The Impossible Fiction of Jorge Luis Borges
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- The short stories of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges are unlike those of any other author. Despite an average length of only a few pages, each tale is packed full of mind-boggling impossibilities of physics, philosophy and psychology, some of which are even hard to imagine. We'll be taking a look at how Borges crafted his stories and some of the incredible thinking going on behind the scenes.
FURTHER READING/VIEWING/LISTENING
'Labyrinths' by Jorge Luis Borges: www.amazon.co....
'This Craft of Verse' Lectures by Jorge Luis Borges: • Jorge Luis Borges: Thi...
On Alexius Meinong's Theory of Objects: • Nonexistent Objects & ...
Radio Programmes about Borges' work and life:
www.bbc.co.uk/...
www.bbc.co.uk/...
MUSIC
'jake' - Che-Yu : / jake-1
'sonder' - Che-Yu : / sonder-1
"Ebbs and Flows" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons...
'5:54 AM (Dawn)' - Ross Budgen: • ♩♫ Emotional and Ambie...
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I do not own any of the clips used.
This video is a review for critical and educational purposes and is protected under article 15 and 105 in the United States Fair Use code, as well as Fair Dealing in UK copyright law. My use of both the footage and music from this work is for the sake of analysis. This video is NOT an infringement on copyright.
I’m reading Borges now (already on my 3rd collection!), and I wanted to highlight something that you only briefly mention. That he intends, and often succeeds, to induce the feeling of unreality in the reader. I often put the book down at the end of a story and look around me at a room that seems to be different. Of course it is I who have changed while reading the story, not the room about me. A trick you didn’t mention was that some of his stories loop back on themselves, so you read a sentence that suddenly induces a feeling of déjà vu simply because you had read that sentence an hour ago in the same story. This man was really a genius, and I intend to read everything he wrote over the next months. Beware his inappropriate adjectives!!
Such a great observation! Can't wait to get back into his work when I get the chance, myself.
I object to the characterization of his stories as "rejection of scientific, logical and perceivable reality"
In fact, his stories are **rigorously** fantastic, almost to the level of mathematical rigor. His stories are sometimes quoted as epigraphs in mathematical papers and books.
Source: I'm a mathematician.
This...100%. He works extrapolate mathematical, philosophical, theological, metaphysical, and literary concepts into narrative forms.
You can say you are a mathematician and tell me that 1 + 1 = 5 and that doesn’t mean it is true. You should cite from one of Borges’ stories should you wish to refute the narrator’s claims. Consistent with the narrator’s claim for example is Borges’ poem El Sueño where he states that the role of dreams is to “destejer el universo…el ilusorio punto de los geometras, la línea, el plano…borrar el cosmos y erigir el caos.” If Borges sees dreams as valuable as our wakefulness as his many stories and poems about them would convince us, then his descriptions of how dreams defy mathematics and logic and undo our known universe are an affirmation of what is stated in the video.
@@Bbopjonez HAH! Well stated!
Latin American realities have always deifed what the rest of the world call "reality", when you tell someone the story of one of our countries they identify it more easily with fiction. But it's part of the real world. In fact, it surpasses what we consider real. That's why such 'unreal' things can be described with such scientific rigor, not only in Borges's work, but in many so called "magic realism authors" (magic realism is a concept imposed by european critics, but many of those authors mocked that, for the reasons aforementined). Mathematics are like that, they are considered the realest shit in the universe, but there are things in mathematics so hard to imagine that they seem like science fiction, mathemathicians have discovered things about the universe that are supposed to be unimaginable or even impossible, quantum physics are basically the antithesis of physics. Many authors and philosophers just defied the polar way to see the world, in which one thing is real, the other is not, one thing is factual, the other, fiction. Let's remember that diference was brought by Descartes, it's a philosofical difference, not a set fact.
Borges was a visionary in the purest sense. Criminally underrated and unadaptable.
I have recently begun to read Borges for the first time. Not being a scholar, but a person who has a well rounded experience in literature, I am under the opinion that his works are the result of an incredible imagination and sense of what words/ phrases are at their stripped down best to convey an idea. His ability to convey information without superfluous content is what in my mind sets him above other fiction I am familiar with. Sort of an educated Bukowski.
The greatest writer ever!
Why do you say that? Have you read all the writers that ever existed? You don't need to go far to find writers who are far superior to Borges, my friend.
@@skwalka6372 Yes, I have
I have, in fact, read all the writers that ever existed. Borges is the superior one.
@@seams4186 Borges is good enough for Latin America, I suppose.
@@skwalka6372 and the entire world!
How a work of such quality could have so few viewers yet? I'll share to the ones in France that could be interested
Single-handedly convinced me to buy a copy of Ficciones, thank you!
This was an amazing video essay. This was what exactly I was looking for. Such a well-researched and well-written essay. Thank you for your hard work! And please... keep going.
Discovered Borges in 2020 and’ve reread his collected fictions each successive year-doing so now. Really enjoyed this!
Dude. You’re doing god’s work out here. Cant wait to see this channel grown.
Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed :)
The new movie from Christopher Nolan, "Tenet", it would be very possible to be a Borges idea, a world where time is reversed. (I know the movie doesn't deal with a "world" but Borges would write that way just like he did in Tlön)
This could use some work. Borges’ best writings demonstrate metaphysical reality and you spend the entire video arguing that his output reflects unreality. The situations demonstrated in his writings come after the confines of physics you keep imposing on him. He uses laws that should be true outside of what we can perceive and paints a portrait of what reality is like beyond us. That is why he is so incredible.
