Best of Borges

Post your personal favourite(s)

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youtube.com/watch?v=fkpYhmgkwTc
isbnplus.com/9780866985093
libraryofbabel.info/
youtube.com/watch?v=i_ZTt_JQXRU
youtube.com/watch?v=7ccUgWFXgYY
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apart from the usual prose (ficciones, el aleph and el libro de arena) his essays are god-tier. specially Literaturas Germanicas Medievales.

that one with the jewish letter

Al otro, a Borges, es a quien le ocurren las cosas. Yo camino por Buenos Aires y me demoro, acaso ya mecánicamente, para mirar el arco de un zaguán y la puerta cancel; de Borges tengo noticias por el correo y veo su nombre en una terna de profesores o en un diccionario biográfico. Me gustan los relojes de arena, los mapas, la tipografía del siglo XVII, las etimologías, el sabor del café y la prosa de Stevenson; el otro comparte esas preferencias, pero de un modo vanidoso que las convierte en atributos de un actor. Sería exagerado afirmar que nuestra relación es hostil; yo vivo, yo me dejo vivir para que Borges pueda tramar su literatura y esa literatura me justifica. Nada me cuesta confesar que ha logrado ciertas páginas válidas, pero esas páginas no me pueden salvar, quizá porque lo bueno ya no es de nadie, ni siquiera del otro, sino del lenguaje o la tradición. Por lo demás, yo estoy destinado a perderme, definitivamente, y solo algún instante de mí podrá sobrevivir en el otro. Poco a poco voy cediéndole todo, aunque me consta su perversa costumbre de falsear y magnificar.

Spinoza entendió que todas las cosas quieren perseverar en su ser; la piedra eternamente quiere ser piedra y el tigre un tigre. Yo he de quedar en Borges, no en mí (si es que alguien soy), pero me reconozco menos en sus libros que en muchos otros o que en el laborioso rasgueo de una guitarra. Hace años yo traté de librarme de él y pasé de las mitologías del arrabal a los juegos con el tiempo y con lo infinito, pero esos juegos son de Borges ahora y tendré que idear otras cosas. Así mi vida es una fuga y todo lo pierdo y todo es del olvido, o del otro.

No sé cuál de los dos escribe esta página.

A recent favourite is Coleridge's Dream, which links Coleridge's unfinished poem Kubla Khan which Coleridge reportedly heard in a dream, about the palace of the actual emperor Kubla Khan which was reportedly (and unbeknownst to Coleridge) designed in a dream.

I've also been really into The Book of Sand after being slightly disappointed by Brodie's Report. The return to the metaphysical rather than Argentinian-based stories is my cup of tea, plus the inclusion of loads of Anglo-Saxon themes.

>Literaturas Germanicas Medievales
This looks dead interesting but doesn't appear to have been translated into English. Is this a collection of Borges translations of Germanic lit into Spanish or is it a text book like his Introduction to English Literature?

youtube.com/watch?v=fkpYhmgkwTc

The house of Asterion

it is an essay book, like his introduction to english literature. but hhere he talks about scandinavian, icelandic and anglo-saxon lit. in fact he does a marvelous explanation of what are the kenningars.
it seems it was translated to english, look isbnplus.com/9780866985093

The Library of Babel obv

Recordatorio que las traducciones de Borges son un escupitajo a la literatura ;)

entry level Borges

someone a working version of it

libraryofbabel.info/

esc mi castellano es una mierda y tengo que leer traducciones

The Garden of Forking Paths

The one with the knife fighting gauchos.

Everything non-argentina. Except Ulrikke because I didn't get it.

Cheers user, I've ordered a copy. I recently read Professor Borges which is a translated version of his lectures on English lit at Buenos Aires university. By far my favourite part was the first ~5 or so lectures where he goes into unreasonable detail about Anglo-Saxon poetry. I look forward to seeing what he had to say in this about the Icelandic sagas in particular!

Also just found this monograph from the translator of that book you suggested. Some interesting reading ahead!

why did he hate spanish so much?

read the Volsunga Saga if u want to get Ulrikke

Congrats! please, when u read it can u make a thread about it? i would like to know how good is the english translation

i haven't found this one but i would like to read it.

>g-guys can i be english p-pls

This one has stuck with me so much longer than I expected.

Because us superior white folk cant understand a god damn word hes saying; he wishes he was white.

