As we begin our discussions on the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges, I wanted to post some clarifications, and a location–this post–where we can add our reflections. Please feel free to also add your discussion questions to this post ahead of time, if you would like your classmates to see them before your discussion time.
First, the clarifications as to what your discussion topics should include:
- Analysis of time and place in the story.
- What was easy to understand and what was difficult in relation to social and cultural context and issues.
- Connections between issues in the work and our own culture(s) and experiences.
- Aspects of style and technique
- Insights that you have researched / Supplemental discussion ideas (see handout)
- Ideas or visuals that will further our understanding and discussion of the short story.
In addition to leading one discussion over the course of our Borges unit, every student will write and post two reflections below. These reflections will each be between 300-400 words in length. One reflection needs to be posted immediately after the discussion of the short story your are responsible for, and one needs to be posted after our concluding discussion of the unit. Both should address the following question:
How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the discussion?
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
“Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” Discussion Questions
1. If you had to describe and summarize this short story to a friend in a couple sentences, what would you say? What genre of literature would you describe this story as being a part of, and why?
2. When was the last time you consulted an analog encyclopedia? What are the current tools for consulting reference material? In what ways are they different, more advanced, more limiting? Can we still “stumble upon” hidden facts and entries like Borges did? Did anyone try to look up “Uqbar” or “Tlön”?
3. Who does the narrator hypothesize created Tlön? Why is this important?
4. “Copulation and mirrors are abominable. For one of those gnostics1, the visible universe was an illusion or, more precisely, a sophism2. Mirrors and fatherhood are abominable because they multiply and extend it” (Volume XLVI of The Anglo-American Cyclopedia).
Why is this excerpt from the entry on “Uqbar” important? What theme or central motif does it develop in the story?
5. What do the inhabitants of Tlön think about psychology, materialism, and geometry? How does this relate to its creation?
6. The narrator also specifies how the “literary matters” in Tlön are different from our current world. In what ways are they different with regard to translation, works of literature, criticism, and how does this relate to the attitude of the inhabitants of Tlön? In what ways does this also relate to the translation exercises that we just completed?
7. What is Borges trying to say when he writes that our world is being slowly conformed to the ideas of Tlön and that “A scattered dynasty of recluses has changed the face of the earth?” How can you relate the act of creating the world of Tlön to your own experiences as students in Norway? What are examples of control that you have over the recording of your own “world,” or narrative?
8. Why did Borges choose to divide the story into two sections and a “postscript”? What does the postscript indicate about Parts I and II? How do we reconcile this story with the introductory statement to the prologue of the short story collection: “The eight pieces of this book do not require extraneous elucidation.” (“Las siete piezas de este libro no requieren mayor elucidación”). If this is the first ambitious story in the collection “The Garden of the Forking Paths,” what do you anticipate the other stories will be about?
9. What do you think is one of the messages that Borges is trying to convey through this story? Consider the fact that Borges himself was the directorship of the National Public Library of Argentina (Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina).
10. How does this story help to introduce and relate to our thematic focus?
Are the stories of Borges truly prophetic? After the research and discussion that I led on “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” I am becoming more and more convinced that they are, and that although they take place in a fantasy world–or at least involve smart people attempting to create a fantasy world–they are indicative of contemporary society more than anyone could have imagined when published in 1941. “Tlön” imagines a world created by “secret society,” a “scattered dynasty of recluses” who fashion at first a country, then a series of reference guides that provide precise information on all aspects of the world (philosophy, mathematics, language, etc.), and finally a world so believable that it begins to intrude upon reality.
As a class, we brainstormed some ways in which we are currently experiencing similar ideas, including to what extent we have control over our own “narratives,” and to what extent they are labyrinthine. Social media outlets (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and the like) give us opportunities to construct our narratives more or less as we see fit. We discussed how Facebook just released a timeline feature that strings these events together, telling the published story of our lives, or at least our lives that began their existence with an online account. Weblogs were designed to give people a technology whereby they could write a journal for others to read. And online environments consisting of avatars and alternate realities seem to mimic the fascination that the creators of Tlön had with fashioning something new.
