The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel

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1. libraryofbabelOct 2021
   William Goldbloom Bloch, The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel is a pretty good companion volume by a math professor, delving into some fun combinations and topology topics.
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2. jacques_chesterMay 2015
   For those who haven't read the Borges short story, this might seem a bit confusing.

   For those who have, another book to read is The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel.

   It definitely confirms my suspicion that sometimes Borges wrote horror stories for anyone who touches combinations.

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3. pashJul 2013
   Mathematically inclined Borges nerds will enjoy William Goldbloom Bloch's The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel [0]. It's a pop-math book, but much better written than most, and intriguing enough in uncovering mathematical connections to the Library that I recommend it even to readers already familiar with all the math it discusses.

   (Curiously, as far as I remember, Bloch doesn't ask whether there's a comprehensive meta-catalogue of those catalogues in the Library that do not mention themselves.)

   0. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0195334574

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4. Jun8Feb 2012
   "The fact that the work of Shakespeare is probably the work of a group of writers working under a pseudonym adds further irony to the work ... but it is also entirely disputable that he existed at all or certainly that he was one person in fact, one commonly held view is that he was an illiterate actor and a consortium of writers used his name as an ironic joke."

   The site is filled with crackpot arguments like this and other mumbo-jumbo, e.g. "emphasises [sic] the unreliability of human (scientific) hypotheses" which is a pity because this is a fascinating subject.

   A much better time investment would be to read The Library of Babel by Borges, if you haven't already done so. Then, buy The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel, which is truly excellent.

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5. schaeferDec 2022
   The thing I love about Borges is that he is both a big-idea sci fi writer and a poet. and his poetry definitely shows through in his sci fi. For example, as in "The Zahir". The thought of a person obsessing about the beauty of the shadow of a rose really does it for me.

   But I like his big idea stories too. Absolutely "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" may be his masterpiece. But it's dense for an introduction to the author. Contrast this with "The Secret Miracle" which also has a beautiful big idea, but it's so elegantly small. in a sense the whole story fits into just one second.

   Finally, I went overboard and calculated the number of books on the shelves in "the library of babel". I remember distinctly that the story made our very real universe feel small for the first time in my life. and to think, I barely scratched the surface. a whole book was published about the math in that one story alone: "The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel" by William Goldbloom Bloch.

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