Ficciones [Hardcover]

 

 

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I'll put it as bluntly as I can: Jorge Luis Borges is an absolute genius, a staggering mind of supreme proportions, and I thank the gods of literature that he was able to compress his ideas into these seventeen short stories for the betterment of anyone willing to read and learn from them.

As a writer, Borges is not particularly interested in the reader having empathy with the characters, he doesn't really set the scene, and the storylines - when there are one - are generally fairly weak. His strength lies in the depth of thought placed within the short pages, and the general mysteries of the infinite and reality.

I'll admit, the first few stories I didn't really 'get'. I read 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius', a story of an encyclopedic entry about a fictional world, and while it was enjoyable, seemed a mere flight of fancy. The second story, 'The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim' seemed to be a short variation on the theme, and by the time that one was finished, I wasn't particularly impressed. But then I read 'Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote', a treatise on why the 20th century scholar and writer Pierre Menard has written a better version of Don Quixote than Cervantes, even though the two versions are identical, and everything clicked. I realised that Borges was not trying to entertain me - and the language used and obscure literary/historical references thrown about certainly don't aid casual enjoyment - rather he was exercising my mind. By considering the ideas he presents about reality and infinity under the careful tutelage of his examples, I was, by the end of the book, struggling with concepts that I perhaps previously wouldn't have considered.

The seventh story, 'The Library of Babel', was perhaps my favourite, dealing with a library that had the every single possible combination of letters within its hallowed halls. The story was an essay on life in the Library, but in actuality it was about the nature of infinity and what it means when it is applied to something tangible, like a library, or a garden.

The second part of the novel, Artifices, had more of a story-telling flavour, but generally these fictional setups were used mainly to get two characters talking to one another so that they could discuss reality. While they were all amazing and essential reads, I enjoyed the more abstract pieces in the first part, 'The Garden of Forking Paths'.

Borges is a difficult writer. He has an extensive vocabulary and enormous literary and historical knowledge to draw from, and he uses both without hesitation. The ideas he presents are deep, the fact that he is willing to share them in the way that he has suggests to me that he is aware that his readers are intelligent people capable of greater thought. Don't let the dry tone fool you though, while this book can't be said to be enjoyable in a swashbuckling, rolicking sense, Ficciones is a phenomenal, mind-blowing, absolutely essential read, I recommend it to everyone.

While only a slim volume of about 100 pages, Jorge Luis Borges' FICCIONES is one of the 20th century's most original and influential works. A set of two collections of short stories, ''The Garden of Forking Paths" and ''Artifices", FICCIONES was the world's first exposure to the Argentinian writer and Borges' all-around best work.

The nature of the stories which Borges crafted is so unique and subtle that it defies description. He portrayed unusual occurrences, and peppered his stories, narrated in a faux-scholastic style, with references to colourful sources that, while sounding plausible, are of Borges' own invention and can be found in no library. In the first story of FICCIONES, ''Tlon, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius," he imagines an encyclopedia mysteriously containing a entry for a country that is not to be found - at least not in our reality. ''The Approach to Al-Mutasim" is a review of a book which doesn't exist; here, in a reversal of the usual order, the review brings the book into being. ''The Babylon Lottery" and ''The Library of Babel" are both clever metaphors for the human world. In the first, Borges describes an ancient society which lets all things be decided by chance. In the second, which introduced the concept of the infinite library, the story's setting is an unimaginably vast archive whose librarians from birth to death care for books whose meanings cannot be deciphered.

Jorge Luis Borges often used several key motifs in his books, such as mirrors and labyrinths, and it is this reuse of symbols which has created the ''Borgesian" genre. These symbols and the offbeat constructions which Borges almost singlehandedly invented went on to inspire legions of writers, including Gene Wolfe and Salman Rushdie.

The translation of FICCIONES has long been a divisive issue. While some, such as myself, believe that this versions of FICCIONES follows the original Spanish closely and, in any event, Borges' genius is found not as much in his language as in his concepts, others detest this 1962 version. Andrew Hurley has recently translated all of Borges fictional stories, including FICCIONES, in COLLECTED FICTIONS published by Penguin, but even his translation has sparked new battles. Should one wish to read FICCIONES in English, however, I'd suggest getting this translation. It is less expensive than COLLECTED FICTIONS and contains only Borges' finest work. For those who can read Spanish decently, I'd recommend even obtaining the original language, as Borges' stories do not use vocabulary much outside what one gets after four-years of high school Spanish.

While some readers may not "get" Borges (he can be compared to H.P. Lovecraft in possessing great influence on some but total obscurity to others), I'd certainly recommend trying FICCIONES.

Jorge Luis Borges was one of those rare writers who can take even a bizarre, utterly unbelievable idea, and spin it into an exquisite little gem of prose.

And this classic writer was at the peak of his powers when he collected together "Ficciones," whose plain name belies the subtle power and exquisite beauty of Jorges' short stories. Even among Borges' many short stories, few of them can rival this little labyrinth of strange ancient cities, fictional histories, and the eerie depths of the human mind.