Alas, in the end of the short story, the narrator (someone who sounds suspiciously like Borges himself) concludes that “Tlön may be a labyrinth, but it is a labyrinth plotted by men, a labyrinth destined to be deciphered by men.” In many ways this statement seems like the best descriptor of the World Wide Web that I will ever find–something that is growing exponentially large and complex, but something that it’s “creators” are attempting to control. Much like the artifacts from Tlön that sneak their way into reality–a compass and a coin made out of an otherworldly material–we now have access to etexts of books and websites all with a simple Googling, an action that is in reality a search algorithm that has now become part of our zeitgeist, taking us far beyond it’s pattern of 1’s and 0’s.
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The Circular Ruins
After the discussion in today’s class on Jorge Luis Borges ‘The Circular Ruins’, and my personal studies I find believe more and more that although it seems to represent a fantasy world, it actually represents a part of society, as each of his novellas may. ‘The Circular Ruins’ can be thought of as representing our, as a society’s, inability to truly accept who we are without any will to improve or aspiration to be someone or something else. I believe the discussion will also help me remember the important details of the novellas, also being able to document them will be beneficial.
There were some parts within the story, which I found at times difficult to understand, yet felt that my idea of the story was solidified throughout the discussion. We explored the idea that the Wizard symbolized our will for perception, we also looked at a real life example, which was the modification of genes in unborn children to modify for instance eye colour, to what their parents find most attractive. This can be applied to the Wizard trying to create his ‘perfect’ son, through his dreams, yet at the end of the novella we realize that he too is a fragment of another’s imagination. Borges obviously has a fascination with the infinite, as it seems that there may be an infinite amount of persons dreaming of their ideal person, the dreamt person dreaming of their ideal person and so on.
Exploring the title of the novella, we may consider Ruins to symbolize his actions as detrimental to himself, that always wanting to be someone else may slowly break down one’s spirit. The Circular, may represent the constant repetitive nature of the illusion, I believe The, also plays a big part in the title’s importance, symbolizing that it is an actual the illusion is almost tangible, a ‘noun’ or process. At the end of the novel, the last few sentences almost represents the Wizards (perhaps Borges sees himself as the Wizard) epiphany that he and his ideals were illusions, as he ‘walks towards the sheets of flame’ representing his fear of letting go. And that ‘escaping’ or ‘realising’ his own existence as unchangeable is a sort of freeing of himself, realising that he cannot change himself, and that he may be the perfection of someone else.
(Circa 400 words)
After reading and discussing ‘The Library of Babel’ I’m beginning to think that, although there is no such thing as an infinite library built up of an infinite number of hexagonal galleries, there are aspects of this story that can be related back to our life in the real world. Like how you cannot know the meaning of your life or what is going to happen until you live yourself, much like the men in the book who tired to find ‘their’ book. Also in many ways, the internet can be thought of like and infinite and periodic library of information. And these days hardly anybody goes to the library for information, they go on the internet in stead.
In the discussion we also talked about the idea of Language and how although we use it for communication, sometimes even when people speak the same language there are often miscommunications, as no two people see something in the exact same way. This is also represented in the story as many of the books are written in letters or symbols that are impossible to understand. Even the title relates to this, as “Babel” is a biblical reference to the tower of Babel which resulted in god creating many different languages in order to cause confusion amongst men. ?We also discussed the way the Borges chose to end the story on an slightly contradicting foot note, and his fascination was all things infinite. I believe that the library in itself is a labyrinth as it is infinite and many of the books contain puzzles that you have to work out for yourself. When I first read the story by myself I found the idea of a world inside this infinite library, which seems to have no way out, other than to fall thorough infinity, hard to fathom, but after the discussion it seemed more clear to me, and I could picture it more easily. In addition we discussed how so far, the stories we have read by Borges has seemed more like intricate, fantasy think-pieces, that are actually hard to label as being from one specific genre of story. However I can see how the story relates to our thematic focus, because the library would have an infinite number of ideas and possibilities in it an, as I said before is in itself, a labyrinth.
(394 words)
Rachel and Selma got us off to a good start–both with the discussions they led, and the reflections that they posted above. Their reflections respond to their “understanding of cultural and contextual considerations” in the short stories that we discussed, which is exactly what we need to be doing.
