Nian Liu

Book of Sand

The Book of Sand by Borges had to do with the topic obsession with books. Since there is no beginning or end to the book, the reader’s social life goes into ruins and now he dedicates his whole entire time studying this specific book. Since the man couldn’t destroy the book, he hid it somewhere in the far corners of the library. Borges' main message seems to be that too much of anything is never a good thing. In this case, everything in the main character's life ceased to exist with the exception of the monstrous book. The narrator stopped doing things he enjoyed and instead studied and stressed over the book. He feared to even share the book with others. It became an obsession.

Janie Cherestal

I found Borges' "Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv," to be rather confusing. In this story, Borges uses very long and complex sentences, which makes the plot difficult to follow. What I took from the story is that there is a man named Hakim, who was trained as a dyer, and keeps his face hidden. Those who have seen his face have gone blind, and he is leading a war against Caliph's army. At the end of the story, his veil is removed by one of the captains, and the swollen features of his face are revealed right before he is killed. The theme of religion plays a very evident theme in this story, and I wonder if Hakim is a symbol for some sort of god.

Nian Liu

The Mirror and the Mask

This story felt like one of those child folklores where there are three reoccurring events that happen and in the end a moral or conclusion is developed. And so it did in this story where it ended with the poet killing himself. What I didn’t understand at first was why the kind liked the poem when the poet himself lost his taste in writing a new poem? Later I found out that, this wasn’t the case. It was the items that the King gave the poet that reflected three things. 1) The mirror that reconfirms a person’s existence, 2) The mask that conceals the truth and 3) The dagger which in the end kills the poet. The theme learned from this story was that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What’s pretty or not only determines on how a person perceives.

The Library of Babel

What started off as a something positive in the story, the Library in Babel became something horrific. People who admired the library found that the library has every single information that was accessible to mankind, knowing this people started searching for the book that defined the destiny of their own lives. I couldn't believe how people were killing each other to get their hands on a book that would help teach them how to govern their lives. The message that I get from reading this story is that we shouldn't be worrying too much on govern our lives through what outside sources are telling us but instead what we ourselves internally are telling us.

Nian Liu

The Zahir, The House of Asterion

This story reminded me of the “House of Leaves” because of the description of the labyrinth and how in the center of this maze there exists a minotaur. For the House of Leaves, I pictured a minotaur or something monstrous in the center of the dark maze. As for the story goes, it described a being that exists in the center of the maze where it lives its life in solitary. I feel almost bad for the minotaur rather than fearing this creature because it reminded me of the isolation people get when they are outcastes or when society neglects people with certain disorders or diseases.

Nian Liu

Death and the Compass

In “Death and the Compass”, Borges presciently anticipates developments in contemporary physics and scientific thought, constructing a literary environment that systemically gives the lie to the dream of rational determinism, suggesting instead something like a disorder from shifting from one religion to another. Death and the Compass was hard to follow because I would have to do a lot of back tracking to the highlights to the specific dates that happened prior to the murders. I wasn’t really into detective stories so I had a very confusing time reading Death and the Compass because when I read I don’t really like testing my memory to sort out the final clue to what really happened in the end and why.

Nian Liu

The Garden of Forking Paths

This story reminded me of the house of leaves when Borges started talking about mazes of mazes and with Dr. Tsun’s perspective on life and how time is infinite. With Tsun’s analogy to the maze (“I thought of a maze of mazes, of a sinuous, ever growing maze which would take in both past and future and would somehow involve the stars pg. 94), I got the message that he may be relating the infinite growth of a maze to the infinite paths of life. And these infinite paths are the paths that Dr. Tsun takes as he escapes from his arch nemesis. As we move further into the book, I discover that the book that Albert gives to Dr. Tsun reminded me of the house of leaves again because the book of Pen is a book of confusion where the story structure was extremely disjointed, but written in a way where the reader may still maintain flow. From Pen’s perspective it was meant to discover how all of humanities decisions lead to even more decision, and how each choice leaders a person down a single very specific path. In the house of leaves there were many possibilities and paths where Navidson may go and the single path Dr. Tsun took and Navidson took ended with him being in a path of may other possible paths. Confusing but understandable.

