Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

You can complain all you want about the thinness of many of the characters, the degree of telling-not-showing, the somewhat vague nature of linguistic magic, the fact that the first half of this covers so much time and is to such a degree mere setup that much of it feels like an endless synopsis in place of the text itself. But eventually this is less about the cryptic power of words and more about direct action and the untidy process of decolonization, and for a #1 New York Times bestseller it really doesn't mince words about it. The subtitle, stricken from the cover, but appearing on the title page is, afterall "Or the Necessity of Violence." Kuang can be a little on-the-nose (I get the gag that the political footnotes reverse the typical role of academic notes in supporting the central narrative, these instead undermine it, but do we really need one to point out that astrology isn't real?), even anachronistic (one character is fairly directly citing Fanon, who then turns up in chapter epigraph) -- but this is a fantasy propelling a succinct breakdown of the structures of power. She scourges the defensiveness of those liberal reformers who have always benefitted from the system they claim to want to improve (maybe sincerely, but only within particular limits). She recognizes the capacity of powerful societies to absorb and compartmentalize dissent, to allow dissent and be strengthened by the appearance of the possibility of progress if secretly only within their rules, a very contemporary consideration. And given its popularity, apparently a whole lot of contemporary readers have read and enjoyed a book that explains, via a sympathetic character, the ruthless utility of terrorism. This could be applied to many of the bleakest apparent calculations of a group like Hamas, such as the willingness to allow one's own people die if it tarnishes support for the enemy. I couldn't say how far this extends outside the fenced arenas of fantasy and history (or worse the genre conventions of "dark academia" whatever YA-adjacent nonsense that is) but to force so many people to confront and understand such a position is something.