/lit/ - Literature

Why couldn't he muster the powers to master, let alone write, a novel? He certainly was not constrained by time, anons, as his mommy looked after him until she died.

Most inventive writer of the 20th century

What is your opinion on Borges?

What's the appeal? I'm reading through Labyrinths at the moment and some of the stories have been pretty decent, but mostly unremarkable. Am I just getting filtered.

>Jose Luis Borges lived with his mother his entire life

Are there any good books about multi-generational households?

Borges said that English was a richer language for literature than Spanish, but because of his reasons I assume he also thought it was better than French, Portuguese, Italian, and German.

He said that because English is in the weird position of being a Romance and Germanic language, we have two words for most ideas with slightly different meanings--e.g. ghost and spirit, the former being a "dark Saxon" word and the latter being a "light Latin" word. He also says that in English you can do almost anything with verbs and prepositions--e.g. "live up to," "laugh off," "dream away." You can't do this with verbs and prepositions in the Romance languages.

I dont "get" it.

>As a student, I was led to investigate the disciples of Schopenhauer. Among them was a certain Philipp Mainlander, who particularly attracted me. Author of a Philosophy of Deliverance, he enjoyed the additional distinction, in my eyes, of having committed suicide. This completely forgotten philosopher, I flattered myself belonged to me alone -- not that there was any particular merit in my preoccupation: my studies had inevitably brought me to him. But imagine my astonishment when, much later, I came across a text by Borges that plucked him, precisely, out of oblivion! If I cite this example, it is because from that moment I began thinking more seriously than before about the condition of Borges, fated — reduced — to universality, constrained to exercise his mind in all directions, if only to escape the Argentine asphyxia. It is the South American void that makes the writers of an entire continent more open, more alive, and more diverse than those of Western Europe, paralyzed by their traditions and incapable of shaking off their prestigious sclerosis.
> Since you ask what I like most about Borges, I have no hesitation in answering that it is his freedom in the most varied realms, his faculty of speaking with an equal subtlety of the Eternal Return and the Tango. For him everything is equally worthwhile, from the moment he is the center of everything. Universal curiosity is a sign of vitality only if it bears the absolute mark of a self, a self from which everything emanates and where everything ends up: sovereignty of the arbitrary, beginning and end that can be interpreted according to the most capricious criteria. Where is reality in all this? The Self -- that supreme farce. . . . Borges’s playfulness reminds me of a certain romantic irony, the metaphysical exploration of illusion juggling with the Infinite. Friedrich Schlegel, today, has his back to Patagonia. . . .

Has anyone here read anything from Jorge Luis Borges? My favourite text from him is The Aleph

Genius or talentless hack?

Tres Versiones de Judas
Quevedo / La Muralla y los Libros
I read «La Recoleta», his poem about an aristocratic cemetery at the heart of Belle-Epoque Buenos Aires, whilst walking about its abyrinthine sepulchres - for a moment I (somewhat purposely) separated myself from my partner and simply re-read the poem in quiet, as the sun meekly expired on the horizon.
The man was a genius. Damn his politics.

>>16072145
1st of all he's cute.

>converted to Christianity on his deathbed
How come nobody talks about this? Also, what the heck is that in his hand?

Any objection to these definitions re: Short Story vs Novella vs Novel?

>Short Story
Typically about 5,000 words, but definitely less than 15,000 words

>Novella
Typically about 25,000 words, but definitely between 15,000 and 40,000 words

>Novel
Typically about 125,000 words, but definitely more than 40,000 words

Where should I start with him?

>>14308469
no it's a fellow named Oswald Spengler

>>14308443
that's mean Hitch was great and far more interesting than OP's french pedophile

>>14305243
>based magical man pose

this thread is a fucking joke

>>13654797
Marvel Cinematic Universe

my man right here

>As far as literature is concerned, it's only inferior to the Gospels. - JLB

Where to start with this guy lads?

I love Borges, and for a long time I've wanted to go down to Buenos Aires and see the Biblioteca Nacionale, where he worked as a shelver while writing so many of his stories. That's the pilgrimage I want to make.

What is the best Borges story?

I like "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius."

Pretty much all fiction became boring to me after reading Borges for the first time. I can't read anything now without saying to myself "Let's see if this is as good as Borges."

Is there any other writer who even comes close to this guy in terms of originality, or was he truly one of a kind?