On “On Exactitude in Science” and the follow-up Borges never saw
Or did he see it but learned something too terrifying to share?
Jorge Luis Borges was a renowned Argentine author and poet, known for his imaginative and thought-provoking works of fiction. To me, one of his most fascinating stories is “On Exactitude in Science” -or “On Rigor in Science” as literally translated from Spanish.
Here’s a story about this story, which Borges fictionally quoted from Suárez Miranda’s book titled Viajes de varones prudentes, and of a follow-up chapter that I “found in the same book” proclaiming an alternative, darker ending to that of the story read by Borges…
On Exactitude in Science
The short story that Borges found in Suarez Miranda’s book begins with a description of a vast empire in which the art of cartography had reached such a level of sophistication, that the Map of the Empire was exactly the same size as the empire itself. The Map of the Empire covered every inch of the land, being very detailed -actually more detailed, hence bigger, in each new edition.
As the story went on, the story explored the idea that this map, though seemingly perfect, was actually a hindrance to the people living in the empire. It was so large and detailed that it…
