Themes in Babel-17

• Identity Quest --  What aspects of this book are really pretty conventional?
• Identity and Community-- people's individuality and their membership in a group
• Illegality/ romanticization of the criminal  (life on the margins)  Rimbuad: artist as criminal
• communication, language aand thought (Sapir/ Whorf hypothesis)
• Food/ hunger
  

Study Guide Questions

• What is the importance/ significance of B-17 not having words for "I"?
• What makes the weapons the Baron describes as "crude", crude?
• How does B-17 critique, develop, play off SF conventions?
• What social critiques are embodied in this book?
• How does this book glorify, tie-in with the Beat generation?
• Gender critique: Traditional Marriage structure
• How does Rydra fit the hero's quest; how does her being female change the quest, if at all?