Poll

The Lottery of Babylon should win the whole thing.

I’m glad to see Kafka getting some votes here! It looked like that might not happen, though I’d put that as the strength of Borges rather than any kind of weakness for Kafka.

I'm amazed at the vote. I figured I might be the lone vote of dissension and here I am with the majority. I may flip my vote. "In the Penal Colony" is the better story I think, while "The Lottery in Babylon," has more relevance to current thought.

That narrative style of Lottery, like Cthulhu and Omelas', is tiresome. Why do "big" ideas or concepts have to be so unvaryingly and trudgingly told? No music. No melody or counterpoint. No dance. No rise and fall. No balancing or precipitous edges. No chiarroscurro or color. No, just chthonic clomp, clomp, clomping...

The fact that in "The Lottery In Babylon" Borges makes reference to Kafka by name is reason enough that Kafka should win this. Ctb's comparison to "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"is a good one, but Borges constructs something more complex and more interesting. He also gives us a character to voice the ideas and not just a narrator. But Kafka gives us a full-blown story. "In The Penal Colony" is a masterful creation. It gets my vote.

A Character in Babylon? Describe him. Is he timid? Or egotistical? Suffering from dementia? Kind to animals but not people? Fastidious? What? He's no more than an authorial voice.

Ctb wrote: "A Character in Babylon? Describe him. Is he timid? Or egotistical? Suffering from dementia? Kind to animals but not people? Fastidious? What? He's no more than an authorial voice."

Well let's see.... He's missing a finger (the index finger on his right hand). He has a tattoo on his belly. He says he has severed the jugular vein of a bull, so let's go with a "no" on kind to animals. I would say that slashing a bull's throat means he's not timid. He stole food, which is more an indication of understandable desperation than vice. So he is a bit more than just an authorial voice.

But those are results of a forced Lottery code, not personality traits.

P.S. David, we're on the same team here.

I'm a big fan of "In the Penal Colony" and Kafka. This wasn't an easy one for me, but I did go with "The Library of Babel." It's not a character study, no (and neither is "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas), but it's a fantastic philosophical exploration! And, yes, it's (they both are!) a story!

Trevor wrote: "I'm a big fan of "In the Penal Colony" and Kafka. This wasn't an easy one for me, but I did go with "The Library of Babel." It's not a character study, no (and neither is "The Ones Who Walk Away fr..."

You've mentioned another good and similar Borges story, but I think you meant "The Lottery of Babylon," or I read the wrong story.

Ha, I did just mis-write!

Hey, Trevor. You just mis-wrote it again on the match-ups page.

Whichever way I vote it feels like a betrayal. It's been so long ago that I can't remember who I read first - Borges or Kafka? Needless to say, I loved them both, but the truth is I certainly remembered more clearly "In the Penal Colony", being that it has a clear narrative structure as opposed to "Babylon's " philosophical bent. It's a coin toss really. As in the previous matchup, tonight I favour brevity. Borges!

David wrote: "The fact that in "The Lottery In Babylon" Borges makes reference to Kafka by name is reason enough that Kafka should win this."
Yes, but he's relegated him to being the name of a latrine (sacred though it may be). What does it mean?

It doesn't read like a compliment, but I didn't research Borges's opinions.

Ctb, I found this from an article in the journal called Oxford German Studies. I think it's safe to say it's a compliment:

"Borges introduced Kafka’s writing to Argentina, publishing essays about and translating his works starting in the 1930s. He admired Kafka’s stories for being both timely and timeless, and for springing from personal circumstances yet resonating widely. It was for these reasons that Borges felt Kafka’s writing should be part of Argentina’s cultural patrimony. Borges openly borrowed from Kafka for ‘La lotería en Babilonia’ and ‘La biblioteca de Babel’, stories that used Kafkaesque concepts of subordination and infinity. "

David wrote: "Ctb, I found this from an article in the journal called Oxford German Studies. I think it's safe to say it's a compliment:

"Borges introduced Kafka’s writing to Argentina, publishing essays about ..."

Thanks, David. That reverses my branch on the logic tree, but I don't know enough about Kafka's work to draw a meritable allusion.

People sanctify, kneel at the filthiest man-made object believing it is a medium to omnipotence and omniscience so as to improve their draws or harm others' - but The Company disavows sanction or guarantees.