This week’s Short Story Showcase is dedicated to all of my librarian friends, and anyone else who hears the phrase “an infinite number of books” and whose first thought is “Bring it on.”
The Libary of Babel is a fun concept, but more complex and disturbing the more you think about it. An infinite space with every possible book, full of the entirety of the truth…and every possible falsehood. Somewhere in there is the version of the Bible with the true name of the Creator, and millions more packed with every false god who ever was or will be. Only a strong will could survive in an environment like that.
A strong will, that is, or a perfectly ordinary librarian. In Librarians in the Branch Library of Babel (published by Strange Horizons), Shaenon K. Garrity tackles the question of what a branch library of Borges’ Library of Babel might look like, and, more importantly, who would run it. It’s a wonderful idea, and Garrity’s execution is just as marvelous.
For me, this story is a perfect example of one that proceeds seamlessly from a central question: “What if the Library of Babel had branch locations?” If done well, this sort of fiction can take a reader down a path that looks obvious in retrospect, but until that time had just been another bunch of mental undergrowth. (A good example of this at the novel level is David Weber’s Empire from Ashes, which proceeds from the question “What if that really is no moon, but a space station?”) Garrity executes this beautifully, and I think you’ll enjoy this story as much as I did.