I look forward to the rest of the discussions that we have scheduled.
Discussion Questions for “The Babylon Lottery”
1. What are some of the details of the rules of the Babylon Lottery that apply well to chance in life?
2. How does the narrator’s introduction relate to Borges’ ideas about chance? Why is it so effective?
3. How does Borges attempt to make his fantasy story documentary-like and factual? Why?
4. To what extent do the use of references support this?
5. Did you find the story confusing? Is this intentional, if so, why?
6. What do your interpretation of the story? What does the Babylon Lottery represent?
7. What effects does Borges’ style have on the story?
8. What does the Company essentially represent when applied to our own lives?
9. How did you interpret the ending, with him stating that Babylon is “nothing but an infinite game of chance” when he has been arguing the existence of the Company throughout?
Discussion Questions for “The Garden of Forking Paths”
1. Do you believe that time might move sideways, as well as going forward?
2. What real life situations can this story be related to?
3. What do you think is the main theme of this story? Why is it important?
4. What do you think is the significance of Tsun’s great-grandfather’s book and labyrinth in The Garden of Forking Paths?
5. Is there a reason for the woman dressed in mourning, young boy reading Tacitus Annals, or the wounded, happy soldier mentioned on page 69?
6. Why might Tsun have decided not to destroy the letter in his pocket? Do you think it might have a relation to the letter that Albert found?
7. What did Tsun’s great-grandfather mean when he wrote “I leave to the various future times, but not to all, my garden of forking paths”? Which future’s might not be left the garden? Why?
8. What is meant by Tsun when he says that “all things happen, happen to one, precisely now. Century follows century, and things happen only in the present”?
9. Why did Tsun offer the advice that “Whoever would undertake some atrocious enterprise should act as if it were already accomplished, should impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past”?
10. When Albert says “in a guessing game to which the answer is chess, which word is the only one prohibited?” Yu Tsun replies “The word is chess.” Do you think there is a prohibited word which is also the solution in Borges’ story?
11. Do you think that anything was lost with Albert’s life?
12. What was something you felt was an important part of this story?
13. How did the boys at the train station know that Tsun was going to Albert’s house?
14. Could the fact that Tsun believes that the future already exists whereas his great-grandfather said that there are multiple realities have had an impact on the outcome of the story? What idea does Borges promote?
15. Do you think it was a coincidence that Albert was a Sinologist?
Discussion Questions for “The Immortal”
1. Why do you think that the Troglodyte followed Rufus to the city of Immortals? Who do you think he is?
2. Are there any symbols that manifested itself when you read about the way, from the town of the Troglodytes, to the city of Immortals, and when Rufus was inside it?
3. Who is really the Immortal of the story?
4. Why did the Troglodyte who had followed Rufus suddenly attain speech when the rain came?
5. ‘The concept of the world as a system of precise compensations influenced the Immortals vastly. In the first place, it made them invulnerable to pity.’ Why do you think being immortal made them invulnerable to pity?
6. When the Immortal arrived at the Eritrean coast, and tasted the waters there, why did he become so happy to be mortal once more?
7. How would you feel if you became immortal yourself?
Emma Zunz Discussion questions
1. How does “Emma Zunz” differ from the other Borges stories we have read?
2. Both labyrinths and mazes are a common motif in Borges’ work. Are there any examples of labyrinths/mazes (physical or mental) within Emma Zunz? And is there presence – or lack of, intentional, if so, why?
3. Were there any sections in the story you took particular notice to (highlighted, thought about, etc.)?
4. How does the time
5. Do you think Emma’s plan turned out precisely the way she thought it would? If not, how did it change?
6. Do you think Emma’s motive for killing Loewenthal stayed the same throughout the story?
7. “The arduous events are outside of time, either because the immediate past is as if disconnected from the future, or because the parts which form these events do not seem to be consecutive.” What do you think the meaning of this quotation is? How does it connect to the other ideas we have read in previous Borges short stories?
8. The prologue tells us that the final paragraph is the key to unlock the story, does the final sentence change the way you view the story? Why/or why not?
9. In what genre would you classify this short story?
10. Written in a particular way, the name “Emma Zunz” could be a Palindrome. Do you think that this is intentional or coincidental? And what possible effect would this have on the story?
