The Library of Babel by Borges but with the words arranged alphabetically

a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a A a a a a a a a a A a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a A a a a a a a ab abandoned abominable about about absolute absolute absurd abysmally accepted accidental acts adjective administration admit adventures aeterno affirm after age ago ago ago! air air air all all all all all All all all all all all All all all all all all all alleged allegorical allows all-powerful almost almost almost almost along alphabet alphabet already already already Also also also also also also although Álvarez always always always am am an an an an an an an An an an an an an analogous analogous analysis Anatomy ancient ancient and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and annihilated another Another another another another another another another any any any any any any anything anything apology apparent appearances application Arabian arcana archangels' are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are are area areas argue arrive art articulate as as as As as as as A's ascetic at at At At at at author authorities authors' autobiographies Axaxaxas axioms B B banditry barbarous basic Basilides be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be be bear been been been been Before before Before being believe believed believed best between between black black blasphemous bodies body book book book book book book book book book Book book book book book book book book book bookcase books books books books books books books books books books books books books books books books books books books books born bread broken but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but By by by by by by by by by by by by by by by by C cacophonies call came can can can can can can can can cannot cannot cannot canonical capital capital cast catalogue catalogue catalogues catalogues catalogues catalogues caused Cavalieri cease ceiling center centuries centuries century century century certitude certitude chamber chance chance chance changing chaotic chaotic characters chief childhood circle circuit circular circular circumference claim clarification classic classical closets coherence color Combed combinations combinative combine come comma comma comma commentary commentary commentary compare compendium complete composed computed conceivably condemned confirmed conflicts confuse confusing conjecture conjecture consequences considered constantly constructed consult consult consulted contain contain contained containing containing contains contemplate content continuous convenient copy corollary correct correspond corresponded corresponds corridors corridors corridors could could could Counter cover cover Cramp credentials Crimson cross crude cryptographical cryptographs cult cup curses custom cyclical cyclical danger dark de dead deal death death decay deceive deceptive decimated decipher decipher deciphered deciphered decoder deduced define definition degenerate delicate delirious delirium demiurgi demonstrate demonstration demonstration denounce deplore depredations depression desperate destroyed destroyed detailed dhcmrlchtdj dialect dialectical dialectical dice dictum dictum did did did die differ different digits dimensions direction disappeared discover discover discovery discuss diseases disks disorder disorder disorder displeasure disputed dissolve distance distance distances distracts distribution districts diverse divine divine divine divine divinity'' do do do does does does doubt doubt doubt down dream dreams duplicates duplication each each each each each each each each each each early ecstasy Editor's eighty elegant elegant elements eliminate eloquent else emit end endlessly endowment endure enigmatical enormous enormous enough entirely entitled Epidemics epistle equate equipped established eternal eternity even even every every every every every every everything everything Everything ex exact exaggerated examined example example examples examples exceeds except exception excessive excluded execrated exemplify exhausted exhausted exist exist exist exist exist exists exists expects explained extinguished extravagant extremely extremely eyes facsimiles fact fact facts faithful faithfully fall fall fallacious fallacy fallacy fallible false false fanatics farther fashion father fathomless fear fearfulness fecal feebly felt feverish few few few fifteen figures filled find finding finding finding finding finding finding first first first first first first first first First five five Five five floor floors floors flung followed following follows for for for for for For for for for For for for For for for for for for for For forbidden foreseen forget format format format formless formula formulate formulated forty found four four four free frenzy frequent From from from from from from from From from from fruit function functionary's fundamental fundamental furor future future future future galleries galleries galleries galleries gallery general general generally generated genius gift gladdened glance Gnostic God god god god gods gone gospel gospel gospel grammars grave grave great great greedy Guarani habit had had hallway hallway hallway hand handling hands happiness happiness hardly has has has has has has have have have have have have have have have have have have have have have have have have have have have have He He he he he heaven height held hell here heretical hexagon hexagon hexagon hexagon hexagon hexagon hexagon hexagon Hexagon hexagonal hexagonal hexagonal hexagons hexagons hexagons hexagons hexagons hexagons hexagons hexagons hexagons hexagon's hide him Him Him his his his history history homogeneous honor hope hope hope hoped horror housed how how How how human human human humanity's humble hundred hundred hundred hundred hundred hygienic hypothesi I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I idealists identical identical if if If If if ignorance illogical illuminated illusory illustrated illustrated imaginary imagine imitated immediate impenetrable imperfect imperfect impious impossible impression improbable In in In in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in In in in in in in in in in in in in in in in in In in in In in in in in In in in in in in in in in in in in in In inaccessible inaccessible inalterable incessant includes incoherence incoherences incoherent incomprehensible inconceivable inconceivable incontrovertible incorruptible indefinite indicate indicates inevitably inexhaustible infamous infer infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinitely infinitesimal infinity inflections influence inhabitants inimitably innumerable inordinate inquisitors inside insinuated instant insufficient intact intention interminably interpolated interpolations into into into into into into intolerable intuition invaded invariable inventors inversely irreplaceable is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is issue it it it it it it It it it it it it it it It it it it It it it it It it it it it it it it its its its its its its its its its journeys judge juggle jumbles just just just justification justified justified justified killed kiss know know know know know know known labyrinth lack ladder ladder lamps language language language language language language language languages languages languages languages last lasting latrines latrines law leads leaf leafed leagues leagues least leaves left Let let Let Let let Letizia letter letter letter letters letters letters letters letters letters letters letters letters letters letters librarian librarian librarian librarian librarian librarian librarians librarians Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library Library library library Library Library Library Light light Like like limit limit limited