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Have you read Babel by R.F. Kuang? Did you like it? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 2 weeks ago by howler@lemmy.zip to c/books@lemmy.ml

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I'm trying to find any redeemable qualities that make me feel better for the time I spent reading it. I could have put it down, but the raving reviews made me think that it would get better.

It didn't.

I loathed it. With passion.

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[–] howler@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The magic system was great, and I really enjoyed the linguistics parts. However, the characters felt incredibly boring, bland, kinda stupid at times... For a world with magic, it felt just like ours, and in fact magic changes nothing in its history compared to ours.

The footnotes were the cherry on top of my dislike, turning it into loathe. I don't like being told what to think and how to interpret things.

I felt that Kuang was breathing down my nape, silently watching me to make sure I got the point of that slavery, capitalism and colonialism are bad.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, you're right about the footnotes. I read someone the other day saying they felt like Kuang was writing with an imaginary social justice scold hovering over her, and I think that's about right. I find it odd that someone feels they have to say 'racism — which is bad, by the way — exists in this society'. We know it's bad! Even racists don't like being called racist!