Absolutely unbelievable presentation keep it up 👏🏻
There are plenty of objects with only one side, take Moebius strip for example. A disk also can be one sided if you identify its antipodal points - mathematicians call it a Real Projective Plane. Many (not all) apparently impossible ideas described by Borges find its place in Mathematics and even Physics. The ideas presented in The Garden of Forking Paths are precisely what corresponds to the so called Many-World interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. It is quite remarkable that he have thought about it independently.
It is even more remarkable when you consider that Borges never attended a university (as a student) and was entirely self-taught.
The idea of Many World interpretation, realities existing simultaneously and closing in on each other, has been there in human theologies and mythologies for more than 6000 years. It's not new.
@@roseCatcher_ Which theologies?
Absolutely excellent summary of one of (in my opinion) the 20th Century's greatest minds
Excellent. I have only recently stumbled on Borges... and this essay certainly helps. I also appreciate your pronunciation. Thanks!
No way. I watched your video/essay about Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi about 5 minutes ago so I had the fantastic idea to check your new uploads. There's no way you do this amazing quality content!
Hope my English is readable as least (my main language is Spanish and, hey, I can say your pronunciation of "Borges" is truly admirable!)
Also, I'd like to suggest you to research about Ezra Pound (ideogrammic method, orientalism, and his influence on others).
It's kinda interesting to read about these controversial artists (Pound was a fascist, Borges, during his last years, probably forgot his libertarian thoughts when he was younger).
@@nicolasjustiniano9593 Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm actually thinking about a video topic that deals with 20th century fascist thinkers - I'm a little familiar with Pound but I'll definitely research a bit more. Thanks for the suggestion!
I can't believe how awesome this video was, I hope more people watch your videos in the future
Very kind of you to say, glad you enjoyed it!
I think Borges is speaking to the sub conscious somehow whether he meant to or it just naturally happened as s phenomenon I dunno but his writing seems to coalesce with the readers imagination which I actually think Borges provided a structure to the imagination as having environs with tangibliilty and actuality. A place with the ability to be inhabited, experienced,explored , interacted with, communicate it's descriptions to others and most of all that can be remembered , he was writing cosmic narrations of the inner world of ones psyche as a vast universe unto itself . Borges was delineating the complexities nuances and structure of the human imagination and that structure was a labrythn
This is great!!! Thank you
Latin American realities have always deifed what the rest of the world call "reality", when you tell someone the story of one of our countries they identify it more easily with fiction. But it's part of the real world. In fact, it surpasses what we consider real. That's why such 'unreal' things can be described with such scientific rigor, not only in Borges's work, but in many so called "magic realism authors" (magic realism is a concept imposed by european critics, but many of those authors mocked that, for the reasons aforementined). Mathematics are like that, they are considered the realest shit in the universe, but there are things in mathematics so hard to imagine that they seem like science fiction, mathemathicians have discovered things about the universe that are supposed to be unimaginable or even impossible, quantum physics are basically the antithesis of physics. Many authors and philosophers just defied the polar way to see the world, in which one thing is real, the other is not, one thing is factual, the other, fiction. Let's remember that diference was brought by Descartes, it's a philosofical difference, not a set fact.
Wonderful job! thank you for this
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Great video and great writing! I don't usually leave comments, but I do so now hoping that it will help you with the algorithm. Thank you for this amazing essay!
Amazing video
Love a post that requires me to take notes. Thank you🐍🤜💥
Thank you dreamtigers is my favorite book you are very insightful
Amazing Essay!
I think it's pretty funny that the one sided coin was lost forever in that manner
Thank you! It's such a great story, Borges has a wickedly cruel sense of humour sometimes...
Awesome ! Thank you.
thank you for watching :)
Great videos
Great video again. Can’t wait too see what you go on to good.
This is a wonderful essay on Borges. May I have your permission to use some of the material presented here so pithily in an essay I am planning to write? I will of course acknowledge your help.
That's very kind of you to say! Of course - I'd love it if you could send me a link when you're finished, curious to see what you make of it all :)
The river that carries him away...The tiger that consumes him...The world, alas, is real. And Hengist and Horsa are gathering men...
aguante argentina, peron, charly garcia y borges (si no pongo a charly en el medio se agarran a las trompadas) viva pappo tambien
In 3d videogames, there are objects with only one side.
A discrepancy in Borges' seeming interests further queers his stories, in that Borges considered himself a poet and poetry, the music of words, his obsession and not his weird little stories.
'queers'? 'discrepancy'? 'obsession'? What a lonely comment.
There is a certain irony for me, in the presentation of this upload. I dont like to criticize and I know a lot of consideration has gone into this video. However, when I read Borges I 'hear' a moist avuncular, tongue very much in cheek, cheekily humorous voice. This however, is totally at odds with the presentation which comes across to me as a kind of factoidal robotic attempt at academic pseudo-neutrality which is what, to me, Borges is actually gently ridiculing. I found I had to give up on it as it was so devoid of humour that it was too dry for my mental palette. I am aware that that will meet with rancour from those who still, I used to partake in such mental beverages myself, who still partake of mental aridity. And I agree with NKRevolution about being hyperreality or surreality but without a twinkle in the eye to match Borges's any 'analysis' is going to fall short.
Ty for the video.
I liked it a lot)
Amazing
Thank you!
damn this was insane
A planet can be more small than miniatue-miniature of life
Which books should I start with?
If you can get a hold of it, the collection ‘Labyrinths’ has most of the classics. Otherwise, ‘Ficciones’ (which is mostly included in Labyrinths). Enjoy!
Flatland...
👍🏾
Brit Marling brought me here
0:28 🪬🪬🪬
*A Disk With One Side:* A Clock.
Martin Jessica Hall Barbara Brown Anna