Nian Liu

The Lottery in Babylon

Another interesting story about a society in Babylon where lottery rules the society and evidently overtakes the whole government system. Along with time, the lottery system becomes more and more secretive where future generations question whether if the lottery still exists or has already been deteriorated over time. I really liked this story because it made me think about our society and how us like the citizens of Babylon do not often think about what or who runs our lives. We’ve been controlled by our government for so long and so much that we subconsciously do not think about how much control the U.S government has over us. There were many ideas that were brought up, especially the topic of religion and whether or not if over time religion was once pure and true until now where it seems to be more mystified.

Kristin Todd

I found House of Leaves chapters 1-4 to be very interesting and intriguing.  At the same time, though, I don't know what to expect because I have never read a book like this before.  It starts out talking about the main character's, Will Navidson, trailers to movies that he's made.  It's about him walking through rooms and going out a window, but coming back in another one.  I thought that this was very weird, but I'm still keeping an open mind.  It also talks about how Navidson, Karen, and their 2 kids moved into a new house.  There's also another story going on at the same time.  The main character of that story, Johnny Truant, seems to have a lot of problems.  I'm not sure how these two stories connect, but I'm excited to read further and find out more.

Janie Cherestal

I found Borges' "Garden of Forking Paths" to be one his more engaging short stories, for it described a man who, while being pursued, is faced with a series of choices that have profound effects on later events in his life. After following a complex maze, he meets Dr. Stephen Albert, who tells him about his distant ancestors. Although he is thankful for this information, the narrator kills the doctor in order to communicate the name of the city that he was trying to send to those he had been working for. I felt that this story had a surprising and entertaining ending, and I liked imagery Borges created by comparing the complex maze to that of endless possibilities and where each choice can lead you.

Alyson Bernero

The House of Asterion is a story that focuses on the life of many who lives in a house with no limits. Like many of Borges' stories, the house represents the labyrinth much like the labyrinth in House of Leaves. We don't find out until the end of the story that the man is in fact a minotaur which helped to clear up the confusion I had. The man is stuck inside his home and is all alone so he makes up games and tries to find ways to occupy his time. The only outside connection he has is when the nine men come to the house every nine years, but that is only so he can set them free. In a way, I felt bad for the man because he didn't have anyone and was alone for his entire life.

Alyson Bernero

I thought The Other by Borges was one of his most creative stories. The concept of the man seeing his past self was very complicated and confusing at first, but after thinking about it I realized that it caused me to consider things in my own life. I thought it was interesting that neither of the men went back to the meeting place they discussed when they first saw eachother. Perhaps they thought they had imagined the entire thing, or maybe they thought it would be crazy to go back again. Either way, I think it was so interesting to see how Borges interpreted the interaction between his past and current self. I can't even imagine what would happen if someone told me they were my future self.

Alyson Bernero

The Garden of Forking Paths was yet another story by Borges with the theme of a labyrinth. This story however, was much more suspensful than some of his other works. The story follows a man who is running away from his arch enemy. During the course of the story we follow this person on his journey through his labyrinth, while allowing us to see the many different possible outcomes. We saw how different something can turn out just by changing one simple part. I especially enjoyed the presentation we had on this story. I thought the idea of the game where we got to chose the different endings was very creative. It also helped me to understand the confusing parts of the story a little better.

Alyson Bernero

I think that the Library of Babel is the short story that most obviously reflects the theme of the labyrinth. Borges uses the infinite number of books and stories in a library to demonstrate the neverending concept of a labyrinth. The story is about a man who in the library and very familiar with it. The reader is told that the books are all arranged in exactly the same way on every shelf. I think possibly the relationship in this story between the labyrinth, the books and the old man shows that life is in some ways never ending. Life, like the books and stories in the library are limitless.

Alyson Bernero

The Lottery in Babylon was an interesting story that truly fits the saying, damned if you do, damned if you don't. The people of Babylon were told to enter themselves into the lottery or be deemed as cowards by the rest of the population. Those who chose to enter themselves in the lottery paid a fee much like lotteries still existing today, however the reward was much different. The outcome of the lottery was in most cases death. This caused me to wonder, why anyone would allow themselves to possibly be killed? If the consequence to not entering was being considered a coward I would surely take the new nickname.

