Lottery in Babylon
by Jorge Luis Borges, Norman Thomas Di Giovanni · first published 2000
82% recommend18% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short, tightly compressed stories with dense ideas that reward slow reading. It serves as a strong entry point into Borges, especially for those who enjoy speculative and combinatorial fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…being a towering critic of literature, he wrote short stories. He treated these as a poetry problem -- compressing the most story into the least number of words. They are spare, lean, but powerful. The Lottery in Babylon and The Library of Babel, in particular, are combinatorial horror stories. They take simple concepts and slowly unfold them. The sense of escalating dread at the possibilities of infinity and the uncertainties…
on “A Lecture on Johnson and Boswell by Jorge Luis Borges” ↗…fairly certain is false. It'd be interesting to explore whether the space of rules that keep everyone on an even keel include any rule sets that we'd actually want to live under, though. Ever read "The Lottery in Babylon" by Borges?
on “Taping of Farm Cruelty Is Becoming the Crime” ↗Inspiration from Borges maybe? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery_in_Babylon (it's in the highly entertaining Ficciones collection)
on “Eager to Burst His Own Bubble, a Techie Made Apps to Randomize His Life” ↗Enjoyed reading the Library of Babel, referred in this article. Other Borges masterpieces - The Lottery in Babylon, Blue Tigers, The House of Asterion.
on “Borges’s Mirror” ↗Obligatory Borges mention for magical realism. Read his Garden of Forking Paths and Lottery in Babylon. Short stories which leave you with much to think about
on “Magical Realism: "Northern Exposure" 25 Years Later (2015)” ↗…collection of books of stories, and I would recommend prioritizing reading the Fictions and The Aleph collections first. Some of his popular stories to start with would be "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", "The Lottery in Babylon", "The Library of Babel", and "The Immortal". If you want slightly more sentimental, "The Circular Ruins" is wonderful. If you want dryer, more satirical and postmodern, "Pierre Menard, Author of the…
on “Short Little Difficult Books” ↗…afterwards. This. My HS Physics teacher introduced my to Labyrinths. Still the best book recommendation I've ever received. Giving time for each story to absorb is essential. I'd also like to add "The Lottery in Babylon" is an excellent story.
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?” ↗Yes, definitely worth it. There are some great stories in that collection: - The Garden of Forking Paths - Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote - The Lottery in Babylon - The Library of Babel - Funes the Memorious - The Secret Miracle - Three Versions of Judas - Death and the Compass You will not regret it. :)
on “Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save” ↗The Lottery in Babylon sounds worth a read, thanks!
on “McDonald's is considering rent deferrals for franchisees” ↗That reminds me a short fictional story by Jorge Luis Borges (if you excuse the quasi non-sequitur): The Lottery in Babylon. It describes how the lottery became so popular in Babylon that they began not just to play for money, but all kind of prizes, and then not only prizes but punishments. Finally, they decided that people…
on “The most successful people are just the luckiest, a new computer model confirms” ↗Yeah, I love Borges but this was kind of a stretch. There are better Borges stories that would fit the chaos theme better too. “The Lottery in Babylon” might work as it explores how much chance influences our lives.
on “Borges on Chaos Theory” ↗…can't resist the temptation to purchase the occasional lottery ticket. What most people miss about the lottery is that there can be utility to variance - the opposite of ennui. Have you guys read The Lottery in Babylon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery_in_Babylon
on “Launch HN: Yotta Savings (YC S20) – Behavioral psychology to help people save” ↗