limited line line line line lines lines lines lines Lithuanian locate locate locate long long long looking low lower mad made made made made magical maintain maintain malevolent Man man Man man man manner manner man's manuscript Many many many masters matter matter may may may may may may MCV MCV MCV's me me me me me me me me meaning meaning meaning mecum Melancholy melancholy memory Men men men men men men men men men men mentioned mere met metal method methodical middle might might miles millions mimic mind minutely miraculous mirror mirror mlö more more most most motionless much much multiform must my my my my my my my my my my my my My mysteries mysteries mysterious mystics n name name name narrow narrow native natural natural nature nearest nearly necessary necessities negate negate negates neglect next-to-last nights nine ninety ninety-four no no no no no no no no No no no no nonsense nonsense normal normal not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not not notable note nothing notions notoriously now now now now number number number number number number number obliged obscure observe observed observed Obviously of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of of official Oh old old on on on on on on on on on on On on on Once one One one one one One one one one one one one one one one one one one one one One ones one's one's only only only Only onto opens opinion or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or or Order order orders ordinary organic origin origin original originators orthographical orthographical orthographical other other other other others Others others others Others Others others others others our out outraged over page page page page page page pages pages pages pages pages palm part passes past pentagonal per perceive perdition peregrinations perfect perfectly perfectly performance perhaps perhaps perhaps perhaps Perhaps period period periods permitted persist personal persons persons perversely phantoms philosophers phrases pick pilgrims pious place placed placed places planes Plaster point polished polished population Portuguese position position possibility possibility possible possible possible possible possible possible postulate powerful pray precious precious precious prefer prefigure premises preparing present prevail printed problem problem problem proclaimed prodigious produced produced product proferred projections promise prophecy proportion proposed prostrate prove provided pulmonary punctual punctuation pure Purifiers' pyramid pyramids quite railing railings reach read read reason reasonable reasonable reasoned recall reduction refer refutation region regions register regressive remember remote remote remote remote remote repeat repeat repeat repeated repeated repeated repetition represent repudiate required rest rest retained reveals reverse rhetorical right right rigorously room rooms rudimentary rushed said said said same same same same same Samoyedic satisfactorily satisfy saw say say say says scarcely scrawls search search searchers searchers searches seated Second secret secret secret secret sect sect see see see seem seemed seemed seen seen seen sense senseless senseless sensible series seven seventeenth several severe shafts shafts shall shelf shelf shelf shelf shelves shelves shelves shelves shelves shelves shelves should should showed showed side sides sides signify signs silky similar since single single single single sink sinks sleep small smaller so so soars solid solitary solitude solution solution solution solve some some Some some some some some some some some some some some some some Someone sometimes space space space space speak speak speak speak speaking species species sphere spherical spine spine spiral spite squandered stairs stairway stairway stairways stairways stairways stairways stairways standing state statement still story straightforward strangled structure structures such such such suddenly suffice suffices sufficient sufficient sufficient suggest suggested Suicide suicides summarizing superimposition superstition superstitious suppose sure surfaces surrounded suspect suspect sweet syllable symbol symbols symbols symbols symbols symbols symbols symbols symmetrical system talk task taste tautology ten ten ten tenderness terrible testimony than that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that that the the The The the the the The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the The the the the the the the the the The the The the the the The the the the the the The the the the the the the the the the the the the the The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the The the the the the the the the the the the the the the The the the the the the the the the the the the the The the The The the the the the the the The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the The the the the the the the the the The The the the the the the the the the the The the The the the the the the the the the the the the The the the the The The the the the the the the the the the The the their their their their their their their their their their Their their their them them them them them themselves themselves themselves theory there there There there There There there there There There there there there there there thereof these these these These these These these these these these these These These these these These thesis they They They they they they they they they they They They they They they thin think thinker third thirty thirty-five this this this This this This This this This this this This this this this This this this this this This this this this this this this this those those Those Those though though though though thought thousand thousands thousands Thousands thousands three three through through through through through throw Thunderclap thus thy time time time time time time time time time times tired to to to to To to to to to to to to To to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to To to to to to to To to to to to to to to to to to to to to told Toledo tongue tongues total total total tragic translation transversally traveled traveled traveler traveler travelers treacherous treasure treasures triangular true true true true true truth truth trying turns Twenty twenty-five twenty-five twenty-five twenty-five twenty-odd twenty-two twenty-two two two two two two two two two two type ubiquitous uncouth under understanding unending unfold uniform unique unique universe universe universe universe universe universe unknown unknown unlikely unlimited unlimited unlimited unprecedented unspeakable until up up up up up up upon upper upper upwards urged urged us us use used useless useless useless useless useless usual usually usurped vade vague vain vain vain value value variation variations variations variations varied vast vast vast vast venerated venture venture verbal verbal verbal verisimilar very very very vestiges vindicated Vindication Vindication Vindications Vindications vocabularies vocabulary volume volume volume volume volume volumes volumes volumes volumes volumes walls walls wandered wandered wandering was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was was wasted wavering we we We well well went were were were were were were were were were were what what When which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which which who who who who who who who whole whose whose whose whose whose whose whose whose whose whose why will will will will will will wind wisdom wish with with with with with with with with with with with with with with Within without without word words words words words words wordy work works works world world world would would would would would would would write writing writing written written written years years years years years Yiddish you You You young your Your youth zero zone