Alyson Bernero

The Zahir was yet another example of the similarities between Borges writing and the book House of Leaves. The main character and narrator is once again Borges in this story and he once again cannot control his obsessions. The story not only focuses on his obsession with the zahir, but also his love for Villar. Like in House of Leaves the main character is torn between what is real and what he wants to believe is real. In this case, Borges' character cannot find the line between reality and what he hopes the zahir can do for him. This was definately not one of my favorite stories by Borges and I was confused throughout a lot of it.

Alyson Bernero

The Mirror and the Mask was another interesting story by Borges. It was slightly different than a lot of the other stories he writes. This story takes place during the Battle of Clontarf when the King hires a writer to create a poem for him over the next year. When the poet comes back he recites a long, well written poem for the King. The king loves it and gives him a silver mirror and the task of writing another poem. The poet than constructs another poem however this time with much less effort. The King once again loves the poem, gives the poet a golden mask and the task of writing yet another poet. This time when the poet returns the next year, the poem is only one line and the poet has clearly suffered emotionally. Strangely, the King loves this poem the most and rewards the poet with a dagger. As soon as this occurred I knew what was about to happen and not to my surprise, the poet kills himself with the dagger.
I thought this story was good, but unlike in Borges' other stories I wasn't able to see where the labyrinth came into play. Did this story even include a labyrinth?

Alyson Bernero

The Book of Sand is another one of Borges' stories which reminded me of House of Leaves. Just like Johnny Traunt in House of Leaves, the owner of the book becomes obsessed with the story. We find while reading that the character in the story is once again Borges himself. When Borges shows no interest in buying the Bible from the seller, the man pulls out the book which immediately intrigues Borges. Borges is unable to deny that he is fascinated by the limitlessness of the book in front of him. This is the demonstration of the labyrinth in the story. The labyrinth is once again an symbol for something with no limits or something that continues on for as long as you allow it too.

Alyson Bernero

I found Borges' story, Man on Pink Corner to be very exciting. The first thing that came to mind while reading it, was that it reminded me of a western because of what was going on and the wording he used. The story began in a club or perhaps a bar just like all good western movies, then there was a fight and then a girl got involved and in the end, someone died. I think this was an interesting story. I found it more fun to read than other stories by Borges perhaps because of the language. I wasn't expecting Yardmaster to be killed, especially after if was he who challenged Rosendo to the knife fight in the first place. I like the unexpected ending and the story overall.

Alyson Bernero

Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv was definately one of my least favorite stories of Borges'. The title I felt, basically told all of the details we learned later on in the story. It bothered me that Borges said things in very complicated ways when it could have been much more easily stated. For example, why did he say "... his father's brother..." when he could have just said uncle. Overall, I can't say much else about this story because I didn't understand much of it.

Alyson Bernero

Monk Eastman, Purveyor of Inequities was the short story that I presented. I found it quite confusing at first, but after reading it over I realized what it was talking about. The story discussed all the gang violence that went on in New York City between businessmen. Its related to the famous movie, Gangs of New York. The main character Eastman, started out by opening his own business and then overtime became New York's go to guy when someone needed a "job" carried out. Before long, Eastman became so famous for his work he didn't even do the jobs himself and instead had people do them for him. When things got a little carried away between the different gangs, Eastman was caught in the middle and sent to jail. Upon his release from jail he couldn't stay out of trouble and instead enlisted in the army which was the last place anyone heard from him. Overall, it was an interesting story, but not my favorite of Borges'.

Alyson Bernero

Death and the Compass was definately one of my favorite stories by Borges. I especially liked that it was written as somewhat of a mystery. I think that the mystery aspect is what made it more appealing to me than some of his other works. On the last page, Borges specifically mentions the labyrinth which is different than in most of his other stories. This almost helped me to understand exactly what some of the hidden meanings in the story were. Although it was longer than most of his other works, it was easier to follow and I think thats what made me so interested in the story. Someone mentioned that it reminded them of the movie Bone Collector and after thinking about the concepts in both works I agree. I saw Bone Collector my senior year of high school and I thought it was a great movie. After thinking back to the way it was written and the way Borges wrote this story I decided to write my paper in the same kind of way. Death and the Compass is a great Borges story.

