Babel

by R. F. Huang

"English did not just borrow words from other languages; it was stuffed to the brim with foreign influences, a Frankenstein vernacular. And Robin found it incredible, how this country, whose citizens prided themselves so much of being better than the rest of the world, could not make it through an afternoon tea without borrowed goods" - Babel.

    Yes that is a long quote to start with, but this book deserves it. I don't joke when I say, that this book helped me understand the world better. I saw myself, people I know, and the world from a zoomed out view. R. F. Huang made me an ant and let me look at the world through a telescope. I loved it. 

   

    Robin Swift was the perfect protagonist for this story, it wouldn't and couldn't have been done as powerfully with any other character. Robin Swift is gentle, smart, and eager to please those who look after him. He was a survivor, and he hie behind that idea of himself for most of the story. After being taken from his homeland, taught languages and eventually was admitted to Oxford, the alma mater of his guardian who was also a professor there, he wanted to be grateful for this opportunity, to avoid working the docs and behind homeless back in Canton, Asia. 

    He tried to ignore the nagging feeling that he had not chosen this, that something wasn't right, and once he saw what his beloved London and Babel pumping Opium into China for profit, to keep the balance of the world that London had built with itself at the center, the fantasy that was his life at Oxford fade away. 

    He knew he had to take a stand, maybe too late, even though he was the last one to do it, he had to stand up for the all inclusive Other. 

    There were so many heart warming scenes in this story, between Robin and his friends and professors, the romanized educational setting that makes up the dark academia genre. This was the first one of that genre I could make it through, or love to pieces. 

    The whole time reading this, I couldn't help but think of a professor I had in college. I took a book binding class and we learned about the history of the book, what is a book, and why. We watched a movie on fonts, I'll never look at Helvetica the same ever again, but he also talked about words, and how they've traveled and changed throughout time and cultures, and this book explored the origin of words and what language is, as its core and in the philosophical sense. What is translation? The conversion of words from one language to another, or should it focus on the transfer of meaning as every culture has different idioms and metaphors. I hope this book finds him.

    Another scene that I think highlights what this book is about is when Robin, who is one of four translators at Oxford, is invited to hangout with the jocks (business majors types) of Oxford. When he does, and they're talking about their studies, and they try and intimidate Robin, by reading terrible poetry none the less, and when Robin wasn't intimidated, they cast him out, called him slurs and insulted his studies, only because they themselves couldn't do it. Robin saw the lack of substance in them that they refused to believe was there. Broaden that out to London England is the cocky business majors, and Robin is the rest of the world. 

    I think we see a lot of that today, and R. F. Huang did an amazing job of of making this book relevant. 

    I am so glad I picked up this book, and I read it slow, I spent about 6 weeks on it, and I think thats how it's meant to be read. It's not slow or written difficultly, but it's deep, and it needs time to sink it, or at least it did for me. 

    There's so much more to be said about this book, but I think it needs to be experienced yourself. 

I hope you pick this one up.

:)