(From the English translation by J.E.I.)

Image

The original Spanish text by Borges.

a a a a a A a a a A a a a a a a a a a A a a a a A A a a a ab abandonaron abarcaba abisma absoluto absoluto absurdo Acabo acaso acaso aceptada aclaración actos adjetivo administro admite Admiten afantasma Afirman afirman afirmo ahí ahora ahora ahora aire al al albur alegó alegórica alegra alfabeto Alguien algún algún algún algún algún algún algún alguna alguna alguna alguna alguno algunos Algunos algunos alterno altura ambulante análisis análogo anaquel anaquel anaquel anaquel anaqueles anaqueles anaqueles anaqueles anaqueles anaqueles anaqueles angosto aniquilado año años años años años! ante Antes Antes antiguo antiguos anula apariencias apenas aplicación apología aquel aquel árabe arcángeles arcanos arguyen armada arriba arriba arrojaban articular asaz ascético así atravesara atrevo atrevo aun aún aunque aunque aunque aunque autobiografías autoridades aventuras Axaxaxas axiomas azar azar azarosos B B Babel bajísimas bandolerismo barajaran baranda barandas barbarie básicos Basilides basta basta Básteme Beda besan Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca Biblioteca biblioteca biblioteca Biblioteca biblioteca bibliotecario bibliotecario bibliotecario bibliotecario bibliotecario bibliotecario bibliotecarios bibliotecarios blasfema bruñidas bruscamente busca busca busca buscadores buscadores buscar buscarlo buscas C cabal cabo cacofonías cada cada cada cada cada cada cada cada cada cada cada cada cada cada caída calambre cámara cambiarse canónicos caótica caóticas capaces capital caracteres caras Carmesí casi casi casi casi casi casi casual catálogo catálogo catálogo catálogos catálogos catálogos centenares centro cercados cercano cero cerril certidumbre certidumbre cesar cesaran cíclico cielo cifra cinco cinco cinco circuito circular circular circunferencia clásico clásico codiciosos coherencia color colorario coma coma combinaciones combinar combinatorio comentario comentario comentario cometidas Como como como como como Cómo comparar compendio componte comprobación comprobaría computable con con con con con con con con con con con con condenaban condición confirmado confunden confuso conjetura conjetura conozco conquistar consecuencias constaba constan construir consultado consultar consultar consumido contenido continuo Contra correcta corredores corredores corren corresponden corresponder correspondían corromperá cosa costumbre costumbre credenciales Creo creyeron creyó criptografías criptográfica cual cualquier cualquier cualquier cualquier Cuando cuarenta cuatro cuatro cuatrocientas cuatrocientas cubilete cubren cuerpo culto cuya cuya cuyo cuyo cuyo cuyos cuyos da da dable de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de De de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de De de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de de debe debe débilmente dedujo definen definición degeneran del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del del delicadas delira delirio demás demiurgos demostración demostración denuncian deploran depredaciones depresión derecha derecha desaforada desapareció descifrado descifrador descifrar descifrar descifró descubriera descubrimiento descubrir Desde desde desemboca desempeño desesperada desorden desorden desorden despeñados destruyó dhcmrlchtdj dialectal dialectal dialecto dice dictamen dictamen diez diez diezmado diferente difieren digo dijeron dijo dimensiones dio Dios dios dios dios dioses dirán dirección discordias discos disolverá disparate disparate disputaban distancia distrae distribución distritos diversos diversos divina divinas divinidad divino divino don dormir dorso dos dos dos dos dos dos dos dos dotación duda dudar dulce duplica duplicación Durante Durante efecto ejemplar ejemplifican ejemplos ejemplos El El el el el el el el el el el el El El el el el el El El el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el El el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el el Él elegante elegante elementos eleva eliminar elocuente emiten en en En en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en En en en en en en en en en en en En En en en En en en en en en En en en en en en en en en en en en encerraba encierra encierren encontrar encuentre engañen engañosos engendrado enigmáticos enloquecieron enorme enorme entender enteros entonces entre epidemias epístola equiparan era era eran es es es es es es es es es es es es es es es es es es es Es es es es es es es es Es es es es es es es es es es es es es es es es esa esa esa Esa esa esa esa esa esa esas esas Esas Esas ésas escalera escalera escaleras escaleras escaleras escaleras escaleras escribió escribir escribir escribo escrito escritura escritura ese Ese