Borges

Gwern Branwen · 23 Nov 2009, 17:45 · from 2009-November.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:45:16 -0500
Subject: (urth) Borges
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On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 12:28 PM, James B. Jordan <jbjordan4 at cox.net> wrote:
> It's been a while, but it seems to me that Ultan's library contains a book
> that contains all other books. If so, that's the aleph book from Borges.
>
> Nutria (are you guys still using such names?) JBJordan

Fortunately, that's not quite it - even Borges's Library of Babel
doesn't contain itself. (Something of a contradiction.)

What I think you're referring to:

            "There is a cube of crystal here - though I can no longer tell you
where - no larger than the ball of your thumb that contains more books than the
library itself does. Though a harlot might dangle it from one ear for an
ornament, there are not volumes enough in the world to counterweight the other."

-- 
gwern

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