I wanted to add a link to a post I wrote last year about plays-in-plays, which we touched on at the end of class today:
http://mrquale.com/2011/05/01/plays-in-plays-what-happens-when-fiction-lives-in-fiction/
Discussing “The Garden of Forking Paths” as a class helped to clarify a few things that I hadn’t originally understood, and even made me loose my understanding of things that I felt I did understand. Normally, this wouldn’t be a result of a discussion, but I’ve found that one of Borges’ goals seems to be to confuse his readers. I don’t think he wants us to completely understand. This method he uses gives you an “infinite” amount of options for interpreting the book.
One thing we talked about was the possibility of time moving “sideways.” This is interesting because it means that there would have to be an infinite amount of alternate universes, with the same people that had made different choices. The number of these “universes” would grow every time somebody was faced with a decision.
We came up with a few ideas of what the theme might be, including “infinite options” and “labyrinth of time.” I think these could be a theme for a few of his other stories as well.
In the story, Albert and Tsun talked about the word in his great-grandfathers book that could be considered to be the solution of the book; “time.” We thought about the possibilities of there being a prohibited word in Borges’ book, such as “fate” or “options.”
Tsun’s grandfather said “I leave to the various future times, but not to all, my garden of forking paths.” At first, I thought this meant that the garden would only be available to those who made a choice that lead them to it, but after some discussion we found that it might be more complex than that. Maybe he wasn’t actually leaving the garden as a gift, but was physically leaving the garden himself. Maybe he found the way out of this labyrinth he had created. When he said he was only leaving it to some future times, it could be a reference back to the idea that time moves sideways as well as forward. In that way he would only go to the future times that his choices lead him to, because once a choice is made you have lost the chance of having the future that the alternate choices would have given you. This leads me to the hypothesis of the garden being a metaphor for life, and the forking paths a metaphor for the choices one could make.
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Discussion Questions for “Death and the Compass”
1. Would you class “Death and the Compass” as a detective novel? How is it similar/different to classic detective novels?
2. What is the significance of mathematics in the story, in particular the number three, and how is it connected to the other main theme: religion?
3. The 99 Hebrew names for God are described as incomplete, relating this to Borge’s 1001 nights lecture, why is the 100th name for God absolute while the 1000th night infinite?
4. “The killer and the slain, whose minds work in the same way, may be the same man” how does this quote from Borges’ commentary in “The Aleph and Other Stories” connect with the relationship between Erik Lönnrot and Red Scharlach?
5. In Judaism the Tetragrammaton is the unspeakable word for God. “The Garden of the Forking Paths” is described as an enormous guessing game in which the subject is a prohibited word. Is this connection significant?
Think about the theme of the two stories, the eventual outcome of them and who was killed in each one.
6. Consider the compass. Is this a reference to the locations of the four murders, the Tetragrammaton or the nature of the story as a whole? Or is it a combination of the three and if so is one more important than the other?
7. In many of Borge’s stories he uses the idea of infinite possibilities or parallel universes however in “Death and the Compass” Lönnrot’s actions follow a set pattern. How does this link to a labyrinth in the traditional sense and also can this idea be applied to reality?
8. Consider the following things:
a. Red Scharlach states to Lönnrot that the next time he kills him the labyrinth will be, “made of [a] single straight line which is invisible and everlasting”,
b. Red Scharlach wove a labyrinth made up of four lines around Lönnrot to trap him,
c. He also describes the world as a, “labyrinth, from which it is impossible to flee, for all paths…actually lead to Rome”,
In these situations can it still be considered a labyrinth? How is it similar/different to the labyrinths in other Borge’s stories?
9. What do you think is meant by the expression, “a symmetrical and periodic death”?
Borges’ comparison of the incalculable play between chance and fate and the drawings in a lottery is a simple, yet effective way to convey the complicated concepts that lay underneath his labyrinthine short stories. His intentions are often hard to decipher and him stating that “the number of drawings is infinite“ applies quite well to the fact that there is no definite interpretation of his stories, and through the discussion I found a lot of my views on the story expanded upon and also got to explore it from other viewpoints, which was fascinating. The idea of the Company being representative of the extent to which we are surrounded and often unconsciously affected by media was something I never thought of, an aspect that demonstrates just how timeless Borges’ short story truly is.
