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Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

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Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#51

Post by GabrieleR »

macando wrote: post #6
sergius wrote: post #4

My favorite is "The Immortal": https://matiane.wordpress.com/2019/10/11/immortal-by-jorge-l...

I emerged into a kind of small plaza — a courtyard might better describe it. It was surrounded by a single building, of irregular angles and varying heights. It was to this heterogeneous building that the many cupolas and columns belonged. More than any other feature of that incredible monument, I was arrested by the great antiquity of its construction. I felt that it had existed before humankind, before the world it…

I have tattooed the alefh itself - not the mitical point, but the Hebrew letter - becouse of that. Borges brought me to life throughout my adolescence. Much appreciation from Italy too, the argentino-ispancio translations to Italian suits Borges' writings sinuously.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#52

Post by Loughla »

kongin wrote: post #11

I rather enjoyed the short essay: https://web.archive.org/web/19970614230544/jubal.westnet.com... In my Lovecraftian phase I imagined an infinite winding black pagoda with brail inscriptions on its walls. If you're very lucky you would wander up or down until you died of thirst reading nothing but nonsense. If you weren't you'd find the necronomicon or worse. Unlike the library the text would not be finite and there…

I think there's real possibility for a good creeping horror story in that premise.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#53

Post by GabrieleR »

optimalsolver wrote: post #21

This is the best audio presentation of The LIbrary Of Babel that I've ever found: https://www.mboxdrive.com/Library_Of_Babel.mp3 (Originally from the "Let's Read!" YouTube channel, but since deleted: https://www.youtube.com/c/LetsReadOfficial )

most French version that can be found sounds quite bad

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#55

Post by pdabbadabba »

101008 wrote: post #26

As a HN reader from Argentina, I thank ColinWright to share this with the community. Here in Argentina we are very proud of Borges and his works - and it is always nice to see people from around the world discovering or revisiting him.

Perhaps you already know this, but I can tell you that Borges is certainly very widely read and admired in the United States. I'd be proud if he were from my country.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#56

Post by GabrieleR »

Izikiel43 wrote: post #27
lapetitejort wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the story, each book has: * 410 pages * 40 lines per page * 80 characters per line * Not included: The characters on the front cover, maybe 15 on average? There are 25 symbols. So there are 25^(410*40*80) possible books, which comes out to ~10^1834097 books. Sufficed to say, the library could hold numerous universes.

That's most likely an upper limit, as random character strings are not necessarily language.

I'd say every set of whatever is a language. not the opposite tho

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#57

Post by perihelions »

JoeDaDude wrote: post #12

It's been said that the maze-like library in "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco was inspired by the Library of Babel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose#:~:text=T... .

What's this syntax from? Is there a browser that implements it as a content-relative anchor? It looks convenient.

    #:~:text=

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#58

Post by bsanr2 »

Video (game) essayist Jacob Geller did a few videos which mentioned this work.

https://youtu.be/MjY8Fp-SCVk https://youtu.be/Zm5Ogh_c0Ig

They're quite interesting, I think. The abyss really gets him going.

And a few more I really like: https://youtu.be/oca8BnDMin4 https://youtu.be/mexs39y0Imw https://youtu.be/aBBuoD9eL5k https://youtu.be/Zkv6rVcKKg8

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#59

Post by scarmig »

lapetitejort wrote: post #20
lapetitejort wrote: post #17

Any Fermi Problem-like answers to how large the library would be, based on how the number of permutations of the books and the size of each room? Is it an easy guess to say larger than the size of the universe?

According to the story, each book has: * 410 pages * 40 lines per page * 80 characters per line * Not included: The characters on the front cover, maybe 15 on average? There are 25 symbols. So there are 25^(410*40*80) possible books, which comes out to ~10^1834097 books. Sufficed to say, the library could hold numerous universes.

For point of comparison, the maximal amount of information we could fit into a sphere the size of the observable universe is ~10^124 bits.

Someone should offer a public Library of Babel API that streams these books so folks don't need to store them individually.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#60

Post by CyanBird »

fmlp wrote: post #18
macando wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I emerged into a kind of small plaza — a courtyard might better describe it. It was surrounded by a single building, of irregular angles and varying heights. It was to this heterogeneous building that the many cupolas and columns belonged. More than any other feature of that incredible monument, I was arrested by the great antiquity of its construction. I felt that it had existed before humankind, before the world it…

Emergí a una suerte de plazoleta; mejor dicho, de patio. Lo rodeaba un solo edificio de forma irregular y altura variable; a ese edificio heterogéneo pertenecían las diversas cúpulas y columnas. Antes que ningún otro rasgo de ese monumento increíble, me suspendió lo antiquísimo de su fábrica. Sentí que era anterior a los hombres, anterior a la tierra. Esa notoria antigüedad (aunque terrible de algún modo para los ojo…

"Before people" for English carries the same weight, but yeah humankind is too formal of a term

I do disagree about the artíficers bit, I feel that even when it is not a transliteration, it does carry the feel of manual manufacture

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