If I had to describe R. F. Kuang's Babel, or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution in one phrase, I'd go with "Postcolonial Hogwarts with Fun Etymologies." Depending on how you feel about Harry Potter, postcolonial theory, and etymology, that may sound dismissive, but I don't mean to be dismissive at all. I really loved almost everything about this book, especially the etymologies (although I have to point out a mistake with the Devanagari script when a Sanskrit etymology is given on p. 474).
I thought the philosophical bits on the (to quote from the long version of the title) "necessity of violence" were interesting, although maybe could have been--for a book so filled with nuance--a bit more nuanced. One character's remarks on the true meaning of ahimsa were interesting, but not given much real estate opposite Fanon, who is quoted in an epigraph. While I don't find this as annoyingly didactic as some readers seem to (there is some discussion after all and characters do take different paths), it's not exactly subtle where our protagonist ends up.
Speaking of our protagonist, we meet a young boy in Canton in the 1830's, who after a family tragedy, is taken to England by a white man and ends up as a student at a translation institute in Oxford. It turns out the institute directly serves the Empire, which has magical elements here, but is also the real legacy of a lot of European Indology, Sinology, etc. up until the present day (this legacy is still felt, for instance, in some of the scholarship in my academic home of Indian/South Asian Philosophy, such as the Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary on my shelf as I write this).
As much as I loved Babel overall, I admit I put it down a few times to read other things. I had trouble getting through the middle of the book, where you find the most dark academia/Harry Potter vibes (without the nasty transphobia of Harry Potter's creator). Still, there are plenty of etymologies and postcolonial ruminations to keep nerds like me interested. And even once the plot kicks into high gear in the last third or so, I did occasionally feel myself wanting things to move a little faster. Your mileage (and gear preference) may vary, of course, but this is a long book, and not just because it has a lot of pages with small print. To me it felt longer than it had to be for reasons I can't quite articulate (maybe my feeling is untranslatable!).
The magic system relies on silver bars and translation (a word and its translation in another language are printed on the bar and spoken by a person fluent in both languages). As the characters point out, and as language lovers everywhere can tell you, translation is never a perfect one-to-one fit, and the magic works precisely because of this gap. This theme of what is lost in translation is a large element of the plot as well in ways I won't spoil.
Kuang is extremely knowledgable about early 19th century Britain and it shows, although lovers of fantasy might be warned that this is basically historical real-world Britain with a little bit of magic: the fantastic elements serve the more realistic elements of the story, which is just the kind of book this is.
One more bit: Having won the Nebula Award for Best Novel, I thought Babel would at least be nominated for a Hugo this year when I started reading it. There's usually a fair bit of overlap between the two lists of finalists. Alas, it was not a Hugo finalist. It looks like Hugo nominators maybe went a more fun direction this year in the novel category and probably found Babel a bit too ... dense and academic? I'm not sure. Anyway, Babel is worth reading whether you go with the Nebulas or the Hugos this year. This reminds me I need to start my Hugo reading soon!
So, overall I can say I loved Babel, long though it may be. It's not for everyone. I'm not sure I'll reread it anytime soon, but then again, maybe like revolution, future rereads are unimaginable.
See also my Goodreads review.
No comments:
Post a Comment