Reading Response
The Library of Babel : Jorge Borges
“At that same period there was also hope that the fundamental mysteries of mankind — the origin of the Library and of time — might be revealed…For four centuries, men have been scouring the hexagons”
The Library of Babel is described as a Universe made up of a series of identical hexagon-shaped rooms. Each room has four walls of books, tiny closet-like spaces for sleeping and using the restroom, and hallways that lead to other hexagons. The hallways contain spiral staircases, which lead up and down to other, identical levels. These hallways also each contain a mirror, which the narrator thinks of as a sign of the Library’s infinite nature.
Each wall of books in the Library contains five shelves, each holding 32 matching books. Each book has 410 pages, with 40 lines per page and about 80 characters per line. The cover of each book has a title, but the title has nothing to do with the contents of the book. There are only 25 different symbols. The library has existed forever. Therefore; it must have been created by a god.
The infinite essence of the library can only suggest that somewhere there must be a book that contains the exact combinations of characters that explain the origin of the library and the human race itself. This remote possibility gave rise to a group of people called the “inquisitors” with the sole goal of finding this book. Moreover, the narrator describes a god-like entity called “the Book-Man”, who must have read a book that explains all the other books, giving him godly powers. The narrator believes, through the infinite idea that the library contains all possible character combinations, that no single book is meaningless. Everything holds a secret significance in some code or language.
The Library of Babel directly juxtaposes our own understanding of the Universe. We as humans do not know our purpose in this world, or who created it. It is deeply embedded within human intellect the desire to question everything and seek to understand it. The meaning of our lives is something that is hidden in the infinite, ever expanding, catalogue of the universe. We have our own hopeful version of the Book-Man, a mesianic entity that will explain everything. One who holds all knowledge or knows how to decipher it.
