736 pages
German language
Published April 28, 2023 by Eichborn Verlag.
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.
Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
For Robin, Oxford is a …
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.
Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…
Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?
Carried by brilliance of the central conceit (the idea of magic wrought in the space between language and meaning), but running somewhat out of steam once the idea has to actually act upon the world rather than observe it.
A dense, multi-layered story that opens up a window into golden age era Britain, painting a vivid picture of the colonialist zeitgeist with all the casual and flagrant racism, exploitation and slavery that comes with it. In particular, it highlights the critical role of intellectual institutions (by example of Oxford) and uses language as stand-in example of how foreign culture is imported and in turn used to opress the colonised countries while further strengthening the existing power structures. To use a coming-of-age "wizard" story as the backdrop is quite a genial move, making the whole subject matter all the more relatable on a very personal level. This book manages to educate about many different subjects that would normally be quite boring to learn about in such a fascinating, thrilling, moving way - I could barely manage to put the book down every once in a while.
Dark academy, прекрасне за атмосферою. Читається довго, але із задоволенням. Захотіла прочитати після того, як закінчила «Жовтолику», бо був цікавий доробок авторки, адже пише вона чудово.
Книжка, яка починається легко та, з першого погляду, щасливо, поступово стає важкою та темною. На героїв тисне вага відповідальності та обрушується неприємна правда, і разом з ними цей тягар відчуває і читач.
Після прочитання захотілось більше дізнатись про колоніальну Англію, в книзі багато політики та дипломатії, роздумів про відповідальність за наслідки дій або навіть бездіяльності.
Впродовж сюжету головні герої буквально піднімають голови над книжками і стикаються з реальним світом. Так, боляче, так, не хочеться втрачати ілюзію безпеки, але разом з тим, я раділа разом з ними, що вони все-таки спробували подивитись в обличчя кривдникам та пригнічувачам, знайти з ними спільну мову, будучи при цьому — іронічно — у Вавилоні. Шкода тільки, що бар'єрів виявилось більше, ніж тільки один мовний.
There is so much to love about this book, I'm not sure where to start. There's a very clear, explicit association: power comes from our differences, and our diversity. The book reeks with a love of language and culture, and with a careful, systematic, structured description of (and dismantling of) imperialism. It emphasizes that with a long enough lever, a small group can move the world - and that knowledge workers in imperialist nations have that lever, if they can only notice. I found it fascinating, painful, and informative - and the pace picked up as it went. Wholeheartedly recommend this book, especially to tech workers like me, and language lovers.
Content warnings for death, a lot of death, and casual colonial racism, a lot of that too.
What first struck me was how this book used a smidge of magic to allow certain aspects of themes to be easier to comprehend. The writing does something with themes where it makes them recognizable and able to be investigated in more profound ways by shearing off the sides, so to speak. Yet while I noticed this up front, I was surprised how deep the book went as it reached its zenith and turned toward a conclusion. There were comments about colonialism and empire that I recognized, but the way they were delved into thanks to the aforementioned tactic struck me more deeply than I could have expected. The characters, despite being somewhat symbolic in their deployment, also grew on me immensely. It made me think, and it made my eyes tear up a few times. And that's without mentioning all the fun translation, history, and cultural movement details the …
What first struck me was how this book used a smidge of magic to allow certain aspects of themes to be easier to comprehend. The writing does something with themes where it makes them recognizable and able to be investigated in more profound ways by shearing off the sides, so to speak. Yet while I noticed this up front, I was surprised how deep the book went as it reached its zenith and turned toward a conclusion. There were comments about colonialism and empire that I recognized, but the way they were delved into thanks to the aforementioned tactic struck me more deeply than I could have expected. The characters, despite being somewhat symbolic in their deployment, also grew on me immensely. It made me think, and it made my eyes tear up a few times. And that's without mentioning all the fun translation, history, and cultural movement details the writing wove in so elegantly! As a professional translator, it captured my intellect, my heart, and my imagination.
Content warning i non-specifically reference the ending
it took me a lot of run-ups to get this finished, but I loved it. bleak, but ultimately beautiful. one of the most elegant magic systems I've ever read, and it ties into the thesis brilliantly.
