Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings (New Directions Paperbook)
by Jorge Luis Borges
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Read in September, 2007
Borges typically gets lumped into the South American "magical realism" genre along with the likes of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (whom I've still yet to read; shame on me). But his style is very peculiar. The book is supposed to be a collection of short stories, or as Borges himself called them, ficciones. But few of them are what one would typically consider stories at all. They tend to be short fictional essays, book reviews, obituaries, articles, etc. (There's also a detective story...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Theseus
A labyrinth is a structure of indeterminate size made up of walls that twist and turn into the unknown, loop back around to familiar corridors and terminate in impassible cul-de-sacs. Unlike a maze – a game with an achievable goal – labyrinths are built with the intent of getting and keeping its occupants irrevocably lost.
It’s kind of how I felt reading Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths.
That isn’t a bad thing, mind you. Borges’ storytelling is complex and dense, and som...more
It’s kind of how I felt reading Jorge Luis Borges’ Labyrinths.
That isn’t a bad thing, mind you. Borges’ storytelling is complex and dense, and som...more
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Read in January, 1992
This is one of the few "postmodernist" works that I really love, probably because even while it laments the insidiousness of some of the "grand narratives" of modernism, it doesn't take postmodernism too seriously -- nor does it fail, like some of postmodernism's latter day twee practitioners, to take postmodernism seriously enough. I'll never forget getting to the end of this collection's first story, "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius." Some of the signal elements of p...more
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Read in July, 2007
To read Borges is to be in the presence of one of the world's rare geniuses. He is patient, experimental, multi-cultural, deeply mysterious, and profoundly metaphysical. In addition to these qualities, Borges is also an incredible writer - a writer whose stories tease, challenge, and perplex the intellect; whose essays are instructive and enlightening; and whose parables are perfect for storing away in the confines of the heart. Fortunately for us, Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writin...more
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Read in January, 1970
recommended to erik by:
Martin Steinfels, Mike Mileyrecommends it for: everyone
This is the first Borges book I ever read. Since then, of course, he's died and all of his short stories have been collected in English. Mike Miley, the person who spends more money on books than anyone I've ever known (and is very generous in sharing them), purchased that, bringing it up to the cottage in Michigan during his last visit. When I saw it amidst Michael's travel bags (a small one for clothes, a big one for books and papers) I immediately asked if I could have at it. Permission g...more
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Read in July, 2008
Reading Borges is a little like taking your vitamins. I know he's probably good for you, important and influential to literature, but his stories don't always make for the most enjoyable reads. However, I'm proud of myself for finishing this and am glad that I have some knowledge of what he's about.
The fiction in Labyrinths is full of academia surrounding religious myth, science, history, conspiracy theories, Cervantes, etc. It's possible that one could read some stories and be unaware that ...more
The fiction in Labyrinths is full of academia surrounding religious myth, science, history, conspiracy theories, Cervantes, etc. It's possible that one could read some stories and be unaware that ...more
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Read in September, 2005
This books is a collection of some English translations of the writings of Jorge Luis Borges. I liked the short stories, the poetry I don't think translated well, and the nonfiction essays were pretty boring.
Borges, even in translation is obviously a world class literary talent. I really liked a lot of the stories in this book. My favorite is the "Library of Babel" a story about a universe that consist entirely of a hexag...more
Borges, even in translation is obviously a world class literary talent. I really liked a lot of the stories in this book. My favorite is the "Library of Babel" a story about a universe that consist entirely of a hexag...more
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Read in November, 2005
A couple of stories from this book were assigned reading in a Contemporary Art Theory class I took a while ago. There were enough - probably 3 or 4 - that Anne Johnson, who teaches the class, recommended that we buy the book. The stories that we read (I believe Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius; Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote; The Library of Babel; Funes the Memorious) were glorious, and I brought it with me while taking trains all over Europe that winter break. I still haven't fini...more
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Nearly done now. . . Borges reminds me of my high school friends, who were all obsessed with math, infinity, dream/reality, MC Escher, and so forth. I haven't really encountered people who talk about such things since high school; it seems we all grew up and became too involved in our lives to ponder whether those lives are real or not.
Aside from a few Poe-like excursions into noir (pondering narrator/main character screws up, gets shot at the end), I am very fond of this book.
A student r...more
Aside from a few Poe-like excursions into noir (pondering narrator/main character screws up, gets shot at the end), I am very fond of this book.
