Introduction
Jorge Luis Borges is a talented writer and a gifted personality who has created many wonderful and influential literary works. Perceiving the library in the context of his multifaceted picture of the world, Borges wrote a significant work, “The Library of Babel.” This narrative focuses on the description of the universe and the macrocosm, the cyclicity of all things, and the fantasies of enlighteners about infinite development. Based on the content and essence of “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges, the library is a universe of knowledge, discoveries, and communication.
Analysis
The library in the book is a universe, a macrocosm, and a galaxy, in which the knowledge accumulated by humankind over many centuries is stored. Moreover, Borges primarily draws attention to this moment at the beginning of the story when he says: “The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries” (Borges and Hurley 112). A book is an excellent tool, a continuation of memory and imagination, changing depending on who reads its pages. It contains a whole world with different meanings and readings. Consequently, the library is comparable to a universe; it is boundless, all-encompassing, and infinite by its essence and nature, just like a human imagination. It is noteworthy that the author’s library becomes a projection of modern reality. The internet can be called an analog of the library of Babel, containing helpful and useless information and where everything is born and dies.
Conclusion
Borges’ library is perceived as a metaphor and an allusion to universal values. A book is a kind of portal to another world accessible to everyone; therefore, the library is a whole universe, a galaxy with various planets. In the library, as in the universe, chaos, and lawlessness reign; something appears and disappears, something makes sense, and something loses its meaning, like on the internet.
Work Cited
Borges, Jorge Luis, and Andrew Hurley. Collected Fictions: Jorge Luis Borges. Viking, 1998.