Babel, or The Necessity of Violence

When I read the first page of this, I was like...oh shit yeah. This is what loving reading is supposed to feel like. I love when smart people write and I love when smart people let loose and create something never seen before. Not only is this story inventive, but it's incredibly well written. The writing was good enough that if my adrenaline wasn't pumping, I was still truly engrossed in the words themselves. Maybe that's just the writer in me. Was in awe of dialogue and banter. I found the actual plot of this pretty fascinating too. There was definitely some jargon/language here that totally went over my head (seriously, whenever different languages pop up with translations, I totally skim by accident), but other than that, this was a pretty fast paced and exciting story to me. Not necessarily fighting dragons and going to war (side-eye) but there's a lot to love here. And there's seriously a lot of twists and turns.

The only real criticism I have is that the dialogue and events didn't always feel realistic to the time period. The book sometimes feels like it was just plucked into a convenient part of history but didn't make too much effort to talk about what that actually looked like in some nuanced ways. But it really showed up to me in the way they spoke. That being said, I appreciated that the dialogue wasn't old english and stuffy sounding. It was easy to read because its language was very current. But yeah, definitely was not getting 1800s vibes from this. Even descriptions of the town felt modern.

Beside from this, I think I can also admit that Letty's character was very predictable. And the harshness in which she was spoken to in the beginning gives too much leeway for people to start justifying her disloyalty. Not criticism, just observation: Letty's character is extremely hateable, while at the same time, resembling so many white people we interact with on the daily. Our colleagues, classmates, even family. They just can't seem to ~get~ racism. Can't comprehend why having privilege doesn't bar you from offering criticism to the very system that gives you that privilege. Also can't seem to understand why privilege is sometimes not a privilege at all, if it thrusted upon you as a means to get you to hush up and be grateful. If your own family and community are suffering while you've got your nose stuck in a book, dedicating your life to people who don't see you as human. At about 60% through, I could feel Lettys betrayal coming on. It was still well done, but very predictable. I never once in the book thought she was ever trustworthy with the whole Hermes thing, let alone murder and revolution.

This is the type of book I finish and, despite having small details I'd change, I really just want to leave a one sentence review saying i love it because none of the other shit matters. I think this is a skill many need to learn. But alas, they never do. So, classic me going on and on about bad takes from bad reviews:

the assertion that footnotes = breathing down your neck conveniently ignores the fact that a LOT of folks know a whole lot of nothing about everything. Maybe it's a bit embarrassing to admit, but I know VERY LITTLE on imperialism and colonialism, especially in the environment presented here. So the footnotes and allusions were essential to me. You're reading too much into it if you think Kuang assumes her readers aren't intelligent enough to get it. But even then, some of us aren't going to automatically ~get it~ and that's okay. I can understand on an individual level that the footnotes can feel disruptive or unnecessary. But I truly felt like Kuang was there with me, introducing me to new details and history. Anyways, some things are just fun. Footnotes are fun. This is a book that's talking directly to you, begging for you to pay attention. It's making its argument obvious for the sake it of it not being missed. So it is accessible to EVERYONE, not just people who can read between the lines, who love big words and indecipherable symbolism. Let people enjoy things. Let writers indulge. That's literally their job.

And finally, the request that this book get deeper into “the action”. Not sure how to combat this but. Let's point out the obvious: it's already there! If you wanted the “juicy” details of colonialism, it's right there. On the first page. And everywhere. Secondly: the whole point of Babel is that these children are not seeing the gruesome effects of what they participate in. It's constantly rammed into their heads that others, their own motherlands and all its people, are lazy and deserve whatever strife they suffer. So no, you're not seeing the gory details! Sorry? Wanting more explicit violence, for this book to be less ‘preachy', for it to comfort white audiences, are all tone deaf. You want the book to shy away from its purpose, to sugarcoat its lesson on oppression. That is not how it works. If you read this entire thing and your lasting sentiment is that you hate how the book is preaching to you, how the book is making its lesson too obvious, how it makes you feel awful for being white, then your view of the book as a whole is severely devalued.