Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution

Babel Tower is the physical structure that houses the Royal Institute of Translators, but it is also a symbol of the complicity of institutions such as colleges in political oppression. As a college, Babel works hand-in-hand with the empire to colonize languages that can feed the demand for match-pairs. As part of the British higher education system, the college exploits native speakers like Ramy and Robin for the benefit of Great Britain and to the detriment of their home countries. More generally, the college is a place where people of color are made to feel like others because of the actions of their fellow students, townspeople, and professors, who are insensitive to or overt purveyors of racist, colonialist ideas.

Kuang includes an illustration of the tower in the book’s front matter. The tower includes floors that house classrooms, reference materials, and faculty offices, with silversmithing at the very top. The organization illustrates how knowledge creation and education are necessary for silversmithing. This architecture reflects Kuang’s larger critique of higher education and representations of higher education in dark academia. Rather than being sites of nostalgia and separation from the world of dirty politics, colleges reflect and amplify inequality in the systems that create them.