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The Perpetual Race of Achilles & the Tortoise
A collection of essays that discusses the existence (or non-existence) of Hell, the flaws in English literary detectives, the philosophy of contradictions, and the many translators of '1001 Nights'. It examines the very nature of our lives, from cinema and books to history and religion.
144 pages, Paperback
First published August 26, 2010
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About the author
Jorge Luis Borges
1,588 books14.3k followersJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl. Fictions) and El Aleph (transl. The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Collège de Genève. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
September 25, 2022
A slim collection of shorter essays by the hugely influential and prolific Argentinian, Borges. Someone once said of Borges that he had read everything that had ever been written, and a lot that had not. This was a reference to his later signature post-modern propensity to pepper his stories with footnotes or references citing completely made-up yet plausible studies, books, and sometimes entire civilizations. He enjoyed smudging that boundary between the factual and fictional worlds, and due to his voluminous reading and his stature as the chief librarian of the Biblioteca National in Buenos Aires, noone was ever quite sure what was real or not. As an undergraduate, I wrote a paper on Borges in which I invented several of my sources as a homage, but I bet Borges was never as nervous as I was about being called on it (I never was, it turned out, but that isn't to say that my professor didn't catch on).
This custom of his chucks a confusing spanner in the works of his non-fiction. He writes in great fascinating detail about the various translators of The Thousand and One Nights for example, but at the back of my mind I was still wondering if such translators actually existed. Not that it spoiled the enjoyment of reading, but I'm certainly less confident about passing on any of the knowledge I gained. There always seems to be (imagined or real) a narrator between him and his opinions. I don't think he would be entirely displeased to hear it.
He reveals himself as a scathing reviewer, and at the age of 40 to take on Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment being a 'totally vacuous work') or James Joyce takes some chutzpah. In reviewing the then newly published Finnegan's Wake, he speaks of 'the terror-stricken praise' it received in high-brow literature reviews, admits his bewilderment, and claims that 'In this enormous book, efficacy is an exception.' Fun to read, whatever your opinions.
Among his other essays, a particular gem for me was his 'A Pedagogy of Hatred' in which he reviewed the latest edition (1937) of an anti-semitic children's book making its rounds in Bavaria. It struck me that it was the first contemporary review of such Nazi propaganda that I have ever read. With the benefit of post-war hindsight, such observations would be taken for granted, but to read it from 1937 is both encouraging and chilling at the same time.
I fell into Borges' Labyrinths through a reference to the infinite library he concocted, and read a bunch of his collections when I should have been reading Jane Austen and Dickens. I didn't understand a lot of it, but what I did was engrossing and mind-stretching. I recommend a dip, but leave a trail of breadcrumbs.
This custom of his chucks a confusing spanner in the works of his non-fiction. He writes in great fascinating detail about the various translators of The Thousand and One Nights for example, but at the back of my mind I was still wondering if such translators actually existed. Not that it spoiled the enjoyment of reading, but I'm certainly less confident about passing on any of the knowledge I gained. There always seems to be (imagined or real) a narrator between him and his opinions. I don't think he would be entirely displeased to hear it.
He reveals himself as a scathing reviewer, and at the age of 40 to take on Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment being a 'totally vacuous work') or James Joyce takes some chutzpah. In reviewing the then newly published Finnegan's Wake, he speaks of 'the terror-stricken praise' it received in high-brow literature reviews, admits his bewilderment, and claims that 'In this enormous book, efficacy is an exception.' Fun to read, whatever your opinions.
Among his other essays, a particular gem for me was his 'A Pedagogy of Hatred' in which he reviewed the latest edition (1937) of an anti-semitic children's book making its rounds in Bavaria. It struck me that it was the first contemporary review of such Nazi propaganda that I have ever read. With the benefit of post-war hindsight, such observations would be taken for granted, but to read it from 1937 is both encouraging and chilling at the same time.