"I owe the discovery of Uqbar to the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopedia." An odd old saying from the Middle-East leads the narrator to seek out the long-lost heretical histories of a fictional world known as Tlon. Its beliefs, language, and metaphysical eccentricities increasingly fascinate the narrator, until it's almost a surprise to realize that Borges invented all of this.

The stories that follow are no less engrossing -- the recounting of a strange, haunting novel, a man who attempts to LIVE as Don Quixote, a man who tries to dream a new being into existence, a lottery that determines the way the people of Babylon are to live, an examination of a brilliant and underrated author, an exploration of the eternal Library of the universe, and a labyrinthine spy story.

The second round of short stories is a bit less enthralling, merely because it focuses more on "typical" Borges short stories. But they are still pretty enthralling pieces of work -- the remembrance of the brilliantly eccentric Ireneo Funes, the story of a scar, a series of murders linked to "the secret Name," a condemned man's begs God for a year to perfect his art, a forgotten heretic, a conversation leading to revenge, the Cult of the Phoenix, and a man entranced by the "Arabian Nights."

Mirrors and labyrinths fill Borges' work -- real and imagined, in word, metaphor and reality. You see them in an endless library, a guitar melody, a contradiction in religious faith, a complex plot, and in the mind of a man who loses himself to an obsession. The mirrors show you the sides of people that they would never see themselves, and the labyrinth twists the mind into new places where it would never normally go.

"Ficciones" explores places where normal fiction would never go -- such as a Babylonian lottery for different places in society, corrupted by greed -- even as it imbues its eulogies, metaphysical ponderings and explanations with the tinge of reality. The cults, deaths, and art that Borges describes seem so plausible, and are given such depth and detail, that it comes as a mild shock when you realize, "Hey, he made all of this up."

Part of that is due to his unique style, full of elegant wordcraft and gently luminous imagery ("a round yellow moon defined two leaf-clogged fountains in the dreary garden"). Even a stabbing is made brutally beautiful, and often dialogue is unnecessary -- the most beautiful and striking stories in here are the ones where Borges (aka the narrator) eagerly explores some invented facet of the world.

And woven through these stories are many of the things that fascinated Borges through his career -- a tragic hero, ancient heresies, an elusive God, and people whose lives he could somehow explore through his own imagination.

If you could criticize anything at all, it's that few of the characters -- aside from the Borges "narrator" -- are much more than walking symbols of a murky little message. But hey, you could simply see this entire book as an exploration of Borges' own imagination by himself. He happily recounts countries that are nonexistant, books that were never written, geniuses who never were.

"Ficciones" is about the dullest name you can possibly give to a work of genius -- an intricate little web that is all mirrors and mazes. Absolutely stunning.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Literary Masterpiece
I read "Ficciones" when I was younger and was blown away by it, but didn't actually understand anything in it. Read more

Published on July 11 2004 by litchick1

5.0 out of 5 stars The best euro-southamerican literature
People say that God sends to each nation a blind poet, which will let a trace that nobody will forget. Read more

Published on Dec 14 2003 by daguero

5.0 out of 5 stars A special Sixth Star for Borges...
No other writer I know of is more gifted at creating complete and consistent worlds - (complete with footnoted documentation, academic histories, philosophical disputes, secret... Read more

Published on Oct 22 2003 by Benjamin B. Eshbach

5.0 out of 5 stars Borges, period.
"We are in the presence of an original Borges invention: the invention of an invention." Umberto Eco. Read more

Published on Aug 21 2003 by Federico J. Lopez

5.0 out of 5 stars The short story at its best
If you are lucky enough to read Spanish well, you might you want to try Borges in Spanish. That's not to say that this is a poor translation but rather there are so many minute... Read more

Published on Nov 26 2002 by jag7705

5.0 out of 5 stars THE MASTER OPENS A DOOR...
...and others have followed, thanks to the ground-breaking work of this Argentinian genius. Borges was right in not allowing these works to be classified as 'short stories' -- he... Read more

Published on May 2 2002 by Larry L. Looney

5.0 out of 5 stars Metaphysical Angst
After years of running into this name, "Borges," I felt as though I were falling short of my expectations as a reader to ignore this man and his colossal reputation... Read more

Published on Dec 12 2001 by Jason Baer

5.0 out of 5 stars if you don't like him you don't understand him, period
let's set a few things straight. borges is not encouraging the reader to negate existence by calling it's reality and importance into question. Read more

Published on Nov 7 2001 by J from NY

5.0 out of 5 stars IT IS A WORLDWIDE MARVEL
If you haven't ever read Jorge Luis Borges, then please, begin by this book. It is so stunning, and amazing, that I can't tell you how it is. Read more

Published on Nov 5 2001 by Mario Gonzalez Dorado

4.0 out of 5 stars stretch it out
There is no intellectual exercise that is not ultimately pointless.
-Jorge Luis Borges

Borge's gnosticism--his sense that the ultimate God is beyond good and evil, and... Read more

Published on Nov 4 2001 by Orrin C. Judd

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