The world that Kuang crafted in Babel is far from easy, but nor was it a far-cry from our own world which was littered with modern conveniences. In fact, if there's one aspect of Babel's world that I wished that ours had - was the fact that the source of power for the then-great British Empire was entirely localized in one location: the tower of Babel itself.
For those unfamiliar with the biblical Babel, the story explains why there are countless languages spoken around the world rather than just one. In the book of Genesis, it describes why and how Babel was built; it was a structure of the heavens, by which there was a singular type of people speaking a single language. It was only through divine intervention - an act of God - which He scattered the people across the Earth and diversified that single language into multiple ones so that the humans won't be able to understand each other. The principal reason why Babel was built, of course, was an act against God's decree of flooding the Earth. An act of hubris, the deadliest sin of all, for that is how Lucifer fell from grace.
Despite suffering through eight years of Catholic education classes every Sunday, I wasn't really all too familiar with the story. I knew what it represented, sure, mostly through the eponymous "Babel" translation device that my grandfather used to read English texts. I also don't recall ever going through it during my Catholic education courses.
I think it's clear now, that Babel is an almost, and more exciting, retelling of the biblical Babel. We have the British Empire who are playing God in trying to establish "free trade" among the "lesser nations" in a selfish attempt to solidfy itself as the premier world power now and forever. There's its Babel, in lush and prestigeous Oxford, the center of its power. Paradoxically, even though all the known world languages (at the time) has flitted through its doors