I'm an avid reader and keep my ear to the ground when it comes to recommendations. I'd heard the buzz surrounding R. F. Kuang’s Babel for a while, hearing that it was an amazing work that would win prizes and plaudits. I ordered a copy from my local library but found that there was a huge waiting list for it (of 13 people) so I would not be able to renew it. With this fire under me, I consumed the book within a few days and boy, is it an intriguing read, a cross between Harry Potter and His Dark Materials fused with a steampunk alternate timeline. The story itself is very intriguing:
In the midst of a cholera epidemic that is sweeping across China in the early 1800s, a young boy is saved and sent to train in Latin and Greek in England. Upon growing up, the lad, Robin Swift, attends Oxford University where he becomes a ‘Babler’ at the University Institute of Translation known as Babel.
Here, he learns about the silverwork process that helps power the British emperial empire. As a son of Canton, Robin has a decision to make as to whether to continue living his life of luxury or whether to align with an insurgency to stop the insatiable growth of the British empire. What will he choose?
As the West struggles with an identity crisis as the metanarratives about democracy, human rights and values it has projected are falling apart, the themes of this books seem prescient. Kuang looks at how history has been shaped by the victors, often at the expense of ‘the truth’. Of course, with industrialisation and imperial aspirations, magic wasn't needed by the British to create the biggest empire the world had ever known by the 19th century. This story is a fantasy work but that is a thin allegory of what it is truly talking about- imperialism and the power of language.
As a old student of anthropology, the examination of etymology, colonialism, geopolitics, socio-politics and languages appealed to me greatly. As a teacher with over 19 years in the profession so far, the British education system has only recently started a critical self examination of the consequences of empire. The education system has obfuscated the truth and, even now, with changes to cover more black history in light of #BLM, it still has some ways to go but that is progress from nothing at all in my childhood.
This is not a rewriting of history, as some may claim, but a recontextualising based on evidence from then that gives a voice to those that have been voiceless or suppressed. In the novel, Professors Playfair and Lovell are the civil seeming voices of reason, talking eloquently about the benefit of colonialism and 'free trade' but the book is critical of these. As we know, 'free trade' was the euphemism for the East India Company to bring the British rule of India and damage the Chinese people with opium.
With colonialism there is a process: exploration, expropriation, appropriation, exploitation, and justification. However, the power imbalance, reduced worker rights, rise in corporate profits, increase in corporate power over states and then the decline in late state capitalism leads to people fighting for their respected sides. People know the system is broken but not what to do next. We are in a situation of stasis as many are trying to figure where we go from here. The book has a clear message: the politicians might be pulling the strings and making the ultimate decisions but we, the public, are complicit in this unless we stand up against injustices, even if it is inconvenient to us and our way of life. The final couple of hundred pages slows the excitement down as the slow wheels of bureaucracy take hold within the story. The 'Condition of England' question, where the Industrial Revolution created massive inequalities in British society and led to huge wealth disparity, is looked at here critically.
As a British Pakistani, my parents always warned me that the life of peoples of colour was conditional in this country and it was only through growing up and seeing the peaks and troughs of attacks against whatever bogeyman (namely foreign people) by much of the media etc that I saw that this was true.
Kuang is careful and meticulous in showing how change is slow to occur and often is fought against until, quite inevitably, a shock is delivered that brings about true change. The book is not angry, nor is it a polemic but it does portray the geopolitics that has shaped our world and still has lasting consequences very well.
There is a loaded gun deus ex machina introduced about a third of the way through and I predicted the ending but it is no less thrilling and worthwhile a read for it. Babel ends on an intriguing note and I look forward to seeing whether there is a sequel, prequel or side story as the world building has been done.