Ficciones

by

Jorge Luis Borges

Themes and Colors
Investigation and Knowledge Theme Icon
Language and Human Consciousness Theme Icon
Perspective, Authorship, and Subjectivity Theme Icon
Infinity Theme Icon
Reality vs. Illusion Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ficciones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Infinity Theme Icon

Many of the stories in Ficciones contain representations of infinitely repeating systems or timelines, thus underlining the infinite nature of the universe. For example, the library in “The Library of Babel” is an infinite system of repeating chambers and shelves, all containing books. Though many of the scholars in the library lament the fact that it would be impossible to search through all the information of the library and discover its secrets, Borges’s narrator takes comfort in the fact that, given infinite time, an immortal voyager would eventually find all the information in the library repeated and thus see order. In this way, the library is a metaphor for the universe and the sum of all its knowledge, which can often be overwhelming to the average person because of its intangible nature. Still, Borges takes comfort in the fact that order exists within infinity, even if it is impossible for the average person to experience this order or fully grasp it on a broader scale.

Aside from the idea that the universe itself is infinite, Borges’s stories also propose the idea that time itself is infinitely repeating and limitless. At the end of “Death and the Compass,” the detective Erik Lönnrot asks his killer, Scharlach, to pursue him in a certain way when he inevitably comes after him “in some other incarnation.” Scharlach agrees to his request, and clearly both men understand that they have a similar relationship in multiple (and, presumably, infinite) timelines. Thus, in many of Borges’s stories, it is a given that both the space and the time of the universe are infinite and repeating.

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Infinity Quotes in Ficciones

Below you will find the important quotes in Ficciones related to the theme of Infinity.
5. The Babylon Lottery Quotes

There is one conjecture, spoken from the mouths of masked heresiarchs, to the effect that the Company has never existed and never will. A conjecture no less vile argues that it is indifferently inconsequential to affirm or deny the reality of the shadowy corporation, because Babylon is nothing but an infinite game of chance.

Related Characters: The Babylonian (speaker), The Company
Page Number: 71-72
Explanation and Analysis:
7. The Library of Babel Quotes

Like all men of the Library, I have traveled in my youth. I have journeyed in search of a book, perhaps of the catalogue of catalogues; now that my eyes can scarcely decipher what I write, I am preparing to die a few leagues from the hexagon in which I was born.

Related Characters: The Librarian (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Library and Books
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:

To me it does not seem unlikely that on some shelf of the universe there lies a total book…. If honor and wisdom and happiness are not for me, let them be for others. May heaven exist, though my place be in hell. Let me be outraged and annihilated, but may Thy enormous Library be justified, for one instant, in one being.

Related Characters: The Librarian (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Library and Books
Page Number: 85-86
Explanation and Analysis:
8. The Garden of Forking Paths Quotes

“In all of [the infinite timelines],” I enunciated, with a tremor in my voice. “I deeply appreciate and am grateful to you for the restoration of Ts’ui Pen’s garden.”

“Not in all,” he murmured with a smile. “Time is forever dividing itself toward innumerable futures and in one of them I am your enemy.”

Related Characters: Dr. Yu Tsun (speaker), Stephen Albert (speaker)
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:
12. Death and the Compass Quotes

“The next time I kill you,” said Scharlach, “I promise you the labyrinth made of a single straight line which is invisible and everlasting.”

He stepped back a few paces. Then, very carefully, he fired.

Related Characters: Red Scharlach (speaker), Erik Lönnrot
Page Number: 141
Explanation and Analysis:
13. The Secret Miracle Quotes

For his sake, God projected a secret miracle: German lead would kill him, at the determined hour, but in his mind a year would elapse between the command to fire and its execution. From perplexity he passed to stupor, from stupor to resignation, from resignation to sudden gratitude.

Related Characters: Borges/The Narrator (speaker), Jaromir Hladík
Page Number: 149
Explanation and Analysis: