The Lottery in Babylon

"The Lottery in Babylon" (original Spanish: "La lotería en Babilonia", "The Babylon Lottery") is a fantasy short story by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. It first appeared in 1941 in the literary magazine Sur, and was then included in the 1941 collection The Garden of Forking Paths (El jardín de los senderos que se bifurcan), which in turn became the part one of Ficciones (1944).

"The Lottery in Babylon"
AuthorJorge Luis Borges
Original title"La lotería en Babilonia"
TranslatorJohn M. Fain, Anthony Kerrigan, Norman Thomas di Giovanni, Andrew Hurley
CountryArgentina
LanguageSpanish
Genre(s)Fantasy, short story
Published inFicciones
Media typePrint
Publication date1941
Published in English1962

Plot summary

The story describes a mythical Babylon in which all activities are dictated by an all-encompassing lottery, a metaphor for the role of chance in one's life. Initially, the lottery was run as a lottery would be, with tickets purchased and the winner receiving a monetary reward. Later, punishments and larger monetary rewards were introduced. Further, participation became mandatory for all but the elite. Finally, it simultaneously became so all-encompassing and so secret some whispered "the Company has never existed, and never will."

Themes

The story is about the role that chance plays in life, whether occurrences are genuinely deserved or whether all of life is merely based on luck or loss. The story references Zeno's paradox by using the lottery as a metaphor for all the possible random occurrences that could occur between any two points in time.[1] As with fate, the Babylonians attempted to gain control of the lottery by whispering in secret places though the lottery eventually banned this as a liability.[2] As with most Borges stories, there is a bit of humor in this. At one point, a slave steals a lottery ticket that calls for death. The public then fight over whether the slave should be killed because it is the penalty for stealing or because it is what the ticket decreed.

See also

References
  1. http://kasmana.people.cofc.edu/MATHFICT/mfview.php?callnumber=mf1227
  2. https://www.gradesaver.com/jorge-borges-short-stories/study-guide/summary-the-lottery-in-babylon-and-the-library-of-babel
  • Complete text of the story in the original Spanish:
  • Complete text of the story in English translation:


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