The Library of Babel- ERK

In the The Library of Babel, Borges presents several magical realist devices such as the concept of time as a cycle, the existence of parallel worlds, and the discussion of God or a God-like figure. Also, the binary of infinity and finite space are presented. In Borges' closing line, we clearly see his emphasis on the cyclical nature of time when he indicates that "the same volumes are repeated in the same disorder- which, repeated, becomes order: the Order." This is essentially saying that time is a cycle and the same events happen over and over again. The existence of parallel worlds is evident in Borges' discussion of the many galleries of the library "each identical to the first" and the many floors of the library that follow the same plan. Also, the existence of God, or at least the potential for some sort of omniscient force is presented when Borges writes "There must exist a book that is the ciper and perfect compendium of all other books, and some librarian must have examined that book; this librarian is analogous to a god." However, this does present a less traditional view of this God-like being, because it suggests that God is just a libarian like any other librarian who stumbled upon the right book by chance and does not necessarily have any unique qualities thus it is mentioned as a god rather than the God. This could be viewed as a criticism of Christianity. Finally, Borges confronts the binary of finity and infinity. He claims while the number of books is finite, the library is not and explains this by suggesting that the books eventually repeat as does the cycle of time. This helps us to understand how the concepts of a finite world and and infinite world can exist side by side in Borges' work.