I fell into Borges' Labyrinths through a reference to the infinite library he concocted, and read a bunch of his collections when I should have been reading Jane Austen and Dickens. I didn't understand a lot of it, but what I did was engrossing and mind-stretching. I recommend a dip, but leave a trail of breadcrumbs.
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March 8, 2017No one else can write about their own blindness in the way Borges can, counting it as one of many games of chance that made him write, love, learn, be. And that's just one of the many excellent essays here. Reading him is always an immediate pleasure.
May 16, 2018
My first contact with Borges was through Fictions, his timeless collection of short stories. This easily became one of my favorite books covering a number of fascinating concepts through short tales and effortless writing.
The Perpetual Race of Achilles & the Tortoise, however, has no stories whatsoever - in it, Borges exploits his pop philosophy writing, with a number of subjects that would otherwise be terribly boring converted into pure literary gold (the most ludicrous example would be his review of the translations and translators of "The Thousand and One Nights", a seemingly terrible topic to write about that is made beautiful and page-turning-appealing by Borges).
Among a myriad of excellent texts, with topics covering the duration of hell and how this relates to the symbolism of hell, movie reviews, contemplations on Joyce's last novel (the infamous Finnegan's Wake) and on Oscar Wilde's writings, and the unlikely coincidences (or perhaps something beyond this) of Coleridge's dream, Blindness, a meditation on the meaning of blindness to writers, heads of the National Library and his own, in which this is decomposed into a beautiful scenery where "darkness" and "blindness" become two distinct realities.
A fabulous book to anyone interested in philosophy or essays in general, by an effortlessly interesting man.
The Perpetual Race of Achilles & the Tortoise, however, has no stories whatsoever - in it, Borges exploits his pop philosophy writing, with a number of subjects that would otherwise be terribly boring converted into pure literary gold (the most ludicrous example would be his review of the translations and translators of "The Thousand and One Nights", a seemingly terrible topic to write about that is made beautiful and page-turning-appealing by Borges).
Among a myriad of excellent texts, with topics covering the duration of hell and how this relates to the symbolism of hell, movie reviews, contemplations on Joyce's last novel (the infamous Finnegan's Wake) and on Oscar Wilde's writings, and the unlikely coincidences (or perhaps something beyond this) of Coleridge's dream, Blindness, a meditation on the meaning of blindness to writers, heads of the National Library and his own, in which this is decomposed into a beautiful scenery where "darkness" and "blindness" become two distinct realities.
A fabulous book to anyone interested in philosophy or essays in general, by an effortlessly interesting man.
May 13, 2018
The turmoil of two incompatible passions: a strange appetite for adventure and a strange appetite for legality
November 20, 2016
One of my favourite French professors was an avid admirer of Borges and had us translating long, flowing sentences taken from diverse works of the Argentinian essayist. At the time my attention was capured more by the correct choice of verb tense and less by the ideas expressed in the text, but nontheless I have since then sorted Borges in the same mental compartment as Plato and Spinoza - philosophers I would like to read one day, when I have the mental energy for such an undertaking.
So when I found the neat little volume of collected essays by Borges in the Penguin Great Ideas-series (a great study guide for us amateurs of the history of ideas by the way) I was excited, perhaps a little too much so. My first true meeting with the long-admired writer's actual writing turned out to be unfortunate. The title essay - The perpetual race of Achilles and the tortoise - is also the first text in the book, and it concerns Xeno's paradox.
Now, Borges is an essayist. Unused as I am to the lecturing voice of the genre, and prone to dismiss too frequent references to other relevant works as namedropping (I know. I blame the internet. Or possibly mansplaining.), I was at first thrown by the style. So I focused on the part of the subject that I know something about - the mathematics behind Xenos paradox, something Borges skims over. There is an old mathematicians joke about "knowing your limits", Borges unfortunately does not and makes a failed attempt to translate an arithmetic series to the metre system and confusedly lets the series tend towards eleven instead of two. At this point I was both disappointed and just as confused as Borges. Who was this person I had revered? My respect for my old French teacher suddenly sank.
