Babel 17
In the novel Babel 17
humanity has become interstellar and spread throughout space. Humans are at war
with the Invaders and they have developed a language, Babel 17, that is used as
a weapon to infiltrate their enemies (the humans) and sabotage their strategic
war plans and sites. Initially, the
humans believe Babel 17 is a code used by secret agents. However, throughout
the novel the starship’s captain, linguist, and poet Rydra Wong discovers it is
a language that turns one into an unwilling traitor, altering their perception
and thought once they learn the language. The language is seductive, and she soon finds
herself enthralled in the enemies’ ruse and it up to her crew to save her and
neutralize the threat of this mysterious language.
When reading the novel, I found it paralleling with the
story of the Tower of Babel from the chapter Genesis in the Bible. After the
Great Flood, the next generation of people spoke one language and traveled
East. They decided to build a city and a tower to heavens that the whole Earth
could see. God came to realize what they did, understood there was nothing that
could stop them from this goal, therefore he decided to confound their speech
and scatter them across the Earth.
In both novels I drew the comparisons that language can
dismantle even the strongest of societies. Whether they be science fictions
interplanetary militia or age-old accounts from the Bible. Even the term, “Babel” means a “confused
mixture of sounds and voices” in Hebrew. However in the novel Babel 17 was
transformative, and altered one’s state of mind into becoming spies for the
enemies, but the same concept still applies. It would confuse the one learning
the language into become an unwilling participant to the enemies’ master plan.
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