More Borges! Funes and Ruins, Asterion and Aleph

[johncwright]

This is a review of four more baffling short stories by Jorge Luis Borges, a writer of great power, subtlety, craft and intellect, who was cheated of the Nobel Prize for literature, to the everlasting shame of that corrupt and partisan award.

I adduce these reviews to my previous (first part is here http://johncwright.livejournal.com/329660.html)

Comments

[geeklady]

I think it would be quite horrible actually, to have such a perfect, eidetic memory like the one described. How could you stay sane if you had such ability to replay all the worst, most shameful moments in your life?

[marycatelli]

also, you would think yourself surrounded by horrible liars because when people forget, you remember. especially when they make promises and don't carry through and deny ever having done it.

Still more when they confabulate the events, which apparently we do a lot.

[geeklady]

Married couples are quite familiar with confabulated events, I'm afraid

[marycatelli]

Now -- imagine you could know for a fact that the other person is not telling the truth as it really was. And since you do not suffer from confabulated memories yourself, your instinctive reaction is that he's lying.

[marycatelli]

Err -- you've never heard before that magical realism is fantasy for people who don't want to admit that they read fantasy?

[fpb]

Funes the Memorious gave me nightmares. I don't think there has ever been a better or more nightmarish conception in literature.

Agreed

[johncwright]

If there is a more nightmarish conception in literature, it would no doubt be another conception from the pen of Borges, such as his infinite book that can never be read, or his aleph of uncapturable inspiration hidden in the cellar of a mediocre poet.

For me, the most nightmarish conception might be the idea of the world turning into Tlön, a place where no objects have identity and philosophy is merely a past-time meant to astonish.