Finished reading this today. Anyone else read it? This book fucked me up so bad. The sheer immensity and magnitude of the library filled me with an agonizing despair. Being tasked to do that and how inescapable the chore is gave me a horrific sense of dread. I'd love to read similar books, if you have any suggestions. I've heard there's an anthology and that the divine farce is also good.On the flipside, being cold and analytic about the book, I do have a lot of complaints. The concept felt a little underbaked. The rules do state that there is a lesson to be learned here and they do seem to imply that there's more than meets the eye, but that's never addressed. The theology is never really talked about much either, like what Zoroastrianism is really all about or why God would doom people to this state or how God could be considered good despite all this. I was hoping for some dialogues with a philosopher or perhaps someone who agrees with this hell's existence or maybe some existentialist. Something. I think the way it concludes is frustrating, too. I was really hoping for something more interesting to happen and I was curious to know what heaven is like. I'd have loved to see some dialogue centillions of years in the future between the protagonist and God.
No offense, but you sound so very frail. Repulsively frail.
>>25253755I think it's good to be sensitive. I want OP's receptiveness. I hate being an SSRI zombie..
>>25253758I take meth instead of SSRIs
Never try to read Proust, you'll have a mental breakdown.
>>25253755Fair enough. I probably am quite frail-minded, but I think the concept of the book is utterly horrifying. I don't think there's a single person who has ever or will ever be born who wouldn't break down in utter mental agony if placed there.
>>25253761I've never read Proust and I'm only familiar with what everyone is familiar with. Why would it fuck me up?
>>25253773Completing "In Search of Lost Time" is a prodigious undertaking, that's all. I was simply teasing you for being intimidated by the prospect of alot of reading.
>>25253790oh hehe, I get you. I mean, I honestly don't read that much (although I am trying to change that). I'm just trying to read little and often, like an easily digested novella such as this one every few days and then moving to more complex novels and eventually the classics. I just tend to not read for extended periods because my brain was putrefied by short-form content in my youth, but I understand the damage this did to me and I am trying to rectify it.
I loved the book as well it's a novella, and barely one at that, it's more like a larger short story, yet it feels like a huge novel after finishing it. It leaves such an outsized impact on you that it tricks your brain thinking it's a larger story than it is.It's a genuine 10/10 story and it really captivated me from start to finish. It's kind of bizarre it doesn't have a cult following on /lit/ yet since it feels like it would fit in with the zeitgeist here.Also this is completely unrelated but it had a similar "reading experience" despite being a completely different genre, topic and type of novel so I leave it here: "Sphere" by Michael Crichton
One of the worst books I've read in my life.Just stay with The Library of Babel instead.
>>25253850why did you dislike it? I don't think that its satisfying because it doesn't really go anywhere in the end, but the moment to moment events are interesting up until it does finish (although they're ultimately a tease).
>>25253818There's a short anthology that was approved by the author (he even wrote one additional story for it) called Windows into hell.
>>25253858Just extremely boring. All the time it feels like the author is just saying "hey have you ever thought about how big this library would be!" but he fails to do anything interesting at all with the concept.And ending is particularly offensive because if it feels like the author is assuming you're a retard who can't do basic math.
>>25253717How many times are you going to post this thread?
>>25253717Have you read the Borges story?
>>25253871I get that, I actually agree. I don't think that the book resolves anything in a satisfying way, which is my biggest criticism. I do think it has a solid premise and manages to remain entertaining for about 3/4 of the way, but it's a cock-tease. I still feel overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the library, though. I might be calculating this wrong, but even if every single electron in our universe contained within itself a universe identical to ours, all the electrons in the original universe and in the universes within those electrons wouldn't even come remotely close to the number of books in the library. Almost makes you vomit.>>25253929 I've never posted this thread before>>25253942I actually haven't, although I think he's alright. I might read it after reading this. I know the gist.
