Day 1056: Book completed

[eve_prime]

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution, by R.F. Kuang. This alternate history novel by a Chinese-born grad student author is very much a scathing indictment of colonialism, with a very unusual magic system - it's powered by the differences in meaning by words that are used for each other in translation. For example, the English and French words for something, especially something abstract, have overlapping meanings, obviously, but often the two words have slightly different nuances that don't fully get conveyed, and in this world that difference has physical power in the world. Imagine, then, how much greater the words might be in English and Chinese. And then imagine that Britain uses this magic to power its Industrial Revolution.

She's also written a military-fantasy trilogy based on the Opium War, which is surely one of the worst things Britain has ever deliberately done. I'll probably read the first of those soon too. I've been reading a lot of long books!

Comments

[kaishin108]

I am relieved that so much is surfacing on how bad colonialism was. I mean just going in and thinking your ideas of living are better than someone else's, ugh. It makes me feel kind of funny inside about liking the Regency era so much, I need to look closer at that...

[eve_prime]

Are you watching the TV series of Sanditon? One of the main characters is a young heiress from the West Indies.

[kaishin108]

I haven't been watching that one! I probably should

[eve_prime]

I meant to say, she is a Black heiress from the West Indies.

The first season had an aggravating ending - it was written as a cliffhanger, but then it took several years to get the next season approved, so they had to make some changes. Then they got seasons two and three approved, which will tell a complete story. We saw season two last year, and season three starts next month! I definitely enjoy it, except for the frustration of the season one ending for the main character. (The season one ending for another character was fantastic.)

[kaishin108]

Oh wow, it sounds really good! :)

[eve_prime]

Oh yeah, it's super fun. And you know what? I just responded to your Washington Post thread by talking about PBS Passport, but I really meant to say it here; I hadn't realized where I was. So if you're confused, it's totally my fault.

If I don't get PBS Passport soon, I'll probably buy the DVD for the whole Sanditon series, if such a thing exists.

Oh! I can't remember if you watched Poldark, but there was a minor character who was a thug who worked for Ross Poldark's main antagonist. And the same actor also appears in Sanditon as the sweetest young man, who is probably gay. I adore him. Hm, if I knew how to put pictures into a comment here, I would show you. Oh well.

[kaishin108]

I do have Passport but I never use it, I really should to watch Sanditon! I didn't see your other post yes, thank you for explaining, I do that more times than I want to admit to, ha hah!

[eve_prime]

I really should find a copy of the book to see how far Austen actually got with the story, because the premise is pretty unusual for her. The man who did this adaptation, Andrew Davies, did the miniseries of Sense and Sensibility that I love.