I picked up a niche science fiction novel from the 1960s from an author I didn’t recognize with a derivative title and a nondescript summary, and it far surpasses its more modern, critically acclaimed genre siblings. This isn’t a surprise at this point, but further affirmation of my crotchety old man opinions about science fiction stories and publishing. However, Babel-17 does not fit in the category of highly technical novelizations of scientific papers or research reports, like Rocheworld – it has a meaningful plot, intrigue, dynamic characters, and strong, thoughtful prose which is integrated with the telling of the story. There are invaders from another galaxy, extremely advanced bioengineering, intricate metamaterials, discorporate beings (i.e. ghosts), and payphones, but Babel-17 is primarily a story preoccupied with language.
On the surface, this refers to the effort to translate and understand the titular “Babel-17,” a code name for some kind of alien transmission associated with the aforementioned invaders, which forms the backbone of the story’s main plot, but the story’s preoccupation with and incorporation of language and linguistics goes far deeper, permeating through and echoing within the story’s other elements, from worldbuilding to characters to the rhetoric itself, in a way that brings the disparate elements into harmony they might otherwise fail to find. Indeed, were the story written otherwise, but with the same main plot and story elements, the overall effect would read as disorganized and scattered, rather than being a cohesive whole. The interplay between the prose and the story is particularly adept, and one of my favorite parts about the book. Delany even contrives to convey the different thought processes which can be associated with or enabled by different languages in a particularly adept and immersive manner.
Though it reads fast, there are layers to the prose that keep you thinking about each passage after you’ve read and it make me think it’s the sort of book that will produce a different understanding, interpretation, insight with each new rereading. This is helped by the way Delany manages exposition, which is to include almost none of it. We readers are offered explanations only as the characters are, and so we are fully immersed in a world which is dazzlingly alien and imaginative. Such worldbuilding elements do not form a major part of the story, but they are nonetheless part of what makes the story work. Every reader will probably come to different conclusions about the world Delany presents, but here is a prime example of an author who trusts his readers to follow the story he wants to tell without spelling everything out explicitly. Because the work of rendering scenes is left in large part of the reader’s imagination, the scenes become even more vivid, and the reader is even more engaged with the story. I still couldn’t tell you the full cultural implications or technical background of why so many people have mythologically inspired cosmetisurgical modifications, and I don’t need to be able to do so to understand and appreciate the story.
These older science fiction novels are often amusing for the anachronisms they propagate into the distant future. Delany avoids most of this in Babel-17 by placing it so far out in the future and in such an alien environment that almost everything is unfamiliar, though the appearance of payphones and a few other odd details might be noticeable. Mostly, it leads me to wonder what details we take for granted in our own writing which will be viewed as strangely anachronistic a few decades hence.
My reading rate has dropped way off in the past couple months (I burned through my entire backlog of book reviews), so Babel-17 represented something of a gateway back into my normal rate. After the reading drought and a couple lackluster fiction outings, Babel-17 was just what I needed, and not just because I happen to like books where plot problems are solved with applied Euclidean geometry and a well-placed diphthong. It’s a small-scope, deeply immersive novel with a great deal of understated intricacy and thought underlying its premises, executed with an attention to rhetoric befitting a book in which language plays such a prominent role. If my science fiction reviews speak to you in a language you understand, I think you’ll enjoy Babel-17.
IGC Publishing 