‘Katabasis’ overview: R.F. Kuang’s darkish academia thriller is ready in hell

Once I discovered R.F. Kuang was taking readers to hell in her latest ebook, I groaned. Haven’t we carried out this sufficient? I’m not simply speaking about Orpheus retrieving Eurydice, Dante’s “Inferno” and Virgil’s “Aeneid.” Nor the nineteenth century poets and cults obsessive about all the things chthonic. We as a tradition have carried out katabasis — that’s, a journey into the underworld — rather a lot not too long ago: Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “Gods of Jade and Shadow” (2019), Leigh Bardugo’s “Hell Bent” (2023) and Netflix’s “Kaos” (2024).

(I’m positive it has nothing to do with the political instability we’re dealing with. We most likely shouldn’t fear concerning the historic sample of writers changing into obsessive about the dwelling journeying into hell each time issues aren’t going nice in society. I’m positive it’s tremendous.)

I didn’t assume there might be a lot new right here. “Katabasis” is a darkish academia fantasy the place the protagonist — a psychologically wounded however proficient scholar, missing self-love, perspective and even only one good friend to speak sense into her — journeys into hell to fetch the soul of a mentor she’s in thrall to … and will have killed. If this sounds acquainted, nicely, Kuang’s latest hero, Alice Regulation, does bear similarities to Bardugo’s Alex Stern.

However I used to be fallacious — there are new issues right here. The journey into hell has been carried out, however it hasn’t been carried out fairly the best way R. F. Kuang does it.

Alice Regulation and her partner-in-hell, Peter Murdoch, are aware of their literary predecessors, even guided by maps based mostly on these journeys. They go as a result of their doctoral advisor, a person they hate and worship in equal measure, has died they usually want him again to make sure they get a superb instructing place after commencement. It’s a flawed motive, and a grasping one, a reality neither character appears to know. They don’t appear to see themselves becoming in wherever in hell, truly — that stress is each annoying and amusing. Their journey is an intriguing tackle the journey; issues in hell have modified since Virgil performed tour information.

In “Katabasis,” we’re as soon as once more handled to the facility of Kuang’s thoughts. It takes a wise individual to write down geniuses, and Alice and Peter are sensible, if blinkered. Like “Babel,” which relied on Kuang’s data of linguistics, “Katabasis” is wealthy and textured due to her data of the topic, her deep familiarity with its form and philosophy. Additionally like “Babel,” “Katabasis” revolves across the darkish inequities cracking the foundations of a fictional division in an Oxbridge faculty, a spot folks would kill to get into after which die in whereas they’re there.

A warning: The nesting doll of literary references in “Katabasis” will probably be a delight to some and impenetrable to others. Individuals who aren’t accustomed to chthonic myths would possibly need to do a little analysis earlier than studying. For instance, there’s a joke towards the tip about how John Gradus is clearly a faux identify: The reference isn’t elucidated, and also you’ll solely get the joke if the phrase gradus advert parnassum means “a step towards Parnassus,” which is the mountain the place Apollo and the Muses stay in Greek delusion, and that the phrase is usually utilized by students to point a means of gradual mastery over a topic. So John Gradus is a journeyer in his personal proper, studying the place he went fallacious in life to achieve the Lethe and reincarnate. This novel is just not for the intellectually detached.

However typically, “Katabasis” is a extra mature and fewer showy novel than Kuang’s earlier works. Maybe this isn’t stunning; Kuang’s first ebook was revealed when she was simply 21 and she or he’s 29 now. An individual’s 20s are transformative even when they don’t examine in China, at Oxford, at Cambridge and at Yale in fast succession. Readers who thought “The Poppy Struggle” trilogy didn’t stick the touchdown, or that Rin grew to become unbearable by the tip, will probably be happy that “Katabasis” does stick it, and that Alice evolves.

A number of the similar themes from “The Poppy Struggle” return — the horror of intercourse, the facility of delusion to rework actuality. However when Alice faces challenges, she lets go of her delusions. Peter is just not disposable like Kitay. Each Alice and Rin sacrifice, however this isn’t Rin’s abject despair; Alice’s sacrifices are extra nuanced than Rin may ever fathom.

As a lot as “Katabasis” has in widespread with Kuang’s earlier works, tonally it might need most in widespread with “Yellowface.” In contrast to the brutality of “The Poppy Wars” or the tragedy of “Babel,” “Katabasis” maintains a slight wry humor all through. There’s a satirical subtext right here that wasn’t current in her earlier earnest fantasies. I imply, these PhD candidates select to go to precise hell relatively than have an trustworthy dialog with somebody at Cambridge. Kuang reveals us how self-destructive that’s, intriguing because the story reads. Like June Hayward/Juniper Music in “Yellowface,” Alice and Peter are so trapped within the flimsy actuality they’ve constructed that they will’t see the plain means out.

As a result of in “Katabasis,” hell is just not different folks. It’s defending your dissertation.

That is my one sticking level with writers taking readers to hell. Cultural pictures of the underworld are certain by writers, and although Kuang introduces new components, she adheres largely to their canon. Her tackle Dante’s Metropolis of Dis is — spoiler! — a regal faculty the place teachers spend eternity writing self-absorbed dissertations (shortened by actual PhD candidates, in fact, to “Diss” — there’s that wry humor). There’s no suggestions, no advisors, simply religion that somebody’s studying. I perceive why a PhD scholar would envision this because the worst form of punishment, however I’m not satisfied it’s the worst attainable sin.

“Katabasis” is hell filtered by way of a scholar’s eyes. Orpheus’ journey has stood the take a look at of time as a result of he went for love. Dante went for data. Alice goes for a suggestion letter. It’s an intriguing addition to the canon, however for mere mortals who haven’t survived abusive, plagiaristic and mystifying advisors to earn Oxbridge levels — and even simply dangerous bosses — it is likely to be unrelatable.

Castellanos Clark, a author and historian in Los Angeles, is the writer of “Unruly Figures: Twenty Tales of Rebels, Rulebreakers, and Revolutionaries You’ve (Most likely) By no means Heard Of.”