How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #10
This pointless, verbose epistle already exists in one of the thirty volumes of the five bookshelves in one of the countless hexagons – as does its refutation.
Now that the narrator mentions it, it makes sense – even this story that we're reading right now must already exist in the Library. We love it when Borges draws the reader's attention to the act of reading itself. It's so meta.
Quote #11
(A number n of the possible languages employ the same vocabulary; in some of them, the symbol "library" possesses the correct definition "everlasting, ubiquitous system of hexagonal galleries," while a library – the thing – is a loaf of bread or a pyramid or something else, and the six words that define it themselves have other definitions. You who read me – are you certain you understand my language?) (13)
Uh-oh, now everything is really starting to unravel. If every written word in the Library has a secret meaning, who's to say the word "library" means what we think it does? We could even look up the definition of the word "library" and find a definition that makes sense to us. But maybe that definition also means something other than what we understand it to mean. Maybe this whole system of words is really a deception. Can we be sure we understand the author's intentions when we read anything? This makes our brain hurt. In a good way.