Borges Mirror

Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos
Wor(l)ds Through the Looking-Glass: Borges's Mirrors and Contemporary Theory

Author(s): BEATRIZ URRACA
Source: Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Otoo 1992), pp. 153-176
Published by: Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos
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BEATRIZURRACA
Through the Looking-Glass:

Borges's Mirrors and Contemporary
Theory
Wor(l)ds
la figura del espejo en dos cuentos de Borges, "Tl?n,

a trav?s de teor?as
Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" y "La biblioteca de Babel"
contempor?neas sobre el espejo, la duplicaci?n, y la representaci?n en literatura
y filosof?a. En particular, se utiliza el concepto de mise en abyme de Lucien
D?llenbach, el "reverso" del espejo en el pensamiento de Derrida seg?n lo
desarrolla Rodolphe Gasch?, y la semi?tica del espejo, la enciclopedia y el
laberinto de Umberto Eco. Este marco conceptual, cuyo origen se encuentra en
Este estudio examina
la obra misma de Borges, nos permite una relectura del espejo como un
instrumente que duplica fielmente, sin invertirni deformar, una realidad que
nuestra propia mente es incapaz de percibir como id?ntica a si misma. Como
si fuera la otra cara de una misma moneda, el lenguaje se pr?senta como un
medio que inevitablemente desfigura la realidad. Ya que ?ste es el ?nico medio,
aunque imperfecto,de que los seres humanos disponemos para el conocimiento
del mundo, la "diferencia" se introduce como una b?squeda de significado.
Mirrors
should reflect a little
before throwing back
images.
Jean Cocteau
The figure of themirror in Borgess writing has inspired not only the work
of critics inside and outside Latin America, but also the conceptual systems
elaborated by many contemporary U.S. and European literary theorists and
philosophers concerned with the problems of duplication, reflexivity,and
new perspectives for the reading
representation. These have, in turn,provided
of Borges's stories.We will base our argument on two stories, "Tl?n, Uqbar,
Orbis Tertius" and "La biblioteca de Babel." Here, the mirror gathers the
innerworkings of the narratives into one symbolic motif, according towhich
or reflection.
a
everything can be read as result of duplication, multiplication,
An analysis of the two stories based on an exploration of the multiple
functions of themirror figure as mise en abyme will serve a twofold purpose:
to reconstruct Borgess theories of perception and representation, and to read
REVISTA CANADIENSE DE ESTUDIOS HISPANICOS
Vol XVII,
1 OtofiO
1992

154
Borges's stories in the light of some of the contemporary work on mirrors
in literature, of which his own writings are the point of departure.1
First, it is important to clarifywhat ismeant by the termmise en abyme
and the different kinds of structures that it involves. Lucien D?llenbach
defines it as "any aspect enclosed within a work that shows a similaritywith
the work that contains it" (8). He distinguishes three elementary types of
mise en abyme, according to whether they function at the level of the
utterance, the enunciation, or the whole code. The first has two sub-types:
fictional - "an intertextual r?sum? or quotation of the content of a work"
- and
textual, which reflects the narrative "in its literal aspect as an
(55)
organization of meaning" (94). The function of the mise en abyme of the
enunciation is to "bring into focus the agent and the process of production
itself" by making present any aspect of the production and/or reception of
the text (75). The third type, also called metatextual, "reveals [the text's]way
of functioning - but without being mimetic of the text itself* (98, my
emphasis). These types rarely occur in a pure form, though often one will
predominate over the others.
D?llenbach's
typology, the most comprehensive of the uses of mise en
is
abyme,
inspired by much that Borges wrote on the subject.2 This literary
device fascinated Borges to the point of employing profusely all three types
in isolation and in combination in his fiction, and of devoting some critical
reflections to the topic in his discussion of Don Quixote and The Thousand
and One Nights, among others. The work within the work, the character
reading about himself, the storyteller telling her own story inwhat can lead
to the infinite regression ofmirrors facing each other, themirror in the text
itself are narrative strategies whose endless possibilities Borges drew upon
time and again. But we must not lose sight of the fact that Borges is
primarily a writer, whose objectives differ from those of a literary theorist
(Mignolo 297). D?llenbach's work, based on texts by this and other authors
who have used mise en abyme, allows us to reread those texts from an
abstract perspective, to distinguish the types and functions of each type of
mise en abyme, and to reconstruct the theoretical assumptions behind them.
The theme or concept that designates the text en abyme is also discussed
by Derrida as an illusion that refers only to the text's representational
function and "not to its representation of something outside the text or its
self-representation." For him, the mirror embodies the image of the
representation of a representation,which "keeps the difference endlessly open
and thus prevents any ultimate self-representation or self-presence of the
text" (Gasch? 291). We shall return later to this notion of the functioning of
reflection,which is not incompatible with D?llenbach's, and which is found
in Borges's use ofmirrors not merely as a duplication of thework, but also
as an illustration of his theory of representation.

155
D?llenbach distinguishes a fourth type, which, although also a mise en
abyme of the utterance, determines the ways in which all the other kinds
function within the text. This transcendental mise en abyme, or "fiction of
origin," reflects "what simultaneously originates, motivates, institutes and

unifies [the narrative], and fixes in advance what makes it possible" (101),
standing in reciprocal mimetic relationship with the narrative. In these two
stories by Borges this pivotal point, which exercises the utmost control over
meaning and every function of meaning, is realized in the mirror. "The
mirror in the text,"D?llenbach's other name for mise en abyme, acquires a
a figure that indicates
special meaning in these two stories. Rather than
reflectionmetaphorically, what we first encounter when we start reading is
indeed a looking glass. The controlling role of themirror begins with its
strategic placement in the opening page of each story as a "threshold" that
must necessarily be crossed ifwe are to enter Borges's fantastic, imaginary
worlds. In "La biblioteca de Babel" themirror is symbolically located in the
doorway into the Library,which is also the entrance into the story; in "Tl?n"
themirror ismentioned in the very first line, and its presence, through a
process of association of ideas, triggers the narration.
But the passage through the mirror not only takes us into a fictional
world; it forces us to observe the laws thatmake reflection work. In this
respect, Rodolphe Gasch?'s concept of the "tain" of themirror develops what
idea of
is only suggested in Borges's fiction, and complements D?llenbachs
mise en abyme insofar as both terms indicate theways inwhich the technique
of reflection functions within the narrative:
To look throughthemirror is to look at itsreverseside, at the dull side doubling the
mirrors
outside
specular
surface
play,
in short,
of reflection,
one
at the
can
tain of the mirror

read
the "system"
... On
of the
this
of the
lining
infrastructures
that
commands themirrors play and determines the angles of reflection.(Gasch? 238)

According to Gasch?, the tain of themirror exposes the imperfections and
limits of reflection because itallows an inside vision ofwhat makes reflection
possible. To read Borges always demands a skilful exercise in looking at both
sides of themirror. Its effectsdazzle us, yet its innerworkings are also in full
view. However, themagic of Borges's mirrors will not be diminished by the
uncovering of the functional pattern inscribed on their tain, for this is
precisely what opens up the endless possibilities ofmeaning and what lends
coherence to theworlds on either side of the looking-glass.
The threshold mirror, then, forces the reader to transgress its surface. In
"La biblioteca de Babel," once we have transgressed the doorway mirror, the
words
"biblioteca"
and
"universo"
are
used
interchangeably
longer sure what ismeant. A similar confusion of wor(l)ds
so we
are
no
on either side of

