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Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

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Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#6

Post by macando »

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 itself. Its patent antiquity (though somehow terrible to the eyes) seemed to accord with the labor of immortal artificers.

Great story. Aleph is amazing as well.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#8

Post by macando »

viebel wrote: post #2

I really like this story. The idea that everything is written inside one of the books of this library is mind blowing!

In Borges' story, the Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who gazes into it can see everything in the universe from every angle simultaneously, without distortion, overlapping, or confusion. The story traces the theme of infinity found in several of Borges' other works, such as "The Book of Sand".

Maze is another favorite theme of his.

Borges fractalizes the labyrinth, infinitely multiplies the interconnections between spaces — but makes all these spaces identical, cloned pieces of an infinite non-linear repetition, extending vertiginously into eternity, out in space and deep into the future, forever onwards.

Re: Borges: The Library of Babel [pdf]

#10

Post by jazzyjackson »

viebel wrote: post #2

I really like this story. The idea that everything is written inside one of the books of this library is mind blowing!

More perplexing to me is the notion that such a library contains no information, owing to this description:

> each book is unique and irreplaceable, but (since the Library is total) there are always several hundred thousand imperfect facsimiles - books that differ by no more than a single letter, or comma

If one were to try and distinguish one book of Shakespeare from another, they would need the full text they are looking for in order to be sure they have an accurate copy. essentially your key length is equal to the content length, and if you have the key already, the library contains nothing further.

I consider this as presaging the info-spam of an infinite, bot-infested internet: as more near misses of actual content is produced, the internet can contain measurably less information.

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