Nobody else's book club: Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
Borges has a fair reputation of being erudite, cerebral, and difficult to read. But what struck me the most in this book was its sense of humour and the extraordinary imagination. Was it only my impression or is he often making fun of the same erudition he is accused of? I cannot be sure if this was intentional or not, but I often found myself laughing in some of the most cryptic, scholarly passages.
You can easily write several volumes on this book, every story is a world unto itself, rich of many possible interpretations. So the first challenge in writing a suitably modest blog post about it is to choose what to write in the first place.
The main subject of this collection of short stories is perception and more precisely the gap between what we can know or perceive with our senses and intelligence and reality itself. The stories deal often with illusion in the platonic sense. The illusion of time, as in Funes the Memorious, of historical narrative, as in Theme of the Traitor and the Hero, of personal narrative, as in The Garden of Forking Paths, of religious narrative, as in Three Versions of Judas and The Lottery in Babylon, etc.
Another common theme, which is intimately related to the above, is that of infinity, which appears in many of these stories. For example, time as an infinite series of instants in Funes the Memorious, the life of the individual as an infinite series of choices and possibilities in The Garden of Forking Paths, literature as an infinite number of word, or letter, permutations in The Library of Babel, etc., etc.
Borges is a treat for those who love philosophical enquiry. His stories are mind-bending and fun. They are also the kind of stories that you can read again and again and always find something new. As I mentioned above, I could go on and on, but I leave it here.
You can easily write several volumes on this book, every story is a world unto itself, rich of many possible interpretations. So the first challenge in writing a suitably modest blog post about it is to choose what to write in the first place.
The main subject of this collection of short stories is perception and more precisely the gap between what we can know or perceive with our senses and intelligence and reality itself. The stories deal often with illusion in the platonic sense. The illusion of time, as in Funes the Memorious, of historical narrative, as in Theme of the Traitor and the Hero, of personal narrative, as in The Garden of Forking Paths, of religious narrative, as in Three Versions of Judas and The Lottery in Babylon, etc.
Another common theme, which is intimately related to the above, is that of infinity, which appears in many of these stories. For example, time as an infinite series of instants in Funes the Memorious, the life of the individual as an infinite series of choices and possibilities in The Garden of Forking Paths, literature as an infinite number of word, or letter, permutations in The Library of Babel, etc., etc.
Borges is a treat for those who love philosophical enquiry. His stories are mind-bending and fun. They are also the kind of stories that you can read again and again and always find something new. As I mentioned above, I could go on and on, but I leave it here.
Next book: for a lighter touch, "Persuasion" by Jane Austen.
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