Babel, or The Necessity of Violence
An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
Ratings921
Average rating4.1
Wow wow wow, what an incredible book. The magic system of language is so clever and creative, easily one of my favorites I've ever read. Admittedly I did get a little bored in the middle section of their first years at babel but once the trip to China happened this book took off and never looked back. I loved the cast of characters, the problems they faced, the solutions they came to and the parallels this book has to so much going on in current day society. The incredibly powerful themes of colonialism, capitalism, racism, sexism and any other -ism you can think of are done so well that no review I can write will do this book justice. The pain and yet completely obvious betrayal from letty, so so many deaths of the overlooked and underappreciated students/translators, the strength to stick with a relaistic end to this protest instead of simply finding a conflict-free resolution makes the ending such a powerfully poingant and inspiring ending that few other books have accomplished
You simply must just read it for yourself.
All white people are bad. There, I saved you 542 pages, now you can go read an actually good book.
I have too many thoughts on this book. I need someone to talk about this with !
Lovely book. Well it's good I must admit and it is a real page turner. However I think the ending could have been a little better in my opinion. Still worth a read methinks.
Babel by R.F. Kuang has a slow pace, and with such an intriguing premise, I felt there could've been a few more exciting scenes thrown in. There's nothing wrong with a slower story, but just a heads-up—you might find yourself needing breaks after a couple of chapters (I averaged about 2 at a time, but the chapters are long). At times, it reads like a really interesting textbook, complete with footnotes. I loved the characters and how real they were, but I wish we got to see a bit more growth in their friendships. Most of the action happens in the last 25%, so be prepared for a lot of buildup. I also wish there had been more fantasy elements, as it felt a bit misleading being marketed as a fantasy book; it reads more like historical fiction with a sprinkle of magical realism.
The themes of racism and colonialism come through very clearly—sometimes so much that it felt like the author didn't fully trust readers to think critically or be able to interpret her message from the story unfolding. The ending made the strongest statement; how colonialism can only end in suffering, and violence is often inevitable for change when the stakes are high. All in all, it is extremely well-written and you know the author really did her research and knows her stuff - which I appreciated. I thought the commentary on translation was done very well through the matching and silver bars and the lessons at Oxford that the reader basically gets to sit in on. Despite my few grievances, Babel an important read where even the most culturally and socially aware readers can take away something of value and I would definitely recommend it when you are in the right headspace for it!
I have quite literally bleed for this book and my soul was both crushed and lifted and I would read it again and again. Ave atque vale to this beautifully tragic story
A decent read. The characters are a bit out of time compared with the historical setting the book takes place in. Overall not too bad even if the book is a bit preachy. A lot of the messaging feels really on-the-nose, at least to me. Still worth a read but don't be surprised if you finish wishing you had gotten more from the characters.
7
SUPER INTERESTING MAGIC SYSTEM AND LEARNED A LOT ABOUT ETYMOLOGY, beginning part where nothing happened was a lot better than the ending where a lot happened
7
SUPER INTERESTING MAGIC SYSTEM AND LEARNED A LOT ABOUT ETYMOLOGY, beginning part where nothing happened was a lot better than the ending where a lot happened
I thought the premise of the book was really interesting but I found it to be too long, boring (I would tune out if the audiobook often and still know what was going on), condescending and had flat, one dimensional characters. It was not for me.
The premise is cool, all the linguistics stuff is right up my alley, but time and again I'm reminded that I'm just not into fantasy. I started to lose interest two-thirds in, and I'm also not the kinda reader who adores ‘young revolutionaries' types of literature. Nevertheless, I was happy to finish it, and the messages aren't lost on me. Overall a good book.
Also this is alternative history and fantasy, so no points are lost for bad etymologies, however there are so many cases of almost right etymologies that make it clear that Kuang is just wrong (the etymologies don't change the fantasy narrative). Stuff like saying English ‘night' and Spanish ‘noche' come from Latin ‘nox'. Because of errors like this that I am familiar with, I am sad that I can't add the other etymologies that I'm not familiar with, on account of Kuang's mishandling of etyma
2.5 stars
It's a long long book for the amount of plot. Lots and lots of academic stuff, that's not that interesting. And still, the characters weren't fully fleshed out.
And then, of course, the tower came crumbling down, which felt cheap.
- Robin Swift menjadi yatim piatu karena wabah kolera di Kanton, dibawa menuju Inggris oleh profeson Lovell yang misterius. Di Inggris dia berlatih dan belajar bahasa Latin, Yunani Kuno dan Mandarin, sebagai bekal untuknya masuk ke Institut Penerjemahan Kerajaan di Oxford, juga dikenal sebagai Babel. Babel adalah menara dimana mahasiswanya merupakan pusat dunia, dan juga, sihir.
Cipta-Perak, yaitu seni mewujudkan arti dari suatu terjemahan yang hilang ketika suatu kata diterjemahkan dari bahasa asal ke bahasa lain, melalui batang perak. Cipta-Perak ini membuat Inggris berada di puncak dan tak terkalahkan, membantu Inggris dalam melebarkan kolonisasi.
Bagi Robin, Oxford adalah utopia bagi yang mengejar ilmu. Namun ilmu patuh pada kekuatan, dan sebagai pemuda Tiongkok yang dibesarkan di Inggris, mengabdi pada Babel berarti mengkhianati tanah airnya.
