Babel ¦ R F Kuang ¦ Review

My not so positive review of Babel by RF Kuang!
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Website: www.joshuaclarke-kelsall.com/
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[@tonikely-brown7106]

You nailed this review! You've articulated what I havent been able to about this book. Thank you from colonised Australia! 🇦🇺

[@alasdairmontgomery1760]

I definitely really enjoyed this book a lot while reading it, but got somewhat more conflicted after putting it down. Kuang does do fantastic work setting things out, but I was sold a lot more on the transformation than it seems you were. While the characters don't have to deal with the downfall, I think the (spoilers) death of Robin is damning him for avoiding those consequences as well as the choice to give up and not fight on that Victoire takes. There's also a portion describing the collapse of London bridge that I think illustrates the consequences well.
If I remember correctly, I think the "how far should we take this" argument also isn't quite as clean old/young - victoire fights back against him on that too.
I do agree with you about the characters being flat though - I felt that some of the more extended cast felt quite one-note.
The main criticism I had after putting it down was similar to that of the Poppy War, if you've read that, in that it moved too fast in going towards the final act. The books both accelerate rapidly, and occasionally left me confused from the speed. Thankfully here Kuang returns to the original setting for the finale, so that we don't have the issues with locations blurring and information not being communicated clearly that The Poppy War had.
In other brief notes - I think I was able to buy into this more as a fantastical narrative and world than you seemed to in your review, and from that I didn't really see the problems with the worldbuilding that you picked up. Though some of them make sense in hindsight, I can't really say that any of them troubled me while reading. The easy style picked me up and carried me through. That's possibly the best bit about Kuang's style, and i agree with you that she has very good writing, a very readable style.

[@JoshuaJClarkeKelsall]

Thanks for your interesting thoughts! When it comes to dealing with the consequences, I accept that she does address them, but I think still in a detached way. To go into a bit more detail, not only is everything described at a distance, but she also mitigates the damage a lot with either convenient reasons why few people were injured, or odd expressions like "dozens" of people were harmed, when in reality it's more like "hundreds" or even "thousands."
I think you're right RE Robin's death though, it does show some acknowledgement of going too far. But equally, I can't help but get the sense that he is equally framed as a kind of martyr figure.
Victoire does fight back, but the description of the vote is just "Old say hold back, young say go forward." I think it's still a lazy way to describe a scene and reduce people to identity groups. Obviously, you can't give subtlety to everything, but given that this happens a few times throughout the novel, it bugs me.
I've not read the Poppy War (and probably won't! :P ) but I do agree with you here about the pacing. The first portion with Robin's development and arrival at Oxford was very atmospheric and well done. But as soon as Lovell goes, the pace goes zooming! To some extent that makes sense; she's crafting a world in the first half, whereas she's destroying it in the second! But it was quite the shift!
Glad that you enjoyed the book though, and she does have a readable style!

[@Luumus]

So I've read Babel, and unlike the majority of the time, I really cannot pinpoint whether I liked this book or not. There were parts of it that were certainly interesting but historically and linguistically I'm not qualified enough to evaluate the quality of the subject matter and the themes. As for character wise I thought they were very shallow and anachronistically modern which threw me off quite a bit, but in contrast the vibes were immaculate. Basically I'm struggling to have an informed, set opinion of this book, and so I'm really curious to hear your thoughts on this!

[@JoshuaJClarkeKelsall]

I don't mention the anachronistically modern aspects (review was too long as it was) but I agree with you there! Hope you enjoy the review!
To echo your thoughts about conflicted feelings, I found that I thought it was solid for the first third, but the more it went on the more my enthusiasm waned.

[@unioncityman63]

Joshua,
currently on the fourth disc of Babel audiobook , actually like the book, reminds me of Anne Rice at times, but it certainly has a certain angle behind it, I get tired of the Europe evil and cause of all the world’s woes i.e. British Empire agenda.
Will need to go back and watch your videos on it when I am through. Greetings from Kansas😀

[@JoshuaJClarkeKelsall]

I can't say I'm glad that you're not enjoying the book, even if I didn't, so I'll just say greetings from the UK instead! :P

[@unioncityman63]

@@JoshuaJClarkeKelsall well, since I wrote the comment have gotten about half way and the anti European Colonialism axe the author has to grind is starting to wear thin on me.
Never listened to a audiobook that has a different voice, in this case a Female upper class British voice come in and read the footnotes.
Hearing the Chinese words pronounced is interesting to hear

[@sleepingpetal]

Your mouth-piece comment sort of reminds me of the end of The Ninth House. I feel like it does more disservice to the message of the story than anything. I wish authors, including ones I like, would stop doing it that.

