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

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. How did your sympathy with the four main characters evolve as the novel progressed? Did you gain or lose sympathy for them? Why or why not?

2. Which of the four main characters—Letty, Ramy, Robin, and Victoire—did you relate to the most? What makes this character more relatable than the others?

3. Babel is a double-edged location where Robin and his cohort can feel empowered by the magic they learn, yet they experience profound prejudice. Has there been a location in your life that exhibits a double-edged nature, and, if so, how did you navigate it?

4. How does this novel affect your understanding of the consequences of British colonialism?

5. How does the novel depict the possibility for interracial and intercultural friendship? To what extent do you agree with this depiction?

6. How would you personally navigate the situation Robin finds himself in, where he is caught between his life at Babel and his increasing disillusionment and allegiance to the Hermes Society?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. What is this novel’s perspective on the ethics of violent resistance to oppression? How does this compare with various real-world perceptions of this same topic? In the real world, how is violent resistance depicted as “justified” (or not) differently across geographies and time periods?

2. How is “racism” as a generalized system of bias and oppression nuanced by the variety of characters included in this novel? For instance, Robin is biracial but passes as white in some situations, while Ramy’s and Victoire’s brown skin makes their experience of England different.

3. While some main focuses of this novel are anti-coloniality and resistance to oppression, an underexplored aspect is its handling of queerness and sexuality. How is queerness depicted, and how does it interact with other axes of oppression faced by the characters?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. How does the mechanism of alchemy and translation interact with the broader theme of Empire and Anticolonialism in the novel, and to what effect?

2. Consider the novel’s title: Babel, or the Necessity of Violence. How does this name relate to the book’s narrative features, such as plot, theme, symbols, settings, and character arcs?

3. Why is the setting of 1830s England significant, considering the novel’s themes and message? How would the novel change if the time period or geographical location changed? Are there other geographical and temporal settings that could achieve the same narrative goals?

4. Trace the character arcs of the novel’s central characters (e.g., Robin, Ramy, Victoire, Letty, and Griffin). Which character do you think has the most development? The least? Why?