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October 25, 2006
Library of Babel
I really enjoyed this story. Borges creates a closed universe that is somehow convincing. There are technical issues which could be raised, such as what do the inhabitants of the library eat? Such a universe probably couldn't really exist although we can imagine it.
It was the allusions to our own world which made this story interesting. How does the universe we inhabit affect our metaphysics and sense of what is possible? The librarians run the gamut from believing in the inherent absurdity and meaninglessness of the texts in the library to the belief that all of the texts are meaningful. Some of the history of the library seems to reflect changes in thought in our universe; the Purifiers who burned books, or belief in the messianic "Book-Man."
Perhaps Borges perhaps trying to illustrate the futility of trying to understand the world through language. The inhabitants of the library are in a prison, doomed to try to make sense of the texts around them. But what kind of progress can really be made in such a closed system? Is Borges commenting on our own human need to believe in meaning in our world?
Posted by Andrew Doro at October 25, 2006 02:57 AM