156
themirror takes place in "Tl?n," where a double transgression complicates
we cross the line between our reality and
things further.On the one hand,
on
the other, between Borges's fictional world - the framing
Borgest fiction;
scene inwhich Borges and Bioy Casares are discussing a nonexistent country
- and the embedded narrative constituted
by the description of that country.
The effect reaches total confusion when transgression becomes possible in
reverse. Borges makes his readers cross from one side of themirror to the
other, until we do not know which side we are on. Our world3 is first
reflected in the form of Tl?n, and at the end of the storywe are led to
believe that it is beginning to resemble Tl?n. Does thismean that our world
has become an image of an image of itself?JaimeAlazraki's answer is that
H?n
es al comienzo de la narraci?n un planeta ficticio;hacia el finalentendemosque
su realidad
definido
es nuestra
como
nuestra
realidad,
e inversamente,
realidad,
no
es menos
que
nuestra
ficticia que H?n.
realidad,
lo que
(Alazraki
1976:
hemos
195)
The need to explain this image of our world resembling its own double as
found in Borgess work - particularly in his discussion of the "self
- iswhat
prompts
swallowing" structure of The Thousand and One Nights
Katherine Hayles to invoke Baudrillard's concept of the simulacrum:
At some point the original disappeared altogether,no longer serving to anchor the
Then the copies "imploded" into a new order
chain of theseproliferatingsignifiers.
of non-referential
tion.
Baudrillard
non-referential
signification
calls
and
this the
that operated
"hyper-real,"
as real as
anything else.
by displacement
a theatre where
rather than representa

everything
is at once
(262)4
Yet, rather than merely indicating the disappearance of the reality that
inspired the copy, Borges is pointing toward the fictional, illusory character
of both.
Umberto Eco uses the phrase "threshold phenomenon" to describe the
mirror in Lacanian terms as the boundary between the imaginary and the
symbolic, and to explain mans experience with mirrors as one "on the
threshold between perception and signification" (203, 210).5 The latter
explanation illustrates what is happening in Borges's stories, since at this
point in the narrative, the doubling leads us to believe thatwe are someone
else, that the world we live in and the world we read about have traded
places on either side of themirror. This property of themirror as threshold,
which allows us to cross back and forth between reality and its fictional
representation, is also the primary function of the transcendental mise en
abyme, insofar as it raises the. question
of how the work "thinks of its

157
relationship to the truth and behaves with regard tomimesis" (D?llenbach
101).
The fictional mise en abyme, which duplicates the narrative at the
referential level, provides thework with a guide to its structure and meaning:
a means of interpretation. According to D?llenbach, when it occurs at the
beginning of the narrative, it reflects the story to come, which is in turn
limited to playing out that initial reflection. This technique, of course,
"programs" theway inwhich the story is read and interpreted by the reader,
and affords the author the utmost control. Control is precisely what Borges
is afterwhen he opens "Tl?n" firstwith a mirror, and immediately afterwith
the description of an imaginary novel that the narrator is discussing with his
friend:
Bioy Casares
sobre
cenado
lectores -
en
novela
e incurriera
a muy
esa
conmigo
una
de
los hechos
desfigurara
pocos
habia
la ejecuci?n
primera
en diversas
lectores
pocos
noche
y nos
persona,
vasta
narrador
cuyo
contradicciones,
pol?mica
o
omitiera
que permitieran
a unos
atroz
o banal.
de una
la adivinaci?n
una
demor?
realidad
(Borges 1974:T, 431)6

This passage functions as a mirror, not of glass but of words, that produces
a condensed image of the story and prepares us forwhat is also a first-person
narrative, whose narrator is unreliable, and whose contradictions are the key
to the understanding of the reflected reality.
such as the proliferation of incredible philosophies,

Contradictions,
impossible sciences, and nonexistent substantives, are the basis of Tl?n. The
fictional mise en abyme mentioned above is echoed in a metatextual one,
which reveals the text'sway of functioning and operates as "instructions" to
enable us to read the work "in the way itwants to be read" (D?llenbach
100). The following passage thus allows us to see, through the contradictions
and chaotic description of "Tl?n," the laws of a world that ismeant to reflect
ours:
Al
principio
se crey?
que
Tl?n
era
un mero
caos,
una
irresponsable
licencia
de
la
imagination; ahora se sabe que es un cosmos y las intimas leyesque lo rigenhan sido
formuladas,
aparentes
siquiera
del Onceno
en modo
Tomo
provisional.
son la
piedra
B?steme
recordar
fundamental
que
de que
las contradicciones
existen
los otros:
tan
lucido y tan justo es el orden que se ha observado en ?l. (T, 435)
The story, therefore,wants to be read as a "cosmos," not merely as a work

of the imagination; yet, insofar as it is a product of the imagination, it
constantly directs our attention toward its inner rules and its coherence. The
passage also seems to corroborate the idea that contradictions contain the

158
basic clue for the identification of the referentwith themirror image. By
opposing Tl?n to earth immediately after having said thatTl?n is based on
contradictions, Borges draws attention to the fact thatwhat appears as an
inversion is in fact an identical reflection.We must count on the narrators
unreliability and read between the lines, applying to the story only its own
rules and not those of our world.
Similarly, the doorway mirror of "La biblioteca de Babel" offers us a
sophisticated clue for the understanding of the story as a mirror in itself,
which casts an identical reflection of our own universe:
En el zagu?n hay un espejo, que fielmenteduplica las apariencias. Los nombres suelen
inferirde ese espejo que la Biblioteca no es infinita (si lo fuera realmente ^a qu? esa
duplication ilusoria?); yo prefiero sonar que las superficiesbrunidas figuran y
prometen el infinito... (B, 465)
textual mise en abyme is usually represented by an "emblematic
- a
- of the
text; in Borges's case, it
fabric, a work of art
metaphor"
coincides with the transcendental mise en abyme: themirror in the text is,
simply, a mirror (D?llenbach 96-97)7
The
The critics of Borges s work have explained themirror phenomenon in

two classic ways. There are those who believe themirror inverts the original:
"So many things are identical between, say, a person and its reflected image,
that one is inclined to consider that all points are identical. Yet, face to face,
as Kant makes clear, there is always an inversion" (Agheana 246). A very
common reading is also to consider mirror images not only as inverted,but
distorted reflections of reality.For example, JaimeAlazraki has written that

"La narration se estructura como un espejo concavo que proyecta una
imagen aberrada del objeto reflejado" (Alazraki 1977: 81).8 These readings are
all based on the fact that if the reflected image does not correspond to the
original, then themirror must be imperfect.
Let us for a moment observe the effect of concave mirrors in a well
known episode of Valle-Inclans Luces de Bohemia. The "esperpento," a vision
of absurdity and grotesque deformation of Spanish life, is not produced by

the concave mirrors as much as by a combination of the protagonist's
drunkenness and near-death hallucinations. The deformation is in Max
Estrellas mind, and it represents in itselfa kind of world order rather than
chaos: "La deformation deja de serlo cuando esta sujeta a una matem?tica
perfecta.Mi est?tica actual es transformar con matem?tica de espejo c?ncavo
las normas cl?sicas" (Valle-Incl?n 253). Borgess stories also provide clues to
the fact that even if themirror were concave - which it is not - it is the
human mind, not themirror, that produces the distortion or the reversal
necessary tomake sense of theworld.

159
However, there is also enough evidence to suggest that Borges's mirrors
are plane. He never says that they are curved; instead, what we have is a
statement that they faithfully duplicate appearances.9 Even though there
might be a distortion anyway, the plane mirror underscores the role of the
perceiving subject in the construction of the reflected image. In Semiotics and
the Philosophy of Language, Umberto Eco makes the distinction between
plane and curved mirrors thatmany critics of Borges seem to have over
looked. Only curved mirrors - and we could add that the human retina
works like one - produce a distorted, disfigured image of the referent,but
plane mirrors do not even invert it:
Vertical
themselves
mirrors
do not
reverse
or invert. A mirror
reflects
the right
side
exactlywhere the right side is, and the same with the leftside. It is the observer ...
who by self-identification
imagineshe is theman inside themirror and, looking at
himself,realizes he iswearing his watch on his rightwrist. But itwould be so only
if he,
the observer
I mean,
were
the one who
is inside
the mirror
(Je est un autreX).
On the contrary,thosewho avoid behaving as Alice, and getting into themirror, do

not so deceive themselves.(Eco 205)
Yet, as Barrenechea and Molloy have pointed out, we cannot avoid getting
into Borges's mirrors. Both critics single out the following passage, from
InquisicioneSywhere Borges illustrates the sensation thatmirrors are supposed
to produce:
Hay
que manifestar
ese antojo
hecho
forzosa
realidad
de una mente:
hay que mostrar
un individuo que se introduceen el cristaly que persiste en su ilusorio pais (donde

hay figuraciones y colores, pero regidos de inmovible silencio) y que siente el
bochorno
de
no
ser m?s
que
un
simulacro
que
obliteran
las noches
y que
las
vislumbrespermiten. (Barrenechea 175;Molloy 1979: 147)

