#but unfortunately i don't have a smart critique i just think it's dull.

[murderballadeer]

i hate it when something is kind of highbrow and complex and not everyone ~gets it~ and then i dislike it too and i can't articulate my critique in a way that goes beyond what someone who doesn't appreciate art or won't engage with it on a deeper level would say

[alectology-archive]

I'm loving your posts about Babel! I personally really disliked the poppy war trilogy, I couldn't get through the first book but I have been anticipating babel as she's older etc and has more experience in writing... but yikes 😬 I've heard it's described as "a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell", if you've read either of these what are your thoughts?

Ah, thank you so much!

I'd say the poppy war treads the line between young adult and new adult (if you're not really into YA you probably won't like it) and mostly deserves a higher rating for the sheer number of content warnings it warrants - it was a little dull in the middle and RFK is not particularly good at writing female characters, I'd say (with the notable exception of her protagonist, Rin), but it was still a very good book overall. She managed to tell a really interesting story while weaving in enough research to let readers really immerse themselves in the world while also opening up conversations about gender, colorism, racism, colonialism, addiction, genocide, how empire commodifies bodies, classisim, generational trauma, etc (I don't think she resolved any of these conversations well and that the sequels were substandard at best, but that's another topic altogether - I'm just mentioning it because I heard that she failed to resolve all the plot threads and themes she picked up in babel as well). And I think the publishing industry really does need more books which unflinchingly explore these themes while centering protagonists of colour! This got kind of rambly, but what I'm trying to say is that the poppy war still remains her best published work to date, tbh. I think babel suffers heavily from a desire for her to come across as if she's smart and worthy enough to formulate a novel in response to the two she mentions - there's just too little plot in it, she relies on a measure of suspension of logic, she injects far too much theory about translation and language, and she can't seem to decide whether she's romanticising or critiquing academia in certain passages although she does a fairly good job of getting across the seduction of empire and the power it seems to give you as long as you allow it to use you to its benefit. I think she's still figuring out how to write novels - and I won't be picking up her next published book (coming 2023 I think) because it doesn't sound like it would be a good book, lol.

I unfortunately haven't read either of the two so I can't really comment on how babel tackles them! I've had friends who hated the secret history for its mishandling of race and friends who say it critiques academia very well but I've never gotten around to finishing it because I've learned (after the atlas six and if we were villains, although they're generally pretty bad books tbh) that I don't particularly care for books that deal with academic settings. I just wanted to make an exception for babel because RFK is a writer of colour and I enjoyed the poppy war enough to give her another go even if I hated the subsequent sequels. I'll link a goodreads review I liked, though, since it kind of explains why babel is so flawed - at one point in the review the reviewer mentions that babel is more of a thematic response to harry potter than jonathan strange & mr. norrel and... I kind of agree honestly. I just got the weird vibe that RFK was trying to say she was responding to those books just because she centered protagonists of colour and tackled academia's role in colonialism (but the secret history doesn't romanticise academia in the first place so...), but I can't really comment any more on the matter since I don't know anything about those books.