Ese ese ese ese ese ese esfera esféricas eso esos Esos esos Esos esos esos esos esos esos espacio espacio espacio especie espejo espejo espera esperanza esperanza esperanza esperó espiral esta esta Esta esta está está estaba estaban establecerse estás Este esté estos estrangulaban estrechos estructuras eternidad eterno evangelio evangelio evangelio ex exageradas examinado excede excepción excesiva execrado exhibían exista existe existe existen existiera existir explicarse expresar éxtasis extinguirse extravagante facsímiles falacia falacia falaz falible falsas falsos faltarán fanáticos fárragos fastidio fatigan fatigaron febril felicidad felicidad fiel fielmente figura figuran filósofos finales fondo forma formato formato formular formularon frecuentes frenesí frutas fue fuera función funcionario fundamental furor futura gabinetes galería galerías galerías galerías galerías garabatea general general genio gnóstico gramáticas gran graves guaraní guardaban gusto ha ha haber había había hablamos hablan hablan Hablan Hablar habló habrá hace Hace Hace hace hacia hallazgo han han han hasta hasta hasta hay hay Hay hay hay hay hay Hay hay haya haya haya he he he he he he he hecho hecho hechos heréticas hexagonales hexagonales hexagonales hexágono hexágono hexágono hexágono hexágono hexágono hexágono hexágono hexágono hexágono Hexágono hexágono hexágono hexágonos hexágonos hexágonos hexágonos hexágonos higiénico historia historia hojas hojeaban hojean hombre hombre hombre Hombre hombre hombres hombres hombres hombres hombres hombres hombres hombres hombres hombres homogéneas honor horror hospedaba humana humanidad humano humano humilde hundirá hypothesi idealistas idéntica idénticos idioma idioma idioma idioma idiomas ignorados ignorancia iguales ilimitada ilimitada ilimitadas ilógico iluminada ilusoria ilustradas ilustrados imaginan imaginarias imitaron impenetrables imperfecto imperfectos impíos impresión improbable inaccesible inaccesibles inalterables inaudito incesante incesante incluye incoherencias incoherentes incomprensible inconcebible inconcebiblemente inconexión incontables incontrovertibles incorruptible incurrir indefinido indican indique inevitablemente infames infatigables inferiores inferir infierno infinita infinita infinita infinita infinitesimal infinito infinito infinito infinito infinito inflexiones influir informe inimitablemente inmediato inmóvil inquisidores insensata insensatas insinuar insinuaron insondable instante insuficiente intacto interior interminable interminablemente interpolaciones interpolado intolerable intuición Inútil inútil inútil inútiles Invadían invariable inventores inventores inverosímil inversamente irreemplazable izquierda jefe jóvenes justificación justificación justificado justifique juventud juzgan la La la La la la la la la La La la la la la la La la la La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la La La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la La la La la la la la la la La la laberinto lado lados lámparas lanzaron largamente largamente largos las las las las las las las las las las las las las las las las las las las Las las Las las las las las las las las las Las las las le le lees leguas leguas leído lengua lenguaje lenguaje lenguaje lenguaje lenguajes lenguajes lenguas lenguas lenguas les letra letra letra letras letras letras letras letras letras letras letras letrinas letrinas ley libres libro libro libro libro libro libro libro libro libro libro Libro libro libro libro libro libro libro libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros libros limitado límites línea línea líneas líneas llaman llegan llena llevan lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo localizar localizar localizar lomo los los los Los los Los Los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los Los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los los lugar lugares luz luz mágicos maldiciones malévolos mano mano manos más más más más más mató MCV MCV MCV me me me me me me me me mediante medio mejor mencionado menor menos menos mente mero metal metódica método mi mi mi mi mi mi mi mi Mi mí milagrosa miles miles Miles miles miles millas millones minuciosa minúsculos mis mis misma mismo mismo mismos misterios misterios misteriosa místicos mitología mlo morían morir Mostró mucho mucho Muchos muchos muerte Muerto multiforme mundial mundo mundo muros muy n nací nada nada nadie Nadie natal natural naturales naturales naturaleza necesaria necesidades negligen negrísimas negro niegan niñez ningún ninguna ninguna no no no no no no no no no No no no No no no no no no no No no no no No no no no no no No no nociones nombre nombre nombre normal normal nos nos noticia notoriamente notorios noventa noventa nuestra número número número