Week Ten: Narratives From the Multi – Verse

For this week we were asked to read in the genre of narratives from the multi – verse. The reading selection that I chose to read was Babel-17 by American writer Samuel R. Delany.

Babel-17’s main storyline is an average war story. Two sides fighting and one developing a super weapon which in this novel is a language. Learning it turns one into an unwilling traitor as it alters perception and thought. The change is made more dangerous by the language's seductive enhancement of other abilities.

I found Babel-17 to be interesting because of the use of the unique language with in the story. In other war novels and stories there might be a language barrier or a secret code so they can send messages. This normal it was different because the secret language that is using the war actually alters you as a person. Is a different kind of concept with the use of language? As I was reading I was thinking about a previous selection of work we had to read that was really creative with the use of language, which was J.R.R. Tolkien The Hobbit. With The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien forms and creates whole new languages for each race that he developed throughout his book. 

Babel-17 is so unique because it has its own language that the reader can view as the main character learns it. This correlates with The Hobbit because in that world there are a bunch of different languages that interweave each other. Some of the races may have lost their roots in their cultures and may not be able to read old text from their past ancestors. For an example when the dwarves got the map which can lead them to the location of the keyhole to get back into their mountain to kill Smog and get the Arkenstone. They could not decipher the writing until they ended up at Rivendell. In Babel-17 Rydra Wong is the main character and she’s recruited by her government to discover how the enemy infiltrating and sabotaging strategic sites. Initially Babel-17 is thought to be a code used by enemy agents. Rydra Wong realizes it is a language, and finds herself becoming a traitor as she learns it.

Both The Hobbit and Babel-17 showcase how language can be used in different ways and that language can be a powerful tool. I do recommend reading Babel-17 if you like outer space and different languages.