brownedsteph

[brownedsteph]

Robin finally found freedom, Robin finally won the battle inside him, because he reclaimed his name.

If the first sign that everything was very wrong with the concept of Babel, it's the fact that Robin was coerced to give up his Chinese name and choose an English one. Throughout the story, Robin never refers to himself by his true name, only Robin Swift. The most foundational aspect of his identity, his given name, was stripped away from him to assimilate into British society and white academia.

But upon his death, he reclaims that name. It shows that the only way to be free was in death, because a life serving the Crown erased who he truly was. In dying and releasing himself from that oppression, he became free, I think Robin won.

How many of us have had to give up our names, or their proper spellings, or their proper pronunciations, to mould them into something slightly more acceptable to suit the confines of Standard English? I think that Robin hearing his true name upon his death, and uttered by the woman who named him as such no less, was the final rebellion that reversed the deep-rooted colonization of the mind.

[brownedsteph]

He hated this place. He loved it. He resented how it treated him. He still wanted to be a part of it – because it felt so good to be a part of it, to speak to its professors as an intellectual equal, to be in on the great game.

— R.F. Kuang, Babel

[brownedsteph]

Dude this freaking stuck with me

[brownedsteph]

I reckon I let bookblr know whats going on on book twitter/ig cuz ngl its by far one of the most tone deaf things I’ve seen from book accounts

Two different book ig accts posted reviews of Babel and claim that RF Kuang and the book are “racist” towards the white characters. I’m leaving the screenshots here (not mine, courtesy of @/alliewithbooks and @/eminwords on Twitter)

I don’t even know where to start about how wrong these two accts are (one is a lit student and the other is a phd history student???).

Babel was never advertised as a fun romp, and it explores why violence is sometimes a necessary thing in revolutions. Which is something western countries don’t understand, as the countries sanitize the history of revolutions outside of their own. Robin even has internal and external dialogue about the consequences of Babel falling, and determined it was the only way to go. He and the other scholars were backed into a corner by years of exploitation. There’s a lot of back and forth on this and it’s also explored in Robin’s character arc from passive to assertive in the revolution. It’s also explored in his differences between Victoire and Ramy as well as his brother Griffin.

It’s also bizarre to accuse it of reverse racism (which doesn’t exist btw, you can prejudice agaisnt white ppl but racism is institutional), while also saying that the characters are “reduced to their skin color”. The irony of it all. The book is suppose to make you uncomfortable, Letty made ME feel uncomfortable because of how similar she was to people I’ve met in real life.

Finally, the book takes place in a fictionalize 1830s, do these people think white people were nice to BIPOC in the 1830s if they didn’t want something from them? And the fact that one of them is a history major too…

Anyway, rant over. Luckily people on Twitter have been roasting the shit out of them. Go read Babel its a good book.

[brownedsteph]

ramiz rafi mirza from rf kuang's Babel

[brownedsteph]

fucking linguists

[brownedsteph]

little birdie, robin swift

[brownedsteph]

the atlas six is such a funny book to me bc yall marketed it like it was nicolibby academic rivals to lovers, meanwhile it’s heavily implied that nico’s in love with gideon

[brownedsteph]

i think one of the things that gets missed by the people who really don’t like my romanticizing adulthood post is that it’s not a passive “oh magical things happen to you as an adult” sort of deal 

it’s a “this is my one and only life, and i’m going to milk it for all it’s worth” sort of deal 

it’s a defiant “i didn’t actually think i’d make it this far” sort of deal 

i’m not trying to say, “oh just think positive and everything will be fine” because that’s not true, but we are what we practice, and i think it’s important to consciously practice joy and appreciation and treating my life like it’s special because it is. 

there are days that fucking suck being a grown up, but going, “joy is fleeting and misery is the norm” does nothing but make you (and the people around you) miserable. i am way more happy than i EVER was a kid or teenanger, and a big part of that is doing special things like buying myself a cup of dippin’ dots just because i can or deciding last minute that i want to go on an “adventure” (even if that’s just walking around a secondhand store i’ve never been to before) and recognizing that these are gifts i’m giving myself because i deserve to live a life i’m in love with. 

[brownedsteph]

Damian in the Sons of Anarchy AU still speaks English like that but this time its Jason’s fault since he taught him to speak like a Victorian aristocrat because he was petty about being kidnapped and made a babysitter to his baby brother in a foreign country.

[brownedsteph]

Goncharov (1973)

"I would say it was time well spent if the last I ever saw was you."

-Goncharov to Andrey Daddano, from the movie Goncharov (1973).

Little fanart I did of this incredible movie, go watch it!!

[brownedsteph]

[brownedsteph]

genuinely cannot believe david mazouz hangs out with lily chee now like i am so confused

#destiny

[brownedsteph]

growing up is an endless process of me looking back at younger versions of myself and being like…. wow she was so young. but look how well she did with what she knew

[brownedsteph]

butttacup

[brownedsteph]

moicestmani

[brownedsteph]

Natalie Díaz, from "American Arithmetic", Postcolonial Love Poem