número número o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o obligadas obra obra obras obras observar observó ochenta ocultaban oficiales Oh ojos olvidan omnipotentes opinión orden Orden órdenes orgánicas origen origen ortográficos ortográficos ortográficos oscuras oscuras otra otra otra otra otra otro Otro Otro otro otro otro otros Otros otros otros Otros Otros otros otros padre página página página página páginas páginas páginas páginas palabras palabras palabras palabras palabras palabrera pan para para Para para para Para para para para parece pareció pareció paredes pasa peinado peldaños pensador pensar pensaron pentagonal penúltima percibir perdición perdidos perdurable perdurará peregrinaciones peregrinado peregrinaron peregrinos perfectamente perfecto pérfida periódica permite permiten permitieron permitió pero pero pero pero pero pero pero pero pero pero pero pero pero pero pero persisten personal personas personas perversamente pesar pésimo piadosas pie pirámide pirámides pisos pisos pisos población pocas poderoso podía por por Por por por por por por por por por por por por por por por por por portugués porvenir porvenir porvenir posibilidad posible posibles posibles posición postulan pozos preciosos preciosos preciosos prefiero prefiguran premisas preparo presente pretenden pretéritas previamente previamente previsto primera primera primera primero primero primeros primordial problema problema problema procede proclamó prodigado prodigiosos producido profecía proferían prohibido prometen promulgar proposiciones propósito propuso prosperó prosternan provocaron proyecciones prueban pudo pudo puedan puede puede puede puede puede pueden pueden pueden puedo punto puntuales pura Purificadores que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que Que Que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que que qué quienes Quienes Quienes quiero quince quinientos quizá Quizá razonable razonable razonable Razonan razonaron realmente recordaban recorrido recta redactadas reducción refieren refutación región regiones registran regresivo relación remedaban rememorar remotas remotas remoto remoto remotos rendidos renglón renglón renglones repetición repetidas repetido repetir repiten repito repudian requiere resolver resulta resumir retórica revela rudimentario rudos ruego rumbos sabe sabemos saben sabiduría sajones sala salas samoyedo-lituano satisfacer satisfactoriamente se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se se Sé sé sé sea sea sea sea sea sea sea sean sean secreta secretas secreto secreto secta secta segundo seguro señores sentado sentido sentido sentido sepultura ser ser ser será sería serie severas si si Si Si sí sido sido siempre siempre siempre siempre siete siglo siglo siglos siglos significan sílaba símbolo símbolos símbolos símbolos símbolos símbolos símbolos simétricas sin sin sin sino sino sintieron sistema sitio sobre sola soledad solitaria solo solo sólo sólo solución solución solución son son son soñar sospecho sospechoso sostienen su su su su su su su su Su su su su su subsiguiente sucedió suelen sueños sugirió suicidios superficies superior superiores superstición supersticiosa suponer sus sus sus sus sus suya suya Tácito tal También También También También También también también tan tan tapa tautologías temor temores tener tenía teoría tercera ternuras terrible tesis tesoro tesoros testimonio tiempo tiempo tiempo tiempo tiempo tiene tienen tiren titula toda toda todas todas todas todas todas todo Todo todo Todo todo todo todos todos todos todos todos todos todos todos Todos todos todos toman tomos total total total trágicas transversales tratado treinta treinta trémulos trescientos triangular Trueno tu Tu Tú túneles tus ubicuo último ultrajado un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un un Un un un Una una una una una una una una una una una Una una una una una una una una una unas unas unas unas única único uniforme universalmente universo universo universo universo universo universo uno Uno uno Uno Uno uno uno unos unos urgía urgidos usa usaban usurpó vaga valor valor vana vano vano variación variaciones variaciones varios vasta vastísimo vastos Veinte veinticinco veinticinco veinticinco veintidós veintitantos vejez ven venerado ventilación verbal verbales verbales verdad verdad verdad verdad verdadero veremos verídica verosímil versión vestigios vez vez vez viajado viajero viajero viajeros viejos viento vieron vindicaban Vindicación Vindicaciones Vindicaciones vio Visiblemente vista visto visto visto vocabulario vocabularios volumen volumen volúmenes volúmenes volúmenes volúmenes vuelta y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y Ya ya ya ya ya yeso yiddish yo Yo Yo yo Yo yo Yo Yo zaguán zaguán zaguán zona zona