(the pessimist in me thinks revolutionary suicide doesn't galvanize the public nearly as much as it should, but I suppose they took out a lot of support structures when they went, so maybe it would work in this universe.)
Babylon se stal mojí novou nejoblíbenější knihou a rozhodně si zaslouží aspoň 6/5. Ze začátku byla kniha pomalá, pozvolná, což mi ale vůbec nevadilo, aspoň se člověk dostal do příběhu a kontextu. Hodně mě bavily poznámky pod čarou. A ještě víc jsem si užívala všudypřítomnou etymologii.
Babylon se odehrává v 1. polovině 19. století, zejména v Oxfordu, a v „alternativních dějinách“ se věnuje globálním tématům jako kolonialismus, lidská práva, rasismus, rovnost žen nebo kapitalismus. Objevují se tam ale i „menší“ témata jako přátelství nebo loajalita, soudržnost. Líbilo se mi, že všechno toto autorka do románu vnesla velmi přirozeně, nemusela dávat žádný odborný výklad, aby do příběhu člověk vplul.
A long, heavy, beautifully written and very biting book about the ways in which colonialism coopts people and institutions, and the simultaneous difficulty and necessity of resisting that. Deeply and cleverly tied in with real 19th Century history of Britain and its empire, while also being a fantasy story with a very specific magic system that I enjoyed in itself.
I highly recommend this book, but it should also come with some content warnings: * Colonialism * Lots of depictions of racism * Abusive parenting * Abusive academia * Violence * Not afraid to kill important characters
Fantastic from beginning to end. While it is a work of fiction, the parallels to fact and history are powerful.
The book's synopsis did not pique my interest, but I was quickly lost in the story. Just an amazing read.
I am having trouble finding words to describe this book. Great? Profound? Fantastically entertaining and terrifying? All of the above?
Do yourself a favor and read this book as soon as you can.
i really enjoyed the read. i think, the book is in almost every aspect able to walk a middleroad between epic theatre and a "real" novel und it's story. the world building is just a sidestep away from the real events and the world in the mid 19th century. i did not read it as a fantasy novel with a smart magic system, but rather a historic novel in a setting auch style of magic realism. all the characters are clearly models of a specific world view and situation, but at least in my experience of the book, they are also able to induce sentiment. if you would ask me, it is the same effect, Eco and Brecht would likely achieve.
In an alternate Oxford where the British Empire is founded upon silver, enchanted by the act of translation; two words in different languages on each side sharing the same root but with slightly differing meanings. These silver bars make ships faster, factories more efficient and bridges more stable. Those put out of work are just collateral malcontents.
But to power its silver industrial revolution, Britain not only needs to plunder the world’s silver but also its languages for new translations and translators who are fluent enough to dream in multiple languages.
Enter the students of Babel, Oxford’s translation institute. Robin is taken from his home in Canton, his family dead from Choelra which could have been cured by the enchanted silver England hoards, by an Englishman who trains him up to serve at Babel. To put his language and culture at the service of the Empire.
I’m late to the …
Honestly if I could give this book 6 stars, 8 stars, 10 stars, I would. It is a brilliant piece of alternate history with a fantastically inventive magic system and its message is incredibly relevant to the world today. A biting and merciless examination of colonialism which still manages to offer hope, but not a worthless, nebulous hope. This is a hope that requires will and sacrifice to back it up. An utterly brilliant book which I would encourage everyone to read.
In early victorian England, foreign translators at Oxford try to take on the empire, which works on a translation-based kind of magic that involves silver bars. Many times, we think it's all over for our protagonists, and they receive a miraculous rescue, it's quite gutting. Until at the end, they don't.
I liked it, the magic is very clever, the parallels to our real world are there, although events have been altered. There's still an opium war, an abolitionist movement, English exceptionalism and disdain for others, all the loathsome things that make up British Empire.
At times the book seems to want the characters to be complex people, but most of the time they are more there to fill a more fable like role and teach us lessons, similarly for the world building. Either of these approaches could work well but done at the same time they undermine each other.
