โ โ โโโ | Fantasy | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I tried to like this book. It has all the elements of a book I would love: etymology, 19th century England, a diverse set of characters, magic, and an academic setting (Oxford, no less!). But I found it slow and repetitive, filled with one-dimensional, unlikable characters, and lecture after lecture on how the rich and powerful mistreat the poor, especially those who arenโt white and British, except for those that are poor and British. It took me almost two months to finish this, and it was a struggle.
I appreciate the idea behind the story, but not how it was told. Not every book is for every reader.
Highlights
By the time Professor Richard Lovell found his way through Cantonโs narrow alleys to the faded address in his diary, the boy was the only one in the house left alive.
thatโs the beauty of learning a new language. It should feel like an enormous undertaking. It ought to intimidate you. It makes you appreciate the complexity of the ones you know already.โ
translators do not so much deliver a message as they rewrite the original. And herein lies the difficulty โ rewriting is still writing, and writing always reflects the authorโs ideology and biases.
In the Zhuangzi, which heโd just translated with Professor Chakravarti, the phrase tวntรบ* literally meant โa flat roadโ, metaphorically, โa tranquil lifeโ. This was what he wanted: a smooth, even path to a future with no surprises.
They were all white men who seemed cut from precisely the same cloth as Mr Baylis โ superficially charming and talkative men who, despite their clean-cut attire, seemed to exude an air of intangible dirtiness.
Nice comes from the Latin word for โstupid”
a city carved out of the past; of ancient spires, pinnacles, and turrets; of soft moonlight on old stones and worn, cobbled roads. Its buildings were still so reassuringly heavy, solid, ancient and eternal. The lights that shone through arched windows still promised warmth, old books, and hot tea within; still suggested an idyllic scholarโs life, where ideas were abstract entertainments that could be bandied about without consequences.
โThatโs just what translation is, I think. Thatโs all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what theyโre trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.โ