Fantasy & Topographies of Imagination

Borges: Division of Animals





Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge

Division of Animals:
  1. those that belong to the emperor,
  2. embalmed ones,
  3. those that are trained,
  4. suckling pigs,
  5. mermaids,
  6. fabulous ones,
  7. stray dogs,
  8. those that are included in this classification,
  9. those that tremble as if they were mad,
  10. innumerable ones,
  11. those drawn with a very fine camel's-hair brush,
  12. others,
  13. those that have just broken a flower vase,
  14. those that resemble flies from a distance.


List from J.L. Borges, "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins," in Borges - A Reader: A Selection from the Writings of Jorge Luis Borges, edited by Emir Rodriguez Monegal and Alastair Reid (Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, 1981), p. 142. Photograph by Diane Arbus: Borges in Central Park, N.Y.C., 1969, Diane Arbus: Revelations (Toronto: Random House, Inc., 2003), p. 283.








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