haiti, and stupid Letty, a woman from Britain. For the setting of the 19th century Oxford, they are truly a cosmopolitan bunch. It is commendable that the protagonists of the story are in some way a minority. Except for Letty who is just a woman and who even cares about her.

I am disappointed. The highs Babel could have reached were spectacular to image yet it crumbled and no hope remains.

For years, I've firmly held a belief that endings are paramount. The issue that arises is that endings are emotionally charged moments where the more empathetic readers, like myself, often falter and ignore the flaws of the book.
Well, not here. I cannot ignore the 300 pages during which I've found myself bored out of my mind. Nothing was happening, nothing of consequences anyway, and all that broke out the monotony of the meandering plot were the ample footnotes reminding me that indeed the British Empire was racist.

I understand the point Kuang wanted to make and I think that if I were not an undergraduate student of English Philology (a course that combines history of Anglo-American literature with English linguistics, and translation) I would enjoy this much more.
The issues of colonialism, its history, and many of the books that are mentioned in the footnotes have been known to me previously. I doubt the general audience is going to be reading any of them anyway. It felt like the work of a post-graduate student who really wants to show off their work. I've seen people praise Kuang for the research she did for Babel, but I disagree. It was her academic research that borne Babel. All those footnotes are a way to combine the two.

There is little to say to the plot without entering the territory of spoilers. It drags on at first and then jumps through hoops to get characters where they are meant to be.

Here I wish to refer to the incident of professor Lovell's death. It speaks well to the nature of academics that they'd try to lie and pretend the professor's still alive. The book even somewhat acknowledges this but it never goes anywhere. I firmly believe they could have gotten away with it if they played their cards right. Instead the book just wants them to be on the run so they are on the run almost instantly. There are other instances: Letty's betrayal, the explosion in Canton, the pathetic occupation of Babel.

There is very little character to those characters which is also a shame.

The magic system based on the missing meaning between two words when translated is genius. I genuinely have not seen a more unique magic system. The sad reality is that it played a tertiary, if even that, role in the narrative. It was seldom utilized and never to its utmost potential.

The progressive thought is very apparent in this book. I agree with it wholeheartedly, as all should. The issues arises when it comes to Letty. For me Letty was a chance to look into the mind of a white person born in privileged and just why they won't give up their lives for a cause.
Instead Letty is the stupid white rich girl who doesn't understand anything. When she helps them whenever she can, when she almost gets raped and is blamed for it and doesn't walk away, when they insult her all the time, it all was working to something and then the book just chose not to go that way.
Yes, I know the white experience is not the point of this book, but Letty was there. Also, I would have loved to see one of the foreign students fully embrace Babel, to become a lapdog for the millionaires.
But this was a surface level exploration of an uprising. It was over and done in a lower number of pages than spend described their meals and extravagant halls.

I still think that Babel will become a classic in its own right in due time. It has things to say and that is good because I'd rather see them said badly than not at all.