Even then, there is no apparent indication within these two stories that
anybody is deceived by the reflection phenomenon, or even that the lack of
or
identitybetween a mirror image and its original is produced by inversion
distortion. While I agree with Agheana that "the infinityofmirror reflections
...
multiplies endlessly a similar but not entirely identical image" (Agheana
246), all duplications are based precisely on the fact that exact identity is
case of
impossible because, as the inhabitants of Tl?n demonstrated in the
the nine copper coins,10 people - not the mirror - are unable to see the
as identical to itself.
original
The example of the nine copper coins prefigures Derrida's insistence on

the exclusively representative function of the mise en abyme discussed above.
He denies the existence of an originary unity, because "the reflected or

160
is also split in itself* (Gasch? 226). The double, that is, themirror
reflection, brings to light the fact thatwhat we think of as an "original"
cannot be apprehended except through an Other that is its representation.
Human beings are unable to see the original as identical to itselfbecause
there is no such identity, there can only be repetition. If "Tl?n" and "La
biblioteca" appear to be distorted reflections of our own universe, we must
doubled
look elsewhere for the source of the distortion. According to the beginning
of "La biblioteca de Babel," themirror does not reflect reality,but appear
ances. Therefore, what is inside themirror is an appearance of an appear
ance; what is outside is already an illusion that themirror does not distort.
On the contrary, itduplicates faithfullywhat is already distorted by human
perception, that which does not exist except as different from itself.The
human weakness lies in thatwhen people believe that things appear in the
mirror as they really are, theydelude themselves;when things seem different,
- that the distortion is
they think mistakenly
produced by themirror, so
the image is considered untrustworthy.This way of reading the stories as an
affirmation of the impossibility of self-identity is deeply embedded in their
imagery and in the statements made throughout the texts,which should be
understood as the rules that govern the narratives' inner workings. The
inhabitants of Tl?n explained the difference between "identity" and "equali
ty," the latterbeing possible through repetition which implies a doubling,
and therefore a difference
, the former absurdly implying that things that
look alike are one and the same (T, 438). In "La biblioteca de Babel" this
becomes clearer, for the library contains no two books that are exactly the
same, since minute differences of even one letter,period, or comma keep
repetition from becoming identity.
The mise en abyme of the enunciation contributes to the reinforcement of
the ideas illustrated through the textual and fictional mises en abyme. This
type involves "the 'making present' in the diegesis of the producer or receiver
of the narrative" (D?llenbach 75), most often through a character who is a
writer or a reader. The narrator of "La biblioteca" is both a writer and a
reader of his own story,who understands that there is no truthon either side
of the mirror that humans are able to see.11 The fact that lamps in the
Library cast an insufficient light, and that the narrator's eyes are almost
incapable of deciphering his own writing, stresses the notion thatmirrors

duplicate the referentfaithfully,and the distorting effectsare produced by the
human eye. Being human, therefore, seems to entail the impossibility of
knowledge of the world we live in. The narrator is, like the inhabitants of
Plato's Cave, a prisoner of his own limited perception. From inside the
mirror, we deceive ourselves into believing his vision is distorted by the
dimness, yet we have no assurance thatwe ourselves are not being blinded
by the light.

161
It is our eye that is interpreting th?mirror image, but themirror neither
distorts nor interprets reality for us. Mirrors arouse a fear that causes us to
fabricate the distortion effect as a defense. Borges says that the mirror
"inquietaba" (unnerved) and "acechaba" (spied on) him and Bioy Casares,
and that theydiscovered that "los espejos tienen algo monstruoso" (T, 431).
These characteristics of mirrors can now be understood in the light of the
above discussion: mirrors are unnerving and monstrous precisely because
they duplicate appearances faithfully,and in doing so they split the original
- or its
- from itself.Mirrors are also
imagined appearance
unnerving and
monstrous because theymark the uncanny separation between the human
sphere of activity and consciousness and something unfathomable, uncontrol
lable, with its own laws that challenge our means of knowledge and
interpretation.What Borges and Bioy Casares see in themirror is an image
of themselves, so exact that they are afraid of not being able to tell the copy
from the original, afraid that theymay not be unique, or afraid that, like
Herbert Ashe, theymay be in fact only a mirror image without an original:12
Alg?n recuerdo limitadoymenguante de HerbertAshe, ingenierode los ferrocarriles
del Sur, persiste en el hotel de Adrogu?, entre las efusivasmadreselvas y en el fondo
ilusorio de los espejos. En vida padeci? de irrealidad,como tantos ingleses;muerto,
no es
siquiera
el fantasma
que
ya era entonces.
(T, 433)
This unreality of themirror reflection, as we will discuss later, corresponds

to a function of language that Jaime Rest has called "esa aptitud que tienen
los nombres personales de borrar la realidad de los individuos a quienes
designan, para convertirse en ficciones verbales aut?nomas" (97).
Fear and the limitations of human perception cause us to imagine the

distortions of mirror reflections as a defense from the terrible truth that is
our inability to see the absolute truth.But these negative traits also equip us
with the necessary baggage tomake sense of our world through difference.
By means of a series of textual and metatextual mises en abyme in "La
biblioteca de Babel," Borges dismisses exact duplications as meaningless and
impossible; even though the mirror may achieve them, they count for
nothing because they are inconceivable within the limits of the human mind.
The Library - and the story itself- is repeated in the books it contains: one
book is "a labyrinth of letters"with one "reasonable line," another contains
"notions of combinatory analysis" - the story is also the combination of
twenty-five symbols of language, in another the lettersMCV are, like the
same form. Yet because difference is
hexagons, a regular repetition of the
what accounts formeaning exact repetitions of the lettersMCV do not have
one, and this book "cannot correspond to any language" (B, 467). All the
suggested explanations of the meaning of these letters imply allowing for
different values, cryptography, or anything thatwill introduce a difference.

162
The Library only makes sense because in its seemingly identical hexagons it
contains no two books which are the same. Ifwe think of the fear that
Borges and Bioy Casares feltabout mirrors duplicating appearances faithfully,
perhaps we can consider distorted reflections as a search formeaning, rather
than a disability.
The "mirror of words" that opens "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" acquires
a new significance when we consider mirrors as a symbol for the human
search formeaning. Borgess mirrors in the text are all of words, and words
are our (imperfect) way ofmaking sense of theworld. This is the role of the
figure of the encyclopedia, a "double" of the mirror as a textual mise en
abyme. The encyclopedia is a work of language, and a reflection of the
totality of the universe throughwords.13 Similarly, the story is an attempt to
frame the infinite inside themirror of its few pages.14 The encyclopedia is the
organizing principle of the story, since Borges presents the data about Uqbar
and Tl?n according to the same divisions that we could find in any
encyclopedia about our world, such as geography, history, language,
At the
literature, zoology, typography, philosophy, psychology, geometry ...15
same time, as Eco suggests, there are other things to be found in an encyclo
pedia, and Borgess story,with its inclusion of all the possible philosophies
and theories of the universe to be found in Tl?n, does not fall short here
either:
[The encyclopedia] does not register"truths"but, rather,what has been said about
the truthor what has been believed to be true as well as what has been believed to
be falseor imaginaryor legendary,provided thata given culturehad elaborated some
discourse
some
about
subject matter.
(Eco
83)
Like the encyclopedia, the Library is also a double of themirror, for it

contains books which are also made ofwords. There is even a suggestion that
the Library contains a circular, cyclical book that isGod (B, 465), or that the
Library itself could be a book:
Letizia Alvarez de Toledo ha observado que la vasta Biblioteca es inutil; en rigor,
bastaria
mente
un
solo
delgadas.
volumen
...
que
constara
de un num?ro
infinito de hojas
infinita
(B, 471 )'6
If the encyclopedia can reflect a universe, the library can be one, for it
contains all the books.17 Two of themost frequentmotifs in Borges's works
- the
encyclopedia and the labyrinth are used here as symbols of totality
contained within a limited linguistic space, and they are the only earthly
alternatives to the ultimate goal achieved by the poets of Tl?n, who can