In our discussion, we considered different choices that the author made while constructing the story; the complex language, for example, was related back to the time period and enhanced the authenticity of the story. We also looked at stylistic choices that contributed to the reliability of the story, one of them being the first person narrator, which successfully engaged the reader through a lot of reflective questions. Also, the introduction was particularly interesting, as at first it seemed out of place with its broad summarization of seemingly random events, but when looked at closely, it serves the story well by offering a glimpse of just how infinite the combinations of possibilities are, which rings true to the concept of the innumerable drawings offered by the lottery in Babylon.
Throughout the short story, the narrator seems to attempt a neutral viewpoint of the whole matter with the Company; it’s presented as a story that might or might not be true, the reader is let into a fantasy-like world that is, subtly, metaphoric to their own world in many ways. But ultimately we are led from imagination to reality when the problematic situation of the story becomes our own concern, as the idea of our every action being secretly manipulated by some all-consuming nameless corporation is doubtlessly a rather unpleasant one. After reading some of Borges’ other works, it can be concluded that the conscious fading from fantasy to reality seems to be a prominent trend; his dreamy tales are always layered upon brutal philosophical questions with infinite number of answers, which should provide some explanation as to why his stories are still so modern more than fifty years after they were first published.
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1. Do you think it was a coincidence that Juan was an Argentinian library secretary? Why do you think Borges did this?
2. How is the theme of destiny and fate developed throughout the story?
3. What is the significance of the story 1001 Arabian Nights, and why does Juan seem to be so interested in it?
4. How does his time in the hospital change Juan’s personality and character?
5. How are the events in the hospital used as foreshadowing to the end of the story?
6. What do you think is meant by the quote: “man lives in time, in succession, while the magical animal lives in the present, in the eternity of the instant?” (pg. 154)
7. How does the theme of fate and eternity relate to other stories by Borges? Think particularly about the following: “he was two men at one time” (page 155)
8. Who do you think the dark, dried up, old man in the general store really is, or who he is supposed to symbolise?
9. What do you think really happened to Juan in the end?
10. In your opinion, was the stories end really Juan’s fate, or a consequence of his new found love for adventure?
After reading “The Immortal” for the first time, I decided I’d need another reading of this piece before actually trying to understand what Borges was trying to write in this (albeit long) short story. After the second time, I began to see some meaning behind what he was writing, and the discussion we had really enhanced that I thought. The whole story was based around “The Iliad” in a way, as this story had found its way to the back of it, and we find ourselves in a bookshop in the start of the story, were we are met by a man of little features, which strangely seems like one of the Immortals.
In the discussion we came up with some good ideas regarding the book, and the favourite was of course, What would you do if you were immortal? as this sparks some interesting ideas whether we think about it a lot or not. As this was a very vague piece by J.L.B., in the sense that one could interpret the story in any number of ways imaginable, as we never got concrete evidence as to who the Immortals really was, as they were all and none, as we found out in class.
The story itself was very interesting as we are given the view of a roman soldier who is searching for the city of the immortals, in on the way there, he finds himself becoming an immortal, and Borges writes this in a way that makes us think whether he truly has become immortal, as it certainly does not seem that way, as our roman Rufus is still the same, until the meets someone who introduces himself as Homer, the writer of Odysseus, but can we really be sure this is Homer? When you’ve lived for thousands and thousands of years, how do you tell each other apart? As you live forever, you go through everything life has to offer, and in this way every person might eventually write the Odysseus, given enough time. “The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.” Is this not the same thing? (382 words)
After reading “Death and the Compass” and talking about it in class I have come to view the story as representative of the progression of Borges. As we talked about in class his earlier novels seem to deal with the infinite as a never ending series made up of choices and alternatives while in “Death and the Compass” the characters actions follow a set pattern. We compared this to the labyrinth in its traditional sense as a single, unbranching path that isn’t difficult to navigate and that leads to a centre, in this case the death of Erik Lönnrot. I think Borges, by employing this approach, was getting back to basics on his much used labyrinth theme. Another explanation could be that he was getting back to reality: demonstrating the predictability of humans who always look for connections/relationships in the world around them.
