Jesse’s Reviews > Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution > Status Update

It sucks that Robin is following a similar tragic arc to Rin as this book nears its close. But that’s the whole spread, I think, as these characters demonstrate the myriad viewpoints in this extraordinary situation.

In a way I kind of wish we had a more cozy tale of this world but doing so would deny its purpose for existing, reminding me of Reid’s notes in the Wolf and the Woodsman of how the glut of Russian-inspired fantasy was depoliticizing the nation’s history. This is part of why Gabriel Garcia Márquez is so rewarding to read; he is not the least bit apolitical.

Umm, I didn’t think that would happen at this point in time the novel but given the scope of what Kuang is aiming for the idea of this ending with… one particular death… was not tenable.

Well the cat’s out of the bag now! I’m guessing that Anthony was the voice that Robin had recognized? It certainly wouldn’t have been Ramy or Victoire given how surprised they were. Anyway moving the setting to Canton post-fallout ought to be great at galvanizing Robin now that he is directly exposed to the horrific English interests and must represent them in the negotiations.

Third year over! Kuang is also tackling the Industrial Revolution in addition to everything else, making this novel even denser in everything that it is trying to shine a light on. It’s great, and Robin’s perspective—too complacent to want to threaten the status quo while he benefits from it—is eminently relatable.

I enjoy the backdrop of Robin’s classmates but I am mostly anticipating exactly how they will all fit together when all hell breaks loose, later in the book. The long passages on translation and etymology are great. Learning katakana opened my eyes to some degree insofar as seeing Japanese having an alphabet for loanwords and swiftly seeing that sone of them are obviously not English. But this goes a lot farther.

The saga of Robin balancing his love for what Oxford means to him and his friends with his knowledge of the underlying reality of the mechanics of Babel and what the British empire is up to, it’s heady. I am loving this book so far. I am as of yet baffled by the negative comments that I’ve heard. What’s the root, anti-intellectualism? There’s no shame in being out of your depth.

Okay; Babel moves at a pretty good pace. We have a much better idea of the powers at play. It’s also a select new class of translators. Remarkably so, as the internal characters note.
Two men, two women, lots of feet being inserted into mouths. I am loving Robin’s character so far, just a new guy trying to keep his head down but in the perfect position to sympathize with what the Hermes society is up to.

In a vague way I’m reminded of The Golden Compass but Kuang’s narrative has more teeth when it comes to questions about racism and colonialism and, well, child abuse. This world is a bit less idyllic than Lyra’s, too, especially since it opens with Robin surrounded in death, particularly that of his mother, his only known parent. The book doesn’t try to hide the nature of his relation to Lovell, though.