Master Ultan's Library

Gwern Branwen · 17 Jul 2010, 05:28 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: gwern0 at gmail.com (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 01:28:25 -0400
Subject: (urth) Master Ultan's Library
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On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 11:51 PM, Jerry Friedman
<jerry_friedman at yahoo.com> wrote:

>> But I agree---there seems to be a Borgesian aspect to the ?Library, for sure.
>
> Certainly. ?I wouldn't say that Master Ultan IS Borges--that would mean Wolfe
> thinks the real Jorge Luis Borges ?would be greedy to eat the flesh of the dead
> to get their memories and would reveal this greed though hypocritically trying
> to deny it. ?The idea that Borges would have wanted to use the alzabo may not be
> ridiculous, but I think Wolfe admires him too much to show him this way.
>
> This doesn't weaken your argument, though, Gwern. ?We certainly agree that
> Master Ultan is supposed to remind us of Borges, so the strangely extensive
> library can remind us of the Library of Babel. ?But I thought the Library of
> Babel contained all books, not all libraries. ?I'd say the thought that all
> libraries in our universe are part of Master Ultan's library is there for us to
> enjoy, and I wouldn't have thought of it myself, but I don't see it as the
> explanation of Severian's comment.
>
> Jerry Friedman

I wouldn't want to defend this identification too literally; no more
than I would Baldanders=Frankenstein.

But I think Borges's library is all libraries; how the pages are split
over volumes isn't really important. (If Ultan's library has the text
of _The Count of Monte Cristo_ in one volume, and Borges's library has
it split over 2 volumes because its volumes are smaller/fixed lengths,
does that really matter?) Content is king, and Borges's library has it
all, eventually.

-- 
gwern

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