on
3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 4/5
Pages: 560
Started: 21 August 2023
Finished: 29 August 2023
Summary:
Robin is nine years old when he is taken from his home in Canton, his mother's body still warm, to Professor Lovell's orderly and scholarly English manor, where he is expected to learn English, Latin, Greek, and how to stay unobtrusive and infallibly polite. The moment he becomes old enough, he is thrust out of the Professor's home and into the even harsher academia of Oxford, where he is enrolled as a Translation student at the prestigious Tower of Babel, where scholars use translations etched into silver to perform extraordinary magic. Though the studies are hellish, they are Robin's dream, and with the company of the three other Babblers in his year, Robin finds his home--yet he and the two other immigrant students, Ramy and Victoire, are never treated like they belong. Against the backdrop of a magical steampunk England, Robin and his friends must grapple with the implications of England's colonialist theft not only of silver, but of language.
Thoughts:
This was such a cool idea for a book. It was the first dark academia book I've read that leaves the realm of academia and slips into politics, and the book took on both politics and colonialism in a fascinating way. The world-building was strong, the plot exciting, if a bit unorganized, and the magic was heady and glorious. The end of the book was heartbreaking; I was crying a bit by the last pages. The only thing that was missing was a protagonist I was interested in, a plot that kept me on the edge of my seat instead of just curious. Perhaps it's my distaste for historical fiction, perhaps it's the fact that Robin didn't quite feel like a real boy and instead faded into the background a bit, but there didn't seem to be much urgency to the book or to the characters. I cared, but I didn't really care, and that made it hard for this to be a good book. It explored so many ideas that had so much merit, though, that I still have to give it credit.
One of the the things that was subtle and fascinating in the novel was the theme of gender. Robin never has a romantic relationship in the novel, and never explicitly expresses desire toward anyone, so I think he sits somewhere on the ace spectrum. Yet it's subtly insinuated that he and Ramy are in love ("Robin had the absurd impulse to place his hand against Ramy's cheek"). It's so subtle that it could just be intensely platonic, but it's the only relationship in the book that I feel even borders on romantic, and considering Ramy's rejection of Letty, it seems likely the two boys were together in some manner.
My timing of reading this book was extremely fortuitous; the story of Babel and the concept of the power of language is exactly what we're talking about in my Evolution of Language class this week, so I really enjoyed that connection, especially the way it pushed me to think more about how some people view language as the ultimate key to power and belonging. It's so central in our lives, but this book truly highlighted the extent of its power.
A few quotes I loved:
"But as a group, they were frightening; a procession of solemn, erudite men, all dressed in black like a murder of crows, each more intimidating than the last."
"We can, through perfecting the arts of translation, achieve what humanity lost at Babel."
"He remembered English phrases rising unbidden to his mind as he watched the revels; phrases from songs and poems that he wasn't quite sure on the meaning of, but which looked and sounded right--and perhaps that was just what poetry was? Meaning through sound? Through spelling?"
"They became what tey'd aspired to be since their first year--aloof, brilliant."
"He was fine with resistance as long as it didn't hurt him."
"Every time you come up against something difficult, you just want to make it go away, and you think the way to do that is self-flagellation. You're obsessed with punishment."
"Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands."
I am not going to buy this book, or count it among my favorites, but I also think I had a lot to learn from it, and I'm very glad I read it. Though I'd preface my recommendation with the fact that there isn't much explicit or fun character connection, I do think I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good dark academia read.
Words:
Rhotic (adj) relating to or denoting a dialect of English where r is pronounced as a consonant at the ends of words
Denuded (v) strip something of its covering
Myopic (adj) nearsighted
Immemorial (adj) originating in the distant past; very old
Interlocutors (n) a person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation
Opine (v) hold and state one's opinion
Vituperation (n) bitter and abusive language
Calques (n) another term for loan translation
Phonological (adj) relating to the system of contrastive relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the fundamental components of a language
Vicissitudes (n) a change of circumstance or fortune, especially one that is unwelcome or unpleasant
Verve (n) vigor and spirit or enthusiasm
Lascar (n) a sailor from India or Southeast Asia (dated)
Laconic (adj) using very few words
Manumitted (v) release from slavery; set free
Parricide (n) the killing of a parent or other near relative
Polemic (n) a speech or writing expressing a strongly critical attack on someone/something
Ubiquitous (adj) present, appearing, or found everywhere
Avarice (n) extreme greed for wealth or material gain
Nebulous (adj) in the form of a cloud or haze
Exigencies (n) an urgent need or demand