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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 86 KB, 400x526, Jorge Luis Borges.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1863187 No.1863187 [Reply] [Original]

"It is a laborious madness and an impoverishing one, the madness of composing vast books - setting out in five hundred pages an idea that can be perfectly related orally in five minutes. The better way to go about it is to pretend that those books already exist, and offer a summary, a commentary on them."
-Jorge Luis Borges

What does /lit/ think about this?

>> No.1863195

I wouldn't take it that seriously

>> No.1863224

some things can't be adequately expressed in five minutes.

but point taken, borges. gg

>> No.1863228

Borges spoke Spanish. Obviously he didn't say that.

>> No.1863236

If you've read Borges, you know how well it works for him.
It's just his personal style though, and doesn't hold true for all authors, of course. For many, to borrow a cliche, it's not a matter of the ending but how you reach it. Borges was amazing at realizing unique ideas that blended fantasy and reality into magical realism. But he was a poet, not a novelist.

>> No.1863240

>>1863228

"Es una locura laborioso y empobrecedor uno, la locura de componer vastos libros - que establece en 500 páginas una idea que puede estar perfectamente relacionadas oralmente en cinco minutos. La mejor manera de hacerlo es pretender que esos libros ya existen y ofrecer un resumen, un comentario sobre ellos."
-Jorge Luis Borges

>> No.1863383

>>1863240

Can someone post the interpretation of this?

>> No.1863387

>>1863187

I like writing that trims the fat, and people who read long, overwritten books are the devil. I have no respect for them. If a book doesn't evoke an emotional response from you, you're wasting your time.

>> No.1863401

It's the OP in the original Spanish, you fucking savage beast. Does no-one speak anything other than English on this fucking board? Fucking yanks. Fuck em.

>> No.1863405
File: 26 KB, 151x170, gdgsdfgsd.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1863405

>>1863401

Problem?

>> No.1863414

>>1863387
>can't have an emotional response to long books

What?

>> No.1863421

>>1863414

Too much tv and films in his/her early life, but it can be fixed with meditation.

>> No.1863422

If you can't make your point in fewer than 100 pages, then you've got no point. If you can't tell a story in fewer than 20 pages, you've got no story.

Fucking 1000 page books. Spare me.

>> No.1863424

>>1863401
I'm not sure, but I think you just got trolled.

>> No.1863425

>>1863422
>implying Ulysses could be less than 100 pages

Do it. We'll wait.

>> No.1863432

>>1863425
>implying Ulysses has point

>> No.1863434

What does it gain from being longer? Self-indulgent language games, pointless reconstructions and endless repetition. The stock-in-trade of the modernist doorstop.

Fuck Ulysses, it's toss. I hate myself for being so pretentious about it when I was young.

>> No.1863453

>>1863432
>implying it doesn't
>implying you've read it

>> No.1863532

>>1863453
>implying implications

>> No.1863567

>>1863187
>What does /lit/ think about this?
I think that if Borges said it, it's probably true, and if you disagree with it, then you should rearrange your manner of thinking until you find a way to agree with it that doesn't compromise your own principles.

>> No.1863576

Well, everybody has their own ways of expressing themselves. Borges had the skill to summarize ideas in short sentences. Good for him. Some people don't. Most of the people don't have the godly writing skills Borges had.

>> No.1863582

"It is a laborious madness and an impoverishing one, the madness of composing a vast life- setting out in 80 years an idea that can be perfectly related in 25. The better way to go about it is to pretend that those years already exist, and offer a summary, a commentary on them."

>> No.1863584

the problem with this is it implies the point of literature is some grand philosophical idea behind it is required. if a book is high in aesthetic, why not be as long as it can maintain the aesthetic for?

>> No.1863604
File: 107 KB, 437x333, you_re_gay.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1863604

>>1863584

Because that's just gay, and if you disagree, then you have the gay as well.

>> No.1863624

>>1863187

FUCK YOU FUCKING SAMEFAG WE'RE NOT GOING TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK FOR YOU

>> No.1863633
File: 61 KB, 580x923, Zyzz,_seeking_a_cab_ride_to_Mount_Olympus.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1863633

>>1863584

>aesthetic

>> No.1863634

>>1863401
Except the English phrase was just fed into an online translator so the Spanish is at best barely readable. But you'd know that if you actually spoke Spanish.

>> No.1863641

>>1863401

>guy speaks only Spanish
>other guy speaks only English
>guy who speaks only English a savage beast
>guy who speaks only Spanish a noble hero

>> No.1863657

i think it depends on the kind of book.
"you see it is then, in this most beautiful moment, that moment that was so beautiful. the moment whose beauty was full. full of beauty. you fool. that he discovered that the pen was red." is just about as shitty as "once upon a time the end."
too short is just as bad as too long, and they are both inferior to 'just right.' and just right will be, to the absolute greatest extent, completely subjective.

>> No.1863660

Ulysses is, in many ways, a spectacularly written example of how not to write a novel.

>> No.1863736

Kill everyone in this thread while I jetpack to safety.

I saw one lucid comment about Borges and then a shit load of vomit and baby poo.