Bable-17 Samuel R Delay 5 points

I really enjoyed this novel and I was surprised to see how ahead of its time it is. For a novel written in the '60s, it's incredibly progressive with representing people and cultures outside of the standard societal norm. The protagonist is a strong, spunky, female, which was very rare for the  60s, and the way sexuality and physical attribute difference between the two different people were so drastically different from the views of the time. Even Rydra's crew strayed from the norm, being varied ethnically and culturally, I think this added so much to the story. I loved the openness of this book. For the majority, it was super clear and it was obvious the goals of the characters from the start, which allowed me to focus more on the world-building and the overall structure of the science behind it.  

The openness about appearance really pushed the idea of self-image and what one can do. I feel like most older generations are like the Customs people, put off by outlandish appearances and not really accepting of differences, very rigid in sexuality and beliefs. While later generations relate more to the Transport people who are very free when it comes to appearances and sexuality. Like the body mods of the Transport people, I have a couple tattoos and one of them is fairly large. I love it, it's an expression of my art and I think it's beautiful. However, there was a rough patch when I first got it, because my mom doesn't like tattoos. She thinks that they're self-destructive and that I marred my skin. I think this book parallels with the current culture today so well because there is a huge gap between the generations and the new norms versus the old norms.

I have read so many novels with new languages embedded in the narrative but this story uses it in a different way. It takes the "words can be used as weapons" in a very literal sense. Like it literally brainwashes people as they learn it. Babel-17 explores the way in which language shapes reality and how we go from day to day. Like how the connotations behind words are what has an effect on society. The words themselves aren't really bad but it's how we are conditioned to think and the emotions/thoughts attached to the word that makes them good or bad. For example, Alliance means something different to me than how it was described in Babel-17, it's all about the connotations. The novel goes into how our words create a hierarchy in our society; how words like "upper class" can create a value system and separate people into different classes. Language and communication can also build a bridge for people of different backgrounds. I think language is a double-edged sword in a way because it's such a versatile element and practically everything is connected to it. Words bring people together but it can also rip things apart, especially when people blindly follow them. Bable-17 shows what happens when masses of people lose the ability to basically function and think by themselves.