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/lit/ - Literature

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622413 No.622413 [Reply] [Original]

Jorge Luis Borges, your thought on him? Personally, I found his entire Collected Fictions from the library and read through it. I really loved the recurring themes of infinity, labyrinths, dreams, mirrors, destiny, knife-fights, duels, fate. At first his style of writing was a little difficult to adjust to, but i found that i got used to it after the second story or so. As well i find his whole "introduce a fictional book/author/contemporaries and offer insights/reviews/critiques on them" approach to telling stories intriguing. My favourite stories were probably The Three Versions of Judas, The House of Asterion, The Zahir, The Library of Babel, and The Parable of the Palace

>> No.622443

I've just started Ficciones. To be perfectly honest, I think he's a bit too highbrow for my tastes

>> No.622486

My first impression was "WTF am I reading". Then I started seeing and understanding his riddles and he became one of my favorite authors. There are bits of him that are very high brow. A lot of it passed over my head, but there's also a layer to his stuff that you don't need to be widely read to catch and enjoy.

I've yet to come across a book that fucked my mind as tenderly as Ficciones.

>> No.622509

I really love Borges

>> No.622511

>>622443

I do suggest to try and work through a few more or his stories. Even if the actual writing isnt to your liking, some of the ideas put forth can really alter your perspective on things

>>622486
"I've yet to come across a book that fucked my mind as tenderly as Ficciones."
thats hilariously well put

>> No.622550

I've only read two Borges short stories.
I loved The Library of Babel.
Emma Zunz was way the fuck over my head.

>> No.622679

>>622550

yeah Emma Zunz wasnt my favourite either. it was more of a personal revenge acted on, and some quirky truth-by-proxy explanation.

theres still some stories that are beyond me, specifically i dont fully understand A Dialogue Between Dead Men and Averroes's Search

>> No.622737

Borges was the definition of highbrow literature back in Argentina. What's funny, though, is that he was sort of obsessed with gauchos and knife fights.

I'm saving to buy the 4 volumes of his annotated complete collections :3 (each book is 1000 pages long)

>> No.622754
File: 26 KB, 264x375, gaucho.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
622754

>>622737

Borges LOVED him some gauchos.

i do love his writing, but the dude seriously loved him some gauchos, knife fights and duels.

>> No.622759

Cortazar better

>> No.622765

I've always said that it's more interesting to read about Borges' story than to actually read them. The only one that I truly liked, that I actually enjoyed reading, not just the ideas and the mindfuck, was El Sur, which is amazing.

>> No.622784

I've only read Ficciones, but my favorite from that was The Circular Ruins

>> No.622799

his works were, in my opinion, pretty great stuff. the only thing that put me off was his constant mentioning of south american politics, mostly because i know fuck all about south american politics and it was totally lost on me

>> No.622909
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622909

>>622737
Argentina produces my favorite Spanish language authors like Borges and Oesterheld. The latter was a comic book writer who wrote El Eternauta and Mort Cinder. I wonder what it is that makes the place produce such interesting writers.

Image unrelated

>> No.622990

Pompous jagoffs like other pompous jagoffs. Big surprise.

>> No.623007

"Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I'd rather boast about the ones I've read."

No wonder /lit/ likes him, he's as much of a wanker as they are.

>> No.623036

>>623007
>>622990

>>implying that a discussion about an author is /lit/ being pompous

>> No.623038

>>623036
No, but the non-stop fawning is.

>> No.623213

I have been a fan of his for some time now, but the obsession by people with reading him to be cool gets annoying.

>> No.623273

read his poetry

he thought of himself more of a poet and got into short stories and what not to make money

>> No.623278

The Aleph is the most mental story I've read, I'm glad I can read him in his native language

>> No.625507

>>623213

after i started reading his book whenever people came up and asked me that same question we all get "what'chu reading?/what book is that?" i always got these blank stares. i even asked some of my more well read friends and my old english teacher i happened to bump into one day, not a clue between the lot of them. maybe your friends are just more literate than mine