A student r...more
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Read in July, 2008
This was a mixed bag for me. Some of the stories (mostly the ones with plots) were quite good and rather inventive. Some just seemed more at home in the philosophy section. The middle of the fiction section was mostly composed of the latter. It got tiresome reading an endless list of names followed by a some ruminations on the nature of <blank>. I don't know exactly what it was that made a story fail or succeed in this collection. I suspect that a lot of it had to do with reading too many ...more
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These have to be some of the best of Borges' works, and I love the translations in this edition. Anyone who wants to read Borges should start here, because these stories are both as profound and as accesible as anything he wrote. I wish I could think the way he thinks. I wish I could explore the complexities of existence with such a strong understanding of literature and philosophy and science. And I'm always struck by how convincing he can be without ever taking himself seriously. It's har...more
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Read in August, 2007
Borges writes in a world apart from the rest of humanity. Each story is like a cyanide capsule: tiny, seemingly innocuous, but packed with an irreversible potency that will annihilate what you once considered your own mind.
This collection gives a healthy selection from most of the Borges's work, with short stories, essays, parables, and even a poem. The only downside I would say is that book opens with Borges's most stunning stories. While this choice literally blew me out of the water (seri...more
This collection gives a healthy selection from most of the Borges's work, with short stories, essays, parables, and even a poem. The only downside I would say is that book opens with Borges's most stunning stories. While this choice literally blew me out of the water (seri...more
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Once upon a time there was a very strange and fabulistic writer who loved libraries, labyrinths, riddles, myths and dreams, science, philosophy, and ruins (and could combine all of the above however he liked). Unique in the world of literature, often poorly imitated, misfiled under "magical realism," he remains loved by many and understood by few - and I'm not pretentious enough to put myself in the second category.
These short stories - although they can take the form of essays, bo...more
These short stories - although they can take the form of essays, bo...more
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Read in April, 1994
First of all everyone knows Borges should have won the Nobel prize. Second, he has to be the most innovative and influential Spanish language writer of the 20th century (sorry Garcia Marquez fans). Anyway, it is depressing that I first really got into Borges in English with this particular book, although it is a good book as it is a collection of greatest hits. I don't know if Borges writes short stories. Someone once said, I don't know who, that Borges writes geometric puzzles. Anyway, bei...more
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recommends it for:
anyone who thinks they want to remember everything, or be immortal
This book will change your mind, or at least make you think twice. I must admit I find some of Borge's writing very hard to follow; I'm just not clever enough, I guess, or haven't read enough, maybe: haven't read nearly enough. But the stories I could get my head round were brilliant, especially 'Funes the Memorious' and 'The Immortal', and for these alone Borges easily makes it into my top 10. The best words I can think of to describe his writing are 'labyrinthine', 'geometric', 'boundless'... ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
I truly do not see what all the fuss is about with this guy. These aren't stories, they're ideas of stories, which might have been interesting if they'd actually been, you know, written. Oh, and don't forget to watch out for labyrinths and duality as motifs. Wait, you won't have to look out for them; Borges throws them in your face like a clown chucking pies. Seriously, the best writing in the book is the "invitation" by William Gibson, though I lost a little love for him after he swoo...more
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Read in July, 2008
You would think that with my Calvino fixation I would have previously read Borges, but I'm ashamed to admit this was my first. As expected, I am filled with love. This is a really solid collection of stories, lit crit essays, and "parables." The best story to my mind is about the 20th century man who set out to write Don Quixote independently, and wrote passages that were identical to Cervantes' (without copying them), but somehow better for being written from his perspective...more
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Borges is one of the most challenging and stimulating authors I have ever read. His short stories and nonfiction always leave me questioning whether I might have peeled away all the layers or, as usual, just skimmed the surface. I am not a fan of greastest hits packages but since many of his books are tough to obtain Labyrinths will sufice. Taking some of his best known works, Labyrinths takes the reader on a magical journey through literary jungles and Latin mystiques. The reader's percepti...more
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Very clever, and highly aware of it. Personally, I found it a little boring, though it does what it does to get its point across. But there's only so much of fiction you can take when it writes about itself all the time.
Throughout every story I felt like "text = text" was being repeated in some way, in some way the text was exploring the construction of itself, sometimes enacting it, etc.
This definitely belongs to the "ostensibly clever" type of book. But it's not tha...more
Throughout every story I felt like "text = text" was being repeated in some way, in some way the text was exploring the construction of itself, sometimes enacting it, etc.
This definitely belongs to the "ostensibly clever" type of book. But it's not tha...more
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Read in August, 2001
Borges packs a lot of substance into a multitude of short stories. This collection entrances with skewed visions of reality that force us to reconsider our own perceptions and heuristics. Quite surreal, Borges still tackles worldly intellectual issues in a narrative that draws one in and never lets go.
This collection of short stories and essays should be on everyone’s must read list. It is an intellectual tour of the subconscious, of magical worlds that relate to our symbolically and il...more
This collection of short stories and essays should be on everyone’s must read list. It is an intellectual tour of the subconscious, of magical worlds that relate to our symbolically and il...more
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