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utopiastateofmind 's review for:
Katabasis
by R.F. Kuang
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Let me first say, I don't think I'll ever be able to write a cohesive book review of Katabasis for my full thoughts. Like most books, my feelings about this book are a product of the books I read before this, my appreciation for Kuang books in the past, and my own feelings on academia in general. As a former academic, reading Katabasis reminded me of one of the reasons I left academia. Not only is there this distance that can be felt between academia and the very real people it impacts - see Babel for those feelings - in Katabasis we see the corruption of power, the use of authority, and the ways in which academia does not protect those it says to teach.
Not only does it actively cover up and remain complicit in actions of individuals, departments, and oftentimes institutions as a whole, but it does not even protect its own students. Academia is not a position of wealth. It publicly does not treat graduate students well and as someone who was thinking about academia, the job security, and the 'security' within the field, I know this all too well. So in many ways, Katabasis is a direct response to that. Katabasis takes these experiences and grounds them not in classrooms, but in Hell. Aren't they the same anyway? It examines what happens when we are pushed beyond our breaking point. What happens when our genuine passion for something is not enough anymore to be a 'good' student or scholar? Academia, and like many other cerebral fields or even the arts, can force people to push themselves to the brink, to accept the idea that suffering produces greatness. Except what they don't often acknowledge is the cost of this greatness. And that's where Katabasis begins. It begins at the moment where the cost of the pursuit of greatness has not only impacted Alice, but also her advisor.
Katabasis as a plotline, comes into its swing later in the book when the threads, and the tension, finally come to a head. I would argue that the momentum also picks up when most of the theoretical foundation is laid. Until then, I can see how it can be plodding or difficult to get through. You have to enjoy theory, enjoy picking apart an idea, and twisting it around in your mind at the same time as Alice - and Peter - because that's what largely makes up their character. At times, it can lean a bit heavy handed on the academia, and if you don't want to have this feeling of being back in the theory trenches, this might not be for you. I will say that towards the end as the theory patters off, I was frustrated with a few theories that I wish had a more resounding conclusion considering the weight and depth they were given in the beginning.
But at its core, Katabasis is a book about the journey of the self. In many ways, our characters have to be broken down to be built back up again. I think that's true for Alice who we all think begins in this state. She's just decided she has to go down to Hell to save her advisor, how much lower can we go? But you just wait and see. For Alice to even think about returning upwards, she'll have to figure out what she's actually willing to sacrifice.
Let me first say, I don't think I'll ever be able to write a cohesive book review of Katabasis for my full thoughts. Like most books, my feelings about this book are a product of the books I read before this, my appreciation for Kuang books in the past, and my own feelings on academia in general. As a former academic, reading Katabasis reminded me of one of the reasons I left academia. Not only is there this distance that can be felt between academia and the very real people it impacts - see Babel for those feelings - in Katabasis we see the corruption of power, the use of authority, and the ways in which academia does not protect those it says to teach.
Not only does it actively cover up and remain complicit in actions of individuals, departments, and oftentimes institutions as a whole, but it does not even protect its own students. Academia is not a position of wealth. It publicly does not treat graduate students well and as someone who was thinking about academia, the job security, and the 'security' within the field, I know this all too well. So in many ways, Katabasis is a direct response to that. Katabasis takes these experiences and grounds them not in classrooms, but in Hell. Aren't they the same anyway? It examines what happens when we are pushed beyond our breaking point. What happens when our genuine passion for something is not enough anymore to be a 'good' student or scholar? Academia, and like many other cerebral fields or even the arts, can force people to push themselves to the brink, to accept the idea that suffering produces greatness. Except what they don't often acknowledge is the cost of this greatness. And that's where Katabasis begins. It begins at the moment where the cost of the pursuit of greatness has not only impacted Alice, but also her advisor.
Katabasis as a plotline, comes into its swing later in the book when the threads, and the tension, finally come to a head. I would argue that the momentum also picks up when most of the theoretical foundation is laid. Until then, I can see how it can be plodding or difficult to get through. You have to enjoy theory, enjoy picking apart an idea, and twisting it around in your mind at the same time as Alice - and Peter - because that's what largely makes up their character. At times, it can lean a bit heavy handed on the academia, and if you don't want to have this feeling of being back in the theory trenches, this might not be for you. I will say that towards the end as the theory patters off, I was frustrated with a few theories that I wish had a more resounding conclusion considering the weight and depth they were given in the beginning.
But at its core, Katabasis is a book about the journey of the self. In many ways, our characters have to be broken down to be built back up again. I think that's true for Alice who we all think begins in this state. She's just decided she has to go down to Hell to save her advisor, how much lower can we go? But you just wait and see. For Alice to even think about returning upwards, she'll have to figure out what she's actually willing to sacrifice.