Babel

by R.F. Kuang

Only he could determine the truth, because only he could communicate it to all parties.

One did not spite one’s saviours.

But in Latin, malum means “bad” and mālum,’ he wrote the words out for Robin, emphasizing the macron with force, ‘means “apple”.

A lie was not a lie if it was never uttered; questions that were never asked did not need answers.

He imagined the Cabinet as a series of massive shelves where men in fancy dress were arranged like dolls.

This is not a penny dreadful. Real life is messy, scary, and uncertain.’

For Adam and Eve, though cast from grace, could still speak and comprehend the language of angels.

The more languages you speak, the more men you are worth. CHARLES V

‘Words have no meaning unless there is someone present who can understand them.

‘Ibasho,’ she repeated, swaying. Her arms floated in front of her, either dancing or conducting the music, he couldn’t tell which. For that matter, he couldn’t tell where the music was coming from at all. ‘It doesn’t translate well into English. It means “whereabouts”. A place where one feels like home, where they feel like themselves.’

Reality was, after all, just so malleable – facts could be forgotten, truths suppressed, lives seen from only one angle like a trick prism, if only one resolved never to look too closely.

Show the world what they want; contort yourself into the image they want to see, because seizing control of the story is how you in turn control them.

The Analects of Confucius made the claim sìbùjíshé;* that even a four-horse chariot could not catch a word once uttered, that the spoken word was irrevocable.

‘Nice comes from the Latin word for “stupid”,’* said Griffin. ‘We do not want to be nice.’

It’s hard to accept what you don’t want to see.’

the obstacle was not the struggle, but the failure to imagine it was possible at all, the compulsion to cling to the safe, the survivable status quo.