The man without a legacy

In honour of the election campaign and also party leaders resigning, here's the essay I wrote for Overland at the end of last year when John Key left office. But I also have a new piece at the Pantograph Punch about the role of the media in taking down Metiria Turei. If you're only going to read one of them, read that one. 

You could almost say that the only thing John Key was good at was winning elections. As if that were a small talent for a politician.

He was very good at that, anyway. Leading his party in successive elections to a share of 44%, 47% and 47% again of the vote is a truly remarkable achievement in a proportional multi-party system. Helen Clark, the three-term prime minister he defeated to get the job in 2008, never managed more than 41%. Yet in her case you could readily point to several political accomplishments which could be variously described as being part of her legacy, mostly in the form of new social welfare entitlements such as the Working for Families scheme, or social security instruments such as KiwiSaver and the Cullen Fund.

After 15 years of radical neoliberal reforms, Clark applied the brakes, while leaving the core of those reforms untouched. She stopped the privatisation of the government workplace insurer, ACC. She abolished market rents for state housing. Through those measures and others like them, she reoriented the political centre. You could call the new consensus ‘neoliberalism with a human face’. It operated through a state that appeared to look after its citizens, while doing nothing to reverse the extraordinary levels of social inequality produced under successive governments.

John Key took that consensus and walked away with it. Clark’s reformist momentum had simply stalled. Her political project had nowhere else to go, and needed to be going somewhere in order to justify itself. It was like when Hillary Clinton tried to replicate Obama’s campaign but without being able to run as the candidate of change.

In specular fashion, Key offered instead a paradoxical continuity: putting the Tories in charge of Labour’s house, and making them the custodians of Clark’s achievements. Not a new thing in the country’s political history, but done so well that the public barely noticed. It was not so much an election as a wonderfully executed burglary.

Eight years later, just as he appeared poised to sleepwalk into a fourth term, Key walked away this morning. He will be in charge of the country for one more week only.

Historians will remember him. But for what? Always he did so little. Having gone into power just as the global financial crisis kicked into gear, he passed up on the opportunity to respond with a program of outright austerity.

He cut public sector jobs, which is hardly ever an unpopular move. He enacted welfare reforms that introduced social controls rather than slashing entitlements, so that affected people would be blamed for falling out of the net themselves, rather than being pushed. He deprived sectors of the state of funding often just by failing to increase it to keep up with costs. (The state public radio, for instance, has had its funding frozen since he took office.) He privatised state energy companies, but only up to 49% of the shares – possibly the most emblematic example of his pragmatism.

He championed the TPP, but without ever letting us forget that it was the brainchild of a Labour foreign minister. He brought into his coalition the Māori Party, the product of a split with Labour during the Clark years, without making undue concessions to its demands. He eschewed the racially divisive platform of his predecessor, Don Brash, proving more successful at settling claims under the Treaty of Waitangi than Clark.

Throughout it all, he kept a constant eye on the dial of that consensus, without ever attempting to shift it. He was helped in this by his faithful pollster, later to be included in the cast of characters of journalist Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics. Ultimately, the accusation that the prime minister was running a Nixonesque ‘ratfucking’ operation against the Labour Party and other political adversaries out of his office didn’t stick. I suspect historians will look into that again, too. The case is hardly a weak one, especially since the weeks following the publication of the book were marked by one of his aides taking a sudden and highly convenient holiday.

When I say that Key was supremely good at winning elections, I don’t mean to say that we should forget or excuse some of the methods he employed to this end. But neither should we overestimate their effect. By far Key’s greatest single achievement was to position himself as the natural choice for continuity of government from the Clark years and into an indefinite future of modest, unambitious prosperity (‘we’re on the cusp of something special’, he famously read once off a Crosby-Textor cue card). His was an electoral consensus built on a bulging centre comprising affluent and semi-affluent voters, who either own property or are heavily mortgaged, while the large and growing ranks of the working poor and the destitute have stopped voting altogether and may never become a constituency again. Under these social conditions, the John Key project was virtually doomed to succeed, as it effectively deprived Labour and the Greens of people to appeal to. Absent an economic crisis, the centre-left has no intervention to offer, nor solutions to problems that largely affect a non-voting public.

But it would be foolish to underestimate the role of Key’s personal appeal in all this. For eight years he played the part of the prime minister beautifully. He was a reassuring presence, projecting confidence and competence yet never appearing to take himself or his office too seriously. Neither the media nor the opposition managed to alter those perceptions in relation to such issues as his handling of the housing crisis, or the reconstruction of Christchurch. He was the prime minister of those who think that the country almost governs itself, and that we shouldn’t upset its balance. But that act won’t be an easy one to follow for his colleagues: he struck that tone effortlessly with his public persona, and it gave credibility to the very idea of his government. Someone will have to replicate that.

Yet in spite of his great talent for winning elections – or maybe because of it – John Key has no legacy. Called upon to account for his achievements after today’s surprise announcement, the New Zealand’s Herald was barely able to compose four short paragraphs, including some questionable entries (‘attended the Queen’s residence at Balmoral’, ‘aimed to establish the Trans-Pacific Partnership’ – but failed). The one time he tried to use his office to promote lasting change, through a referendum to adopt a new national flag, it starkly exposed his lack of political substance and vision. Everyone quickly recognised it as the branding exercise that it was, and on this occasion the great communicator failed to persuade the public that the idea had any merit. It was a symbolic issue, yes. But it makes the misstep even more telling for a politician who relied so heavily on his image.

