/lit/ - Literature

im young and nonamerican btw

I just finished the first half of Ficciones and Borges is really good

Do you consider Borges a horror writer? There is a sense of existential dread I get from his fiction that no one else really captures in the same way.

Currently reading a short story collection by Borges (Ficciones) and most of them are just fictional essays or literary reviews and I don't get the appeal at all. What do you all like about it?

Where do I start with borges? What's his best work?

Does such a thing as an original literature character even exist?
Bonus round: Do original characters exist in the real world?

Where do I start with Borges?

fuck your dfw and your pynchonu. He was the only american genius of the late 20th century.

OH NO HE'S HOT

>>8567210
No, you're thinking of Cervantes.

Was going to say Borges, then I found this

>>6994330
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in College Calvin, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Uqbar, and I have constructed over 300 labyrinths. I am trained in teleological argument and I'm the top librarian in the entire Argentine Library system. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with a New Refutation of Time the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting Adolfo Bioy Casares and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the mirrors, gaucho. The mirrors that wipe out the pathetic notion you call perception. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can regurgitate a philosophical argument in over seven hundered ways, and that's just in one story. Not only am I extensively trained in literary criticism, but I have access to my father's home library and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass of the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you would have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring upon you, maybe you would've held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. Let heaven exist, even if your place is hell. You're fucking dead, kiddo.

What do you think of Jorge Luis Borges' favorites list? Keep in mind when he was alive he was one of the most well read people in the world.

1. Julio Cortázar, Stories.
2 & 3. The Apocryphal Gospels.
4. Franz Kafka, Amerika; Short Stories.
5. G. K. Chesterton, The Blue Cross and Other Stories.
6 & 7. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone.
8. Maurice Maeterlink, The Intelligence of Flowers.
9. Dino Buzzati, The Desert of the Tartars.
10. Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt; Hedda Gabler
11. J. M. Eça de Queiroz, The Mandarin.
12. Leopoldo Lugones, The Jesuit Empire.
13. André Gide, The Counterfeiters.
14. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine; The Invisible Man.
15. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths.
16 & 17. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons.
18. E. Kasner & J. Newman, Mathematics and the Imagination.
19. Eugene O'Neill, The Great God Brown; Strange Interlude; Mourning Becomes Electra.
20. Ariwara no Narihara, Tales of Ise.
21. Herman Melville, Benito Cereno; Billy Budd; Bartleby the Scrivener.
22. Giovanni Papini, The Tragic Everyday; The Blind Pilot; Words and Blood.
23. Arthur Machen, The Three Impostors.
24. Fray Luis de León, tr., The Song of Songs.
25. Fray Luis de León, An Explanation of the Book of Job.
26. Joseph Conrad, The End of the Tether; Heart of Darkness.
27. Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
28. Oscar Wilde, Essays and Dialogues.
29. Henri Michaux, A Barbarian in Asia.
30. Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game.
31. Arnold Bennett, Buried Alive.
32. Claudius Elianus, On the Nature of Animals.
33. Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class.
34. Gustave Flaubert, The Temptation of St. Anthony.
35. Marco Polo, Travels.
36. Marcel Schwob, Imaginary Lives.
37. George Bernard Shaw, Caesar an Cleopatra; Major Barbara; Candide.
38. Francisco de Quevedo, Marcus Brutus; The Hour of All.
39. Eden Phillpots, The Red Redmaynes.
40. Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling.
41. Gustav Meyrink, The Golem.
42. Henry James, The Lesson of the Master; The Figure in the Carpet; The Private Life.
43 & 44. Herodotus, The Nine Books of History.
45. Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo.
46. Rudyard Kipling, Tales.
47. William Beckford, Vathek.
48. Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders.
49. Jean Cocteau, The Professional Secret and Other Texts.
50. Thomas De Quincey, The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant and Other Stories.
51. Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Prologue to the Work of Silverio Lanza.
52. The Thousand and One Nights.
53. Robert Louis Stevenson, New Arabian Nights, Markheim.
54. Léon Bloy, Salvation for the Jews; The Blood of the Poor; In the Darkness.
55. The Bhagavad-Gita; The Epic of Gilgamesh.
56. Juan José Arreola, Fantastic Stories.
57. David Garnett, Lady into Fox; A Man in the Zoo; The Sailor's Return.
58. Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels.
59. Paul Groussac, Literary Criticism.
60. Manuel Mujica Láinez, The Idols.
61. Juan Ruiz, The Book of Good Love.
62. William Blake, Complete Poetry.
63. Hugh Wadpole, Above the Dark Circus.

