Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)

O conto favorito do meu conto favorito do meu mundo favorito; abri em uma página aleatória só pra sentir o gostinho:

"Nos hábitos literários [de Tlön] também é todo-poderosa a ideia de um sujeito único. É raro que os livros estejam assinados. Não existe o conceito de plágio: estabeleceu-se que todas as obras são obra de um único autor, que é intemporal e anônimo. A crítica tem o costume de inventar autores: escolhe duas obras distintas — o Tao Te King e as Mil e uma noites, digamos —, atribui-as a um mesmo escritor e depois determina com probidade a psicologia desse interessante homme de lettres…"

Não digo muito, basta o chapear de camadas do pequeno parágrafo: se acho que é uma piscadela do Borges pra nós, acabo por cair nos mesmos (ou bem próximo dos) hábitos literários da querida e enigmática Tlön; que não é nada mais que fruto da literatura e imaginação dos eruditos de Uqbar; Uqbar que é fruto de.... e go on… (more)

Normally I write a review after I finish reading a book. Since the bulk of my readings are novels, this makes sense. I want to know where the author is taking this story. I focus on the plot and don't want to prejudge the ending. I'm making an exception to my rule for two reasons. First is simply because this is a collection of short stories, so there is no plot. I normally avoid short stories, but a book club I belong to selected this book and I follow their lead. That allows me to be pulled out of my comfort zone and discover new things I never would have guessed I would like. Occasionally I'm disappointed. It's too early for me to say I'm disappointed here. I'll withhold my final judgement. The second reason is more important. So far, I'm having a difficult time with this book. Genius is at work here. Often when that's the case, I have a hard time following along. Is what the author has written based on reality, or is this an instance of their imagination? I wasn't looking for one yet, but I'd really like to have a companion volume, an annotated version, which researches the questions which I have no answers for. For classics, like Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, annotated versions exist. I'd sure like one for this book.

I still have not finished reading this book, but I think I'm starting to understand it a bit more. I was lost reading the first few chapters. But having read "An examination of the work of Herbert Quain" and the following chapter, "The library of Babel," I think I am making sense of it. It's written backwards. The early chapters contain many references to prior information, but because it's backwards, we have to wait till the later chapters to learn what they refer to. These are not short stories. I was wrong. They are pieces of a whole. The chapter "An examination of the work of Herbert Quain" has the key to this mystery. It describes the structure of chapters using an analogy drawn from mathematics. The initial chapter is "z" which is a function of the next few chapters "y", which in turn are functions of the next few chapters "x". Normally "x" precedes "y" which precedes "z". It further makes the case that there's not one path through this. Different combinations of "x" lead to different "y"s, and different "y"s predict "z". I've read other books that use this technique. In only one of them, Charles Baxter's "First Light", did the backwards approach add to the story. That was because the central character was an astrophysicist exploring the big bang. They, of necessity, work backwards to the "ultimate" event. Normally I find the backwards approach disorienting. I'd love to hear a good rationale for books organized backwards. I've always wondered if they were actually written in the normal forward manner, and only after they're written are they organized in the reverse order. Does anyone know?

The next chapter, "The library of Babel" showed Borges' brilliance. He imagined a library where every person in the world existed in a separate room lined with bookshelves. It extended infinitely, vertically, and as many rooms below. No one could see the full extent. The books contained combinations of 25 symbols, the lower case letters, the comma, the period, and the space. People only understood a small portion of the "words" that appeared in the books. Some of those words made sense. To others, those who understood the language in which that word made sense, they understood that word. An editor's note asserted that the original text for the Borges book was written with those lower case characters, possibly before publication and translation .

I finally finished the book. Unfortunately, Part II did not provide the enlightenment I was looking for. My hopes that I could unravel the first part of the book were dashed. I could see some brilliance in the writing. Borges was well read and had insights into religious texts and folktales embodied in The Thousand and One Nights. He focused on the historical role of Jews in the era of the birth of Christianity and in the early twentieth century. I hope someone creates an annotated version of this book. My guess is this was richer than I could fathom.… (more)