This story is about an empire where the art of cartography has become so exact that maps are made on the same scale as the territory they represent. The story explores the relationship between reality and representation, and the limits of human knowledge.
In the very brief span of 154 words Borges shows how the pursuit of perfection can lead to absurdity. The empire in the story as set for itself the goal of creating a perfect map of its territory, but in doing so, it creates a map that is no longer useful. The outcome is comical.
On Exactitude in Science
Jorge Luis Borges, Collected Fictions, translated by Andrew Hurley.
In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the map of a
single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the Empire, the entirety
of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer satisfied, and the
Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and
which coincided point for point with it. 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, and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the
Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today, there are
Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land there is
no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.
—Suarez Miranda,Viajes devarones prudentes, Libro IV,Cap. XLV, Lerida, 1658
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For what it's worth, I have written a number of blog posts about Borges and his works. You will find links to many of these here.
Do you have a favorite Borges story? Share it in the comments.
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