Raffaele Marcellino: The Lottery In Babylon

Abstract

The notion of the labyrinth is one of particular resonance for the end of the millennium with the dawning of the internet, globalisation and the multinational corporation. The labyrinth reaches far back into the prehistory of humans and regularly reappears in the mythology and images of many cultures. The most famous of labyrinths is the Labyrinth of Crete with its threat of the imprisoned minotaur. Other forms of the labyrinth have surfaced in Mannerist garden mazes and the 'rhizomes' of late 20th century thinkers such as Eco, Paz and Borges. The Lottery in Babylon takes its name from a short story by Borges from his book of short stories, Labyrinths. Borges' story describes a form of lottery that creates a complex set of constructed relationship labyrinths within an imagined society. In this lottery there are not just winners but degrees of winning and degrees of losing, from losing money to becoming 'nonpersons'. This work explores relationships that are both obvious and hidden, benign and chaotic. The construction of labyrinths is the construction of symmetries; so too in this work of 'labyrinths' the symmetry of time, colour and style is explored through music.