Jorge Luis Borges...

[ElderToadstool]

...should be required reading for all INTPs. A perfect combination of philosophy, literature, mathematics and poetry. I recall someone describing his work as an extension of purely poetic consciousness to it's furthest limits. As bizarre and intellectually stimulating an author as one can find, I highly recommend his work to anyone who isn't familiar with it.

Thoughts?

 

[AlisaD]

I like reading his writing, it's sort of like listening to good music.

 

[Kuu]

The last time I was in Tlön I got lost in a labyrinth between the mirrored hall and the garden of forking paths...

 

[merzbau]

the library of babel is exquisite, a sort of trancelike pragmatic meditation on infinity, and the human desire know everything.

 

[elliotmay]

I have pored over "Labyrinths" with such vigour 'I think it is a part of my heart'.
I've not yet read any of his poetry, would anyone have recommendations on where to start?
I remember hearing Paul Theroux reading "The Gospel According to Mark" on the New Yorker fiction, and being totally mindfucked for at least two days.

 

[The_Form]

I've read his full works. My favorite writer of all time. OF ALL TIME!

But there were 3 anthologies, each around 700 pages, two of prose(-ish writing) and one of poetry So I can't offer advise on where to start.

 

[elfsprin]

Thoughts?

thought:

agreed.

question:

what are your thoughts on classifying borges as sci-fi?

suggestion:

have you read any danilo kis?

 

[Bird]

I feel as though he should be required reading for anyone.
Not strictly INTPs.

 

[Omelas]

YES. BORGES. AND ALL HIS WIN.

If I could express to you how much Borges + Ungodly amounts of coffee + 3 am = life, I would. But, alas, it is impossible.

Curious: how many read Borges in Spanish? Although a native English speaker, I read his works in Spanish first. Then English. Although both ways Borges writing was still awesome, there were differences. It wasn't really that either language made the stories better or worse, just different. Anyone else notice this?

Oh, and if anyone wants a good site on Borges, my spanish teacher from 2 years ago showed us this one: http://www.themodernword.com/borges/

 

[Linsejko]

Borges rocks, though the way I got started on him was a poem falsely attributed to him... It started something like "if I could live my life again, I would do more this and less this."

It was very moving, and a letdown to find out that it was actually written by an American having nothing to do with Borges.

Anyways, he's still great. I read him in Spanish, referencing an online dictionary for words I don't know, and then helping Google translate when its translations actually suck but have given me the right idea.

I assume you know Pablo Neruda?

L

 

[Omelas]

Yes, Neruda as well. My Spanish 6 Class spent half the year on literature and poetry, half on painters. There was this particular Neruda poem I had to perform infront of the class, it was one of his odes. I particularly liked the odes. And then there were these little short poems that seemed to make no sense but could be interpreted if you thought about it.

Although I liked the poems we did of Neruda's, I've still got to say my favorite things to read from that class were the Borges stories. I would read them, and then all possible thought afterward would become, "Daammnn...that made (absolutely no/perfect) sense"