Borges Jorge Luis, one of the most imaginative writers I have encountered, could have been a mathematician, a physicist or a philosopher. Borges's Labyrinths (1962) is divided into three parts; fiction, essays, and parables. All three sections consist of stories of ideas, a mixture of fact and fiction. Borges' articulation of his work allows the reader to move throughout the passages fluently effortlessly; however, some of his writing can be frustrating to understand.
"I do not know which of us has written this page" (247).
"I is not quite Borges, and Borges is not quite I" (lecture).
To read Labyrinth is to immerse oneself in a magical world where the notion of infinity appears in space and time, where the boundaries between dream and reality fade, where past and future converge in an instant, where levels of text overlap each other, where fiction imitates nonfiction, where life becomes drama on stage.
Furthermore, trying to understand the novel after a few pages was difficult for me as someone who speaks English as my second language. However, not only do I speak multiple languages, but also his complex ideas and vocabulary are quite enigmatic. For instance, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius is a short story about an encyclopedia article on an unknown place called "Uqbar," where a national had declared that "mirrors and copulation are abominable" (37). All the vocabulary Borges chose is way too challenging to comprehend the content. I translated many words into Japanese; however, I could not find a direct meaning in Japanese either.
Moreover, I believe that Borges' references to Labyrinths was intended to convey how complex and impenetrable the world is and how nearly impossible it is to know with any absolute certainty. If we look at the period in which Borges was alive, from 1899 to 1986, we immediately notice its significance. He lived through both World Wars and the Cold War. In this sense, Borges is the quintessential 20th-century writer. More than anyone else, he shows in his writing how the events of his time defined his ideology and its modern and post-modern aspects.
In conclusion, Borges' masterpieces resonate with his creativity, and each short story is a snapshot of his endless erudition and imagination. My recommendation is for those who are interested in philosophy, specifically in areas where they can study the boundaries between fact and fiction, text and interpreter, and contemplate the nature of the infinities, they should attend a first-year English course or this course.
Question: I acknowledge this is fiction, yet do you think Uqbar is real?
"All the vocabulary Borges chose is way too challenging to comprehend the content."
ReplyDeleteCan you give some examples? It would be grand to look at some particular words, and think about how they are working (or not) within the text as a whole.
And do you have a question for us?
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing with us.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about the questioning or misunderstanding of the language that Borges used. A lot of us, if not all of us, struggled with his higher language and philosophical ideas. But I guess that is part of the game. Some readers enjoy figuring out what is happening and others get lost at the attempt.
To answer your question, I don't think Uqbar is a real place but I think it temporarily is while we read that story. Our attempt in understanding it possibly creates it in an imaginative and temporal space.
Hey Chiko! Your comments on his personal experiences and interpretation of his philosophies is really thought provoking :). To answer your question, I don’t think Ulqbar is a real place, more so because I don’t think the idea of what’s “real” or not is something that has a clear distinction to Borges. So in some sense a fake place can be “real” and a “real” place can be fake.
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