dumkeyboardcat’s Reviews > Fictions > Status Update

The Shape of the Sword - Great writing! But honestly not much else.

Funes, His Memory - Really shows off Borges unique style of writing and his way of using fiction to explore philosophy and memory and such. I stole this from a comment I saw on the internet, but I really liked the part where Borges defines thinking and how Funes - due to said definition - is incapable of it.

The Library of Babel - Quite simply, my favourite short story of all time. I don't think anything as brief as this has inspired so much imagination and wonder in me. I have spent hours discussing this with people - my mum, my ex, my friends, my siblings - they must be sick of me! God. This set of ten pages that he wrote almost a century ago has changed my life so much.

A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain - This one's just silly and I loved it. Not much to say. Love him admitting to have stolen The Circular Ruins.

The Lottery in Babylon - His most entertaining so far! I read this as a mythical origin story of chance or fate or destiny or whatever, and I think it really works. The writing here is sharp and has a ton of personality for something that's basically an infodump. It's amazing how easily Borges can create a world or tell a fictional story through stereotypically non fictional means.

The Circular Ruins - The ideas explored here aren't the most interesting to me. I think he approaches Idealism in a more interesting and comprehensice way in Tlön, though I do quite like the ending.

Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote - Got me thinking on how much the artist and context and intention can have an effect on the art created. Really well explained and quite funny too! I think this is his best so far in terms of mixing thesis and readability.

The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim - Quite short, quite sweet. I don't see much point to this one to be perfectly honest outside of his thoughts about writing divinity in your stories. I do really like the line "Mir Bahadur Ali, as we have seen, is incapable of resisting that basest of art's temptations: the temptation to be a genius."

Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius - One of the most unique things (not short story, *things*) I've ever read. So densely filled with detail that the fictional world inside the fictional world that is Tlön is in some ways brought to life. Just incredibly well thought out from start to finish, and the ending was perfect.

Side note: I shudder to think what having to come up with so much names would do to me.