Dalam prosesnya, Robin terjebak diantara Babel dan perkumpulan rahasia Hermes, organisasi yang bertujuan untuk menghambat ekspansi imperium Inggris.
Aku sudah membaca semua karya Rebecca, trilogy The Poppy War dan Yellowface. Dan Babel, adalah mahakarya Rebecca, ciri khas penulisannya sudah terasa bahkan mulai di bab-bab awal. Disini Rebecca menggunakan media pendidikan bahasa dan profesi penerjemah sebagai alat penjajahan. Bahasa dapat menjadi alat kekuasaan dan bagaimana perjuangan melawan penindasan dilakukan.
Penggambaran bagaimana hasrat Imperium Britania untuk menguasai dunia dengan berbagai cara, termasuk dengan mendidik penerjemah masa depan untuk dijadikan alat untuk penjajahan sistematik diceritakan dengan luar biasa disini. Aku sangat berterima kasih pada Shira karena sudah menerjemahkan mahakarya ini hingga aku bisa menikmati membacanya dalam bahasa ibuku. Aku sangat merekomendasikan buku ini pada semua pembaca.
5/5⭐
Simplemente diré que estoy aprendiendo griego y latín, para entender mejor el resto de idiomas que hablo o quiero hablar.
Gracias a Babel, he recuperado el amor por las lenguas; por querer entender el significado y el origen de las palabras que uso en mí día a día. Me parece que R. F. Kuang ha hecho un gran trabajo en cuanto al tema de la traducción.
En cuanto a la ambientación me parece que está muy bien lograda, también. A través de un solo lugar hace entender los sentimientos de cada uno de sus personajes. Y ya no solo en la ambientaci{n, sino, en su contexto histórico. Como estudiante de Historia, estaba marcando y apuntando cada hecho históroco relevante que ocurría. Se nota que la autora es hisotira dora espezialida en sinología. (lengua y cultura china)
Me ha sorprendido también, el epílogo. El personaje que nos lo cuenta se ha he ho empoderado y muestra una gran valía y unas grandes ganas de seguir adelante.
Esta novela trata temas como el racismo, la superioridad del hombre blanco en el siglo XIX y como el imperio británico sólo quiere a extranjeros, como los protagonistas como herramienta para aprovecharse de los países tercermundistas. En su trama poco a poco, vamos viendo como el personaje principal se da cuenta de esto, y al final se rebela contra el imperio, y aunque no acabe bien él es consciente de que ha hecho lo correcto.
Merece muchísimo la pena leer este libro.
if i finish this it's bc i'm hatereading it. sometimes, as an experiment, i'll switch between reading this and another book just so i can see how much more shallow, self-indulgent, and one-dimensional it is lol
3.5* rounded up
Bookclub read [UoG]: There's a lot to like about this novel. As an amateur etymologist, I loved the literal power of words in this world. There's a kind of steampunk fantasy element that fascinated me and I love, love, love a library. It was also refreshing to read on family, friendship and betrayal without any irritating romantic love stories. I enjoyed the asides where we got a deeper understanding of the main characters. I found the world Kiang created was quite realistic with it's grubbyness and confliction. The cover is delightfully designed and illustrated - overall it is a thing of beauty.
On the dislike side - it's huge! I'm sure it could have been shorter and kept it together. The footnotes were distracting (and often unnecessary). Letty, as a character, was a scapegoat for the white ruling upper classes. Her Interlude purports Letty's discrimination by sex is comparable to the racial injustice experienced by her friends - “Leticia Price was not a wicked person. Harsh, perhaps. Cold, blunt, severe: all the words one might use to describe a girl who demanded from the world the same things a man would”. Yet she continues to come across as a selfish, silly girl who just cannot understand what her friends experience.
Nevertheless, it ended well and I will often ponder how the world was left, what it did to recover and how Victoire's tale continues.
“It feels like entering a class, combining the languages of the world. It feels like the writer is showing off, somewhat.”
This was an utterly fascinating read for a language lover as myself. Every mention of language, translation, etymology, and everything else was there to keep me continuing through the book. While I wouldn't say the book was ever boring at any point, I did notice that somewhere after the halfway point I really couldn't put it down. Besides language, I thought the focus on race and the white man were very well done, especially during that time period. I resonated extremely hard with Robin's moral dilemma of selfishly surviving.
I really had no idea where the end of the story was going to go, but as it loomed nearer it felt like there was only one trajectory. The amount of tragedy and despair packed into the last quarter was not something I came prepared for, but at the same time I'm not sure what else I expected.
All in all, an incredible story to read through.
4.5 stars. Loved the concept and the direction the story takes. Loved the characters and the political message. Really my only qualm was the “silver-system”...idea was amazing, execution felt a little half baked.
The book was divided into two main parts, which I both found at the beginning interesting, but somehow felt they were dragging out at the end.
The Academia part was very interesting, we got to understand how the magic system works and we got some tastes of the etiological mechanisms at play. But just before the trip it became repetitive and a chore to read.
That's why the change of setting due ti the trip and the more importance of Hermes was very refreshing. I was very excited for the future of Hermes. But it just got depressing and boring at the end with the siege.
Yes this book caries some very strong and important messages, but most of them flew past me because reading became more of a chore than a pleasure.
I'm sure this book could be the favorite of some people, just not me. Too depressing for my personal enjoyment.
Say this is probably more 3.5 stars than 4,
Could have been about 100-150 pages shorter than it was,
Preferred her other stuff!