But you need to give Borges time. After Xeno's paradox, I read the next few essays extremely critically. Not surprisingly, perhaps, they withstood the scrutiny. By the following few I began to notice those beautiful, flowing sentences, and the profundity of some seemingly simple statements. When I came to the short text on Oscar Wilde I found myself pausing to underline every other sentence, and by the time I finally put down the short compilation I was as smitten with Borges as my old teacher.
Borges words on the fate of being appointed head of the Buenos Aires national library at the same time as going completely blind is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read:
Nadie rebaje a lágrima o reproche
esta declaración de la maestría
de Dios, que con magnífica ironía
me dio a la vez los libros y la noche.
No one should read self-pity or reproach
Into this statement of the majesty
Of God; who with such splendid irony,
Granted me books and night at one touch
So when I found the neat little volume of collected essays by Borges in the Penguin Great Ideas-series (a great study guide for us amateurs of the history of ideas by the way) I was excited, perhaps a little too much so. My first true meeting with the long-admired writer's actual writing turned out to be unfortunate. The title essay - The perpetual race of Achilles and the tortoise - is also the first text in the book, and it concerns Xeno's paradox.
Now, Borges is an essayist. Unused as I am to the lecturing voice of the genre, and prone to dismiss too frequent references to other relevant works as namedropping (I know. I blame the internet. Or possibly mansplaining.), I was at first thrown by the style. So I focused on the part of the subject that I know something about - the mathematics behind Xenos paradox, something Borges skims over. There is an old mathematicians joke about "knowing your limits", Borges unfortunately does not and makes a failed attempt to translate an arithmetic series to the metre system and confusedly lets the series tend towards eleven instead of two. At this point I was both disappointed and just as confused as Borges. Who was this person I had revered? My respect for my old French teacher suddenly sank.
But you need to give Borges time. After Xeno's paradox, I read the next few essays extremely critically. Not surprisingly, perhaps, they withstood the scrutiny. By the following few I began to notice those beautiful, flowing sentences, and the profundity of some seemingly simple statements. When I came to the short text on Oscar Wilde I found myself pausing to underline every other sentence, and by the time I finally put down the short compilation I was as smitten with Borges as my old teacher.
Borges words on the fate of being appointed head of the Buenos Aires national library at the same time as going completely blind is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read:
Nadie rebaje a lágrima o reproche
esta declaración de la maestría
de Dios, que con magnífica ironía
me dio a la vez los libros y la noche.
No one should read self-pity or reproach
Into this statement of the majesty
Of God; who with such splendid irony,
Granted me books and night at one touch
September 26, 2020
Why I give 5 stars so easy? I think because it’s easy for me to appreciate good art. Writen, spoken, played, or painted — if it’s good, it shines and makes me happy.
Borges translated in English so well that I thought he wrote it in English. Reading those essays was like having him next to you and realy hearing. I envy to those who got chance to hear his lectures.
Borges translated in English so well that I thought he wrote it in English. Reading those essays was like having him next to you and realy hearing. I envy to those who got chance to hear his lectures.
November 14, 2025
As usual Borges is a delight and a fascination. Reading this (seemingly unthemed and cobbled together) collection of notes and essays was entertaining and thought provoking, for the huge frame of reference and for the clarity of expression that nonetheless contains a distinctive humour. Borges was undeniably brilliant, and he has a charm all his own in his way of writing. Less formal than in his collections (such as Labyrinths), here his authorial voice is more relaxed and at times playful. He admits with a knowing wink that he thinks Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake are simultaneously masterpieces and essentially unreadable, and I commend him for this. I loved his essay on Shakespeare. Borges's intellectual breadth and depth are merely hinted at, but what impresses me even more is the exacting choice of quote, reference or example and the beauty of his expression. He managed to be intellectual without being too dry, and funny without really being silly. He stands up for himself but clearly sees himself with some irony.
