Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Babel: An Arcane History

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

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melodyseestrees's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If you put aside all the magical elements you have a bunch of realistic characters and many are vile. You may see your own decision making reflected in certain characters. For example choosing to not take actions in order to keep oneself comfortable despite what effect that has on unprivileged people. This is no [Child Wizard Series] book so if you go in expecting the 'good people are good because the author says so' treatment you will find the characters disappointing.

The character arc of Letty choosing to take actions that doom her supposed close friends because her idea of protecting them is to chain them into a life that is comfortable for her while refusing to accept that society prevents them from being able to live that life. I think Letty will be a very aggravating character for many but she embodies 'white woman tears.'

There are several characters that I wish had been explored more

Griffin and his group, Ramy, Victoire. Victoire and Anthony feel almost like the 'magical negro' stereotype since one doesn't really do much (until we need the conflict of 3 of the friends secretly being in the same rebel group without telling each other) and the other going on to take action after everyone else is no longer able to.

It also would have been interesting to see the effects Britain was having on other places in addition to China, which may have helped cement each of our four main characters' motivations a bit better. We know explicitly that Robin and Ramy want to help their homelands but Victoire is a little unclear and Letty is Letty.
There is a really great quote about Letty and how her upbringing shapes her world:

"And Letty, if she could not belong to a place, would rather tear the whole thing down. "

This is a really great demonstration of who Letty is as a person. Her privilege is so blinding she refuses to accept the path her friends are taking and ultimately kills Ramy to protect him. She literally destroys, betrays, and tries to manipulate her friends in order to prevent changes that would be uncomfortable for her in particular and Britain in general. She does not care about China or its people so long as the silver it contains can be acquired and used by Britain. She thinks her friends should be grateful and do whatever they need to so they may stay in Britain and not care about the homelands they were (literally) stolen from because Britain is HER homeland and it could become their homeland if they work/pretend hard enough.

I have Opinions about Letty and disturbingly have seen some of her arguably worst behaviors in myself and others when asked to boycott certain products or block certain 'beloved' persons.
The ending was unsatisfactory because of the epilogue.

It is set up for two people to have a conflict in the spirit of Javert and Jean Valjean. One is on a quest to see how big the rebel group is and the other is seeming back to their comfortable life after all the events.

The actions involving the tower would have felt empty without it however. Babel is set up to have a sequel but the author has been reported to have no interest in writing a sequel or any other book in the Babel universe so that setup just becomes loose ends. The audiobook handles the footnotes very well and the reading experience is best enjoyed by listening and reading simultaneously.

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jrae_miller's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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wordywashington's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

All I can say right now while I process everything this book made me feel is that I'm surprised no one in the US has tried to get this book banned yet.
I don't think I've considered a book this much of a must-read in at least a decade. I'll elaborate further once I get my thoughts and emotions in order, but right now, I struggle to think of a more relevant and poignant fiction book to read in the current state of the world. Just...wow. Please read Babel.

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sneakymerendinaninja's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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johannaplatt's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Low fantasy tale set in the 1830s. This book ended up taking a path I did not expect, but massively enjoyed. The narratives about rampant colonialism and the impact of the British Empire were insightful and interesting. Obviously the silver bars are fictional, but stealing resources from colonized countries happened, with the expectation that native people should be thankful for being shown how to be "civilised". I felt really connected to the core four and their friendship - I think we have all had a friend where we connect deeply very quickly. Weaving in worker strikes was clever and showed another aspect of how colonialism also hurts those at the bottom of society in the home land. I was gripped by this book from start to finish.

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adriana1's review against another edition

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challenging reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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mereas's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A contemporary classic in literature. By the end, I felt simultaneously ruined and astonished by Rebecca F. Kuang's work. She covers the most existential questions in the frame of language and translation. The foundation of etymology and epistemology in the scene of colonialism and systematic oppression are narrated under one boy, Robin Swift, who is half-Chinese and half-English. I found the saddest aspect to this novel being that we never truly know his native name, of which was chosen by his late (Chinese) mother, and I cannot fathom the weight immigrants hold when they are told their names are too hard, complicated, or otherwise foreign for the English man. This also includes the erasure that colonial structures translate upon the foreign body, for they are left with no name nor grave. Rebecca F. Kuang leaves us to question whether protest and resistance should be violent or nonviolent to produce systematic change, in similar vein to the Civil Rights Movement.

Besides the foundation to this historical fantasy, the found-family trope touched my soul. I am a sucker for the most of unlikely friends to become a group of four. Between the lines, there are undertones of queer sentiments that also resonated with me, though they do not go further than just that. This, I did not mind because the characters are constantly in survival mode whether physically or emotionally. The reality underneath Rebecca F. Kuang's words is like a goldfish peaking above the water's surface--the social arguments always felt natural and fluid, which hurt the most.

Language holds so much power, yet it can just as easily be lost.
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On a side note, I love to find authors' favorite diction. Rebecca F. Kuang is biased to: teeter, tranquility, translation.
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"'What you don't understand,' said Ramy, 'is how much people like you will excuse if it just means they can get tea and coffee on their breakfast tables. They don't care, Letty. They just don't care'" (356).

"'Because you're a good translator.' Ramy leaned back on his elbows. 'That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands'" (535).

"Oxford relied on silver, how without the constant labour of its translation corps, of the talent it attracted from abroad, it immediately fell apart. It revealed more than the power of translation. It revealed the sheer dependence of the British, who, astonishingly, could not manage to do basic things like bake bread or get safely from one place to another without words stolen from other countries" (471). This, made me question what else can stand in for silver. Oil. Petroleum. Fast fashion. And, at what cost?

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