While reading Borges, the first element that stood out to me was his discussion of the universe in relation to libraries, aka that they are the same thing. I had not heard this comparison before if I am being honest, but now that I think about it, it makes sense. The library is a collection of stories, histories, and archives of information: much like the Universe. The discussion of how the library was made into the shape of a hexagon- “the library is a sphere who exact center is any one of its hexagons and whose circumference is inaccessible”- shows the complexity of them both. This made me think about how the universe is inaccessible to us fully and it will never be able to be fully explored. Borges discusses the library and the universe in the same way, a mystery. It seems it’s almost impossible to have a full understanding of either, both being described as theory and symbolic to a bigger picture.

The ‘book’ during this time is described as impenetrable and mysterious, because only certain people could read/translate them. This reminded me of the video we watched in class the other day that showed how foreign the book was versus the scroll, and how people had to be taught how to use it. This is much like technology now for older generations, and even me when new technology is out I have to be taught as well. Borges description is a reminder that the book and the library was not accessible to everyone, and not everyone knew how to understand/read it. This is relevant to current times too, as not everyone has the same access to the same resources, its all a privilege, which is what Borges discussion of the library reminded me of. Not only of our progress of information and understanding, but that these things are a privilege not everyone has the same level of access to.

I found this reading to be very interesting. I had never heard of the library being built or compared to a hexagon. ‘The chief of an upper hexagon’ – as in their were so many different levels and librarians or deciphers that worked in different section?? Much like now but I found it intriguing how hexagons made up different levels of space and understanding. “There was no personal or world
problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some hexagon. The universe was justified, the universe suddenly usurped the unlimited dimensions of hope.” (pg. 4) The idea that the library held all the answers is interesting as its compared to the universe that is so vast, but it makes sense as we typically like to think that we have all the answers- some things never change too much. Overall this reading was very interesting and I felt like I got valuable information about the history of the library.

(sorry late! computer issues yesterday)