a menace !

An act of translation is always an act of betrayal

[fine-not-alright]

[fine-not-alright]

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino completely ruined by the mention of The Good Place in a moment of the book that's supposed to take place in 2006. like. the good place started in 2016 and that's a fact that's sooooo googleable.

[copycatvagabond]

promise I will stop posting about the Oresteia soon but here is Cassandra

[jmfenner91]

I read Bunny by Mona Awad while recovering from surgery & it was SO cool! I had to make a mock-cover for it. 🐰🪓

[silentluvr]

"bunny? where are you?" the world is blacker than it has ever been.

we are lost.

[ardentlyinlovedarcy]

[thecrenellations]

Oh, you married the older sister (?) of the friend/crush you connected with on a dangerous adventure as a teenager? She has some gender stuff going on and was pretty much the only person who could get through to him when he was extremely ill after one of the most traumatic experiences of his life? On a scale of Jerott Blyth to Sounis Sophos, how well did it go?

[jessread-s]

✩📜🖋️Review:

You should read this book and I’m going to do my best to tell you why.

“Babel: An Arcane History” is told primarily from the perspective of Robin Swift, an orphan from Canton who is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell in hopes that he will one day enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation (Babel). Once there, Robin learns the art of Silver-working—manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—and that serving Babel means betraying his motherland. Caught between Babel and putting a stop to imperial expansion, Robin is left with the difficult choice of giving in or fighting back.

“Babel: An Arcane History” is both thought-provoking and incredibly insightful. Kuang challenges colonialism and the patriarchy, captures the complexities in relation to translation, broaches topics like nature versus nurture, and speaks to the necessity of violence with regards to revolution. She stretches the mind, appeals to her reader’s emotions to evoke feeling, and she does all this through her well-developed characters.

The novel’s length allows for the reader to become fully acquainted with Robin and his cohorts. Following Robin throughout the many stages of his life and reading singular chapters written from the point-of-view of other characters like Remy, Letty, and Victoire creates a sense of familiarity surrounding their very real struggles, inner conflicts, motivations, and for some, showcases their development from Babel scholar to revolutionary. Robin’s viewpoint in conjunction with Kuang’s descriptive prose also immerses the reader in the Oxford environment and politics, which contributes greatly to the plot.

Kuang does not hold back in her commentary on race, class, gender, education, and language while masterfully weaving in elements of fantasy and history. I cannot recommend enough that you pick up “Babel: An Arcane History” and see its brilliance for yourself.

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[fine-not-alright]

the fourth wing is a crazy book ... i hate it but i love it. it's so stupid it's driving me insane . they have dragons!! it's sex positive!! they can't make ballpoint pens work..

[fine-not-alright]

ahhhhhh

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

[fine-not-alright]

reader ... I yelled

[fine-not-alright]

hmmmmmmmm this book might break me

[fine-not-alright]

letters in In Memoriam ...

that is all

[goblinmatriarch]

The agonies, they are exquisite.

[henry-gaunts-diary]

[zegalba]

Confiscated pens containing cheat notes intricately carved by a student at the University of Malaga, Spain. (2022)

[wheelie-butch]

when you download a pdf and it's called like 1328723486basdf12.pdf but then you gently rename it to what it's supposed to be. that's forming a bond with a hurt and wild mythological creature and reminding it who it is.