So, I’m reading through the Penguin Classics edition of “Labyrinths” by Jorge Luis Borges. Many of my favourites authors have been inspired by Borges, so I figured it was about time to drink from the well directly. The problem I’m running into, from even just the first story in the collection, “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius” is that I feel incredibly stupid.
And of course, I *am*, but that’s besides the point.
From what I can understand, this is sort of the point: the imagined world of Orbis Tertius is so utterly alien in its most basic principles, that even something as simple as logic, language, their fundamental theory of mind is completely unlike our conception of these things. But that being said, reading through it is incredibly mind-bending. Trying to imagine a world in which equality equals identity (such that any man quoting Shakespeare *is* Shakespeare), or that there *is* no concept of future or past, just the present, or of the hrönir, is incredibly difficult. Perhaps that’s part of the game Borges is playing. Perhaps I’m just being incredibly dense, but I can’t help but feel more than a little lost trying to follow the bizarre, alien logic of the Tlönistas.
Anyone have advice or insight?
by jaythejayjay