163
transcend the limits of language and make
poetic object.
"Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" and "La
propose similar ideas and employ the same
each other in a number of ways. From
duplication and multiplication emerges as
a single word integrate an entire

biblioteca de Babel" not only
techniques, but also complement
both of them the principle of
one which linksmirrors, men,18
and books as reflections of one another. The mirror in "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis
Tertius" suggests to Bioy Casares a sentence about mirrors and men found
in an encyclopedia: "Los espejos y la c?pula son abominables, porque
multiplican el n?mero de hombres" (T, 431). The mirror in the room is
almost human, personified through verbs like "inquietaba," "acechaba;" in

"La biblioteca" books are personified through the superstition of "el Hombre
del Libro" (B, 469).19 In both stories,what we find is not a multiplication of
men, but of books, formen can multiply the number of books as well as the
number ofmen, and books are written having other books as pretext. In the
first page there is The Anglo-American Cyclopedia, which is an imperfect
reprint of The Encyclopedia Britannica.20 Only one copy of thisAnglo-Ameri
can Cyclopedia contains the article about Uqbar, because, according to the
laws of the Library - which apply throughout the stories in Ficciones - "hay
siempre varios centenares de miles de facsimiles imperfectos: de obras que no
difieren sino por una letra o una coma" (B, 469). The article is finally found
in a volume whose alphabetic notation does not include it; similarly, the
Library contains a book whose cover does not prefigurewhat is inside. The
forty-volume First Encyclopedia of Tl?n will be rewritten in one of the
languages of Tl?n as Orbis Tertius, and as The Second Encyclopedia of Tl?n,
which has not been found yet; finally, "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" stands
as a storywritten about all these books. Even this storymasquerades as a
modified version of an earlier one:
el
Reproduzco
fantdstica,
burl?n
articulo
en la
de
Antologia
una
met?foras
y que
que algunas
especie
tantas cosas desde esa
ocurrido
frivolo. Han
anterior
tal como
apareci?
1940, sin otra escisi?n
que
ahora
r?sulta
la literatura
de resumen
fecha
... (T,
440)21
a "ghost editor" who
Similarly, "La Biblioteca de Babel" is attributed to
its
and
it
changes
typographical style (B, 466).22 In this story, too,
reproduces
in order to find a book one has to consult other books, and books engender
other books:
... la historia
fiel de
esos
de los arc?ngeles,
las autobiografias
del porvenir,
de
la
demostraci?n
de
miles
miles y
falsos,
cat?logos
minuciosa
la Biblioteca,
cat?logos,
la demostraci?n
de
la falacia
del
cat?logo
verdadero,

el cat?logo
de
la falacia
el evangelio
164
de
gn?stico
muerte,
Bas?ides,
la version
en todos
los libros
el comentario
de cada
libro a todas
de
ese
evangelio,
las lenguas,
la relaci?n
veridica
las interpolaciones
de cada
de
tu
libro
... (B, 467-68)
This is in turn analogous to the books of Tl?n, all ofwhich also include their
symmetrical reflection: the counterbook. It is as though these books were
mirrors, always framing and containing others which are reflections of
themselves.
To think of these two stories as mirror reflections of each other entails the
admission that the worlds they represent function according to the same
laws. Uqbar's geographic points of reference are exclusively internal,which
prevents the location of that country in a map, and the referents of the
language of the Library are also internal and do not allow us to be sure of
understanding the narrator.23The paradox of these two stories is that each

contains the other, as well as much more.24 The Library contains one of the
languages of Tl?n together with many others, and its books enclose the
theories proposed by Tl?n's schools of thought. For example, the idea that
all time has already passed and we are living a memory (T, 437) is analogous
to the one that everything has already been written. This is one of the
principles of the Library (B, 470), and the indication thatTl?n contains it as
one of the possible explanations of the universe. In Tl?n every book contains
its counterbook, in "La biblioteca" we are told that "esta epistola in?til y
... y tambi?n su refutaci?n" (B, 470). The "hr?nir" of
palabrera ya existe
Tl?n, those "secondary" objects thatmultiply according to the expectations

of the imagination, and which engender distorted versions of themselves until
they are unrecognizable, are analogous to the languages of the Library: "es
verdad que unas millas a la derecha la lengua es dialectal y que noventa pisos
m?s arriba es incomprensible" (B, 467). Ultimately, it is possible to under

stand both Tl?n and the Library as "hr?nir," products of Borges's imagin
ation - and of a multiplicity of readers' imaginations - repeated in a number
of copies of themselves.
Tl?n is a human labyrinth (T, 443) that appears chaotic and disordered;
the Library is a divinely created labyrinthwith strict laws that humans spend
their lives trying to decipher. This connection between the two stories,which
allows us to read the Library-labyrinth as a mirror image of Tl?n-encyclo
pedia, is found in Eco's study of the encyclopedia as labyrinth,written with
"La biblioteca de Babel" in mind. Of the three types of labyrinths he

- the net describes, the third one
corresponds to the encyclopedia:
feature of a net is that every point can be connected with every other
point,
are not yet
the connections
and
and, where
designed,
they are, however, conceivable
... the abstract model
A net is an unlimited
of a net has neither
designable.
territory
... A structure that cannot be described
a centre nor an outside
can
only be
globally
The main

165
described
as a
describers
can
sum of local
In a structure without
descriptions.
potential
look at it only by the inside ... at every node of it no one
outside,
the
can have
the
global vision of all itspossibilitiesbut only the local vision of the closest ones: every
local description of the net is a hypothesis,subject to falsification,about its further
course ... blindness is the onlyway of seeing (locally), and thinking
means to grope
one*s way
... This
represents
a model
for an
as
encyclopedia
semiotic
regulative
hypothesis. (Eco 81-82)

"La biblioteca de Babel" can thus be considered an abstract way of describing
a world through the encyclopedic method, not too different from the one
used in "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." Goodman reminds us that "a world
may be unmanageably heterogeneous or unbearably monotonous
according
to how events are sorted into kinds" (9). Like the encyclopedia described by
Eco, the Library's centre is any of its hexagons, and its description must be
restricted to hexagons because they are the only thing that it is possible to
know: "the librarymay be infinite,but it is an infinite repetition of hexagons,
of something known" (Agheana 182).We will return later to a discussion of
the hexagon as the only formwhich man can conceive, describe, and be sure
of, in a Library where men grope theirway through, looking for books they
have no chance of finding, finding books theyhave no chance of understand

ing. Like themirror distortion that humans fabricate, hexagons provide the
reassurance that there is some order in the universe.25
Both stories conceive of writing as a divine method of creation, which
humans unsuccessfully, but insistently, attempt to imitate. In Tl?n, "la
historia del universo - y en ella nuestras vidas y el mas tenue detalle de
nuestras vidas - es la escritura que produce un dios subalterno para
entenderse con un demonio" (T, 437). The librarian describes the Library
universe in similar terms:
... el universo,
con
su
elegante
de
dotation
de
anaqueles,
tomos
de
enigm?ticos,
infatigablesescaleras para el viajero y de letrinaspara el bibliotecario sentado, s?lo

puede
ser obra
humano,
garabatea
delicadas,
basta
en
de
un dios.
comparar
la tapa
negrisimas,
de
Para
estos
un
la distancia
percibir
rudos
libro, con
inimitablemente
simbolos
las
que
tr?mulos
letras org?nicas
sim?tricas.
hay
entre
que
del
mi
lo divino
falible
interior:
y lo
mano
puntuales,
(B, 466)
symmetry is what we believe to be the rule of the mirror, the

symmetry that fails between our world and Borgess worlds points toward the
fact that there is a world order, even if it is one governed by laws that
humans are incapable of understanding:
Because

166
Inutil responderque la realidad tambi?nest? ordenada.Quiz? lo est?,pero de acuerdo
a
leyes divinas
ser? un
Tl?n
traduzco:
laberinto,
leyes inhumanas
pero es un laberinto
que
urdido
destinado a que lo descifrenlos hombres. (T, 443)
no
acabamos
por
nunca
los hombres,
de percibir.
un
laberinto
Therefore, the apparent chaos of theworlds of Tl?n and the Library is the
only way that humans can represent the "divine disorder." On the other
hand, a distorted reflection of our world is the only possible way of avoiding
the "simetria con apariencia de orden - el materialismo dial?ctico, el
antisemitismo, el nazismo" (T, 442).