What do you think of Jorge Luis Borges' favorites list? Keep in mind when he was alive he was one of the most well read people in the world.

1. Julio Cortázar, Stories.
2 & 3. The Apocryphal Gospels.
4. Franz Kafka, Amerika; Short Stories.
5. G. K. Chesterton, The Blue Cross and Other Stories.
6 & 7. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone.
8. Maurice Maeterlink, The Intelligence of Flowers.
9. Dino Buzzati, The Desert of the Tartars.
10. Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt; Hedda Gabler
11. J. M. Eça de Queiroz, The Mandarin.
12. Leopoldo Lugones, The Jesuit Empire.
13. André Gide, The Counterfeiters.
14. H. G. Wells, The Time Machine; The Invisible Man.
15. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths.
16 & 17. Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons.
18. E. Kasner & J. Newman, Mathematics and the Imagination.
19. Eugene O'Neill, The Great God Brown; Strange Interlude; Mourning Becomes Electra.
20. Ariwara no Narihara, Tales of Ise.
21. Herman Melville, Benito Cereno; Billy Budd; Bartleby the Scrivener.
22. Giovanni Papini, The Tragic Everyday; The Blind Pilot; Words and Blood.
23. Arthur Machen, The Three Impostors.
24. Fray Luis de León, tr., The Song of Songs.
25. Fray Luis de León, An Explanation of the Book of Job.
26. Joseph Conrad, The End of the Tether; Heart of Darkness.
27. Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
28. Oscar Wilde, Essays and Dialogues.
29. Henri Michaux, A Barbarian in Asia.
30. Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game.
31. Arnold Bennett, Buried Alive.
32. Claudius Elianus, On the Nature of Animals.
33. Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class.
34. Gustave Flaubert, The Temptation of St. Anthony.
35. Marco Polo, Travels.
36. Marcel Schwob, Imaginary Lives.
37. George Bernard Shaw, Caesar an Cleopatra; Major Barbara; Candide.
38. Francisco de Quevedo, Marcus Brutus; The Hour of All.
39. Eden Phillpots, The Red Redmaynes.
40. Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling.
41. Gustav Meyrink, The Golem.
42. Henry James, The Lesson of the Master; The Figure in the Carpet; The Private Life.
43 & 44. Herodotus, The Nine Books of History.
45. Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo.
46. Rudyard Kipling, Tales.
47. William Beckford, Vathek.
48. Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders.
49. Jean Cocteau, The Professional Secret and Other Texts.
50. Thomas De Quincey, The Last Days of Emmanuel Kant and Other Stories.
51. Ramón Gómez de la Serna, Prologue to the Work of Silverio Lanza.
52. The Thousand and One Nights.
53. Robert Louis Stevenson, New Arabian Nights, Markheim.
54. Léon Bloy, Salvation for the Jews; The Blood of the Poor; In the Darkness.
55. The Bhagavad-Gita; The Epic of Gilgamesh.
56. Juan José Arreola, Fantastic Stories.
57. David Garnett, Lady into Fox; A Man in the Zoo; The Sailor's Return.
58. Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels.
59. Paul Groussac, Literary Criticism.
60. Manuel Mujica Láinez, The Idols.
61. Juan Ruiz, The Book of Good Love.
62. William Blake, Complete Poetry.
63. Hugh Wadpole, Above the Dark Circus.

1/2

Borges is like nothing I've ever read before. I heard he was one of the most well read people in the world when he was alive. Is his style a result of that?