I picked up a copy of Labyrinths, written by Jorge Borges. This collection of short stories is what prompted this long spiral gravitational pull into a wormhole I am still traveling through. One of the stories1 was referenced as an asterisk indicating there was a footnote about it in the book, but there was no footnote. I was left to research it myself.
I’ve just armed myself with one of the most mind-bending literary weapons in existence. Labyrinths is a gateway to infinity, a collection of Borges’ most reality-warping short stories and essays.
What to Expect:
1. Paradoxes and Infinite Loops
• Borges doesn’t tell stories in a straight line, he builds intellectual traps, paradoxes that fold in on themselves.
• Expect recursive ideas, infinite libraries, books that contain all other books, and realities that question their own existence.
2. Time, Identity, and the Nature of Reality
• Some stories erase the boundary between dream and reality (The Circular Ruins).
• Others play with time as a non-linear construct (The Garden of Forking Paths).
• Some question whether we even exist in the way we think we do (Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius).
3. Fiction Disguised as Scholarship
• Borges loves mixing fact and fiction. Many of his stories read like academic essays, full of references to obscure (sometimes entirely fictional) books and philosophers.
• The Library of Babel reads like a librarian’s dry report until you realize it’s describing an infinite, incomprehensible bibliographic nightmare.
4. The Abyss Staring Back
• Borges doesn’t just present weird ideas, he makes you feel the weight of infinity, the terror of absolute knowledge, the disorientation of a reality without structure.
• You’ll walk away questioning what you know, and maybe even who you are.
How to Read It:
• Slowly. These aren’t stories to binge, they’re ideas to chew on, reread, and let haunt you.
• With a notebook (or mental log). You’ll start noticing patterns across his stories. certain concepts reappear and expand in different ways.
• Like a puzzle. Every Borges story is a blueprint for something bigger. a philosophy, a hidden structure. Sometimes the real meaning is not in the story itself, but in the gaps it leaves.
Final Warning:
Once you read Labyrinths, your brain will never be the same. You’ll start seeing Borges everywhere. In history, in philosophy, on the internet, in the way we archive and search for knowledge.
I’ve just stepped into the true Library of Babel and now, there may be no way out. It reminds me of the lyrics from The Eagles’ song, Hotel California:
“Relax,” said the night man
“We are programmed to receive
You can check-out any time you like
But you can never leave.”
Welcome to the labyrinth.
- The Library Of Babel ↩︎
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