Like Borges, the characters in these two stories engage in this activity of
writing, some to create, some to understand. Tl?n originates from Ezra
Buckley's attempt to invent a planet because "in America it is absurd to
invent a country;" the Library is full of men attempting to reconstruct it
according to human laws. However, as in Borges's case, "la Obra Mayor de

los Hombres" never turns out to be anything other than a book in the
- or an
Library
encyclopedia, in the case of "Tl?n." Imitating a god only
makes the world more imperfect. The "hr?nir" are Borges's figure for the
way inwhich human representation and creation enhance imperfection and
end up in decadence:
los hr?nir, d?riva dos de otros hr?n, los hr?nir

y tercer grado
del hr?n de un hr?n
las aberraciones
del inicial; los de quinto
exageran
con los de
se confunden
en los de
los de noveno
uniformes;
segundo;
una pureza
es
no
de
lineas
los
tienen.
El
que
proceso
hay
originales
los hr?nir de segundo

derivados
son
casi
und?cimo
peri?dico: el hr?n de duod?cimo grado ya empieza a decaer. (T, 440)26
This suggests that for Borges the principle ofmirror reflection complements
that of language representation, like two sides of a coin. As I discussed above,
Borges's mirrors lead us to believe we are contemplating a distorted image
of the world when we are in fact creating the distortion ourselves. His
concept of language reverses this effect, showing thatwhat we thought was
a
relationship of identitybetween an object and theword that represents it
is in fact a disfiguring one caused by themedium itself:
r?sulta
intolerable
de ella se esperaba
inocentemente
reproduction
porque
y
acaso con fe
un
En cambio
orgullosa
reflejo id?ntico o, por lo menos,
aproximativo.
nos enfrenta con la ineficacia
de lo que procur?bamos
convocar
id?ntico, con la
La
torpeza de "un ojald no fuera" (Molloy 1979: 151)
With
this statement, SylviaMolloy draws attention, among other things, to

Borges's reservations toward "naming," which he considers always a

167
tautology. Language does not function likemirrors insofar as they throw
back exact reproductions, but, as JaimeRest has pointed out, itdoes produce
mirages "que se imponen por la eficacia de una simetria o proportion
intrinseca, de un equilibrio primordialmente nominal" (90). According to
him, Borges questions the human ability to understand reality through
language. Although this is the only instrumentwe possess for that purpose,
a fiction. Rest thus
everything we express through it inevitably becomes
to
of
the
German
that
of
relates Borges's concept
language
philosopher
Mauthner; forboth, "el lenguaje es solo un juego, dotado de singular eficacia
como
tal pero exento de cualquier aptitud para representar, conocer y

entender adecuadamente la realidad" (84). Much like themirror, language
is a game that we are forced to play without knowing how: "cuando
denunciamos las limitaciones del lenguaje lo que estamos reconociendo no
es su impotencia sino la nuestra" (94).

On the other side of the doorway mirror of the Library, words do not
mean anymore what we think theymean. The Saussurean slash that separates
the signifier from the signified changes the relationship between reality and
its representation in a way that suggests that for Borges all language is
... s?lo tiene un valor metaf?rico" (T,
metaphorical. In Tl?n "todo sustantivo
438); in the Library, theword "biblioteca" is a metaphor for "universo," and
as if theywere interchangeable by exaggerat
Borges employs the twowords
contrast
that
is
the
ing
produced when a word appears in the context that
would normally belong to another. The two words have different external
forms and produce different effects - the literal and the metaphorical
yet they refer to the same thing. In the end, the slash disappears,
meanings
and all we have is a signifier- "biblioteca" - that reflectsanother signifier
"universo"
and
viceversa:
El universo (que otros llaman la Biblioteca) se compone de un num?ro indefinido,

y tal vez
infinito, de galenas
hexagonales
... Como
todos
los nombres
de la Biblioteca,
he viajado enmi juventud ... (B, 465)

As readers, we attempt to provide an interpretation by attaching these two
our world in some form. By means of the
signifiers to signifieds that reflect
a universe composed of hexagonal
between
unequivocal interchangeability
a library inwhich men live their lives and travel,
books
and
full
of
galleries
Borges exposes the process ofmetaphorical signification thatRicoeur calls "a
semantic clash leading to logical absurdity:"
A word receives a metaphorical meaning in specific contexts,within which it is

opposed
to other words
taken
literally. The
shift in meaning
results primarily
from
a clash between literalmeanings, which excludes the literal use of the word in

168
question and provides clues forfindinga newmeaning capable of accordingwith the
context of the sentenceand renderingthe sentencemeaningful therein. (170)
This kind of metaphorical play with incongruous images is a sign of the
provisional and tentative character of language when it attempts to represent
reality.27
The
"otros" in the above quotation from "La biblioteca" suggests the

impossibility of communication that results from the knowledge that
language is private, that each person may have a different name for each
thing. This use of metaphor is reinforced at the end of the story with a
theory that illustrates the arbitrariness of language. According to this theory,

a word has an unlimited number of meanings in an unlimited number of
languages, which makes communication impossible.28The word "biblioteca"
means "universo" in this story because it is a world with its own linguistic
code, which reflects the reader's only in appearance:
Un
num?ro
n de
lenguajes
posibles
usa el mismo
vocabulario;
en
algunos,
el simbolo
biblioteca admite la correcta definition ubicuo y perdurable sistema de galer?as

hexagonales,
palabras
que
pero
o
es pan o
otra cosa, y las siete
pir?mide
cualquier
tienen otro valor. Tu, que me lees, ^est?s seguro de entender
biblioteca
la definen
mi lenguaje? (B, 470)
The "correct definition" of "biblioteca" does not correspond to themeaning

we usually give it,but exclusively to the one it has in this story. In
compli
ance with this theory,Borges reverses themetaphorical process by writing of
"frutas ...que llevan el nombre de l?mparas" (B, 465). They are lamps in our
language, where "l?mpara" is understood as "an artifact that gives light,"yet
the name "l?mpara" is only accessory, because in the language of "La
biblioteca de Babel" they are fruits, and theword "l?mpara," which should
be understood literally, is used metaphorically while themetaphorical name
"frutas" isused literally.The relationship of identitybetween word and object
thatwe often take for granted in our everyday lives is thus subverted, and
confronts us with the impossibility of complete understanding, or even of
knowing whether we understand. As Eco puts it, "in order to use a mirror
correctly,we should first know thatwe are facing a mirror*' (207), and with
Borges there is no way of knowing at all times on which side of themirror
one stands. That is what makes language, like themirror,
unnerving and
monstrous. The fact that both words in each pair - "biblioteca" and
"universo,"
"frutas"
and
"l?mparas"
are
metaphorical,
though
interchange
able, illustrates the notion of the signifier that has lost touch with any
signifier, and also Katherine Hayles's concept of themetaphor that has lost
touch with its primary referent:

