Babel - Entry 2

May 8, 2024 * literature, babel * part 2

Contents

• Analysis/Reflection

In this second part of the book, we see more details of Robin and his cohorts’ time at Oxford, and their studies. We discover that while the classes are challenging, and there’s a myriad of professors, work is interesting and fulfilling, and all of the four are dedicated. We also see that not all of the professors are white males, such as Professor Craft, a female from whom Letty attempts to seek guidance from, and Professor Chakravarti, who tutors Robin in Chinese.

We also see some of the reasons as to why Professor Lovell wanted Robin at Babel, from what Chakravarti says. Specifically, we’re shown that Professor Lovell feels that eastern languages (such as Chinese) are the future, and Robin was a project to develop someone who could speak and breathe Chinese for the sake of silverworking. Later, when Robin goes to Professor Lovell’s house for dinner, we find that he considers himself on more equal standing to him now, and confronts him about the justness of Babel and British colonialism, the hoarding of silver, and why his mother had to die. They’re interrupted, but this conversation pushes Robin to officially agree to help the Hermes Society.

From there, Robin starts helping the Hermes Society steal things from Babel, not getting caught, and juggling with his missions while also enjoying the pleasures of Babel.

Robin falls further in love with Babel and his environment, partly because of the existence of his cohort, who end up being the only people at Babel who he thinks he can truly trust, to the point where he would kill for them. However he begins to feel guilty about his love for Babel.

At one point, Robin is invited to a party hosted by a group of rich kids, much to the protest of Letty, who claims they are bad influences. At the party, he finds the rich kids arrogant and irritating, and comes to realize that they care what he thinks, since he’s a Babel scholar. Robin ridicules them and leaves, eventually making up with Letty.

Analysis/Reflection

This part of the book irons out a lot of the concepts from the previous one, including Robin’s participation in the Hermes Society, and how he attempts to reconcile with the guilt his love for Babel, an institute that maintains British colonialism and plunder from his motherland, places on him. Kuang also raises a common justification that colonial empires make, via Professor Lovell, in that the riches that many of the people that Britain (among other imperialistic powers) subjugated, could not be effectively used by the “backwards” people that resided there, and so the British had every right to take it (in this case silver), and use it for their own gain. Here we see silver used to portray the dichotomy between British imperialism and how they benefit from the cultural diversity of the rest of the world via silvermaking. Ramy puts it best, “How strange,’ said Ramy. ‘To love the stuff and the language, but to hate the country” (Kuang, Babel, 344).

I’ll circle back to Ramy, again. His insistence to stay away from alcohol reflects his commitment to his faith, and is a point of difference between him and his peers. I think this is something I really enjoyed seeing conveyed, as it’s not something I’d usually see in a book, and as I mentioned earlier, Ramy’s dedication to his faith and culture, even though the environment he’s in is dead set on taking it away from him.

I’ve always found languages and linguistics interesting, and so the almost unique focus Babel has on language and literature is enthralling to me. While I’m not sure of the academic authenticity of what's said in the book

it’s still interesting to read about, and piques my interest in linguistics. I had already planned on minoring in Linguistics (or, South Asian Studies and Urdu) in university, but the book allowed me to picture what it might be like in an academic setting even more. Kuang's romanticization of translation is clearly shown throughout the book, characterized when Ramy says “That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands” (Kuang, Babel, 535).