One of those days...

[wolven7]

I'm having one of those days, where you realise that even though it feels likeit, you're not the first person to read and really appreciate an author. It feels like it, because I have to wonder why no one ever said to me "Damien, you fucking need to read Borges. It's amazing stuff, and I think you'll like it." Because that's all I need, you know? Just a nudge, no presumptions about the specifics of my tastes, but a gentle nod that you know what they are, and that there is something... Well. Anyway.

The more i read of and about Jorge Luis Borges, the more I have to wonder why I was not reading Jorge Luis Borges, a very long time ago.

'Every writer creates his own precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future.'

You want an endorsement that speaks to more than just my proclivities, my tastes? Mark Z. Danielewski, in writing House of Leaves, created a precursor in Jorge Luis Borges, as well as many others, obviously, but most clearly Borges. The innvented works, and historical tone, standing right along side real texts and a conversational mode, like you were sitting in a pub, together, recounting old times. Footnotes, some real, some imagined. Things you think are important, which aren't, and then, later, are, more than you would have imagined.

Or maybe that's just me, again.

Comments

[bluesummers.livejournal.com]

"Damien, you fucking need to read Borges. It's amazing stuff, and I think you'll like it."

I think some of us probably just assumed you already had, but then some of us would consider him canonical (not in any particular canon, just... canonical) in the first place, heh. I forget when I first read him but he's one of my favorite authors.

What's your favorite story of his? The first I read was "Funes the Memorious," and I'm fond of "The Library of Babel," but my number one favorite's probably "The House of Asterion."

[bluesummers.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, actually that first paragraph reads a little condescending. Wasn't my intention, just meant he seemed so up-your-alley that I figured he'd have been to that alley before, is all.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

I knew what you meant, but thanks for the clarification.

And yeah, that's exactly what I mean: Someone, in my youth, around age eight, when I was reading Michael Crichton and talking about alternate universes through recursively mirrored surfaces like chair-backs and the bolts that held them in place, should have said, "Hey Damien. . ."

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Well, i just started the collection Labyrinths, so I'm about to read "The Garden of Forking Paths." Which, considering it was used as an example of science imitating art in Programming the Universe: A Quantum computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos, I should have read a while ago.

[bluesummers.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Labyrinths is the text I've got around here and it contains all his most-notable stories. I've been meaning to get his Book of Imaginary Beings, which I've read several parts of before.

Something else I've read that reminds me of him and which you'd probably enjoy (and which I'd certainly enjoy seeing more of) was a fantastic set of excerpts from a book on imaginary cities; I forget the name of the author, but I believe he's more contemporary than Borges. I just remember reading some of it in a writing class, and then when the instructor asked who enjoyed it, I was one of two people who raised hands. I got to use the word "Borgesian" aloud in a sentence that day, which is always fun.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember hearing something about that, a while ago, but the context and specifics are lost to me...

[unknownbinaries.livejournal.com]

Haven't read him, ever. Might need to borrow.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

I think you'll like him, if you think about his style as the precursor to the Zampanò parts of of Leaves.