Classics and the Western Canon discussion

“Death and the Compass”

Summary: A delegate to the Third Talmudic Congress, Dr Yarmolinsky, is discovered stabbed in his room at the Hotel du Nord. In his typewriter is a note that reads: “The first letter of the Name has been written.” Both the police and Erik Lonnrot are investigating the crime, which is followed by a second death where the body of a man wrapped in a poncho is discovered in a western area of the city by an old paint factory. Chalked on the wall is a message: “The second letter of the Name has been written.” A third crime follows — the apparent kidnapping and disappearance of a man escorted by two harlequins. The message this time read: “The last letter of the Name has been written.” Next, the police receive a letter signed by “Baruch Spinoza” predicting “there would not be a fourth crime” because the three existing crime scenes were “the perfect points of a mystical, equilateral triangle.” Lonnrot realizes one key to the mystery is the “Tetragrammaton,” the four Hebrew letters that form the proper name of God in the Old Testament. He reaches a different conclusion than the police and travels to a mysterious but symmetrical mansion. While he is exploring the house, he is intercepted by the real criminal, Red Scharlach, who seeks to revenge wrongs to himself and his brother that he blames on Lonnrot: “During those nights, I swore by the god that sees with two faces, and by all the gods of fever and of mirrors, to weave a labyrinth around the man who had imprisoned my brother. I have woven it, and it has stood firm: its materials are a dead heresiologue, a compass, an eighth-century cult, a Greek word, a dagger, the rhombuses of a paint factory…” Red reveals the details of what really happened. Lonnrot proposes a better geometric approach for “when you hunt me down in another avatar of our lives.” Scharlach agrees: “The next time I kill you… I promise you the labyrinth that consists of a single straight line that is invisible and endless.” Then he fires a shot.

Some possible starting points for discussion:
1) On one level, this story parodies the format of standard mystery stories, with an independent detective, various clues, theories, and a final revelation of the truth. Taking this just as a mystery story, were you surprised by the final revelation of the truth?
2) Does the title add anything to the meaning of the story?

Susan wrote: "“Death and the Compass”

1) On one level, this story parodies the format of standard mystery stories, with an independent detective, various clues, theories, and a final revelation of the truth. Taking this just as a mystery story, were you surprised by the final revelation of the truth?"

What caught me off guard more than anything was a detective who prefers the certainty of ideas to the ambiguous mess of reality. That can't be good for any investigator. When Treviranus suggests that the rabbi Yarmolinsky was killed by mistake, Lonnrot says that "It's possible, but not interesting," and rejects what is close to the correct solution in favor of a "rabbinical explanation." Apparently Lonnrot prefers reason and theory to chance and reality. Unfortunately the murderer knows Lonnrot better than Lonnrot knows himself, which enables him to set out some intellectual bait and capture him quite nicely.

Thomas wrote re “Death and the Compass”: “ What caught me off guard more than anything was a detective who prefers the certainty of ideas to the ambiguous mess of reality….Apparently Lonnrot prefers reason and theory to chance and reality.”

Perhaps this is true of many standard murder mysteries with their emphasis on logical solutions. In Lonnrot’s case, it appears that ironically the “factual” underpinnings of his theoretical solution are incorrect. Since the kidnapping was staged, there were only two crimes before the event of the story’s last sentence, and Lonnrot’s geometric, rabbinical solution with the rhombuses and the Tetragrammaton depends on an assumption of four crimes. And of course this makes the letter from “Baruch Spinoza” correct in saying “there would not be a fourth crime.”

Btw, this was apparently Harold Bloom’s favorite Borges story.

“The Secret Miracle”

Summary: On March 14, 1939 in Prague, Jaromir Hladek, author of several books and an unfinished play in verse, has a long dream about a game of chess. He wakes as the army of Third Reich rolls into Prague. He is arrested by the Gestapo on March 19, because he is Jewish, has written on Jewish subjects, signed a protest against the Anschluss, and translated a book on Jewish mysticism. He is condemned to die on March 29 at 9 a.m., partly because one of the judges overestimates his preeminence. He is terrified. “He anticipated the process endlessly, from the sleepless dawn to the mysterious discharge of the rifles..Miserable in the night, he tried to buttress his courage somehow on the fleeting stuff of time.” Finally, on the last evening before the execution, he begins thinking about his unfinished play, “Enemies.” He finds all his other works unsatisfactory in one way or another, but with his play, he “believed he could redeem himself from all that equivocal and languid past.” He asks God to grant him one more year to complete his play, falls asleep, and dreams that he receives a message that “The time for your labor has been granted.” But when he awakes, events proceed toward his execution. The sergeant gives the final order, and “the physical universe stopped...God had performed for him a secret miracle: the German bullet would kill him, at the determined hour, but in Hladik’s mind a year would pass between the order to fire and the discharge of the rifles. From perplexity Hladik moved to stupor, from stupor to resignation, from resignation to sudden gratitude.” He composes his play in his mind. “ He did not work for posterity, nor did he work for God, whose literary preferences were largely unknown to him. Painstakingly, motionlessly, secretly, he forged in time his grand invisible labyrinth”. He completes his play, the physical universe begins again, and “the fourfold volley felled him.”

Some starting points:
1) What is the role of Hladik’s dreams in this story?
2) He is scheduled to die at 9 a.m., but the last line of the story says he died at 9:02 a.m. How are those two additional minutes significant?

Susan wrote: "“The Secret Miracle”

2) He is scheduled to die at 9 a.m., but the last line of the story says he died at 9:02 a.m. How are those two additional minutes significant?"

I take it that the year that Hladik is given to complete his play takes place (subjectively) in those two minutes? It seems to me I've seen this plot device used in other stories (not Borges necessarily), but I can't pin down where exactly.

Thomas wrote: "The Secret Miracle”

I take it that the year that Hladik is given to complete his play takes place (subjectively) in those two minutes? It seems to me I've seen this plot device used in other stories (not Borges necessarily), but I can't pin down where exactly.

That’s my best thought about the two minute difference, too. As for other stories with a similar plot device, maybe you are thinking of Bierce’s “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge?”
https://americanliterature.com/author...

Oh, wow, yes, I hadn't thought of Bierce! I liked this story because it seemed to understand how my mind works as well, and the way it played with time actually made sense to me. But now that you mention Bierce, I can see that it's not necessarily as "new" as some of the other devices Borges has employed here. I remember being shown a film of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" in 8th grade, and being shocked by the ending!