In RF Kuang’s Babel: The Necessity of Violence, it is said that translation is an act of betrayal. As a Southeast Asian girl, I feel that – when I have to explain concepts and words native to me in English when I talk to my white friends or I have to use words my grandmother cannot understand in English. She speaks in native Bicolano, with the basics of English down. But when she talks in the local language and dialect, she becomes animated.
It’s not that far-off to the story of Robin, the lead character and narrator of Babel. Babel is a daring fantasy novel set in an alternate history where language can uphold an empire or destroy it completely.
In the London of Babel, it is the heart of the empire, and silver is king, inscribed with two words in different languages with the same definition but unique connotations and bridges the gaps between languages.
In this blog, we’ll give a commentary on the colonialism of the novel.
Complicity in Colonialism
RF Kuang laid out the message of the narrative and shouted it. After all, one of the main themes in the styory is how everyone practically, under a colonial state, has a part and remains complicit in colonial violence. The amount of direct involvement one might have isn’t considered; it’s the default. Soldiers and paramilitary forces protect their masters and murder people so that there’s room for foreign settlers to occupy the place.
What about the people who benefit from the resources colonizers and settlers get from the land? They’re part of the problem. They take pleasure in enjoying and using resources—stolen resources—from the land, which connects them to settler colonial violence. It doesn’t take into consideration whether this is conscious or not.
The messaging in the book is not something that the readers eventually figure out. This leads to less room for the readers to figure it out.
Language
Translation is an act of betrayal – this is what Babel is all about. The novel depicts the expansion and extent of colonialism through the usage of language; language is the weapon that settlers use to expand their empire. And the institution of Babel itself is complicit in the settler violence.
Eventually the conflicts in the book hit a high, especially in the last arc. The last arc leads to direct action against the ugliness of colonialism and a future free trade in China that is enacted. All through the novel, RF Kuang keeps the readers on tiptoe for a long time. It’s a slowburn but when the action gets going, it becomes a lot more fast-paced.
Violence: Its Necessity
When fighting colonization, it’s inevitable to resort to violence. Oppressed nations such as Mexico and the Philippines rose up in arms against their colonizers. And that’s why it is inevitable that the third and last arc of Babel eventually segues into more violence.
In the last arc, the book is a resume of the process of when a person or character is the colonized or the colonizer – and the ways that this process begins and happens. At first, Babel might seem like a story about language. However, when violence enters the equation, it becomes easier to see that Babel is also a story about necessary violence.
Is violence a valid solution to colonialism? Does violence correlate to education? There is a reason why Babel is titled Babel: The Necessity of Violence.
We see a lot of it in the characters:
- Ramy and Victoire – Immigrants who love the Motherland, understand occupation and its effects
- Letty – Knows and experiences sexism; she is upper-class, tone-deaf, and white and benefits directly from the system, and she stays that way.
- Griffin – Anarchist radical who wants to overthrow the system
Much like a game of online bingo Philippines, risks in actively destroying an oppressive system are inevitable. Robin realizes this. This becomes more evident in the last pages of the book. And like online bingo, he takes the risks and gambles.
Wrapping Up
Babel is a story about colonialism, language and the necessary violence. Although RF Kuang lays on thick themes at times, it’s a cohesive and rich book about the way we interact with language in the world and realizing our old world may be built on unethical things.
