Babel
Or the Necessity of Violence
by R. F. Kuang, Michel Pagel · first published 2022
23% recommend62% neutral15% critical
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire. Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford
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I've just been reading Babel, by R.F.Kuang, a fantasy novel which explores the E.I.C. in a strange and wonderful way. Well worth reading.
on “Exploring the richness and variety of letters sent to the East India Company” ↗Now I want to read the books that were excluded especially “Kuang’s ‘Babel’ — which won the 2023 British Book Award for Fiction”
on “Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China” ↗I’ve been reading Babel by R F Kuang and greatly enjoying it.
on “Ask HN: Best books read in 2022” ↗This is a review of Katabasis, R.F. Kuang's new book. I wonder if there are any fans of Kuang here who can convince me to give her another go; I did not much like Babel, and only got 20% of the way into it. (This despite being a recovering humanities scholar who still wears dark-academiaish tweed skirts to her programming job.) From what I remember, the characters were…
on “Dark Academia Grows Up” ↗A book store near us has an amazing January sale, so: Entertainment: Babel - An Arcane History by RF Kuang, Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick, and my usual re-read of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Non-fiction: Code (second edition), The Myth of Normal by Gabor & Daniel…
on “Ask HN: What are you looking forward to reading in 2023?” ↗I find it really ironic that they disqualified Babel considering that it was pretty anti-imperialistic and pro-China (though pre-CCP). They just hate Kuang because her grandfather fought against the CCP.
on “The 2023 Hugo nomination statistics have been released and we have questions” ↗…wholeheartedly. I remember feeling sorry for authors who had novels published the same year, because The Fifth Season was so obviously going to sweep the awards (on merit). Had a similar reaction to R F Kuang's Babel, but different outcome there, obviously.
on “The 2023 Hugo nomination statistics have been released and we have questions” ↗This article answers one of the questions I had about this year's Hugo awards. R. F. Kuang's Babel was on many other lists of top book of the year. I was surprised that it did not even on the nomination list. Now I find out that it was pre-emptively removed from the nomination list before the vote!…
on “Understanding the world science fiction convention” ↗"Some books, like Kuang’s “Babel” — which won the 2023 British Book Award for Fiction — appear to have been excluded simply for taking place in China" In Western media, anti-China prejudice can be turned into more anti-China prejudice…
on “Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China” ↗It's more anti-colonial than anti-capitalist, like the rest of Kuang's work. However, her works also aren't particularly friendly to the the PRC either. Babel deals with british colonialism and the century of humiliation while her previous series The Poppy War talks a lot about China's relationship with indigenous Taiwanese.
on “Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China” ↗The whole thing is just stupid. I am reading Kuang's Babel right now, the Chinese version, published in China, by a publisher that would be called "state-owned" when it appears in a Western report. I have read Neil Gaiman's work that was published the same way…
on “Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China” ↗…liked his autobiography. Jackie Chan: Never Grow Up I read "The Poppy War" - even though I liked it, I didn't want to go down a full-fledged series. I read "Yellowface" and loved it so much. I have "Babel" on my shelf - but (irrationally) I am not reading it thinking that it would be over if I read it. R. F. Kuang: Yellowface I can't wait for what R.F. Kuang's going to come up with next. This is an…
on “Books I Loved Reading in 2024” ↗Funny that this is being done partly in the name of RF Kuang, whose book "Babel" promotes a pretty violent strand of anti-white anti-colonial theory. That particular protagonist, a young Chinese boy rescued from poverty due to his innate magical talents, was walking one night when…
on “Science fiction authors were excluded from awards for fear of offending China” ↗