June 12, 2002
Mitterand's Monument
Mitterand's Monument
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| Bibliotheque National de France. 10 Juin. |
Checking out places to study, I decided to have a look at the BNF, last stop on the 14 line. Immense! Couldn't even get in. But literally the image of Borges's endless library with all the books in logical space. So utterly overwhelming and imposing that I simply can't imagine what's it's like when there are people there. It was closed when I was there. I'll go back and see if it livens up at all.
Just to paint the picture a bit. The camera couldn't really capture the scene. There are 4, 22-story towers like the ones you see. But the books aren't in the towers. They're all beneath your feet, underground in the 4-story deep bedrock of the overall structure. You see it there, surrounding the trees. The trees are at the center of the annulus, themselves planted in the gravewell at the center. A forest in the middle of an immense library of books, bookended at the corners by towers of pure glass. Everything in grids: the ground itself, the walls of the buildings, the fencings around the bushes, the compound itself.
Posted by amol at June 12, 2002 07:50 PMComments
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