Jorge Luis Borges

Circular Ruins

It is a story about a magician’s dream. At first of the story, he wants to create a man by his dream. And finally, with the fire’s help, he successes, and the man becomes a “real” man and a part of the “reality”. However, the man and other people may not know he is just a dream of the magician. And only the god of fire and the magician know fire can prove the man is not real.

I think the last part in this novel is interesting. “He walked into the tatters of flame, but they did not bite his flesh—they caressed him, bathed him without heat and without combustion. With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he realized that he, too, was but appearance, that another man was dreaming him. “

After reading this story, I begin to wonder if the world in our eyes is real or maybe it is just a person’s dream? But if our world is a person’s dream, the world that the person lives could also be someone’s dream. Just like a labyrinth, which has not exit.

The Library of Babel

Jorge Luis Borges wants to show the universe in his mind in this novel. He thinks the universe is like a library with “infinite number of hexagonal galleries”. Because the letters can compose infinite words, his universe is infinite. Also, he names the library “Babel” because it is a heaven to him. Books are his belief.

Honestly, I read this novel a few times, but I cannot understand a lot of details that Jorge Luis Borges talks about. However, I think he believes the uncountable books in the library are the labyrinths, because the same books are always infinitely published. Their repeatability becomes the order of his universe.