Mathematics and Religion, or more precisely Judaism, are the two main themes in the story and are both very connected. In particular we explored the repetitive use of the number three. Three is associated with the holy trinity in religion, the three sides of the mystic triangle in Judaism and the three unique symbols within the Tetragrammaton. Looking at the story as a whole everything keeps on coming back to the Tetragrammaton. This is especially interesting as it is the “unspeakable” name for God. We discussed how this was similar to “The Garden of the Forking Paths” which also deals with a forbidden word. These two stories are connected in their use of a symbolic labyrinth. In the case of “Death and the Compass” this labyrinth is used to trap Erik Lönnrot. The question with this symbolic labyrinth is whether it could actually be classed as a labyrinth given that it was only made up of four lines. We concluded that it could because it contained only one path, and also the all important centre.
“Death and the Compass” stays true to Borge’s style but with its own unique approach. The circular course of the story makes it infinite, the statement, “the next time I kill you”, suggesting this cyclic nature, rather than a series of infinite choices. Meanwhile, the labyrinth exists symbolically in its traditional form.
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Borges’ short story, “The South” was a difficult text to understand at first glance. My first time reading through it left me confused and bored, but after reading through it a second time, I noticed little details I hadn’t recognised previously. For example, how many times he referenced “1001 Arabian Nights,” or how much Juan resembled Jorge Borges himself. The third time I read through, I noticed even more details, like the foreshadowing of events, and the symbolism Borges placed throughout the story, and the significance of these discreet writing techniques. Meanwhile, in class, we were discussing the other stories, which after a fourth time reading through, I realised were all somehow linked to “The South” and Borges’ continuing theme of infinity, fate, and reality. This idea of fate created this idea of a labyrinth, that maybe life is a labyrinth itself, and when you reach the end and experience the peace there, you die. This so-called “fate” is pre-determined for you as well, so unlike a maze with many possible paths to choose from, you follow one simple path whether you realise it or not. The idea presented here can be applied to reality as well, by wondering if everything happens for a reason or not. When reading through the many times, what really seemed to draw my attention was the vocabulary and sentence structure used, as it is a translated work. I found myself repeatedly wondering what the original version said, and how it could be interpreted differently in Spanish.
In the discussion, we came up with many interesting ideas, many of which I had never even thought of. I also found even more meaning to the story, when I came to find out that a sanitarium is actually not the same thing as a hospital. This discovery provided lots of new possibilities for conclusions. We examined specific quotes in the text and related them back to other stories and tried to interpret their meanings and why Borges decided to use them. I really like the discussion groups like these because it not only gives us a way to understand stories and their concepts better, but it provides new and interesting perspectives to the same thing, and broadens our horizons on the subject.
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Emma Zunz:
The first time I read Emma Zunz, the thing that struck me the most was the different narrative style and literary devices used by Borges (including story structure, paragraph structure and word choice) in comparison to the previous short stories we have read in the class. In general, I believe that Borges prefers more think-piece or fantasy-like techniques for writing his short stories, however, with Emma Zunz I felt as though it was more “story-like” in the sense that it was (seemingly) straight forward and had a clear direction and plot. For me, it was almost like a reflex to immediately look for any connections to a labyrinth or labyrinthian ideas within the text. However, after much thought and searching, I could not find any. I found this odd, especially because it is an extremely dominate theme within all the other short stories we have read. This is why, for my second question, I asked whether there were any examples of labyrinths/mazes within Emma Zunz, and if their presences, or lack of, was intentional. Asking a question that I did not know the answer to was, in my opinion, very successful, as it gave insight to something I did not previously understand. Another thing that was curious for me, was the fact that the main character was a female, whereas in all the other stories we have discussed the main character has been a male (and in some cases, possibly even an extension of Borges’ personality).
I think that this discussion activity was very beneficial because, after you discuss a text as a group with guided questions, not only do you have the ability to share your own insights and opinions of the text, but you also begin to appreciate it more. Especially because when you’re interacting in a small group as we did, you tend to pick up the smaller ideas introduced in the work you might usually look over.