Ficciones

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Because of this vagueness a couple of years ago I decided to break my rule and revisit one of my all-time favorite books, Ficciones, and the result was disappointing.

If we take as a given that time is infinite, then every possible set of realities would have a chance to play out.It’s hard to describe these stories to anyone who hasn’t read them, and harder still to back what I’m saying by way of example. Los relatos en este libro me hicieron pensar, a tal grado que llegué a darme cuenta de que no era una buena opción leerlos antes de irme a dormir porque me quedaba dándoles vueltas por un buen rato.

These stories are often elusive, twisting out of your grasp or revealing unexpected depths just when you think you’ve got a handle on them. To go on for five-hundred pages developing an idea whose perfect oral exposition is possible in a few minutes! This twenty page story (the longest in the book) is so abstruse and heavily laden with philosophical ideas and allusions that I found it almost completely impenetrable.Jorge Luis Borges was one of those very rare creators who changed the face of an art form—in his case, the short story. Ficciones is a labyrinth, beautiful and witty, of ideas and feelings that mock and conquers the reader. If you read one of these tales out of context you might mistake it for a non-fictional essay, albeit with quirks. There is something about ‘Majesty’, one of the oldest oak trees in England, and something else about Claudius’ death by mushrooms. Of “The South,” which is perhaps my best story, let it suffice for me to suggest that it can be read as a direct narrative of novelistic events, and also in another way.