This book angered me. Not the whole thing, but at least ninety-five percent of it made me want to light my hair on fire and swallow it. First impressions (and then I’ll say something kinder, I promise, but I have to get this out of my system)—either this dude’s brain is truly leagues ahead of everyone else’s or it’s just large enough to hold his own ego but no one’s attention span. I really tried with this one. I really did. But I didn’t understand a word of it. And then I started to think—sure, maybe taking readers on this maze-like journey is a novel idea, but in practice, as someone who didn’t enjoy said journey, what’s the point? What is the point of creating an incomprehensible, teeth-gritting, makes-me-wish-I-never-learned-how-to-read, novel? I circled back and read the intro after reading the required pages hoping maybe it would explain the book enough for me to get through this blog post with some amount of clarity, but it did not. People love this book—it’s a literary sensation—so I must be missing something, right? Besides the entire premise and my sanity, I must be missing something. If you understood and maybe even enjoyed this monstrosity, then a.) I’m sorry for calling it a monstrosity and b.) what about it appealed to you? Which part reached out, tugged at your tear ducts, and made you want to meet up with William Gibson to rave about the artistic finesse of this literary messiah? I am LOSING MY MIND.
Okay, now for the kinder part. Prior to chatting with a classmate and then watching Jon’s lecture video (which I enjoyed much more than the reading) I didn’t know Borges had gone blind. Apologies if I’m mixing up my timelines here, but if he was blind at this point and had to dictate the whole thing? Wow. The mind on that man. This is where his brain takes him? I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast this morning, or even if I ate breakfast, and this guy’s just out here creating unlikely and evocative combinations of words? Some favourites: “The road descended and forked among the now confused meadows” (23), “At times some birds, a horse, have saved the ruins of an amphitheatre” (14). In the intro, Gibson states that Borges was a poet and this makes a lot of sense. I did a bit of a deep dive into his poetry (eg. ‘Adam Cast Forth’, ‘Elegy’, ‘A Compass’, etc.) and enjoyed it a lot more than his long-form writing. I think because it’s more digestible in a shorter, more intentionally poetic form? Or maybe because I tend to read more poetry than novels. And yeah, maybe I shouldn’t cast such harsh judgement on a style of writing simply because I don’t understand or can’t relate to it—we all like different things. We appreciate different forms and ways of manipulating language. This one just really wasn’t for me. I did, however, like how the lengths of sentences varied. He has a unique (and poetic) sense of rhythm, which is probably how I made it through the pages to begin with. The cadence is easy to fall into if you let yourself, though I imagine this translator had a beast of a job with this novel. Kudos to them.
I’m going to circle back to my genuine, albeit strongly worded, question from earlier—if you enjoyed this reading…why? What about it pulled you in and held your attention? And if you didn’t enjoy it, why not?
Oh God, more anger! I’m starting to fear Tuesday and Thursday…
For what it’s worth, I believe that almost all the stories we are reading (except, that is, “Borges and I”) were written while he could still see enough to write. But yes, he had quite a mind.
You know, you don’t have to love every book… that’s OK… but I will try to show you all why the people who love it, do so. Perhaps they are intrigued by what happens when you start to feel you are indeed losing your mind? Many of the figures in these stories are, after all, a little disturbed in one way or another, even perhaps beyond the point of reason. How do people get to that state? Do they sometimes lose their reason *through* reason… is there something unreasonable in reason itself? I think Borges thinks there is…
Oh, and I love your tags this week! Haha!
Hi Neko! I want to start off by saying reading your blog was truly leaps and bounds more enjoyable than reading Borges, and in a way I think this blog healed a part of me that was angered and damaged by this book. (In response to your comment on my blog, yes I am *that* Julia you talked with in class). I am grateful that someone else shares my viewpoint (read: hatred) of this text, as it makes me feel a little bit less like I am losing my mind.
I liked your points about a) how this book felt a little egotistical in the way Borges seemed to be caught up in an insane world I couldn’t crack and b) how many people love this book. I read the intro too and was shocked that this is so widely regarded as a masterpiece because that means at least one person understood its unending drivel (or perhaps they’re lying just to make themselves look cooler by loving something so far-out). It’s not even bad in a way I can understand how someone could enjoy it, it just seems utterly incomprehensible and I am so sad I will never get all those hours spent reading this back. Look forward to chatting more with you on Tuesday!
Hey!
First off, I loved the way you described this book. Though, I found the reading to be my favorite so far! Maybe it’s because I am in Philosophy so I’m naturally more inclined to appreciate his kind of writing and the themes present, but I actually really enjoyed having the challenge of understanding the stories and also just the weirdness of it all! It made it a more excitable read for me, and I just love things that are unconventional that I don’t fully understand anyway.
I think this deserves an award for best blog post of SPAN312 this semester!
I actually (mostly) liked this book! But I could see where you’re coming from, 100%- Borges is definitely pretentious and the “woah, this is so intellectual” hype is a bit exaggerated in my opinion. I agree with Nandita, I do think I enjoyed this more because I’m interested in philosophy though.
Hey Neko,
Wow, what a post. I love how honest you were with this. The anger, the hatred, and those tags. I also found Borges’s work confusing, but I like short stories like these tales because I wasn’t super invested in the work. Sometimes when I pick up a book, I have trouble sleeping at night because I have to know what happens on the next page, and before I know it, Im up all night reading. There was this one case, I dont even remember the name of the book, but it was a heartbreaking story about a girl getting abused, and I remember crying and reading the story all night long because I could not leave the rest unknown. With these short stories, I was able to read a couple and then come back the next day to read some more, but honestly, it is not as enjoyable when you are not interested or hooked in the stories, so to answer your question— I did not really enjoy this reading either.