Toronto+Vancouver City of Labyrinths Project

“I think—the hero observes that nothing is so frightening as a Labyrinth with no centre.”

― Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Non-Fictions

“It is said by men worthy of belief (though Allah’s knowledge is greater) that in the first days there was a king of the isles of Babylonia who called together his architects and his priests and bade them build him a labyrinth so confused and so subtle that the most prudent men would not venture to enter it, and those who did would lose their way.

“Most unseemly was the edifice that resulted, for it is the prerogative of God, not man, to strike confusion and inspire wonder.

“In time there came to the court a king of Arabs, and the king of Babylonia (to mock the simplicity of his guest) bade him enter the labyrinth, where the king of Arabs wandered, humiliated and confused, until the coming of the evening, when he implored God’s aid and found the door.

“His lips offered no complaint, though he said to the king of Babylonia that in his land he had another labyrinth, and Allah willing, he would see that someday the king of Babylonia made its acquaintance.

“Then he returned to Arabia with his captains and his wardens and he wreaked such havoc upon kingdoms of Babylonia, and with such great blessing by fortune, that he brought low his castles, crushed his people, and took the king of Babylonia himself captive.

“He tied him atop a swift-footed camel and led him into the desert. Three days they rode, and then he said to him,

“O king of time and substance and cipher of the century! In Babylonia didst thou attempt to make me lose my way in a labyrinth of brass with many stairways, doors, and walls; now the Powerful One has seen fit to allow me to show thee mine, which has no stairways to climb, nor walls to impede thy passage.”

“Then he untied the bonds of the king of Babylonia and abandoned him in the middle of the desert, where he died of hunger and thirst.

“Glory to Him who does not die.”

“The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths” – Found in Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley, Penguin Books, 1998, p. 263-264.

T.V. Rots Your Brain – Elevator passing floors 3 5 7

I was in an elevator this past winter in one of the office towers which inhabit the concrete canyons of Toronto’s financial district.

The panelling of the windows on each of the four sides (once the doors were closed) of the elevator were slightly off, causing a visual ripple and infinity effect.

I took three photographs and used autostitch freeware to create the mirror image you see.

Of note, is that each of the three prominent reflections of the floor number, they are different, showing ‘3’, ‘5’, ‘7’, hence the title of the photograph.

“My other nightmare is that of the mirror.

“The two are not distinct, as it only takes two facing mirrors to construct a labyrinth.

“I remember seeing, in the house of Dora de Alvear in the Belgrano district, a circular room whose walls and doors were mirrored, so that whoever entered the room found himself at the center of a truly infinite labyrinth.”

— Jorge Luis Borges, “Nightmares,” Seven Nights, 1984, pg. 29.