5 ms·
I wrote finished a short story this year that explores some of these ideas heavy-handedly. It is placed in a Universal Library setting, a continuation of Borges
by Bodell 6y ago
I wrote finished a short story this year that explores some of these ideas heavy-handedly. It is placed in a Universal Library setting, a continuation of Borges' Library of Babel. In a sense it is both for and against the idea of compression as a way to gaining knowledge, attempting to make a greyer area out of it.
"Unlike the entirety of the Library, incomprehensible due to its sheer vastness, the book itself was much smaller. Any single one could easily be read hundreds of times over during the lifespan of a librarian. Therefore, the book’s gibberish nature did not come of its own accord but simply sprouted out of its relation to us and our lack of knowledge concerning the Library as a whole. In other words, for any book to make any sense to any librarian, it must have recognizable patterns, like those in language. And since every possible book that could exist did, most of them were simply random, nonsensical strings of characters. Leaving the librarians themselves to search for the language or sets of languages that could bring meaning to them (them:themselves or them:the books no one was sure). This was reflected — maybe the same sort of reflection Tanner was searching for — in the various languages the librarians did know and use; the ever-evolving nature of them, incorporating and condensing larger and larger swaths of ideas that then needed to be condensed even further into shorter acronyms for quicker reference."
https://medium.com/@odell.brenden/a-return-to-the-library-of-babel-cb8f479f6000 https://medium.com/@odell.brenden/a-return-to-the-library-of...
- thrtythreeforty 6y agoYour link is dead, here's the Web Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20200623192321/https://medium.com/@odell.brenden/a-return-to-the-library-of-babel-cb8f479f6000 https://web.archive.org/web/20200623192321/https://medium.co...
- Bodell 6y agoI killed it a few days after this post as I am working on submitting for publishing. Which is to say, I am a glutton for punishment and rejection, haha. However, thank you for looking up the archive link. If you do read it please email me with notes you may have. Any input good or bad would warmly received.