That the country governs itself is, of course, an illusion. The auto-pilot set by Helen Clark was never meant to take us this far, and the many structural issues of the New Zealand economy could yet come to a head all at once. When that happens, we may look quite differently at John Key’s absent legacy.

Inferno VII: The circle of capitalists

"Pape Satàn, pape Satàn aleppe!"

If these words ever meant anything in any language, or were otherwise intelligible to the contemporaries of Dante Alighieri, that meaning is lost. What’s left to us is the beginning of a curse, or a demonic incantation, which is quickly cut short by Dante’s guide, Virgil.

Taci, maladetto lupo! consuma dentro te con la tua rabbia.

But who is this ‘accursed wolf’ whom Virgil hopes will be ‘consumed inwardly by its own rage’? The illustration by Gustavo Dorè looks nothing like a wolf, nor like the fiera crudele – ‘cruel wild beast’ – of the only other line that mentions its appearance.

Dorè’s Plutus is a demon with human semblance. Perhaps he’s Plutus or Ploutos, the Greek and Roman god of wealth and agricultural bounty, son of Iaison and Demetra; or else he’s Pluto, the god of the underworld that bears his earlier moniker (Hades), and from which we get the sometimes planet by the same name. Or possibly both, because in medieval times the two were routinely mixed up.

Wealth and death, whether married by poetry or by historical accident, oversee the seventh canto of the Inferno. Or, more precisely, the fourth circle of Hell, because for the first time Dante breaks the symmetry of one circle per canto. The fourth and fifth are both here.

First he and Virgil encounter, on a giant ridge that encircles the whole perimeter of hell as it continues to narrow towards the bottom, the throng of the greedy and the prodigal. The poet calls them gente più ch’altrove troppa, people who, more than elsewhere, are too numerous. But too numerous for what? In excess of what? This claim would appear to break a rule of Hell alluded to in the fifth canto, whereby each circle is smaller than the one that precedes it, and is occupied by a smaller number of souls guilty of a greater crime. This violation, then, is likely a result of the poet’s own psychological judgment rather than an actual fact. There shouldn’t be so many people here, so many spirits damned by a sin so grave.

And what do they do? What is their contrappasso?

The greedy and the squanderers are two faces of the same coin (as it were), and serve two halves of the same punishment. Each is condemned to push a boulder with their chests along the arc of the ridge. When they reach the end of the half circle, they crash into the other group, who are pushing boulders in the opposite direction. As if in a fit of road rage, they exclaim to one another perché tieni? perché burli? ‘Why do you keep?’ ‘Why do you squander thus?’ Then they turn around and start pushing their boulders in the opposite direction, along another semi-circle. And so forth. The most famous illustration is, of course, Dorè’s.

But I am also reminded of the perpetual circle of Dr Seuss’ Star-on, Star-off machines in The Sneetches, overseen by the greedy Sylvester McMonkey McBean.

The greedy in this circle are all members of the clergy, as signalled by their tonsure. ‘Clerics, popes and cardinals’ in cui usa avarizia il suo soperchio – in whom avarice exercises its excess (implied: as everyone knows). And when Dante observes that he ought to be able to recognise at least some of them, Virgil explains that la sconoscente vita che i fé sozzi, ad ogne conoscenza or li fa bruni: the unknowing (ignorant) conduct that sullied them in life, darkens them to knowledge in death – ie, conceals their appearance, makes them unrecognisable. Thus we are spared a catalogue of Dante’s contemporaries which might have created the exiled poet or the courts that gave him sanctuary some political bothers. (Although he was not one to pull punches in this area as we shall see later on.)

The greedy are greedy, the meaning is pretty much unchanged. But the squanderers are marked by greed as well. Perhaps they collectively represent the mercantile/banking class that was flourishing in Florence in Dante’s lifetime, along with early forms of conspicuous consumption not by aristocrats or priests, as was customary, but regular citizens.

We are at the dawn of capitalism, and medieval Florence is one of its nerve centres, servicing as it does the Papal state with a range of financial services (lending, changing, insurance) as well as with increasingly sophisticated goods. Dante has no regard for this private enterprise and its attendant private fortunes. This deeply Christian man, this medieval man, has no ideological basis from which to regard capitalist wealth creation as a means of social or material progress. Therefore he simply sees no future in it, other than the very bleak metaphysical outcome of an eternity spent pushing boulders in Hell.

There is another circle in this canto, hosting two quite separate groups of souls, known to the chronicles as the wrathful and the sullen (for Dante rarely names the sinners or the sins using the short-hand of his commentators). Both live in the murky waters of the Styx, the mythological river which is reduced here to a shallow marsh. But the two groups are quite alien to each other. The wrathful stand outside the water, fighting incessantly and for no reason; the sullen – which we might call the clinically depressed, for whom Dante and his time had no compassion – dwell underneath the surface, weighed down by their inwardly directed anger. Their sin consists in part in a failure to act (linking them with the indifferent of Hell’s vestibule) and partly in failing to appreciate the glory of creation and the gift of life, representing the contrary vice to the hedonism of the greedy. They want to talk, lamenting how they roamed sadly ne l'aere dolce che dal sol s'allegra, in the ‘sweet air which by the sun is gladdened’ (per Longfellow), but water pushes the words back down their throats.

