Book: Babel (anti-colonialism, translation-nuance-powered magic)

[afuna]

I'm reading Babel, by RF Kuang (same author as The Poppy Wars) and it is fierce.

It also tackles some parts of Chinese/British history (iykyk) that I rarely see other folks treat with sympathy.

In particular it looks like it's going to end up being about the opium wars, being upfront about Britain as the aggressor, which is something frequently glossed over in Western history as far as I can tell.

Years ago I read a short story about a world where Britain never became a global superpower, and in that world there was a casual mention of Chinese people being addicted to opium and readers I nearly lost it.

This is the opposite of that.

It's about the time of the Industrial Revolution, except this revolution is powered by the space in between words in translations. Centered around Oxford.

I think one of the things I really hate about stories set in this time-era is that it's usually accepted that white folks in this era are biased. And so if there are any BIPOCs, and everyone else is biased it feels frustrating like I want to stamp my feet and yell and if everyone else is not biased it feels a little fake (though sometimes preferable to the former). And this book manages to avoid both traps by including bias but then centering the BIPOC experience, in a way that I didn't realize I needed until now.

I'm a little nervous about the ending, it could still fall apart, but about three quarters of the way in and it makes me so happy.