The Library of Babel

More about The Library of Babel

The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges
By this art you may contemplate the variation of the 23 letters ....
Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. 2, Sec. II, Mem. IV
The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite,
perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries. In the center of each gallery
is a ventilation shaft, bounded by a low r,ailing. From any hexagon one can
see the floors above and below-one after another, endlessly. The arrangement of the galleries is always the same: Twenty bookshelves, five to each
side, line four of the hexagon's six sides; the height of the bookshelves, floor
to ceiling, is hardly greater than the height of a normal librarian. One of the
hexagon's free sides opens onto a narrow sort of vestibule, which in turn
opens onto another gallery, identical to the first-identical in fact to all.
To the left and right of the vestibule are two tiny compartments. One is
for sleeping, upright; the other, for satisfying one's physical necessities.
Through this space, too, there passes a spiral staircase, which winds upward
and downward into the remotest distance. In the vestibule there is a mirror,
which faithfully duplicates appearances. Men often infer from this mirror
that the Library is not infinite-if it were, what need would there be for that
illusory replication? I prefer to dream that burnished surfaces are a figuration and promise of the infinite ... . Light is provided by certain spherical
fruits that bear the name "bulbs." There are two of these bulbs in each hexagon, set crosswise. The light they give is insufficient, and unceasing.