Babel in Fictional Character Lovers

Mar 28, 2024 andy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hold, favorites, family-x-society

fuck this book.
have you ever read a book that leaves your lungs tight? that has you eyes filled to the brim with hot tears that might explode should you speak a word on how you feel?
I give this book a ♾️/5 stars.

I spent a large amount of my time yesterday going through Latin textbooks, working on declensions and nominative dative accusative and ablative cases because I need to experience the feeling of familiarity towards something outside my norms. Babel is an eye opening piece of shit book. ...more

72 likes · Like · see review

Aug 20, 2024 Aleesha rated it really liked it

I have a bachelor's and a master's degree in English literature and linguistics. As someone who, seriously, requested an Oxford English Etymological Dictionary for Christmas --

(That's this thing, if you're unaware)

Yes, that drawer does in fact contain a magnifying glass because the pages are paper thin and printed in microscopic font. (And this is the COMPACT edition...the full 20 volume set is easily $1,500. The compact edition - I was being magnanimous and only asking for the condensed versio I have a bachelor's and a master's degree in English literature and linguistics. As someone who, seriously, requested an Oxford English Etymological Dictionary for Christmas --

(That's this thing, if you're unaware)

Yes, that drawer does in fact contain a magnifying glass because the pages are paper thin and printed in microscopic font. (And this is the COMPACT edition...the full 20 volume set is easily $1,500. The compact edition - I was being magnanimous and only asking for the condensed version - is about $450 bucks)

-- and who's google search history is rife with "where does this word originate", this book could easily become my Roman Empire.

I even picked up German 2 years ago because I knew English is a Germanic language and I was interested to see where the similarities and differences were in word-construction and grammatical arrangement. I'm that kind of nerd.

Needless to say, I ate the academic part of this book up.

And all of that is saying NOTHING about the commentary on history and culture and the racism, sexism, and classism going on in this book. Or the rise and fall of empires and imperialism/colonization. Or, lastly of the nature of revolution.

As excited as I was about the linguistic matter of this book, there's no denying that some bits of this story--particularly in the beginning--were slow and felt a little like drudgery. The last 30% of this was a roller coaster, by contrast and it sort of felt like everything was happening at once. I wish the whole book had been filled with that fast-pacing, even if it meant sacrificing some of the more academic bits that I loved. The ending felt inevitable and unsurprising, but it was still a wild ride getting there.

This book isn't just a cute YA fantasy. It's tackling tough, ugly, uncomfortable topics. And while I might not agree with every sentiment that Kuang expresses in here, there's no denying that this book feels important to our time.

4.5 stars, rounded down because it was a bit of a slog in the beginning. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Oct 29, 2023 aishiki (taylor's version) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, les-creme-de-la-creme

i did not finish this book. this book finished me. i'm afraid i will never recover from this book because this just set a standard in my mind that no book will ever be able to reach.
rf kuang outdid herself with babel. reading this was a painful, heartbreaking yet beautiful journey. i will need a lot of time to recover from this because the last 100 pages where just one heartbreak after another.
predicting this to be my top read of 2023 ...more

1 like · Like · see review