169
A metaphor
the grounding
that self-reflexively mirrors

itself in another metaphor
threatens to lose
that reassures us the comparison
is not entirely
It could
free-floating.
be imagined as a compass with one legmoving freelyand the other restingnot on

ground but on the leg of another compass. Postmodernwriters have exploited this
lack of round to reveal the intrinsicreflexivity
of all language. (Hayles 33)29
Another series of fictional and textual mises en abyme point out the fact
that mirrors and language stand in a reciprocal relationship: the worlds
through the looking glass are worlds of language on the level of storytelling
as well as on the symbolic level, and they are at the same timemirrored
by
the language that constitutes them. As Ricoeur put it, "If it is true that the
[work] creates a world, then it requires a language which preserves and
expresses its creative power in specific contexts" (180). Thus the illusion of
order perpetuated in Tl?n is achieved through a perfect correspondence
between its language and the principles that constitute Tl?n as a world. It is
this correspondence, along with the fact that the written work is being
duplicated in a series of written works, that ensures the functioning of the
reflection.30 In the fashion of Russian dolls or Chinese boxes - what Carlos
Fuentes likes to call "cebolla narrativa" (123) - Tl?n, a world found in a
book, is the literaryworld of another literaryworld (Uqbar) of another
literaryworld (the encyclopedia) of yet another literaryworld (Borges's
story). Only an encyclopedia written in one of the languages of Tl?n would
represent itmore adequately, though this isbeyond the limits of communica
tion between Borges and his readers.31Tl?n also has a literature that reflects
it, for it consists of ideal, poetic objects. Furthermore, the language of Tl?n
contributes tomaking this ideal world idealist: "Las naciones de ese planeta
son - cong?nitamente - idealistas. Su lenguaje y las derivaciones de su
- la
presuponen el idealismo" (T,
religi?n, las letras, lametafisica
lenguaje
are
no
Because
there
material
in
this planet, there is no need
435).
objects
to name themwith words thatmight suggest theirmaterial existence. Adjec
tives and verbs are used instead of substantives, because adjectives sacrifice
the material quality of substance to the idealism of attributes, and verbs
denote acts rather than objects, reflecting the fact that "el mundo para ellos
no es un concurso de objetos en el espacio; es una s?rie heterog?nea de actos
independientes" (T, 435). In Tl?n, only what is in theminds of its inhabit
ants exists, but Tl?n itself is only a product of themind. It is not surprising,
either, that psychology is the basis of its culture.
The world of the Library is also determined by products of themind.

Borges writes that the hexagon, the shape of all its rooms, is a necessary form
because humans cannot perceive space in any other way:
For the idealists, the universe is a geometric duplication of an archetype.The
asymmetry
of a triangle
or a pentagon
is unacceptable
because,
seen from inside, one

170
not be mirrored
facet would
by another
one.
Ifman
were
to inhabit
pentagon,
one
aspect of his existencewould be leftwithout the reassuringreflectionof symmetry.

The spheremay be a perfect geometrical form,but the difficultyin determining
points of referencereduces considerably itsappeal. The mystics preferit as a formof
but
perfection,
their
evidence,
couched
in ambiguous
terms,
is not
trustworthy.
(Agheana 18)
implies that the hexagon, as well as the encyclopedic construction of
Tl?n, is a human construction based on the self-centred ways in which
humans - and Borges among them - see and classify theirknowledge of the
world. The hexagon is not only something known, but stands for something
that can be reduced to a limit in a limitless universe. The Library, likeTl?n,
is a world of language not just because it is a storymade out of Borges's
This
words, but because its "raison d'?tre" is books, which are also made of
written words. Since the Library is language, its laws are also those of
language: it exists "ab aeterno," there are no two identical books, the same
thing cannot be said twice, and it is infiniteand periodical, like the combina
tions of the twenty-fivesymbols thatBorges takes into account (B, 466). This
number is in fact finite, but so is the Library. What matters is that its
finiteness, in either case, cannot be apprehended by the human mind:
Acabo
de escribir
infinita. No
he
interpolado
ese
adjetivo
por una
costumbre
ret?rica;
Quienes lo juzgan limitado,

digo que no es il?gico pensar que elmundo es infinito.
que
postulan
en
inconcebiblemente
los corredores
y escaleras
y hex?gonos
lugares remotos
pueden
cesar - lo cual es absurdo. Quienes
sin limites, olvidan
lo imaginan
que los tiene el num?ro posible de libros. (B, 471)
theworlds of Uqbar, Tl?n, and the Library, as we have seen, are

their
existence can only be believable - and the mise en abyme can
language,
only work by finding themwritten (or reflected) in books. Borges's concept
of language refers exclusively towriting, not speech, and, like themirror, is
therefore two-dimensional, with an appearance of depth constituted by the
fictional worlds it creates. The narrator of "Tl?n" seeks confirmation of the
existence of Uqbar in several encyclopedias, not believing ituntil he sees the
article before his eyes: "Conjetur? que ese pais indocumentado y ese
heresiarca anonimo eran una fiction improvisada por la modestia de
Bioy
para justificar una frase" (T, 431). The universe of the Library, as well as the
lives of its inhabitants, is also justified by the fact that all about them has
been written:
Because
Cuando se proclam? que la Biblioteca abarcaba todos los libros,la primera impresion
fue de
extravagante
inverosimil
que
en
felicidad
alg?n
anaquel
... El
universo
del universo
estaba
haya
un
justificado
... No
libro total; ruego

me
parece
a los dioses
171
ignorados
aniquilado,
que
un nombre
que
pero
en un
... lo
... Que
y leido
yo sea ultrajado
y
haya examinado
en
un
enorme
se
tu
Biblioteca
ser,
instante,
(B,
justifique.
468-70)
If creation is performed by means of language - i.e., writing - then
nothing can exist if it cannot be expressed through it.This idea is reflected
in the notion thatmaterialism is impossible inTl?n because itonly has ideal
languages, and since the origin of the Library cannot be expressed in the
existing languages, another one must be invented. Yet this is also contradic
is
tory, according to the principles of Tl?n, because what is undocumented
fictional and thereforeunbelievable, but if,as we have seen, what iswritten
- literature- is
by definition also fiction because language falsifies, then our
as Tl?n. Thus Borges deconstructs the authority of the
as
is
ideal
world
written word.
Many of Borges's stories and theoretical writings could, in fact, be
considered from the perspective that I have outlined here. I have tried to
throw some light on two stories which seem to contain both theoretical and
fictional assumptions and statements about reality and the representation of
that reality applicable to much of the rest of his work. The figure of the
mirror not only encompasses the pessimism that is entailed by the belief in
the impossibility of knowledge, but is also a vehicle for the search for
meaning inwhich Borges, through his writing, was always engaged.
Borges's writings represent the appropriation ofmany cultures.32Yet, upon
the occasion of his death, SylviaMolloy expressed how even his voracious
as a
reading prefigured the reappropriation of his work byWestern culture
sus
a
"Cre?
of
theoretical
for
the
construction
of
systems:
departure
point
se
crear
texts
His
fictional
ellos"
(1986:
804).
propose
por
precursores y
dej?
new ways of thinking about the production and transformation ofmeaning,

and they are the kernel fromwhich much that comprises todays apparatus
of postmodernism, deconstruction, and semiotics emerges, leaving behind
forms of textual construction linked exclusively to other theories. Borges's
own work by providing
legacy in contemporary theory then reverts to his
new perspectives for mutual illumination and understanding of different
conceptual systems with different objectives.
University ofMichigan
NOTES
I would
valuable
like to thank Walter

comments
and
Frances
Mignolo,
suggestions
on
Aparicio,
this paper.
and Eric
Rabkin

for their
172
1 The relationshipsof influencebetween Borges and currentliterarytheory
have
inspired much
For
critical work.
some
instance,
of the interaction
see Lindstrom's
discussion
works
between
of
and French
specific examples
Borges's
about
and Rodriguez-Monegals
observations
literary theory (833-84),
as a source of Derrida's
deconstructionist
Borges s writing
thought. He
traces
two epigraphs by Borges quoted inDerrida's "La Pharmacie de Platon," one
of them
Uqbar, Orbis
of a recent,
from "Tl?n,
is "the representative
Tertius."
marginal
For Rodriguez-Monegal,
Borges
...within
the central
literature
tradition,corroding ityetmaking itpossible" (1986: 232).

