#love you rf kuang

[ayyahsbraindump]

Babel by R.F Kuang: Ramy’s sexuality.

okay, this is my first ever post and i have no clue if anyone will read this, but i really hope someone does. ps, i will be spoiling babel so you’ve been warned! i want to start by saying, i hope i don’t come across as mean, and if i do i apologise in advance. all these opinions are my own, and i hope to not come off as someone who deep dives into peoples sexualities for fun (?) i’ve seen a lot of people talk about ramy and birdie, and want to share my own opinion which i think will give a different perspective on the ‘romance’.

i really wanna discuss the fact that people ship ramy and birdie together. especially because of ✨that scene✨ where birdie asks ramy why he won’t dance with letty (sorry i’m not entirely sure what he asks but it’s something along this line) and ramy replies with “you know why”.

the reason i’m against ramy and birdie shippers is not because i’m anti-lgbtq+, but because people are taking this scene out of context. ramy is a muslim. he’s a practicing muslim, meaning he is dedicated to his religion, which we see a lot of (for example, he doesn’t drink alcohol, he prays etc). personally, i believe the reason ramy doesn’t want to dance with letty (again, not sure what birdie asks but that’s not important here) is not because he’s in love with birdie, but because it’s in his religion to not do such.

i really have to emphasise here: muslims are not against the lgbtq+. we simply stay out of it, because in our religion, god has said so. we don’t make fun or mock those who are part of the community, we simply don’t agree with the beliefs, but are understanding if you believe in them. contrary to how media present us, muslims are peaceful people (our greeting literally means ‘peace be upon you’).

okay, now that i’ve (hopefully) cleared that up, i just think that it’s somewhat ignorant (?) to disregard his religion and ship him in a same-sex relationship, when it’s clear that he is a muslim. i understand not a lot of people may have known that as muslims we aren’t supposed to be in same-sex relationships, but….now you know!

another thing to note, in islam, we don’t date before marriage. we don’t have sex before marriage, and essentially, we’re more or less segregated from the opposite sex before marriage. call it strict but that’s what our religion is. therefore, i believe ramy didn’t want to dance with letty because it would mean leading letty on (which i believe they all were aware of letty’s crush on ramy?) and religiously thats not allowed (and just in general, that’s kinda sad 😭).

i know i’m painting ramy out to be this super religion-comes-first kinda guy, but it’s evident in the book that that’s how he is. he clearly has a deep respect towards islam, and i love r.f kuang for the absolutely amazing muslim representation i’ve ever read in a ‘mainstream’ book! if you’ve read this far, thank you so much for reading, and i’d love to hear your own opinion (please be respectful!)

[iloveplacebo]

female rage ft. Fang Runin

The personification of female rage

[nartml]

Don't you love it when they're so ruthlessly doomed by the narrative it's actually a bit impressive how you ever even had hope

[archiveofliterature]

that one line about ramy's bangla being rudimentary made me absolutely sob (i'm bengali) and i wanna talk about why

there's so much to it both contextually with ramy's character as well as historically. contextually because ramy is fluent in 6 languages, an insane number of languages for one person but none of which are his mother tongue. he's described as a performer, one who knows he can't blend in so instead he stands out as a means to escape as much of the racism as he can. he gets lost in it that he almost forgets who he is; this is reflected in his language ability too – he gets so lost in his linguistic academics he just barely remembers the native language of his home place that he adores.

and honestly, you can't even really blame ramy for it at all when it was induced. it's the british who saw urdu, arabic and persian as more valuable than bangla, it's the british that make ramy put on this act so he can literally stay alive. and when you know the historical relevancies between urdu and bangla, it hurts so much that ramy was forced to forget bangla

very brief history context: after the partition, where british india was split into india, pakistan and east pakistan (now bangladesh) bangla was seen as inferior to urdu due to its hindu connections. bengalis experienced so much shit because of this (and bengali muslims are still dealing with the internalised cultural racism today honestly). pakistanis tried to make the official language urdu, even though literally everyone in east pakistan were bengali and spoke bangla, so bengalis fought back against it. we still celebrate that day today (feb 21)

so to have ramy be in this position in the 1830s where urdu was seen as superior to bangla, especially when ramy is a bengali muslim, is just extremely accurate?? and maybe it's bc we don't have much western literature where we talk about this but it's just so nice to have it acknowledged

the bangla language movement didn't happen until around the 1950s, over a century after babel's timeline, but the seeds are always there. while i do think it comes with both this islamic superiority tendency a lot of asians have (arabs i'm looking at you) and britian's imperialistic racism, i just love how it all makes sense

[sun-archeron]

Rereading the poppy war hurts so much bc now i notice all the foreshadowing,and realize how none of them ever had a chance, bc they're stuck in this cycle, but oh if things had just been a little different, if even one of them had made one different choice but they didn't and now i'm torturing myself reading this

[devotionconsumed]

rin really said altan and i are cousins by chance, one sided crush by choice 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[merrygoesaround]

god give me strength because i just finished babel aaaaaaaaaahhhhdhgaaaaaaa

[starfallkaz]

Reading fourth wing has made me realise I define slow-burn very different to other people, because that book was not slowburn.

When I say slow-burn enemies-to-lovers I need detesting, hating each other - the sight of the other person makes you physically sick or trembling with rage, or some ungodly combination of both. I don’t want admiration from afar, I want plotting to murder the other in their sleep.

I need a slow-burn that lasts 3/4 of a book, if not an entire book - have me foaming at the mouth waiting for them to make a move, to brush hands at each other. I need pining in unspoken gestures loaded with meaning. I need flexed fingers when you touch and forcing yourself to pull away from the other. I don’t need smut by the end of a book and a sudden L-bomb, by any definition that is NOT slowburn

[spittinwatches]

robin and ramy in their culture's traditional clothing

[nepttunnee]

like. do i understand that rin very much struggled in weighing the consequences of her actions against her anger. yes. but also was it so fucking funny how she was just pissed the entire series. yes

[bookwyrminspiration]

Do you like babel. I have the book but I haven’t started yet

oh I adore babel. I talk about it so much and am constantly reccing it to people--in fact, I did so just yesterday after quoting it in class discussion!

With a complex, diverse main cast and a heavy focus on language--as an art, as a field of study, as a tool of oppression by colonial empires--it creates such a captivating world and worldview. Following the 4 main characters throughout their college schooling and seeing them try to reconcile and come to terms with their circumstances and their losses and their supposed helplessness is such an emotional journey, and its one many can see themselves in.

You'll find a lot of people who've lost/struggle with their heritage language(s) echoing the characters' sentiments and experiences, though the relations can and do go beyond that.

I'm trying not to spoil anything, but if you'd like a more official summary/sales pitch or would like to talk about it more I am always delighted to discuss babel :)

[willowistic22]

The poppy war is so damn dramatic and i love all those unhinged characters. I’m in the middle of book two and one plottwist (or maybe i’m just saying tht cause i’m dumb lol) i can’t get over quite yet is how it was briefly insinuated that Changan might’ve had feelings for Altan. And i wish i recorded the scream i screamed in my dorm-

[queer-reader-07]

me: i can be normal about media i swear

also me: ok so now that i've decided what my favorite books of the year are let me tell you in great detail how each one altered my brain chemistry and made me a new person

[archiveofliterature]

thinking abt how ramy in his youth while in yorkshire probably settled on referring to himself as indian instead of bengali because the people there didn't know what the difference was and he couldn't find it in himself to explain it in a way they would get it

[kimbapisnotsushi]

(major babel spoilers)

you’re telling me that the whole reason ramy died was because he was defending robin????

[marcelineuntitled]

ramy again <3