
A Lecture on Johnson and Boswell by Jorge Luis Borges - gruseom
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/jul/28/lecture-johnson-and-boswell/
======
jacques_chester
It's worth mentioning that Borges is a great author for STEM types. Apart from
being a towering critic of literature, he wrote short stories. He treated
these as a poetry problem -- compressing the most story into the least number
of words. They are spare, lean, but powerful.

 _The Lottery in Babylon_ and _The Library of Babel_ , in particular, are
combinatorial horror stories. They take simple concepts and slowly unfold
them. The sense of escalating dread at the possibilities of infinity and the
_uncertainties_ of infinitude reminds me of HP Lovecraft, yet it's all matter
of fact without the purple prose.

I also greatly enjoyed _Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius_ , where Borges similarly
shows the power of mere ideas to reshape the entire world; even ideas which
are later shown to be utterly false.

~~~
earljwagner
Also recommended Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" about a writer
who rewrites Don Quixote word-for-word, though of course imbuing with a
radically new meaning given the different historical context:

"It is a revelation to compare Menard’s Don Quixote with Cervantes’. The
latter, for example, wrote (part one, chapter nine):

'...truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, depository of deeds,
witness of the past, exemplar and adviser to the present, and the future’s
counselor.'

Written in the seventeenth century, written by the 'lay genius' Cervantes,
this enumeration is a mere rhetorical praise of history. Menard, on the other
hand, writes:

'...truth, whose mother is history, rival of time, depository of deeds,
witness of the past, exemplar and adviser to the present, and the future’s
counselor.'

History, the mother of truth: the idea is astounding. Menard, a contemporary
of William James, does not define history as an inquiry into reality but as
its origin. Historical truth, for him, is not what has happened; it is what we
judge to have happened. The final phrases—exemplar and adviser to the present,
and the future’s counselor —are brazenly pragmatic.

The contrast in style is also vivid. The archaic style of Menard—quite
foreign, after all—suffers from a certain affectation. Not so that of his
forerunner, who handles with ease the current Spanish of his time."

~~~
bhickey
I was reading this exact passage aloud this very afternoon. It's Borges at his
funniest! He's a stand out among the greats, surpassing Joyce, Marquez,
Saramago and Solzhenitsyn.

There's a pervasive magic to his writing. The prose equals the subject. It
reminds me of the best of Dostoevsky or Bulgakov's trial before Pilate.

~~~
chevreuil
> It's Borges at his funniest

Exactly. My feeling in the first pages of Fictions was : is it some kind of
joke ?

For those who read the House of Leaves, it's good to know that Danielewski
took a lot of inspiration from Borges (among other things). If I recall
correctly The Garden of Forking Paths is very similar in its purpose and
construction.

------
wslh
If you are interested in Borges you can't miss the Norton Lectures (1967-1968)
that he gave in Harvard. They are available in MP3 format for download:
[http://ubu.com/sound/borges.html](http://ubu.com/sound/borges.html) (sadly my
original post on HN only had two points and zero comments)

~~~
kranner
Seconded; these have had a permanent place in my iTunes library.

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ableal
Ah, delightful, unread Borges texts still popping up after a four course meal
of collected works I got presented with a few years ago (not an English
edition). Thanks.

In Lisbon, there's a small, discrete monument to Borges - just a carved stone
with a few lines of one of his poems. It is situated in a small garden
diagonally opposite the crossroads from the Argentine embassy (GPS 38.736322,
-9.142172 ).

I first came across Borges, many moons ago, in an SF collection, with the
story of the man who was, recursively, another man's dream (
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circular_Ruins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circular_Ruins)
).

But I think he did catch us out with this
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Emporium_of_Benevolen...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial_Emporium_of_Benevolent_Knowledge)):

    
    
        The list divides all animals into one of 14 categories:
    
        Those that belong to the emperor
        Embalmed ones
        Those that are trained
        Suckling pigs
        Mermaids (or Sirens)
        Fabulous ones
        Stray dogs
        Those that are included in this classification
        Those that tremble as if they were mad
        Innumerable ones
        Those drawn with a very fine camel hair brush
        Et cetera
        Those that have just broken the flower vase
        Those that, at a distance, resemble flies

------
richardjordan
My current bedside reading is: Collected Fictions, by Jorge Luis Borges -
[http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Fictions-Jorge-Luis-
Borges/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Fictions-Jorge-Luis-
Borges/dp/0140286802) (NOT an affinity link, just the link).

He was a genius. His writing is wonderful. As others have said his ideas are
well suited to the kinds of folks who frequent HN. The other interesting thing
is that never before have I had people approach me about my reading. But sit
in a cafe in San Francisco with Borges and suddenly the world and her friend
wants to spark up a conversation about my choice of book.

Cannot recommend this highly enough. If you are looking for reading material
that takes you away from technology and work and the usual stuff we fill our
heads with, explore the universe through the words of Borges. You won't regret
it.

~~~
tubelite
When you're done with Fictions, do read the other book, "Selected Non-
Fictions" [http://www.amazon.com/Borges-Selected-Non-Fictions-Jorge-
Lui...](http://www.amazon.com/Borges-Selected-Non-Fictions-Jorge-
Luis/dp/0140290117) (not an affiliate link either)

Not only are they excellent pieces in their own right, you can catch
occasional glimpses of the evolution of some of his best stories as well. The
biography of Paul Valéry, for instance, foreshadows Pierre Menard.