For those who are a fan this is entertaining and stimulating. I suspect for the uninitiated it might be more or less pointless to read these essays together, but I would be curious to know how enjoyable (or dull) they might come across to a novitiate.
For those who are a fan this is entertaining and stimulating. I suspect for the uninitiated it might be more or less pointless to read these essays together, but I would be curious to know how enjoyable (or dull) they might come across to a novitiate.
October 21, 2020
metafikcinių pamąstymų knyga
April 21, 2022
As an essayist he has such a skill and knowledge for reference and connecting the pieces he talks about to a hundred other pieces of various niche-ness.
As a critic... god is he scathing.
As a critic... god is he scathing.
April 14, 2024
This is an incredible amalgam of erudition and wit. The "Blindness" essay is incredible, as well as the choice of topics.
November 29, 2016
I've been getting into the anthology-of-essays sub-genre of late. Borges writes them beautifully, although Alberto Manguel remains my favourite. My recent reading suggests that Borges is more whimsical and less cynical than George Orwell, but more definite (I don't want to say dogmatic) and less inclined to synthesis than Alberto Manguel. I must comment, though, that aside from the contents of the book this is a beautiful edition. The embossed cover has a wonderful harmony about it.
As to the essays, they are concerned with books, writers, and films, apart from the final piece. This is probably the one I appreciated most. In it Borges muses upon his blindness, thus it is the most personal of the essays, as well as the most profound. I also greatly enjoyed 'On Oscar Wilde', which sums up Wilde's work very elegantly in this way: 'Perfection has injured him; his work is so harmonious that it can seem inevitable and even banal. It takes an effort to imagine the universe without Wilde's epigrams; that difficulty does not make them any less plausible.' 'The Enigma of Shakespeare' is also memorable, as I particularly liked his point as to why Shakespeare the man eludes our knowledge. Just as today the actors in a successful film are fêted and the screenwriter barely noticed, so in Elizabethan England the stage actors would have totally overshadowed the playwright.
I was less gripped by the essays on hell, 'The Thousand and One Nights', and several films. Although they are beautifully constructed, the subject matter of each was simply further from my interests. I think that to me Borges remains firstly a writer of fiction, as his short stories are so extraordinarily brilliant. Conversely, Alberto Manguel is in my mind predominantly a non-fiction writer, as his fiction grips me less than his wonderful essays. Orwell, to my mind, manages to be both; I can't choose the better book between '1984' and 'Homage to Catalonia'. I've enjoyed essays by all three of them, however. When I was younger I didn't like to read short fiction and essays, as I found it easier to immerse myself in longer work. Now I've come to greater appreciation of what skill it takes for a writer to convince, entertain, or otherwise touch the reader in a mere few thousand words.
As to the essays, they are concerned with books, writers, and films, apart from the final piece. This is probably the one I appreciated most. In it Borges muses upon his blindness, thus it is the most personal of the essays, as well as the most profound. I also greatly enjoyed 'On Oscar Wilde', which sums up Wilde's work very elegantly in this way: 'Perfection has injured him; his work is so harmonious that it can seem inevitable and even banal. It takes an effort to imagine the universe without Wilde's epigrams; that difficulty does not make them any less plausible.' 'The Enigma of Shakespeare' is also memorable, as I particularly liked his point as to why Shakespeare the man eludes our knowledge. Just as today the actors in a successful film are fêted and the screenwriter barely noticed, so in Elizabethan England the stage actors would have totally overshadowed the playwright.
I was less gripped by the essays on hell, 'The Thousand and One Nights', and several films. Although they are beautifully constructed, the subject matter of each was simply further from my interests. I think that to me Borges remains firstly a writer of fiction, as his short stories are so extraordinarily brilliant. Conversely, Alberto Manguel is in my mind predominantly a non-fiction writer, as his fiction grips me less than his wonderful essays. Orwell, to my mind, manages to be both; I can't choose the better book between '1984' and 'Homage to Catalonia'. I've enjoyed essays by all three of them, however. When I was younger I didn't like to read short fiction and essays, as I found it easier to immerse myself in longer work. Now I've come to greater appreciation of what skill it takes for a writer to convince, entertain, or otherwise touch the reader in a mere few thousand words.