Enough. In this heroic poem without danger of adversaries, Dante and Virgil have come to the foot of a tower, whereby the canto ends.

Previously: Inferno I, II, III, IV, V, VI.

Inferno VI: Black rain over Florence

Io sono al terzo cerchio, de la piova
etterna, maladetta, fredda e greve;

I have come to the third circle of the rain
Eternal, cursed, and cold, and heavy

We must learn to understand the laws of punishment. The Dantean contrappasso is usually translated as talion, but it doesn’t mean ‘an eye for an eye’: it means to suffer the opposite. We saw an example in Hell’s vestibule, where the throngs of the indifferent – those who spent their lives refusing to take sides – are condemned to chase a tattered flag of indiscernible design. That is to say, to subscribe to and be eternally consumed by a meaningless cause.

So now, having come to the third circle – the circle of the gluttons – we may expect the punishment to come in the form of the withdrawal or denial of scrumptious foods that are kept just outside of reach, or for the dwellers to be consumed by a persistent and self-perpetuating hunger. But the sentence is far crueller, and requires a little explanation.

As soon as we get past Cerberus, that is.

In adapting his ancient sources (above all Virgil) and transferring the demons of Hades to the Christian Hell, Dante always degrades them. Stripped of their nobility and majesty, the likes of Charon and Minos are reduced to infernal interns, servants of a master whose design they cannot comprehend. The fearsome three-headed Cerberus of Greek and Latin mythology suffers a similar treatment, while at the same time being rendered a great deal more disquieting by the addition of human features. He has nails, not claws. Hands, not paws. Human faces, not canine muzzles, and bearded too.

Li occhi ha vermigli, la barba unta e atra,
e ’l ventre largo, e unghiate le mani;

Red eyes he has, an unctuous beard and black,
And belly large, and armed with claws his hands.

As imagined by William Blake

The monster graffia li spirti ed iscoia ed isquatra – claws at the damned, flays them and tears them apart. But the rain is a greater torment. The rain that makes them howl like dogs. The rain that lashes them incessantly, causing them to writhe and turn in order to expose one side to the unendurable pain and briefly shield the other.

I say rain, but it’s more of a thick, putrid hail. In an image straight out of a modern horror, the mass of the gluttons lies underneath it in a pool of foetid mud, face upwards, like a carpet of bodies, and it’s with horror that Dante describes walking on those shapes that look like persons. A human mud.

And all this, for the sin of gluttony?

But surely in the Middle Ages the word meant something else, something other. Not a mere carnal indulgence, nor the affectation of being a foodie. Not a sweet tooth, or an insatiable appetite, or a hyper-refined taste, but a particular form of greed that becomes truly sinful when set against the experience that so many of Dante’s contemporaries could draw upon in order to imagine the torments of Hell: hunger.

This is why gluttony is not just sin but a mortal one. In these, the centuries of the Zannis, when a bad crop could decimate entire families, the spectre of hunger, as well as its relentless persistence wherever and whenever it took hold, to not only live comfortably but to hoard food (we’ll meet the otherwise greedy in the next circle) is a crime against human dignity. And so the contrappasso is one of the most humiliating punishments in the whole of Hell.

Giovanni Stradano, 1587

It is here, among the gluttons, that the poets meets Ciacco: a wealthy man of Florence who died after Dante’s birth, and with whom Dante has a conversation about the immediate future of the city. Thus medieval Florence is transported into Hell, its social life superimposed onto that slimy tangle of bodies: the first in a series of irruptions of politics and Dante’s present in the poem. There are more interesting ones, so I’m not going to delve into the details of Ciacco’s prophecy. Suffice to say that his presence here serves also to link the city with the sin.

After the conversation, Ciacco lowers his head. Virgil explains that he won’t raise it again until the angels’ trumpets herald the arrival of the nemica podestà, the powerful one that is hostile to the damned. After the day of judgment, when the spirits have been reunited to the bodies of the dead and the final sentences have been pronounced, all of the tortures suffered in Hell will be felt more keenly, so what Dante is effectively witnessing and describing is a mere semblance or preview of the eventual, true and truly eternal Hell.

A sobering thought to take into the next canto, but not before another cliff-edge ending to remind us that Dante knew how to create expectations as well as any modern screenwriter. Thus, out of nothing:

Venimmo al punto dove si digrada:
quivi trovammo Pluto, il gran nemico.

We came unto the point where the descent is;
There we found Plutus the great enemy.

Previously: Inferno I, II, III, IV, V.