Babel fanart! Im like 3/4 the way through of it but its still my fav book . Victoire is genuinely so cool to me, she could tell me the skys green and id probably be like “you know what it probably is and my eyes are broken”🙂↕️🙂↕️
It's sad that we never learn Robin's or, for that matter, Griffin's Chinese name, but I personally cannot stop thinking how the empire made it impossible for both brothers to be a true family. Robin Swift, Griffin Harley/Lovell. Not even a shared surname, like complete strangers. Yes, you could go and call them Lovells, but that only reiterates colonialism. They don't truly belong to any English surname. They didn't really get a chance to be a family not only in name, of course, but I didn't want to state the obvious. This whole thought occured to me because of their differing names and I think it quite (cruelly, ironically) poetic
If we choose to follow what actually happened in history then we know that Robin was wrong, that the British did wage war to China and China lost the Opium War. This shows us the glaring truth, that you don't win the war by dying. We hail those who have died for our freedom and how the greatest act of patriotism is measured if whether or not we are willing to die for our country, but death does not guarantee victory, death does not win the war. We fail to sometimes realize that the greatest act of love is choosing to live, to fight, to struggle, and to resist even when the world is cruel, even if the world wants you dead. Victoire is resistance. She refuses to die, she refuses to let go of her culture, she refuses to let go of her identity, she refuses to let go of her Kreyol even when they told her that it is useless, Victoire refuses to be their Oroonoko, she refuses to be the martyr in the colonizer's tragic story, Victoire continues to refuse, to resist, and she hopes and hopes and hopes of a better future-- the seed of revolution, because revolution is not vengeance, it is not senseless violence, revolution is the act of wanting, desiring--of a better world, and that it does not seek to destroy but rebuild. Truly, victory lives on.
I just finished Babel by R.F. Kuang and I can’t stop thinking about Professor Craft. How she’s shown as the object of Letty’s total admiration for being the only female professor at Babel until she shuts down Letty’s questions about overcoming misogyny, how her refusal to acknowledge the institution’s misogyny frames her as complacent. However, she later proves herself to be a greater ally to the cause than Letty even would be. She is the first to believe Robin and Victoire about the war, she is the only white scholar to stay and join the revolution, she sacrifices herself to help Robin destroy the tower. Meanwhile, Letty betrays her friends and refuses to consider any oppression that isn’t her own. And I wish so badly that Letty could’ve seen Professor Craft when she told Robin and Victoire to surrender, that she saw that the woman she was desperate to emulate on the opposite side of the revolution and maybe then she would finally see that she was wrong
(some times you just have to make the fanart you want to see in the world)
"We are but Lilliputians in your eyes. Utterly awkward aliens in your organized city"
(lyrics from "khelna bati ranna" by Anupam Roy)
Listen to the whole damn song and think about them to give yourself psychic damage. They can't just give me a Bangali queer character and expect me to not go apeshit about it.
Been up very late thinking about how old everyone is in Babel, because it’s not something ever directly spoken about in the book, save for Robin in the first chapter.
Kuang leaves just enough details for us to put together the ages of characters. I like that she doesn’t explicitly say things, and makes you figure it out.
Spoilers below!
‘So where are you from?’
‘Canton.’
‘I was born in Macau. I don’t remember if I ever went to Canton. So then, when did he bring you over?’
‘To London?’
‘No, you dolt, to Manila. Yes, London.’
His brother, Robin thought, could be quite an ass. ‘Six — no, seven years ago now.’
‘Incredible.’ Griffin turned left onto Banbury Road without warning; Robin hastened to follow. ‘No wonder he never went looking for me. Had something better to focus on, didn’t he?’
Chapter Five, pages 95-96.
The year is 1836, and this is Robin’s first year attending Babel, his first week in fact. We know that Robin was taken in by Lovell at 11, so he’s 18 in this scene. (‘…seven years ago now.’)
This confirms students are 18 when they begin attending Babel, and then 22 by the time they graduate in their 4 year. I’ll be using this as my basis.
We still don’t have any confirmation on how old Griffin is. Until a scene much later in the book.
‘Keep it,’ said Professor Lovell.
‘Sir?’
‘I have been staring at that bar everyday for the past five years, wondering where I went wrong with Griffin. If I had raised him differently, or seen him earlier for what he was, if Evie would still — but never mind.’ Professor Lovell’s voice hardened.
Chapter 15, page 268.
The year is 1839, Robin and his cohort have just concluded their third year at Babel. They are all 21 years old, maybe 20 if they have birthdays late in the summer. This segment implies that Evie was killed five years before this, in 1834, just two years before Robin arrived at Babel.
Let me restate this:
Robin was already 16 when Griffin killed Evie. And how old was Griffin when he killed Evie?
As they flipped through the ledger, another theory became more evident. Evie had been wildly prolific between the years 1833 and 1834, but by 1835, her research had dropped completely off the record. Not a single innovation in the past five years. They'd never met an Evie Brooke at any of the departmental parties or dinners; she’d given no lectures, no seminars. Whoever Eveline Brooke was, as brilliant as she'd been, she was clearly no longer at Babel.
'Hold on,' said Victoire. 'Suppose she graduated in 1833. That would have put her in the same class as Sterling Jones. And Anthony!’
And Griffin, Robin realized, though he did not say this out loud.
'Perhaps she was also lost at sea,' said Letty.
'A cursed class, then, that,’ observed Ramy.
The room suddenly felt very cold.
Chapter 13, page 230.
So, Griffin’s cohort graduated in 1833. They would’ve been 22, at that time. Evie died in 1834, so she was just barely 23, at best. Griffin died in 1840, so he was, at oldest, 29.
Same with Anthony and Sterling. It’s very likely they were all still 28, as during the hostile takeover over of Babel, Hilary term (January-March) barely began:
They'd chosen a good day for revolution.
It was the first day of term, and one of the rare days in Oxford when the weather was deceitfully marvellous; when its warmth promised more sunshine and joy than the relentless rain and sleet Hilary inevitably brought.
Chapter 26, page 447
Considering they died just before this, I think it’s safe to assume Griffin, Anthony, and Sterling were all 28. This means they were likely 24 when the story began.
So, to conclude, Griffin is Robin’s older brother by 6 years.
I do find it very in-character for Professor Lovell to have never told Griffin about Robin, even outside of plot reasons. It’s mentioned many times that Professor Lovell only speaks about things when he deems it absolutely necessary, and is otherwise very vague. He would have no reason to tell Griffin about Robin, because that would imply he cares to some degree.
It would be, in some strange form, acknowledging they are family. Why else would Griffin need to know? So yes, I think Professor Lovell would’ve completely omitted the fact Griffin has a brother, just as he did with Robin’s other siblings still in China.
It’s entirely possible that if Griffin continued to stay undercover at Babel, he would’ve just been smacked in the face one day with the fact he has a half brother. In the middle of Babel. The possibility makes me hysterical.
The fact that Anthony goes missing and is presumed dead by everyone and they’re all expected to just move on. But Evie Brooke’s death is this tragedy that no one can forget.
That Anthony was replaced on his station the next day but even after all these years no one is allowed to sit at Evie’s desk.
Like yeah every student at Babel is as disposable as the next but some are more replaceable than others.
vaporwave
tangentwithtanner
yousharknotpass
turnnoffyourmind
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