January 14, 2013
In brief, everything by Borges is 5*.
I love this series of 'Great Ideas' small books from Penguin, a great way to get a flavour of a large number of classics. I got them for 2 or 3 pounds each and have most of them, I suppose now I have a kindle it is not so useful as I can get most of them for free from Project Gutenberg.
I'll just say something briefly about two of the essays,
In "The Translators of 'The Thousand And One Nights'" he interrogates the original text by examining translations in English, German and French which I found really interesting (especially while reading him in translation from Spanish). One of the translations was Richard Francis Burton's and I plan on reading it this year.
His essay on Blindness was inspiring, I love the idea of him finishing teaching a course on literature (he always passed everyone) while blind and then going home and deciding to learn anglo-saxon with some of his students from Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
If you want to get a sense of what it is like to be taught by him, check out the lectures he gave at Harvard many years later at http://ubu.com/sound/borges.html
I love this series of 'Great Ideas' small books from Penguin, a great way to get a flavour of a large number of classics. I got them for 2 or 3 pounds each and have most of them, I suppose now I have a kindle it is not so useful as I can get most of them for free from Project Gutenberg.
I'll just say something briefly about two of the essays,
In "The Translators of 'The Thousand And One Nights'" he interrogates the original text by examining translations in English, German and French which I found really interesting (especially while reading him in translation from Spanish). One of the translations was Richard Francis Burton's and I plan on reading it this year.
His essay on Blindness was inspiring, I love the idea of him finishing teaching a course on literature (he always passed everyone) while blind and then going home and deciding to learn anglo-saxon with some of his students from Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Reader and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
If you want to get a sense of what it is like to be taught by him, check out the lectures he gave at Harvard many years later at http://ubu.com/sound/borges.html
May 2, 2020
I didn’t enjoy this because I didn’t get it. The exceptions, which I thought wonderful, were the three or four sharp-tongued, short columns on Joyce, Nazism, Argentinian exceptionalism, and fascist pedagogy.
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August 7, 2025the unyielding wall which, at this moment and all moments, casts its system of shadows over lands I shall never see, is the shadow of a caeser who ordered the most reverent of nations to burn its past; that idea is what moves us, quite apart from the speculations it allows. (its virtue may be in the contrast between construction and destruction, on an enormous scale.) generalizing, we might infer that all forms have virtue in themselves and not in an imagined 'content." that would support the theory of benedetto croce; by 1877, pater had already stated that all the arts aspire to resemble music, which is nothing but form. music, states of happiness, mythology, faces worn by time, certain twilights and certain places, all want to tell us something, or have told us something we shouldn't have lost, or are about to tell us something; that imminence of a revelation as yet unproduced is, perhaps, the aesthetic fact.
[]
a writer, or any man, must believe that whatever happens to him is an instrument; everything has been given for an end. this is even stronger in the case of the artist. everything that happens, including humiliations, embarrassments, misfortunes, all has been given like clay, like material for one's art. one must accept it. for this reason I speak in a poem of the ancient food of heroes: humiliation, unhappiness, discord. those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make trom the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so. if a blind man thinks this way, he is saved. . . .
i want to end with a line of goethe: 'alles nahe werde fern, everything near becomes far. goethe was referring to the evening twilight. everything near becomes far. it is true. at nightfall, the things closest to us seem to move away from our eyes. so the visible world has moved away from my eyes, perhaps forever. goethe could be referring not only to twilight but to life. all things go off, leaving us. old age is probably the supreme solitude - except that the supreme solitude is death. and 'everything near becomes far' also refers to the slow process of blindness, of which I hoped to show, speaking tonight, that it is not a complete misfortune. it is one more instrument among the many - all of them so strange - that fate or chance provide.
