Borges vs. Linnaeus, and it's Borges by a KO
July 26, 2002
my new favorite classification scheme, from Borges' "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins," in which he of the itty-bitty handwriting describes the Celestial Emporium of Benevelont Knowledge, a fictional compendium in which the creatures of the earth are sub-divided into:
- those that belong to the Emperor,
- embalmed ones,
- those that are trained,
- suckling pigs,
- mermaids,
- fabulous ones,
- stray dogs,
- those included in the present classification,
- those that tremble as if they were mad,
- innumerable ones,
- those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush,
- others,
- those that have just broken a flower vase,
- those that from a long way off look like flies.
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