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Labyrinths
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Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges (Aldrin, Bennard) Start Date: February 4
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Day 1This book really surprised me with its inventiveness. This is the first book by Borges that I have read and yet it feels like I missed out a lot. Of course, I haven't understood everything about the stories but I feel more richer when I read them.
Most of the stories, if not all, have the same themes. Idealism, the labyrinthine nature of time, the creation of things through imagination, chance, and the postmodern nature of literature. After reading the stories, I had the hunger to learn more about the topics stated.
Of all the stories for this day, I liked Pierre Menard, Author of the Cervantes the best. It's such a nice deconstruction of Don Quixote and I loved the way it stated the idea that the text is not independent from the writer. The mere fact that it was Menard who wrote another identical version of Don Quixote affected the perception of the narrator on how to read the novel. For me, there is something profound about it.
Once again, I'm loving that we are reading this. It's as if postmodern literature is really my niche when it comes to books.:D
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In later life, dogged by increasing blindness, Borges used essays and brief tantalizing parables to explore the enigmas of time, identity and imagination. Playful and disturbing, scholarly and seductive, his is a haunting and utterly distinctive voice.
Reading Plan
Day 0: Preface - Introduction
Day 1: Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius - The Library of Babel
Day 2: Funes the Memorious - Three Versions of Judas
Day 3: The Sect of the Phoenix - The House of Asterion
Day 4: Deutsches Requiem - The Argentine Writer and Tradition
Day 5: The Wall and the Books - Avatars of the Tortoise
Day 6: The Mirror of Enigmas - Ragnarök
Day 7: Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote - Elegy