Reclusland

February 3, 2010

- Borges on The Word -

No word uttered by a god could be less than the universe, or briefer than the sum of time.


quotes —

  1. Awesome.

    Chewing on the “briefer than the sum of time” part and wondering if knowing Borges and his works may reveal more.

    Haven’t touched Borges since we read… “Labyrinths” in high school? I think we read that senior year, yeah? I don’t remember much of it, but I remember the experience / feeling the work was way above my head. Damn it, so much to read and not enough time.

    Comment by Jaimin — February 3, 2010 @ 11:57 am


  2. I’d say pick up Borges next. At least “Labyrinths” (which is a good collection of his works. you’re thinking The Garden of the Forking Paths, which is from Labyrinths). Borges doesn’t write stories, he writes stories about stories. The amount of sheer idea-possibility he can include in a few short paragraphs is inspiring.

    Shouldn’t take you too long to read, and it might be a welcome change after all the Mishima. :)

    Comment by Ian — February 3, 2010 @ 1:41 pm


  3. That was the one. Ben became a bit crazed over Borges (Mishima too, actually), but the aspects that interested him and came up for discussion while we were in Korea never really caught my interest or came up in a context that made sense to me.

    Damn it. Nabokov, Woolf, and now Borges are on the queue after Mishima.

    Comment by Jaimin — February 3, 2010 @ 3:50 pm


  4. I’d say:

    Borges, Nabokov, then Woolf, if only because Borges you will either love or hate but will get through very quickly, then Nabakov because (though I haven’t read much) he’s more enjoyable, and Woolf because I imagine she’s closer to Mishima in terms of density and head scratching. Just my 2 cents though.

    Dunno what’s in Borges to become crazed over, but that’s just me.

    If you do like Borges, let me know. I have some lectures on poetry that he gave at Haravrd that I could get to you. Great stuff on writing, irregardless of whether one writes poetry.

    Comment by Ian — February 3, 2010 @ 5:51 pm


  5. Just ordered “Collected Fictions” by Borges. This free 3-month trial of Amazon Prime has not been healthy for my budget.

    Comment by Jaimin — February 3, 2010 @ 7:00 pm


  6. Seriously. You did see my wishlist I linked to, yeah? Not to mention my bookshelves..

    “Fictions” is good, though I’ve never read it. A lot of overlap between it and “Labyrinths” though.

    Comment by Ian — February 3, 2010 @ 8:45 pm



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