4 ms·

I wonder what percentage of the library is actually an intelligible book? I guess for purposes of calculation an "intelligible" book could be one that is compl

• jlarocco 11y ago
  The exact math would depend on the definition of "intelligible" used and how big of an "intelligible" fragment you're looking for. Practically speaking, though, the answer is basically 0%. It would be a fraction with a big number on top and a very. very, very huge number on the bottom.
  • jonotrain2 11y ago
    Consider what Borges says about the impossibility of meaninglessness before feeling confident in such a calculation: In truth, the Library includes all verbal structures, all variations permitted by the twenty-five orthographical symbols, but not a single example of absolute nonsense. It is useless to observe that the best volume of the many hexagons under my administration is entitled The Combed Thunderclap and another The Plaster Cramp and another Axaxaxas mlö. These phrases, at first glance incoherent, can no doubt be justified in a cryptographical or allegorical manner; such a justification is verbal and, ex hypothesi, already figures in the Library. I cannot combine some characters - dhcmrlchtdj - which the divine Library has not foreseen and which in one of its secret tongues do not contain a terrible meaning. No one can articulate a syllable which is not filled with tenderness and fear, which is not, in one of these languages, the powerful name of a god.