The Library of Babel: Difference between revisions

 

 

* ''[[Fables]]'' contains a massive library so large that the foyer is large enough to be a seat of government and contain objects of mythical size (Excalibur has literally become as big as the legend of Arthur). Oddly even though it belongs to all sorts of magical creatures it's never implied to be magical in any way except for its extreme size.

* The Library of Dream in ''[[The Sandman]]'' is full of those books that were conceived by their authors but never written or completed. This not only includes things like [[G. K. Chesterton]]'s ''The Man Who Was October'', or [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]]'s ''[[Canon Welding|Psmith and Jeeves]]'', but an awful lot of books like ''That romantic comedy sci-fi thriller I used to think about on the bus to work''.

** Appears again in Superman's trip to Limbo in ''[[Final Crisis]]''. Except this time, Ultraman somehow manages to lift it and learn about {{spoiler|Mandrakk}}.

* The library of the Crystal Ballroom in ''Nexus'' contains all the historical memory of (at least the known) universe.

 

== Film ==

* In Clifford Simak's "The Goblin Reservation", a crystal planet containing all the knowledge of the previous universe (the one before the last Big Bang) is offered as payment for the book's [[McGuffin]].

 

* The Library, so big it doesn't even need a name, just a The, from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' in "Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead."

** The Library is the entire planet. In fact, the moon is a virus checker. The Library {{spoiler|stored all the souls from all the people in The Library in The Library's computer core when Vashta Nerada began to kill everyone. It even gave them ''simulated lives''. }}

*** On a related note, the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] [[Big Finish]] audio "The One Doctor" features Mentos, a being created for a game show that remarkably resembles The Weakest Link. It can answer any question by going back in time and finding the answer, essentially acting as a [[Library of Babel]]. [[Logic Bomb|It was only defeated by asking one question: What can't it answer?]]

* The school library in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' is an approximation of this, with all those arcane references back in the rear stacks.

** ''[[Angel]]'' has the templates, seemingly empty books that can retrieve any and all of the works in the extensive library of [[Occult Law Firm|Wolfram & Hart]].

* ''[[Warehouse 13]]'': Myka discovers that the eponymous [[Secret Government Warehouse|Warehouse]] also holds a massive library containing first editions of everything ever printed.

{{quote|'''Pete:''' Does that include comic books?}}

 

== Tabletop Games ==

** Bonus points for Patchouli, since she's not just the librarian, but also the author of an unspecified proportion of the books in her library, and probably the overwhelming majority of the magic books in the library, given the esoteric rules for wizardry in the ''Touhou'' 'verse.

** It is also worth noting, just to get a sense of its dimensions, that in the stage you fight in the Voile Library, it is possible for you have a roughly five-minute-long aerial battle over the bookshelves traveling in one direction without ever reaching the end.

** Canonically, it's size is unspecified but large, it mostly has grimoires, many written by Patchouli, and there's a handful of random books from the outside world. Considering that grimoires are illegible to anyone that can't use them, the library is completely useless to the vast majority of characters.

* The Dark People from ''[[The Longest Journey]]'' seek to obtain every book ever written, which they store in their library, located on a moving island whose location is a secret for but a few.

 

== Real Life ==

** Sites like Amazon and Google Books allow users to look inside select pages of millions upon millions of books, which could be thought of as a sort of immense library.

* Pretty much all of the developed nations have national libraries: tremendous collections of books, articles, magazines, and other printed/recorded material. The libraries of large research universities also contain vast collections, often including priceless historical artifacts.

** Since the Library of Congress is used to store publications for the U.S. Copyright office, virtually every work copyrighted in the U.S. is sent there, with just under half being added to the permanent collection. That amounts to an additional 10,000 items ''per day.''

** It was said that when the Mongols sacked Baghdad, the Tigris River ran black with ink from the scrolls they dumped in it.

* Einstein spoke of a "vast library, stacked from floor to ceiling with books in many different languages, arranged in an order we do not understand, but can dimly suspect". He called it the world.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Settings]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Bookish Tropes]]