Before this week’s reading, I knew who Jorge Luis Borges was, but I don’t think I had read anything by him before, which is strange considering that he is a well-known Latin American author.
I found it interesting how this book is a collection of many different stories, not only fiction stories but also essays and parables. Which I found curious since it is rare that there is more than one genre of writing in a book.
Nevertheless. Moving on to first impressions. I liked that we did not have to do the whole thing and that it was divided into different stories because that always helps when reading a lot. To have this separation with an end.
In terms of writing, I did not enjoy it as much as I imagined I would. I am trying to pinpoint precisely why. But it would probably be because it felt way too much. It felt exaggerated. As I have said in blog posts before, I do not enjoy when authors add unnecessary complexity to writing to try and give it deeper meaning or be interesting. (Sorry for the controversial take)
That is not to say that it was horrible or anything; it was not my cup of tea. But I did enjoy the themes of the stories. In particular, the whole mystery and secret society bit. I ejoyed the reoccurring topic of labyrinths and, in some way, the theme of free will, which could be analysed into being correlated at some point. But that’s another story.
The story I remember the most was probably “The Lottery in Babylon” It intrigued me the most because it wasn’t exciting enough for people to win. That the concept of risk gave the lottery the appeal, it also touched upon a bit of underground and secret society (which I enjoy) and was overall pretty enjoyable.
So despite not loving the writing style, the topics and themes are captivating and deserve to be read at least once just for general knowledge and shared culture.
My question for you this week is as follows. Which fiction story was your favourite? And which topic was your favourite? Have you read Borges before?
I can’t wait to see your posts and see you on Thursday!
February 5, 2023
Week 5 [Jorge Luis Borges]
2 Comments
Leave a Reply
Jon
February 5, 2023 — 11:47 pm
“unnecessary complexity”
So: how much complexity is “too much”? How much is “necessary,” and at what point does complexity tip over into “unnecessary” complexity? This is actually quite a Borgesian question: he enjoys pointing out complexity in what seems simple, and vice versa. For instance, he has a (very short, less than a page long) story elsewhere, that suggests that the worst labyrinth is in fact the featureless desert. You can find it here: https://www.medina502.com/classes/ml260_2017/readings/Borges-The-Two-Kings-and-the-Two-Labyrinths.pdf.
jasmine
February 8, 2023 — 8:32 pm
I agree with you that the topics and themes were captivating, but my problem was how he took these very interesting themes and made them even more (and perhaps overly) confusing. I personally liked when he mentioned characters and stories from the Bible to include into his own parables, since that’s what I’m a bit more familiar with. I also liked the ‘Circular Ruins’, it felt the most dream-like which more-or-less suited the confusing aura of the book.