Jorge Luis Borges – The Library of Babel

This is the key text that I wish to build my piece around; I chose it for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Borges’ imagery in this short story has stuck with me since I first came across the piece a year or so ago; that a ‘library’ doesn’t have to be just that, but can be eloquently translated into a haunting metaphor for the universe.

Secondly, I personally think that that metaphor is amazingly beautiful and powerful; are we, inhabitants of this universe, not all stories waiting to be read? Are we not all unique, full of meaning yet at times uninterpretable? Are we not all allocated a time and place and yet, are movable and transient? Do we not all try and read others in our search for understanding?

Thirdly, I like maths. I find a comfort in the structured organisation of solvable equations and projectable hypotheses. If I could therefore create Borges’ library, or at least a small part of it, I could perhaps create a space that is simultaneously abstract, irresolute and yet tangible and even reassuring. Creating the library seemed to me the perfect setting in which to order and represent my ideas.

Lastly, I wished to address the construct of storytelling, seeking knowledge through the written word and the reverence we assign such writing. Creating a library which was representative of the universe, centred on words, stories and books would, in my opinion, therefore highlight and amplify their status, and so be an ideal setting in which to question their purpose and power.