D?llenbach quotes Borges extensivelyin TheMirror in theText (1989:
171-72).
What
ismeant
our
become
here by "our world"

is no more
than a "version"
that has
we inhabit: "We
to
accustomed
of
the
world
way
referring
might, though, take the realworld to be thatof some one of the alternative
rightversions (or groups of thembound togetherby some principle of
reductibilityor translatability)and regardall others as versions of that same
world
from the standard
differing
version
in accountable
... This
ways
world
[of theman-in-the-street],indeed, is one of themost often taken as real; for

, realityin a world, like realism in a picture, is largelya matter of habit"
(Goodman 20).
4
more
For Hayles's
detailed
discussion
of Borges,
see 260-61.
A differentaspect of Borges s use ofmirrors in this story is developed in

Nancy
Kasons
Uqbar,
Orbis
"The Mirror
nated
"T," and
of Utopia," where
she explores
the Lacanian
stages.
how
"Tl?n,
reverses
Tertius"
All quotations from"Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"will subsequentlybe desig
Because,
occur
as
from "La biblioteca
in a pure,
earlier,
isolated
de Babel,"
the different
form, and because
"B."
types of mise en ahyme rarely

the transcendental
mise en ahyme
is also a formof the textual,there is no contradictionin the statementthat

the figureof themirror functionsas both types at the same time.
Other readingsof themirror image as an inversionor distortionof the
original can be found in Rodriguez-Monegal 1973: 338, Irby413,
Barrenechea
those
I mentioned
175, Bell-Villada
130, and De Man
23.
This statementis consequentwith the influenceof Berkeley's idealist

on
philosophy
"Las
Borges:
imaginaciones
derivadas
de esta
idea pueden
adoptar dos formas:o hacen resaltarque la realidad es un simple sueno y lo
creemos
sustancial
y concreto no es m?s que una apariencia,
tal vida y solidez que de rechazo
que adquiere
objeto sonado
orden terrestre" (Barrenechea
170).
o
producen
disuelve el
que
un
10
I am referring,forexample, to the impossibilityofmaking sense out of the
verbs
11
and
monedas
"to find"
y de
"porque presuponen
las ultimas"
(T, 417).
la identidad
de
las nueve
Perception,though not reduced to sight,is overwhelminglyrepresentedin

these
12
"to lose"
primeras
stories
through
visual
writes
Rodriguez-Monegal
and he refused to
sleep
analogies
and metaphors.
that Borges,
"as a child
in a room which
contained
... had
one
a terror of mirrors,
...One
is never

173
alone in a room if there is a mirror" (1973: 338). This feelingthat theman
is someone
in the mirror
13
else
reflects the insecurity
about
one's
self-identity
illustratedthrough theHerbert Ashe example.

I use theword "reflection"here noting that "speculum," the Latin word for
"mirror," was
also
phenomenon,
and
a medieval
term for
"encyclopedia"
Latin
one
another
was "orbis,"which explains part of the titleand links thebook, the reflection
14
narrator
the anonymous
the Library,
15
into an
the universe
intricate web
(Echavarria
168n).
This iswhat JohnBarth calls "literatureof exhaustion" in his essay of the

same name (Alazraki 1976: 170-82). By anticipatingthathe will be buried in
de Babel"
of "La biblioteca
it
makes
include the afterlifeas well, therebeing no other possible worid. The framing
of the infinitealso suggeststhe effectof two opposed mirrors,which has
alreadybeen developed by Barrenechea (36).
Yet this organizingprinciple, as we will see later,is itselfdoomed to failure:
"... the realityofTl?n, thoughpresentedby Borges as thatof 'un planeta
its own
with
ordenado'
'intimas
no
leyes,' is actually
less chaotic
than
that of
our own world. Its appearance of order is createdby the fact thatwe know it
only througha man-made encyclopediawhich, like the human mind,
imposes an artificialorder on the realwhich itpurports to catalogue" (Shaw
16
13).
This image of the cyclicalbook is repeated almost identicallyin "El jardin de
los senderos que se bifurcan" (Borges 1974: 477). This book has also inspired
a deconstructionistreading, itsmiddle page without a reversebeing the
of zero, of the void,
equivalent
17
18
that "is at once
no-thing
... Contains'
and
the
possibility of every-thing*(Merrell33).
In fact,the precursor of this storywas called "La biblioteca total" (Borges
1939).
uses
Borges
stories
are
the fictional
throughout;
devoid of women.
"los nombres"
significantly
worlds
two
of these
19
Yet, as discussed above, the similarityis not complete, and the inhuman
20
(24) for a more detailed analysisof thispoint.

The "Posdata de 1947" actually appearedwith the story in itspresent form
in 1940. Irbysees in it a mirroring of the revision of the FirstEncyclopaedia
ofTl?n (417). For a deeper analysisof Borgess concept of literatureas
21
is also precisely
of mirrors
element
what
makes
them
unnerving.
See De Man
reformulation
and
literature
of previous
rereading
see Alazraki
(1977:
16,
23-24).
22
This reinforcesthe idea that the same thingcannot be said twice. Both
an earlier edition, which

as
are falsely
destroys,
reprints of
presented
of an original.
the possibility
of existence
would
later propose,
stories
as Derrida
23
Arturo Echavarria has studied theways inwhich the language of "Tl?n,

Orbis
Uqbar,
Tertius"
follows
this same
language" (169). See also Irby (417).
24
This
is an example
of what
D?llenbach
pattern,
calls
in what
resemblance,
he calls
or
"a ciphered
simple
duplication, inwhich mise en abyme is a reflectionof a similarwork. In

Borges's
stories,
this function
complements
the other
types of mise

en
abyme
174
discussed
above, which
However,
according
represent
itself- infiniteduplication (110).
25
26
the same work
to Lindstrom,
"The
- or
the work
- mimetism
of the story's readers
perspective
is
unlike thatof the librarians,in that the formerhave no vested interestin the
makes sense" (33).
proposition that the library
Friedman explains this lack of identityin repetitionthroughthe functioning
de ella
informe
entre una cosa

falta de correspondencia
un
en
en
contexto
texto
recalca
el equivoco
el
que
surge
"La desconcertante
of memory:
y el
de
lamemoria" (222).What is rememberedis not the thing itself,but the image

thatwas kept in ourmemory: "El peri?dico deterioroy reparoque los
nos
puede
experimentan,
grados de derivation,
aten?an
la imagen
alternativamente
las memorias
que
'hr?nir,' en sus diferentes

la suerte
recordar
de
de algo experimentado en el pasado y rectificanlas distorsionesque las

han
memorias
primeras
introducido"
Menard,
Menard's
more
Quixote
aesthetically
complex
to its limits, the poet can achieve
indicate
del Quijote"
the opposite
on
comments
De Man's
(224).
autor
result:
"For
"Pierre
each mirrored
image is stylisticallysuperior to thepreceding one, as the dyed cloth ismore

beautiful than the plain, the distortedtranslationricher than the original,
this process
than Cervantes'.
By carrying
- an
ordered
success
ultimate
picture of realitythatcontains the totalityof all things,subtlytransformed

by the imaginative
and enriched
that engendered
process
them"
27
28
See Gertel (319) for a furtherdevelopmentof thispoint.

See also Ricoeur (169, 176).
29
Echavarria
corroborates
referent but
imagination
imprenta
(25).
this point when he talks about language

nuestra
ideas de los libros, nutrimos
that has
no
itself: "Sacamos
y nuestra memoria
un
y que constituyen
de esos
aspecto
son letra de
signos que
Pero
el
sin m?s
lenguaje.
lenguaje,
extranos
del
referenteque ?lmismo, no nos puede permitirdistinguirentre lo falso y lo
30
31
32
servimos
verdadero.
Nos
podemos
traicionar
servir del
del
lenguaje
tambi?n,
lenguaje,
(186-87).
y traicionarnos"
"... reflection,
in order
to 'take off,' has
para
para
nos
comunicar
sabiduria;
enganar
y enganarnos,
to work
in alliance
with
para
a
reality
similar to thatwhich it is reflecting:a work of art" (D?llenbach 71).

