Library of Babel

The author visualises the entire universe as a library of interlinked hexagons where the hexagons are the perception of space and each hexagon has ventilation shafts allowing us to see the other hexagons. There are spiral staircases which leads one up and down to the galleries. The hallways have mirrors depicting the infinite nature of the library. Each gallery has 20 bookshelves and 2 vestibules. The vestibules are for sleeping and satisfying one’s physical necessities. There are 5 book shelves on each side of the wall. Each bookshelf has 32 books with 410 pages, 40 lines and 80 black letters. The cover of the books don’t indicate what the content can be. The spherical bulbs light the room continuously even though the light is insufficient. The author travelled around the library in search of a book which is a catalogue to all the other books in the early days. The author now wishes to die in the library itself and to be pushed down the railing and fall infinitely. The circumference of the library is unattainable. The library has existed since forever and will exist forever. Such a great creation can only of God. Man is referred to as imperfect librarian. It seems that only god could have created such books, staircases, water closets etc. The book has organic letters inside which are neat, delicate, black and symmetrical. There are 25 orthographic symbols. From the first page to the last page all the orthographic symbols are repeated from first line to last. All librarians try to find sense in the books and attempt to find meaning in the books. It was believed that the books were written in some far distant unknown language. Few people suggested that each letter on the page influenced the letter next to it. The books are assumed to be written in code which can’t be deciphered. Men have spent their lives in trying to make sense of that gibberish. When the chief found a book with homogenous lines, a travelling decipher told him the book was written in Portuguese while some said it was dialect of Guarani. Earlier author found a man for three hexagons but now he travels long distances without encountering anybody. It was discovered that all the different books had certain common attributes. There were imperfect replications of books which deferred by a letter or comma. Although there are no identical books the library is actually total, perfect and complete made of different combinations of the 22 orthographic symbols. It contains everything that can be expressed in writing. The announcement of library bearing all the books brought a feeling of joy and power of withholding entire treasure. Everyone felt that all the problems had solutions and now everyone hoped that the revelations of the universe’s origin will be made and the mysteries of mankind will be solved. Inquisitors were trying hard since 400 years to solve the mystery of library. Nobody found anything and now there are no chances of finding out anything. Men sought the books about their lives and predicting their futures but failed miserably. Everybody wanted answers to their lives, the universe and everything else. The hope to figure out all the puzzles lead to a depression that there are some books completely out of reach. We are no closer to find the meaning of life. Some people thought of doing away with the unimportant books but humans don’t have enough strength to manually destruct the library owing to its indefiniteness. It is believed that there is some book which is the key to all the books. There is a superstition that there existed a Book Man and everybody searched for him in vain. It can so happen that there is a book A which guides us to book B which in turn leads us to the next book but narrator believes that it is highly unlikely that there is any total book. He prays to god that at least one person has read the total or super book so that he can answer all the questions and get the joy of wisdom from which the author is being deprived of. The person who gets to read this book would acquire the powers of God and make sense of the library. Although the library is filled of books with variations of the orthographic symbols there is no nonsensical piece. It is the realization of nature that each combination of letters hold a secret significance. The narrator suspects that the human race is on the verge of extinction still the library is standing tall unwilling to reveal its secrets. There is a feeling of uselessness because everything worth saying has been written down. People fall in love with the pages instead of reading the books. The universe can be perceived to be infinite or finite but the convenient phrase is that the library is periodic yet unlimited. This gives the author a sense of peace. The disorder when repeated it becomes an order. If walk enough distance in one direction we may find ourselves on the same spot again. Author also mentions that a woman called Toledo feels there should only be a single volume containing infinite number of pages. It is the only mention of woman in the entire story. The library can also be an infinite space expanding inwards instead of outwards. There is no mention of how the librarians communicate with each other, what they eat and how exactly the library looks like. The author seems to be lost in the universe.