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All taxonomies are insane if you're not part of the culture that created them, and sometimes even if you are (US Census racial/ethnic categories are nuts, for instance). If you've ever tried to set up a taxonomy for anything, you realize it's harder than you might think. That said, Borges's classification of animals from the fictional Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge really plays up the craziness you can get in taxonomies. Here they are, courtesy of this very basic web page
The marvels of this are too many to enumerate, but the way it dances between multiple different types of categorization criteria is sublime and worthy of a long essay, or maybe a book by a fancy-pants French philosopher.
But what **I** want to do provide is potential examples for each of the types of animal. And so:
( click through for marvelous examples )
So there you have it. Examples of animals for each category in Borges's Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, from his essay, "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins."
... I guess this entry will need a cut, huh.
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 included in the present classification,
9. those that tremble as if they were mad,
10. innumerable ones,
11. those drawn with a very fine camelhair brush,
12. others,
13. those that have just broken a flower vase,
14. those that from a long way off look like flies.
The marvels of this are too many to enumerate, but the way it dances between multiple different types of categorization criteria is sublime and worthy of a long essay, or maybe a book by a fancy-pants French philosopher.
But what **I** want to do provide is potential examples for each of the types of animal. And so:
( click through for marvelous examples )
So there you have it. Examples of animals for each category in Borges's Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, from his essay, "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins."
... I guess this entry will need a cut, huh.