[]
a writer, or any man, must believe that whatever happens to him is an instrument; everything has been given for an end. this is even stronger in the case of the artist. everything that happens, including humiliations, embarrassments, misfortunes, all has been given like clay, like material for one's art. one must accept it. for this reason I speak in a poem of the ancient food of heroes: humiliation, unhappiness, discord. those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make trom the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so. if a blind man thinks this way, he is saved. . . .
i want to end with a line of goethe: 'alles nahe werde fern, everything near becomes far. goethe was referring to the evening twilight. everything near becomes far. it is true. at nightfall, the things closest to us seem to move away from our eyes. so the visible world has moved away from my eyes, perhaps forever. goethe could be referring not only to twilight but to life. all things go off, leaving us. old age is probably the supreme solitude - except that the supreme solitude is death. and 'everything near becomes far' also refers to the slow process of blindness, of which I hoped to show, speaking tonight, that it is not a complete misfortune. it is one more instrument among the many - all of them so strange - that fate or chance provide.
January 13, 2021
This is not a book of stories, but of essays, so be aware of it. It is not an easy read, but it is very rewarding. The first two essays aren't easy to grasp so I will have to work more on them in the future. The following ones are much easier. In order to understand them better I did some researchs about writers and translators and ended up widen my knowledge in a way I wouldn't have done it without Borge's little book. The subjects of the books are his beloved ones but I can grasp that he is always talking about the same thing, the infinite cosmos and every man is the same man. Life is a dream and literature to be real literature has to be fantastic, magical.
There is one titled "Our Poor Individualism", on the surface it seems he is talking about Argentina and Argentines, but actually, he is talking about something bigger, our acceptance of the growing interference of the state in our lives, and God if it is very relatable to our times. But my favourite so far is n.17 "The Enigma of Shakespeare". Very recommended but consider to have an encyclopedia next to the book for more than one consultation. Borges was a walking encyclopedia himself and so very challenging as a writer, but very rewarding at the same time.
There is one titled "Our Poor Individualism", on the surface it seems he is talking about Argentina and Argentines, but actually, he is talking about something bigger, our acceptance of the growing interference of the state in our lives, and God if it is very relatable to our times. But my favourite so far is n.17 "The Enigma of Shakespeare". Very recommended but consider to have an encyclopedia next to the book for more than one consultation. Borges was a walking encyclopedia himself and so very challenging as a writer, but very rewarding at the same time.
June 24, 2025
This was odd, but fun. Imagine a very clever friend is infodumping about something that he's read recently, or sounding off about something that gets on his nerves. You have no familiarity with the subject matter but you're enjoying the ranting. That's what this book of essays felt like to me.
Essays in this collection include-
-relative merits of different translations of One Thousand and One Nights/Arabian Nights
-comparative film reviews ("From an extraordinarily intense novel, von Sternberg has derived an empty film; from an absolutely dull adventure story - the Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan- Hitchcock has made a good film")
-analysing Nazi children's books ("I defy pornographers to show me a picture more vile than any of the twenty-two illustrations that comprise the children's book Trau keinem Fuchs auf gruener Heid und keinem Jud bei seinem Eid [Don't Trust Any Fox from a Heath or any Jew on his Oath]")
None of those essay topics would be things I thought I'd be interested in reading about, but Borges has such a way with words that I'm happily along for the ride. I'd like to read more of his work.
Essays in this collection include-
-relative merits of different translations of One Thousand and One Nights/Arabian Nights
-comparative film reviews ("From an extraordinarily intense novel, von Sternberg has derived an empty film; from an absolutely dull adventure story - the Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan- Hitchcock has made a good film")
-analysing Nazi children's books ("I defy pornographers to show me a picture more vile than any of the twenty-two illustrations that comprise the children's book Trau keinem Fuchs auf gruener Heid und keinem Jud bei seinem Eid [Don't Trust Any Fox from a Heath or any Jew on his Oath]")
None of those essay topics would be things I thought I'd be interested in reading about, but Borges has such a way with words that I'm happily along for the ride. I'd like to read more of his work.
