Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence
2022 · R.F. Kuang · 560 pages · Fantasy
R.F. Kuang's standalone novel uses a fantasy version of 1830s Oxford to dismantle the relationship between language, empire, and violence. Robin Swift, a Chinese orphan brought to England to study translation, discovers that the silver bars powering British industry depend on the exploitation of foreign languages and the people who speak them. It's a dark academia novel that's actually dark, a fantasy of manners that ends in revolution, and an argument about complicity that refuses easy answers. The linguistics-as-magic system is brilliant, the academic setting is rendered with loving detail, and the final act is devastating. Some readers find the political thesis overpowers the story. For others, the thesis is the story.