R.F.Kuang - Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

Babel is a truly remarkable novel. For the unwary reader it is likely to feel popular because of its initial similarity to the basic premise of Harry Potter - an unlikely child is plucked from their normality and placed in a secret, magical environment. But Babel is a much richer, more complex and far more satisfying novel that Rowling's works. For R.F. Kuang's main characters are not the children of suburban middle class, white, households. Instead they are the children of Empire - Chinese, Indian and Haitian. For in Kuang's alternative world, colonial Empires thrive on the magical powers derived from the subtle differences in translated languages. The slight alternations in meaning between two Mandarin and English words, for instance, can drive power and spells linked to those words when placed in blocks of silver.

The scholars of Babel tower in Oxford University have become rich and fat on their monopoly of this knowledge and the British Empire has become powerful and violent on the back of the power it gives them. But all is not well. The population are revolting - as magic imbued silver powers machines and eases transport. Workers are deskilled, made redundant and driven into poverty by the magic from Oxford, and they are unhappy. But there are further economic troubles on the horizon. Silver is not unlimited and China has much of it and, the power of European languages is fading. Skills are needed from speakers of the languages of Africa, China and India. Which is where our heroes come in.

Robin Swift adopts his name as a boy, because his Chinese name would be unpronounceable to the English. He is taken to Britain, saved by his father from the slums of Canton where plague has devastated almost the whole population. His father, a Babel professor, saves only Swift - he is useful, and potentially profitable. Such is the pattern of Babel and Empire.

Arriving in Oxford after years of forced education, Swift is quickly sucked into the magical realm of knowledge. His lifestyle is luxurious as Babel is fat on the profits of Empire and magic. His friends are also brilliant translators, and they are shaped into a group that will help take the Empire forward. But Swift learns the reality of things quickly - he is pulled into the revolutionary, radical Hermes organisation. A secretive network with the aim of revolution - using Babel's powers to break the British Empire.

Swift moves from naivete to assured rebellion. The powers of Babel resist, though ironically, it is academic hostility to others that proves their final undoing. But Swift, and his friends, have to take on the power of the British Empire - though in their revolution, they do not do so alone. They find allies among the oppressed and downtrodden on Britain itself.

Its a brilliant fantasy, but it is much more than that too. For written into this story is a deeper one - the racism and prejudice of 1830s (and 21st century) Oxford. The limitations of the liberal do-gooders who want to stop war through platitudes, pamphlets and petitions. The frustrations of those self-same white allies who cannot see the reality of racism even inside the privileged, rarefied atmosphere of Babel, where the Asian, Black and Brown scholars are priceless. Kuang has crafted an alternative world, but she has rooted it deep in the history the British Empire - one where the Swing rioters are deported and executed at home, where colonial "subjects" are taunted, dehumanised and mistreated at home and abroad opium is used to destroy an entire country and wars are started to ensure "free trade". Her footnotes, that blend actual history with magical explanations expertly blur the distinction between fact and fiction. It is very much a novel for the Black Lives Matter generation - rooted in part in Kuang's own experiences at the university.

Revolutionary Marxists reading the book will likely pick up on wider themes - not least the question of the state and violence. I was struck, as the book's subtitle suggests, by the clever handling of Swift's journey from activist to terrorist as he seems the impossibility of peaceful reform in the face of the Empire, and Babel's, vested interests. That Kuang places this debate within the context of wider, British, working class activism - albeit in a supporting role, is testament to the nuances of the book. It is, after all, a fantasy, and readers who are concerned about the lack of a "revolutionary party" in the book are missing the point. The rest of you should settle back and stay up all night with this remarkable depiction of the intersection of magic, language and revolution. You'll love it.

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