June 4, 2024
Onder de noemer Great ideas geeft Pinguin al jaren kleine boekjes uit, vaak de moeite waard. Deze van Borges viel helaas tegen. In zijn verhalen die ik eerder al eens las zijn inderdaad grote ideeën verwerkt, maar juist de korte beschouwingen in deze bundel missen dat een beetje. Veel korte, vaak inmiddels gedateerde, stukjes. Voor Borges grijp ik toch maar liever weer naar de Aleph en dergelijke verhalen!
September 19, 2021
There's an incredible library contained within the mind of Borges, and I'd like to explore it further.
These were my favourite essays from the lot:
- Coleridge's Dream
- The Enigma of Shakespeare
- The Wall and the Books
- On Oscar Wilde
- Our Poor Individualism
- On William Beckford's Vathek
- Blindness
- The Duration of Hell
- A Defense of Basildes the False
These were my favourite essays from the lot:
- Coleridge's Dream
- The Enigma of Shakespeare
- The Wall and the Books
- On Oscar Wilde
- Our Poor Individualism
- On William Beckford's Vathek
- Blindness
- The Duration of Hell
- A Defense of Basildes the False
July 11, 2023
This is a series of 18 non fiction essays mostly written about books, films and the nature if our lives. . I particularly enjoyed the work about "One Thousand and One Nights", Joyces last novel, Coleridges Dream and the Enigma of Shakespeare.
The essays are typically Borges. witty, entertaining and a true depiction of life
The essays are typically Borges. witty, entertaining and a true depiction of life
June 4, 2021
I am prone to a bit of a jack-of-all-trades approach to non-fiction reading at the minute; random bits of history, politics, philosophy, sociology and criticism are piling up on my shelves. This book suited my mood well in that regard, as its full of random tangents.
December 26, 2024
4 Stars.
Borges non-fiction is so well-informed, and thus the prose is so cinfidently precise for this fact, it is a treat. I particularly enjoyed his writing on English literary authors - Wilde, Chesterton, Shakespeare, etc.
Borges non-fiction is so well-informed, and thus the prose is so cinfidently precise for this fact, it is a treat. I particularly enjoyed his writing on English literary authors - Wilde, Chesterton, Shakespeare, etc.
November 16, 2017
I have no intention of ever seeing Citizen Kane, but I enjoyed the essay. Like I enjoyed all the essays.
September 20, 2022
A few interesting ideas, but overall pretty forgettable. 2.5/5
October 11, 2010
Much of this simply went over my head. An unfair reason to give a low score perhaps, but since I'm the first person to review it I'm all you've got :-)
Here's a breakdown of my experience:
Essay number 1: I gain nothing, except a slightly furrowed brow, and finish a little confused but not yet disheartened.
2: I start out with interest, but quickly lose it in some darkened corner.
3: I begin to feel disheartened. I don't finish.
4: I brighten somewhat - translation! But again I don't finish.
5: I'm diverted enjoyably enough.
6: Who and what now?
7: I decide never to read any Joyce.
8: Two pages of interest.
9: Three more of less.
10: One interesting thought.
11: Citizen Kane. Never seen it.
12: Argentinians. I'm not one.
13: I decide to read more Wilde.
14: I think that China was and probably still is an interesting place.
15: I skip.
16: I decide to read Kubla Khan. I wonder why none of my dreams ever result in works of immortal genius.
17: I indulge in a little paranoid theorising.
18: I decide that this essay makes this book worth its weight in pocket shrapnel, and then some. I'm inspired and rather humbled.
Finally: I decide that I probably will read Labyrinths as I've been intending, but maybe not for a while.
Here's a breakdown of my experience:
Essay number 1: I gain nothing, except a slightly furrowed brow, and finish a little confused but not yet disheartened.
2: I start out with interest, but quickly lose it in some darkened corner.
3: I begin to feel disheartened. I don't finish.
4: I brighten somewhat - translation! But again I don't finish.
