Babel by R. F. Kuang Review: Language as Imperial Power
R. F. Kuang’s Babel immediately caught my attention through its combination of dark academia and linguistics, two of my favourite literary obsessions. Its nearest relatives are easy to recognise: the enclosed academic world and moral corrosion of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History , combined with something of the scholarly alternative history of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell . But Babel does more than insert magic into Oxford. Its central achievement is to make scholarship itself part of the imperial machinery. Language creates power, Oxford controls the language, and the people most capable of producing that power are recruited from the cultures Britain intends to dominate. Spoiler note: This review discusses the broad direction and moral framing of the final third, but avoids detailed plot revelations. Cover image: Babel by R. F. Kuang, published by Harper Voyager. Used here for purposes of review and commentary. Magic Made from Translati...