Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths introduced me to a world of imagination, creativity, and philosophical reflection. The selected stories in this book captivated my mind and challenged my understanding of reality, truth, and existence. Personally, it felt like Borges presented a ‘labyrinth of ideas’ that could lead to a deeper appreciation of life’s mysteries and human experience—perhaps in the simple form of play. The themes of temporality, existence, language, and the interconnectedness of things were explored in a labyrinth of ideas that were both confusing and enlightening. In any case, Borges’ writing is a masterpiece that captivated my mind and left a lasting impact on my thoughts and perceptions of the world.
One of striking stories in the book for me is “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Borges uses this story to reflect on the idea of time and how it influences our lives. The protagonist, Dr. Yu Tsun, is searching for a way to escape the consequences of his actions, but he eventually realizes that his fate is predetermined. Borges writes, “I felt, then, that I was the chess piece of some unknown player, and that my pilgrimage through time was regulated, down to the minutest detail, by an incalculable number of causes” (25). This exposed me to the idea that our lives are, in a way, predetermined, and that our choices are limited by causality.
Another thought-provoking story is “The Library of Babel.” Borges writes about a universe that is a library, containing every possible book and every possible combination of letters. The protagonist, a librarian, reflects on the infinite nature of the library and the meaning of existence. Borges states, “There is no combination of characters one can make—disregarding figures, spaces, punctuation marks, and so forth—that the divine Library has not foreseen and that in one of its secret tongues does not hide a terrible significance” (54). This statement emphasized the idea that everything in life is connected and that there is a deeper meaning behind everything we do. However, a counter-thought to this also arises. Is there a deeper meaning behind everything?
Language also plays an important role in Borges’ writing. In the story “Funes the Memorious,” Borges writes about a man who has a perfect memory but is unable to comprehend the abstract nature of language. Borges writes, “To think is to forget a difference, to generalize, to abstract” (103). Borges highlights the idea that language is an abstraction that allows us to understand the world around us, but it also limits our understanding of reality.
Question: Did the book affect your perception of the world—or of language or temporality—in any way? If so, how? For you, did the book feel confusing and overwhelming, or creative and imaginative?
“Is there a deeper meaning behind everything?”
And if there is, is it accessible to us? Isn’t this the plight of the librarians in this story… they know that the book that explains everything, the key to the entire library, must be out there… but they simply cannot find it. Alternatively, every book has the potential to explain everything, but they simply don’t know how to read it.
To go to your question–“did the book feel confusing and overwhelming, or creative and imaginative?”–which is very apt, as so far Labyrinths seems to be dividing the class, I think Borges is telling us (among other things) that we need to accept that we will always remain, to one extent or another, confused and overwhelmed.
Great post! I don’t think this book fundamentally changed my perception of the world, but it did give me some things to think about, particularly the infinite nature of the Library of Babel. Thinking about things like infinity naturally cause a headache, which is what I can attribute some of my confusion too. Despite this, there were some stories that, upon reflection, I didn’t understand at all. I had no idea that Judas was supposed to be the Saviour in “Three Versions of Judas” until Jon pointed it out in the lecture, for example.
Hi Daniel! I really enjoyed reading your post and your enthusiasm about Borges work. I don’t know if I shared the same mind-blowing experience as you did, as most of the time I was left in confusion. I did however, really respect and admired the creativity that Borges has to create such deep and compelling ideas within his stories. Although I struggled to connect or to even understand some of them, I was left envious of the creativity and mind that it must have took to alter so many perceptions of the world. For me personally, the book was confusing and overwhelming, but I still enjoyed the creative elements in the story.
Hi Daniel! Great blog post!
To answer your question, I think it affected my perception of language. This book’s language was very confusing, and I had to reread a few pages multiple times. There were a lot of words I did not understand just because I had not been exposed to enough imaginative ways of writing. Borges’s language is complex and full of contradictions forcing us to second-guess ourselves and be confused about what lies ahead. This writing style is very imaginative because anything could happen at any moment when there is no designated or controlled plot to follow. It was confusing to me, but I think this confusion is what sparks imagination because there is no end. Borges’s collection of stories is truly a Labyrinth. Every story is a new turn, a path ended or created.