Chapter 53 Reading Notes "The Library of Babel"--Reading Borges' Novels

To walk into Borges' "Babel Library" is to walk into the world of the soul.In this ghostly world, where man sleeps standing up, never rested by vigilance and anxiety, a mirror faithfully repeats in finite form the infinity of the whole world.As a truth seeker, a librarian establishes an epistemology that is consistent with the library itself in the process of seeking laws (what a process that cannot be recalled, and how gloomy and terrifying it is to continue to explore) ), this kind of epistemology is aimed at the essence of human beings.For example, man can reach infinity only when he rises up to create (dreams) (in which all bright surfaces can be reflected); man's tomb is a bottomless air, and his corpse melts in endless falls; the space of a library is The seamless order is arranged without end, but people still suffer from pain and despair because they cannot grasp the changes in their hearts; the books in the library always resist the limited operations of people with their own infinity, and all books are mysterious , are inaccessible to passive reading, they coldly reject human understanding as if by magic.This contradiction between people and books comes from the contradiction in epistemology itself, that is, no matter how hard people try, they can only obtain limited knowledge.Therefore, in order to cross the gap and understand those books, one must rely on dreams (writing).So how should people look at the Babel Library as a whole? In order to solve this problem, "I" narrated this story that caused me infinite distress.

First of all, because of its eternity and perfection, people can only regard the library as the product of God, and the distance between it and real people cannot be eliminated. With its incomparable accuracy and delicacy, it mocks and explores poor efforts of the author.Second, the laws of the self-sufficient universe of the library are impeccable, but it is even more difficult to use the laws to understand the meaning of a book. This requires not only perseverance, but also genius.A man spends his life figuring out the meaning of a book only to find that his knowledge is worthless.So even genius and superhuman stamina (which takes a thousand years) can't do anything about the status quo.In this vast ocean of books, the indestructibility of the world shakes people's confidence in their own existence.When people establish that the library has collected all the books in the world (infinity of knowledge), people will feel infinite happiness, which will further generate a desire for books that justify their own existence (hope of atonement), but unfortunately this Longing brings them only tragic consequences, and true justification is never attained.So people turn to history again, and they try to find out about themselves by finding out the history of the library, and this effort hits a wall in nothingness-many of the stairs in the library have no steps.The dejected explorer wants to use the blind momentum of man to reconstruct the classic books, imitating the sacred chaos of the library.The unattainability of books, of course, frustrates people's fantasies.Undead explorers also want to conquer the hexahedron of the library by denying the meaning of existing books, and the library mocks people's small efforts with its infinity and non-repeatability.Other explorers pin their hopes on human beings. He hopes that such an immortal person can find the unique and omnipotent book through thousands of years of unremitting search, so that his belief can be maintained.Such a man is, of course, nothing but a superstition.Some blasphemers, starting from the superficial impression given by books, think that there are no rules to follow in the library, and the books are all nonsense, as long as the nonsense is regarded as normal. "I" refuted this kind of remarks and proved the existence of laws with practical examples, but I also fell into deep confusion because the laws could not guide my exploration.These are bleak pictures of people exploring in the dark world of the soul.

In order to solve the huge difficulties that people face, the only way is to "write in an orderly manner" and detach themselves in writing.Therefore, the things written by man cancel the secular existence of man, and make man into a ghost that can combine with the infinite.The body is disappearing by itself, but the product of the mind--the library remains forever: "Bright, lonely, infinite, motionless, full of precious books, useless and immortal, keeping secrets." Here the author expresses The secret of survival: use writing to experience infinity, advocate spirit, make people nihilistic, and constantly dissolve the pressure of the infinite universe (the alienation of the feeling of death) on people.

At the end of the story, the author proposes a solution to the contradiction but does not solve the contradiction—how can such a contradiction be resolved? It is better to say that what he puts forward is just a belief, which provides courage for his continued exploration, and the exploration itself will continue Strengthen this belief.Every transcendence proves that the world is cognizable.Therefore, the author concluded humorously: "My loneliness, because of such a beautiful hope, turned into happiness." "Borges Collected Works - Novels Volume", page 127. There are countless unsolved mysteries in the universe of the library. Every time human beings advance and explore, more mysteries will rush to the face, and the possibilities of understanding are endless.But after all, people have discovered the law, and the law is useless to people, but the law turns the chaotic accumulation into a beautiful arrangement, and turns reincarnation into order.The librarian who never rests will enter this spiritual universe to explore and discover through creative writing.And in the beginning, it was his miraculous writing that created the universe and created the laws.Though he could not immediately comprehend his creation, the library's beauty and immortality lifted him unconsciously.

For him, great happiness and despair always come at the same time.So it can be said that his depressing story shines brightly.