Borges was a contrarian cunt. He hated everything, we don't take it personal.

lmao, esto

For me, it's The Immortal.

nah, he loved literature, just watch this

youtube.com/watch?v=i_ZTt_JQXRU

Funes is underrated. There's something about the ending that I find really haunting.

>La recelosa claridad de la madrugada entró por el patio de tierra.
>Entonces vi la cara de la voz que toda la noche había hablado. Ireneo tenía diecinueve años; había nacido en 1868; me pareció monumental como el bronce, más antiguo que Egipto, anterior a las profecías y a las pirámides. Pensé que cada una de mis palabras (que cada uno de mis gestos) perduraría en su implacable memoria; me entorpeció el temor de multiplicar ademanes inútiles.
>Ireneo Funes murió en 1889, de una congestión pulmonar.

Rubaiyat from "In Praise of Darkness"

The Circular Ruins was always a favorite of mine, but I never really hear anyone talk about it.

Just finished watching the first episode of the Pope Francis web series. When he was a Jesuit schoolteacher he invited Borges to give a talk to his (upper class) students. One of the students called him an "old cheat". What did he mean by this?

Stop posting on the Veeky Forums Bore-hess you dead diglett

Feels so good to be a native spanish speaker

not sure if i remember correctly but is that El Sur?

These two, the moment in Funes where he describes Funes imagining himself as the bed of river, or going imagening a part of town he hadn't seen because it gave him rest is amazing.

There are very specific sentences i noted from all the short stories i've read by him (Fictions, the aleph and a universal history of infamy) but they are in dutch translations, so i wont bother to post them here.

Borges was the first Tulpamancer

The best of exit-level Borges:
Three Versions of Judas
The Writing of the God (by far his most underrated story)

>exit-level Borges
Has to be his poetry really. I can't claim to really appreciate it because I don't speak Spanish and I haven't even really absorbed any translations. Basically why I concern myself with his non-fiction and metaphysical fiction because it deals more with ideas than style.

How does he stack up next to Borges?

MY SARACEN

Yep.

Personal favorite too, along with The Secret Miracle and Three Versions of Judas.

Looking forward to reading the Aleph.

The old guy who tossed him the knife was a gaucho, the drunks were just farm hands

>asq português e espanhol são tão parecidos que não preciso de traduções
;)

He's a better stylist IMO but Borges undeniably has more depth
I like Cortázar more tbf

El aleph
The house of Asterion
The Library of Babel
Three Versions of Judas
The Writing of the God
The Circular Ruins

>ctrl f "theologians"
>0 results
plebs the lot of you

This one. I don't read Spanish but I can tell it's Borges and I, right?

There's also the one about the woodcutter who lives alone in the woods and the fallen king who comes to visit in the winter and the king has a one sided coin and the woodcutter kills the king and loses the coin in the snow. What's that one called?

I also remember one that features a surreal semi-erotic encounter. It came unexpectedly because there's usually nothing at all erotic in any of his works. It's in one of his late collections.

And the one about the slit throat race.

And the one about the two lady painters who live in a lifelong rivalry/friendship.

And the one about a knife fight that the introduction said it was a rewrite of a famous scene by another Argentinian author.

I feel so stupid for not being able to remember any of the titles.

If I were to pick just one though it'd be either Borges and I or El Sur.

The Lottery in Babylon
that intro man, fuckin amazing

also The Circular Ruins

El Evangelio según Marcos
El Jardín de senderos que se bifurcan
Emma Zunz

Fucking like half of them?

>There's also the one about the woodcutter who lives alone in the woods and the fallen king who comes to visit in the winter and the king has a one sided coin and the woodcutter kills the king and loses the coin in the snow. What's that one called?
It's called The Disk and it's from the Book of Sand collection. Possibly my favourite collection. Although Fictions is the obvious choice because stories like Tlön are so fun.

fuck yes the lottery in babylon is amazing

The Zahir and Three Versions of Judas are underrated

what about this film?
youtube.com/watch?v=7ccUgWFXgYY

But his short stories have a really great and unique style, too

It really is
I have no idea how the company became a metaphysical entity though, unless it really wasn't and was just so mysterious as to seem like one

The book of sand is pretty cool, it's about a book similar to the hypothetical one described in the last footnote in the library of babel

what about El Milagro Secreto?
it's the one about the guy who was going to be executed by a firing squad and asks to god to live enough to finish his inconcluse book, so god gives him an entire year in his mind between the bullets get shot and the instant they impact his body

these desu