Reading Journal 2023: Babel: An Arcane History

Reading Journal 2023: Babel: An Arcane History
Author: R.F. Kuang

The time period is the early 1800s. The setting is Oxford. The context is the colonizing interest of the British Empire.

From here, following an immigrant who is sent to study at the Royal Institute of Translation, emblematic of the Oxfotd Library tower, the book begins to blend fact and history with metaphor and magic. Silver bars, which are described as deriving their enchantment from translation, becomes the tool Btitain uses to gain power over the world. Translation comes from those the British have colonized and thus begun to make “British”, assimilating the chosen (the ones with promise) to bridge one language and culture to another,

Anyone paying attention to literary best of lists in 2022 will likely have come across this title. Those singing its praises have been endless, although it has not been without its share of critics, most occupying space in the “too woke for its own good” crowd.

Let me be clear, I do consider myself a critic more than a fan of Babel, however “too woke” is not something I subscribe to. I just found the book to be uneven in its approach, despite liking the ideas here quite a bit. I love the idea of language as a window into the human experience. I love the history of language. Much of this to me though felt like it was trying to bridge a character driven historical fantasy with  Wikipedia page full of information and data. I don’t doubt the information, where it manages to intersect with the story i could see the potential of trying to imagine these things functioning together. They are occupying space in a school after all. But it felt to me like an overplayed hand being dealt too soon and too often. The game is over before it could even really be played, and given this is a sweeping, 600 page plus novel that’s not a good thing. To that same end the book feels more like a surface level and entry point discussion of ideas that deserved more depth, so both the ideas and the characters seem stretched far too thin.

I can see the appeal though, and why I gained so much traction and attention. I just really wished it had lived up to its name for me personally.