[@biggest_communism_builder]

As someone who probably mostly agrees with Kuang's politics (but maybe is a bit more to the left), I agree with most of your points. As for the characterization of white characters I can understand it to some extent, Kuang being a racial minority who is actively deciding not to spend most of her time and talent on writing sympathetic white characters to assuage the white readership. But, I simply cannot understand the baffling characterization of all the people of colour. The main problem of this novel, I find, is how juvenile it is.
What made me most interested in reading Babel was the question of how Kuang was going to approach colonialism, racism, misogyny etc. in an alternate 19th century. How would the characters formulate and come to their opinions? How would they grapple with them? But instead, we got Rami saying narco-military state and the word colonialism and capitalism being thrown around willy-nilly, inducing a couple dozen eye-rolls from me.
I also can't say I fully bought into Robin's characterization, although he is arguably the most developed one of the lot.
It seems that R. F. Kuang is deeply afraid of moral greyness confusing the readers. There's always some excuse or reason as to why a certain character is actually right after all and another is quite the monster, in fact. Robin, for example, can exhibit, for a hot minute, sexist tendencies, but Letty, who's the only person he is consistently condescending to, is actually annoying and hysterical. He can be a bit of an apologist for some aspects of the Empire, but can't you see he always felt out of place and a part of him realized that colonialism was horrific from the get-go?
Kuang needs to simplify everything and distill it to a question of right and wrong, which in itself isn't bad, but it's like she is considering only 4 factors while there are actually 150 factors to keep track of and scrutinize.
The dialogue was incredibly modern and out of place, Kuang sometimes remembering to use a 'britishism' or common word in BrE, but that's it. I understand she wanted to write for modern readers, but it only shows her underestimation of us, the way she constructs her sentences and dialogue. It's all so 21st century, isn't it? From word choice to articulation of sentiment and manners.
The magic system seemed reverse engineered - like Kuang wanted to write about colonialism and translation, so she searched for a way to incorporate it together. Everything that stems from it is reverse engineered, one can see the strings all over and it's too obvious and undercooked to agree with me.
To add, for a book so proudly about the vileness of colonialism, and other -isms, it's all so US and UK centric. It's like no other colonial powers ever existed, no mention of how that silver got to China and the UK for more than a minuscule paragraph, it's like only a handful of countries exist.
Moreover, as someone who is terminally online, the machinations by which Kuang shoehorned contemporary Twitter discourse on race is glaring. You can actually pinpoint when the book was written based on certain senteces. I remember Tumblr and Twitter posts reformulated to come out Rami and Victoire's mouths.
It's all so very frustrating and predictable. As you mentioned, a reader who payed even the slightest attention can predict what characters are going to say and do. Which again isn't necessarily bad, if that's the point, but I can't escape the feeling that Kuang wanted to surprise us with certain revelations, like Letty's betrayal.
I just think it is insulting for a book about such serious and complex topics to hold us by the hand and tell us what to feel. It isn't deserved, it is superficial and frankly infantilizing. It is a young adult fantasy pretending to be mature adult historical fiction at the grownups party because it wants to share a few stale quotes. It is a plotless novel which revolves around plot because the characters are one-note mouthpieces, it is a novel of ideas that does not delve into the intricacies of those ideas.
You're better off reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell along with a seminal work about colonialism, Orientalism and/or feminism.
Most of the readers know the points Babel is clumsily attempting to make, the novel is ideally for a small group of people who have somehow never interacted with serious discussions of systemic oppression (even in the form of YT video essays) but who somehow skew left of centre. They are the only ones who'll take something new from it.
Wow, I'll make myself stop here, sorry for the long comment. I just really dislike Babel.