Sarcasm is an adjusted stress reaction.

OWWW DAMN

Babel was kind of an odd reading experience in that I didn't think it worked as a novel (flat characters, lots of mouthpieces, very contrived plot) but the emotional experience of Robin struggling with love and hate over the privilege he was inducted into was gripping. It resonated with how I felt when I was very young and studying the classics. But that part seems to be more the author's experience? So it felt like she didn't fully transmute the story into fiction. But a lot of the passages about translation and Oxford and learning were very beautiful. I loved the idea that the tension between translated words was a source of power. I don't think I'll reread it, though.