5: I'm diverted enjoyably enough.
6: Who and what now?
7: I decide never to read any Joyce.
8: Two pages of interest.
9: Three more of less.
10: One interesting thought.
11: Citizen Kane. Never seen it.
12: Argentinians. I'm not one.
13: I decide to read more Wilde.
14: I think that China was and probably still is an interesting place.
15: I skip.
16: I decide to read Kubla Khan. I wonder why none of my dreams ever result in works of immortal genius.
17: I indulge in a little paranoid theorising.
18: I decide that this essay makes this book worth its weight in pocket shrapnel, and then some. I'm inspired and rather humbled.
Finally: I decide that I probably will read Labyrinths as I've been intending, but maybe not for a while.
May 18, 2016
The Argentinian writer Borges has been a favourite of mine forever. I was first introduced to him by a Spanish colleague. Since then, I have never looked back.
What has this to do with writing? It's axiomatic that to write well you have to read good quality material. For the creative non-fiction writer, Borges has to be a priority.
His writing is not easy. Often, he writes fiction as though it were non-fiction, and sometimes he writes fiction while making it obvious that he is making it up as he goes along.
Browsing in a bookshop recently, I came across this title for the first time:
Please note that clicking on the picture above will take you to htis book on Amazon via my affiliate link.)
The title piece, "The perpetual race of Achilles and the tortoise", is a philosphical-stroke-mathematical treatment of the famous Xeno paradox (sometimes known as "the paradox of the tortoise and the hare").
My favourite so far is Coleridge's Dream, which deals with a kind of syncronicity between events occuring several hundred years apart.
I like the way many of the pieces in this little book start in a matter-of-fact, unassuming way. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security though: none of them is ordinary; all of them require some effort.
You won't be disappointed.
What has this to do with writing? It's axiomatic that to write well you have to read good quality material. For the creative non-fiction writer, Borges has to be a priority.
His writing is not easy. Often, he writes fiction as though it were non-fiction, and sometimes he writes fiction while making it obvious that he is making it up as he goes along.
Browsing in a bookshop recently, I came across this title for the first time:
Please note that clicking on the picture above will take you to htis book on Amazon via my affiliate link.)
The title piece, "The perpetual race of Achilles and the tortoise", is a philosphical-stroke-mathematical treatment of the famous Xeno paradox (sometimes known as "the paradox of the tortoise and the hare").
My favourite so far is Coleridge's Dream, which deals with a kind of syncronicity between events occuring several hundred years apart.
I like the way many of the pieces in this little book start in a matter-of-fact, unassuming way. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security though: none of them is ordinary; all of them require some effort.
You won't be disappointed.
September 7, 2020
I honestly feel less than qualified to pass judgment on a book by Borges - a man of intimidating eruditon. His allusions are often borderline impenetrable. Some topics (the exposition on translations of 1001 Arabian Nights being a prime example) may cause the average person to drop this book after a short while. Yet, therein lies the appeal of Borges for any moths whose light is knowledge for its sake. Unabashedly read this with Google for assistance and you'll find yourself branching off into myriad worlds with every single line.
Read it not merely for pleasure, but for intense intellectual stimulus.
Read it not merely for pleasure, but for intense intellectual stimulus.
August 19, 2025
Notes: what a wonderful collection of short essays. Including a deconstruction of refutations towards Zeno's Paradox, a commentary on Hell, a scathing review of Hollywood, an insight into Wilde and Shakespeare, and my favourite: Blindness - whereupon he illustrates a handful of influential artists and inventors afflicted with the loss of sight. Particularly fascinating is the way he describes his blindness - he cannot see black nor read, and lives in a perpetual blue-green-yellow mist.
January 27, 2013
Essays om je vingers bij af te likken. Hoog voor het petje maar daarom des te boeiender en uitdrukkelijk niet academisch. Van Shakespear's ghost writer (of niet) tot kritiek op Nazi-kinderboekjes (in 1937!) en de nuances van het blind worden. Prachtig.
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