Echavarria has analyzed "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" in detail as this type of
structurein the fashionof Russian dolls or Chinese boxes (163).
Traditionally,thishas led to a criticalview of Borges as a universalistwriter.
In recent years,
Latin American.
a debate about
sparked
Retamar
labels him
Fern?ndez
this has
Borges's
"a typical
own
status
colonial
as a
writer
...
forwhom the act ofwriting ... ismore like the act of reading" (47). In the
same
quotes Ernesto S?bato describing

Borges as an Argentine
is
is a typical national
Even his Europeanism
by-product.
A European
is not a Europeanist
but simply a European"
(1988:
vein, Alazraki
writer:
national.
"He
149).

175
WORKS CITED
AGHEANA,ION. The Prose of JorgeLuis Borges.Existentialismand theDynamics of
New
Surprise.
Peter
York:
El escritor y la cr?tica. Madrid:

-.
Versiones.
Inversiones.
en los cuentos
-.
1984.
Lang,
y Asteri?n:
JAIME. "Tl?n
ALAZRAKI,
Jorge Luis
Met?foras
Epistemol?gicas."
1976. 183-203.
Taurus,
Reversiones.
de Borges. Madrid:
El
Gredos,
espejo
1977.
como modelo
Borges.
estructural
del relato
Borges and theKabbalah. And Other Essays on his Fiction and Poetry.Cam
bridge: Cambridge UP, 1988.
ANA MARIA.
BARRENECHEA,
Aires:
Buenos
La
en la obra de
Borges.
la irrealidad
de
expresi?n
1967.
Paidos,
GENEH. Borges and His Fiction.A Guide toHis Mind and Art.
BELL-VILLADA,
U ofNorth Carolina P, 1981.
Hill:
Chapel
JORGE LUIS.
BORGES,
-.
Obras
total." Swr, 9 (1939):
"La biblioteca
Buenos
1923-1972.
compl?tas,
Aires:
13-16.
Emec?,
1974.
D?LLENBACH,LUCIEN.TheMirror in theText.Trans. Jeremy

Whiteley and Emma
1989.
U
of
P,
Chicago
Hughes. Chicago:
DE MAN,
PAUL. "A Modern

House
York: Chelsea
Jorge Luis Borges.

1986. 21-27.
Master."
Publishers,
Ed. Harold
New
Bloom.
ECO, UMBERTO.Semioticsand thePhilosophyofLanguage. Bloomington: Indiana

UP, 1984.
ECHAVARR?A, ARTURO.
in Our
America."
"Caliban.
de Borges.
Notes
Barcelona:
Towards
1983.
Ariel,
a Discussion
of Culture
David Arthur McMurray,

Lynn Garafola,
6-72.
Review
The Massachusetts
(1974):
M?rquez.
Madrid:
Trans.
L. Una
MARY
FRIEDMAN,
FUENTES,
y Hteratura
Lengua
RETAMAR, ROBERTO.
FERNANDEZ
Fundamentos,
CARLOS.
de
mundo
nuevo.
Valiente
Madrid:
hispanoamericana.
los cuentos
morfologia
1990.
Mondadori,
de Borges. Trans.
Utopia y mito
?pica,
1990.
Robert
Raquel
Moya.
en la novela
GASCH?,RODOLPHE.The Tain of theMirror. Derrida and thePhilosophyofReflec

tion. Cambridge,
GERTEL, ZUNILDA.
Hteratura
Mass.:
Harvard
"La met?fora
en
UP,
1986.
de Borges." Historia
Goic
Barcelona:
la est?tica
III. Ed. Cedomil
hispanoamericana,
y critica de la
1988.
Critica,
318-23.
GOlC,
CEDOMIL.
Critica,
GOODMAN,
NELSON.
Ways
HAYLES, N. KATHERINE.
and
y critica de
Historia
la Hteratura
hispanoamericana,
III. Barcelona:
1988.
Science.
of Worldmaking.
Chaos
Ithaca
and
IRBY, JAMES E. "Borges
and
Bound.
London:
Indianapolis:
Orderly Disorder
Cornell
UP, 1990.
the Idea of Utopia."
Hackett,
1978.
in Contemporary
Books Abroad
45,
Literature
3 (1971):
KASON,NANCY."The Mirror of Utopia." Paper delivered at the 1990MLA

Convention
in Chicago.

411-20.
176
LINDSTROM,NAOMI.JorgeLuis Borges.A Study of theShortFiction.Boston: Twayne,
1990.
MERRELL,
FLOYD. Deconstruction
MIGNOLO,
WALTER.
hispanoamericana,
SYLVIA. Las
MOLLOY,
-.
letras de Borges.
"Jorge Luis Borges,

801-08.
REST,
IAIME. El
Aires:
RICOEUR,
Buenos
Purdue
Lafayette:
Faustao,
PAUL. Hermeneutics
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Confabulador."
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laberinto
Librerias
Refrained. West
UP,
1985.
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"Jorge Luis Borges." Historia
1988. 285-340.
III. Ed. Cedomil
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Goic.
Critica,
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Iberoamericana,
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"Borges
227-34.
and Derrida."
"Symbols
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Jorge Luis Borges.
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1972.

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Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispnicos

Wor(l)ds Through the Looking-Glass: Borges's Mirrors and Contemporary Theory

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Through the Looking-Glass:

la figura del espejo en dos cuentos de Borges, "Tl?n,

should reflect a little

before throwing back

REVISTA CANADIENSE DE ESTUDIOS HISPANICOS

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This content downloaded from 129.2.19.102 on Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:55:53 AM

origin," reflects "what simultaneously originates, motivates, institutes and

tain of the mirror

commands themirrors play and determines the angles of reflection.(Gasch? 238)

longer sure what ismeant. A similar confusion of wor(l)ds

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es al comienzo de la narraci?n un planeta ficticio;hacia el finalentendemosque

ficticia que H?n.

rather than representa

of how the work "thinks of its

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(Borges 1974:T, 431)6

such as the proliferation of incredible philosophies,

lucido y tan justo es el orden que se ha observado en ?l. (T, 435)

The story, therefore,wants to be read as a "cosmos," not merely as a work

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The critics of Borges s work have explained themirror phenomenon in

distorted reflections of reality.For example, JaimeAlazraki has written that

of absurdity and grotesque deformation of Spanish life, is not produced by

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the one who

(Je est un autreX).

On the contrary,thosewho avoid behaving as Alice, and getting into themirror, do

hay que mostrar

un individuo que se introduceen el cristaly que persiste en su ilusorio pais (donde

vislumbrespermiten. (Barrenechea 175;Molloy 1979: 147)

The example of the nine copper coins prefigures Derrida's insistence on

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incapable of deciphering his own writing, stresses the notion thatmirrors

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This unreality of themirror reflection, as we will discuss later, corresponds

Fear and the limitations of human perception cause us to imagine the

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Like the encyclopedia, the Library is also a double of themirror, for it

(B, 471 )'6

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a single word integrate an entire

almost human, personified through verbs like "inquietaba," "acechaba;" in

1940, sin otra escisi?n

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... (B, 467-68)

understanding the narrator.23The paradox of these two stories is that each

Tl?n, those "secondary" objects thatmultiply according to the expectations

m?s arriba es incomprensible" (B, 467). Ultimately, it is possible to under

"La biblioteca de Babel" in mind. Of the three types of labyrinths he

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hypothesis. (Eco 81-82)

have no chance of finding, finding books theyhave no chance of understand

infatigablesescaleras para el viajero y de letrinaspara el bibliotecario sentado, s?lo

symmetry is what we believe to be the rule of the mirror, the

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destinado a que lo descifrenlos hombres. (T, 443)

antisemitismo, el nazismo" (T, 442).

according to human laws. However, as in Borges's case, "la Obra Mayor de

los hr?nir, d?riva dos de otros hr?n, los hr?nir