On Exactitude in Science

by Jorge Luis Borges, Andrew Hurley (Translator)

"On Exactitude in Science" or "On Rigor in Science" (the original Spanish-language title is "Del rigor en la ciencia") is a one-paragraph short story by Jorge Luis Borges, about the map-territory relation, written in the form of a literary forgery.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Philosophy, Classics, Magical Realism

1 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."

Reviews

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.theguardian.com/books/audi...

[shi ❦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my philosophy course.

[Filip Lubinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite short story, also written by Borges, is four pages long.
This single paragraph is even more interesting from the perspective of my research (complexity economics modeling in the context of competition law).

[Rasagy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A *really* short story, that prompts you to question the quest for more details & higher definition in [digital] maps. This story beautifully illustrates the Map–territory Relation and highlights the value of abstraction & simplification in representing reality.

Must read for every cartography enthusiast!

[Niena Aniesza]

A short writing about the Art of Cartography.

[Sofi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the idea behind this short story. It reminds me that too much attention to detail won't bring me far.

[Sven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Next time I write something about cartography, I’m quoting this (just like all cultural cartographers before me).

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit idee is zo mooi

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been thinking about map and territory today and remembered this brief wonder from Borges. If you haven't read it, take the very short time it will take you do do so. However, I would advise you not to go down the rabbit hole of the map-to-territory debates after you've finished reading. It can be lots of fun, but it is also a bit compulsive.

I'd better stop here or my review will be longer than the text it's written about. :)

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very short story, but a wonderful one. I realized when I read this for the first time that Jorge Luis Borges had humor. I've heard that some stand up comic, turned this into a two sentence joke, but the story is better. It is one of those stories that is on my re readable list.

[George Peros · Rating 4 out of 5]

The untimeliness of importance. A map as big as a country—a magnificent piece from the past, useless in the present, left to rot, to be forgotten by time, to disappear. Perfectionism murders functionality, and exactitude—in science and in life—proves useless.

[READ IN ENGLISH: TRANSLATION BY ANDREW HURLEY]

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in my “Maps and Mapmakers” class. The idea in this story of a map as big as a country will always be stuck in my head. There is a lot of horror in this story. A paper map as big as a country would block out the sun. It may collapse and crush everyone to death. And it will inevitably become outdated. I love the questions this story brings up about maps and mapmaking.

[Swati · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was short but the meaning it portrayed was very beautiful.
It talks about a map that shows everything but shows us nothing at all. Too much perfection is fake, details repeat themselves, information is piled up upon itself and this keeps going on until the mind grows tired and the purpose fades.
In trying to capture everything we grasp nothing.

[Aleksandra]

from metafiction, through jean baudrillard and hyperreality, all the way to the matrix (which got it wrong, since in a mediated reality there is no exit from the platonic cave) - just in one paragraph!

[Alien Bookreader · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting work of flash fiction. A history of a fallen empire in a single paragraph. The premise is nice but somehow it is too fast and quick to leave an impression.

Can be read here:
https://kwarc.info/teaching/TDM/Borge...

[Koit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just thought of adding this old pearl into the 'Read' list to make it more complete. Overall, a wonderful short story with an incredible amount of thought behind it.

[Wicked Witch of the Words · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really? Rating/review for a one page story? :D

[Andy Hickman · Rating 2 out of 5]

“On Exactitude in Science” by Jorge Luis Borges.

Odd and yet deep, and yet odd.
- -

[Rene · Rating 3 out of 5]

thats another geography lore i can cross off my list

[Shweta Nambiar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A one-paragraph marvel!

[vic bourgeois · Rating 3 out of 5]

één alinea, maar wel een inspirerende !

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Food for thought in a time where it feels everything requires maximal contextualization.

[poema · Rating 3 out of 5]

lovely

[Per · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://web.archive.org/web/201302122...

[Isaac Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

is this a book too? what if instead a summary of the story, I just tell you the story

[Karrah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - would enjoy if slightly longer

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice and short.

[t’Jacques Guillot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the format of this short story! Even just a paragraph can tell an interesting story. Though at this length, it’s hard to tell if the story is a seed for something bigger or just a joke with a punchline. I would have loved to see this idea expanded, or to get more excerpts from Miranda’s Viajes.

I heard of this story while looking into the philosophical concept of hyperreality. Also my friend Zak loves Borges.

[Davidius · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast Map was Useless...delivered it up to the Inclemencies of Sun and Winters."