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Babel by R. F. Kuang: a Review


 

It is nice to read a book that celebrates words. All books celebrate words in some sense, but Babel by RF Kuang celebrates words for word’s sake. Their origin, their interconnectedness, their power. Power. There is power in words, and power is what this story is about: Who has it, who lacks it, who doesn’t want to lose it. Set mostly in England, mostly in Oxford in the 1830’s, this is a fantasy and alternate history. There is magic in this world. The magic runs on silver and those who can find the right words in the right languages to use that silver. If you etch the right pair of words into a bar of silver, you can make it do amazing things, sometimes mundane things like making a carriage ride smoother, sometimes spectacular things like holding up a bridge. But finding the right words with similar meanings but in different languages requires translators.

Our protagonist, an orphan from Canton given the anglicized name Robin Swift, is groomed by his guardian to join the famous translators program at Oxford. Once there he is destined to study at the prestigious Babel tower where all the mysteries of the words and their effect on silver are explored.

It turns out the best translators are those from other lands who have had to learn English. The masters of Babel, recruit people from China, from India, from the Caribbean. This sets up a conflict because we have the colonizers, seeking the aid of those who have been colonized. The translators are promised a comfortable life, far more comfortable than if they had been left in their own countries. But they do begin to wonder at what cost this comfort is coming to them.

The full title of the book is Babel: An Arcane History. Since this is a book about words, we should assume R.F. Kuang was deliberate in her choice of word usage. We note that Webster defines “arcane” as “Known or knowable only to the initiate: Secret. More broadly: mysterious, obscure.” It is from the Latin “Arcanus” which meant hidden, but also meant intimate or confidential, or also meant trustworthy. All the various shades of meaning of an individual word are vital to the translators working at Oxford’s Babel tower to keep the British empire running at full steam, to keep it the leader of the world. Words do not translate directly from one language to another. Each culture adds its own flavor. So when you translate you have to consider not only the main meaning, but also the alternate meanings and the connotations that come with the word. We have heard that the Inuit people have 50 different words for snow. That claim is a bit overblown, but it is true that they have more words for snow that we do. So, if you translate one of those words into English as “snow”, what part of the meaning are you losing?

I do recommend this book. It is an interesting read as well as an enjoyable one. Even though it is an alternate history, I did learn things about the real history. And it does make you think about the consequences of colonization.

Star Liner

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