Labyrinths is a short story anthology containing many of Jorge Luis Borges’ best work. Having heard a lot about Borges, I was excited to check out his writing. While I found several of the stories unnecessarily confusing or pointless, I enjoyed most of them. I especially appreciated Borges’ manipulation of reality in “The Secret Miracle” and “The South”. The former made a particular impression, as I cannot imagine a situation more terrifying than the moments immediately before facing execution: the anticipation of death, the infamous “life flashing before your eyes”, the entirely justified anxiety. In this short story, the Jewish main character, Jaromir Hladík, is sentenced to death by Nazi firing squad yet is mystically given a year to complete his magnum opus. What I find compelling about this sort of magical realism (if that is the correct terminology) is it is uncertain whether the “miracle” of Hladík being able to satisfy his life goal was actually the result of some occult intervention. I am inclined to think no, that this extra year of labour was just a compensatory product of Hladík’s imagination in his last moments, which consequently undoes the rightful ending of the story. Borges’ writing often has a dream-like quality: some strands of his stories don’t make sense, or lack the coherency of real life. “The South” is a story that stood out to me because of its twisted take on nationalism.

I found similarities between Borges’ style and other texts. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro’s discomfiting and eery mood resembles that of some of the stories in this collection where reality feels twisted and inverted in a dystopian society jarringly close to reality. The infinite “Library of Babel” actually reminds of a story I wrote a few years ago. I wrote about a character that writes a computer program that could generate a story customized precisely for an individual user- that is, the “perfect story” for someone. This story is so absorbing and fulfilling that they feel no need to live in the real world anymore. The Library of Babel, on the other hand, drives librarians to insanity. Infinite permutations can be overwhelming, but they also present the possibility of perfection- hence the endless search for the “Man of the Book”.

My question for this week is quite broad: which story from Labyrinths do you think will leave the longest-lasting impression on you? It doesn’t have to be your favourite- just the one you think you will remember the most. Why is that story so memorable?