I've just finished a fascinating novel called Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang. It's set in a fictionalized/fantasized Oxford of the 1830s, and plays with ideas about how cultural impulses emerge from academia, how they distort and corrupt one another via the historical relationships and interactions of cultures as they are reflected through languages, and how human beings are shaped, elevated, or destroyed in the process. It was one of the most engrossing novels I've ever read on many levels. I think it might be enjoyable for anyone who's looking critically at the cultural role of universities.
I've just finished a fascinating novel called Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang. It's set in a fictionalized/fantasized Oxford of the 1830s, and plays with ideas about how cultural impulses emerge from academia, how they distort and corrupt one another via the historical relationships and interactions of cultures as they are reflected through languages, and how human beings are shaped, elevated, or destroyed in the process. It was one of the most engrossing novels I've ever read on many levels. I think it might be enjoyable for anyone who's looking critically at the cultural role of universities.
Sounds interesting - thanks for sharing.