Reading Borges’ short story, “The Library of Babel,” was truly mindblowing. There are so many aspects of this story to dive into yet, only so many that I can truly comment on with a generally scholarly perspective. I always think to myself “it’s pretty scary that I will never be able to digest every bit of information in one single library.” And after reading Borges’ story, it really solidified that thought. However, at the same time, it made me more reassured knowing that there are so many intricacies to language, thought, ideas, and the world that it becomes an infinite amount of information. I don’t know about you but I certainly cannot consume an infinite amount of information. Borges describes the library as “the handiwork of a god” (113), which supports the daunting fact that a mortal (like me) cannot fathom the sheer amount of information in every text. 

Luckily for me, I do not read just to say I know everything in the world. I read because of the comfort a physical book gives me. I read books because of what’s inside the pages and how someone else’s thoughts from hundreds of years ago are now in my head. I also write. I annotate books to leave my thoughts and I write stories of my own on a digital screen. My digital thoughts.

Marino also brought up an excellent thought on the digitization of such information. While the library of Babel is fictional, the internet is very real. It’s abstract and untouchable, yet I use it every day as a source of information. By searching the internet, we are perusing the hexagonal rooms of the library of Babel. Every second, new information is added, and what was fictional to Borges is now at our fingertips.

What is strange, though, is that I have never once considered how scary it was that I would never know every bit of information on the internet. Maybe because there is something vastly different from the library and the internet. That, I believe, is true. While digital copies can become more accessible, physical books can never be replaced by something untouchable.