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About this quote

What does it mean?
Mirrors and sex are condemned for multiplying human copies, seen as unnatural.
In plain terms
Some ancient thinkers hated mirrors and sex because they create more humans.
What can you take from it?
Question traditions that fear multiplication or imitation.

Where it applies

  • philosophical debate
  • theological study
  • textual analysis

Putting it to work

  • analyzing taboo
  • studying heresy

Questions to consider

  • What counts as unnatural?
  • Why fear copies?

Another view

This view ignores natural reproduction.

More from Jorge Luis Borges

  1. I owe the discovery of Uqbar to the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopedia.

    Permalink to quote #51
  2. Para uno de esos gnosticos, el visible universo era una ilusion o (mas precisamente) un sofisma. Los espejos y la paternidad son abominables porque lo multipli…

    Permalink to quote #53
  3. The possibilities of the art of combination are not infinite, but they tend to be frightful. The Greeks engendered the chimera, a monster with heads of the lio…

    Permalink to quote #50

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