Nian Liu

The Approach to Al-Mu’tasim

Once again, Borges mentions things I am not really clear about. He starts off naming Philip Guedalla, then Mir Bahadur Ali, and these additional characters that I have no idea about. Maybe its just the style Borges writes with, but what I feel it lacks is the hook that other stories have that he doesn’t. But once I begin to read on the story, I notice the plot all falls into place. Borges just introduced the whereabouts on the book first before he started to explain what the story was about and that it is written by this Mir Bahadur Ali guy. In general this Approach to Al-Mutasim is a detective story about a law student who has taken Muslim as a faith and he ventures himself around India to find a purpose so that he can find enlightenment in his religion.

Nian Liu

Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

I didn’t really enjoy reading this story because it seemed as if I was reading about something I have no idea about. It talked about an investigation in the different volumes of encyclopedias that took these adventurers months to discover and inside they reveal a passage in the encyclopedia about a hidden world called Tlon. There was a difference in language in the world of Tlon where nouns do not exists but instead verbs are replaces the noun. For instance the sentence, “The moon rose above the river, ”would be said in Tlon, “holor u fang ataxias mlo” which translates in English as, “Upward, behind the on streaming it mooned.” After reading this I didn’t really enjoy the parallels of this world because it made me feel uncomfortable trying to understand how the world in Tlon worked since it greatly differed from our world. This story reminds me of one the projects I had to do this semester and that was to create a civilization. Borges created this civilization out of straight imagination, and to consolidate the astrology, calendars, geography, culture, and literature of a civilization takes immense skill and I think Borges wrote this story because he wanted to challenge himself to see if he is up to the task and he did it.

Michael Lampasona

This story begins at a bar, with the patrons doing the tango. A man called the Yardmaster walks in, and he is heckled and shoved by all the bar patrons. He walks straight up to a man Rosendo, and challenges him to a knife fight. Rosendo denies him, and even when given his knife, Rosendo declines. He throws his knife out the window, and looks like a coward because of this. Yardmaster leaves with a woman, La Lujanera, after Rosendo backs out of the challenge. However, he shows up at the bar later that night with a fatal stab wound, and the culprit remains unknown.

I thought this story was well written and captivating. I believe that La Lujanera stabbed the Yardmaster, because she was the one who left with him and she made sure to make a quick disappearance after the Yardmaster had been stabbed and killed.

Janie Cherestal

I enjoyed reading Borges’ “The Other” because the aspect of someone meeting the past version of themselves was pretty interesting and gave the story a supernatural twist. I felt that the fact that Borges was able to develop such a complex story such as this one proves the kind of intelligence he possessed. I was disappointed that Borges did not meet up with his past self at the end of the story because I was very curious to know whether or not the entire encounter was just a figment of the imagination, as had the young Borges speculated, or reality. Although I never learned if this was a actual incident, I enjoyed the contrast Borges created between the consciousnesses of the past and present, and between reality and the imagination.

Janie Cherestal

I felt that Borges’ “Library of Babel” was a relatively interesting short story. The beginning where Borges described in detail the elements of each room was a tad lengthy and unnecessary, the overall storyline of men attempting to gain all the knowledge the universe has to offer was engaging. I liked the fact that Borges included the “librarian” who reflects God, for He is the one with the single book that summarizes all of the books of the library and thus possesses all of its secrets. I was confused by the narrator’s closing thoughts, where he stated that somewhere amid the chaos must exist some type of order or pattern, and wondered what exactly Borges meant by this peculiar statement.

Michael Lampasona

I did not quite understand this story at first. I could not understand why the narrator is running from Captain Richard Madden. As the story develops, it appears that the main character is on Germany's side in the war, and Captain Richard Madden is trying to kill him for his war affiliation. Eventually he reaches the home of Dr. Stephen Albert. Along the way, he explains the work of his ancestor Ts'ui Pen, who was creating a garden of forking paths. This is an area with infinite possibilities and outcomes. At the end of the story, the narrator kills Dr. Stephen Albert to reveal that the name of the city he was spying on was Albert.

I found this story to be interesting. At first, I was a little confused by the plot, but I like the idea of infinite possibilities. It reminds me of time travel paradoxes, and the movie The Butterfly Effect. I enjoyed this story because it got my mind working about the infinity of everything in life.

tung kim

Many people find something out of nothing, that what I thought when I read the Zahir. A woman finds something in a coin that she is unable to let it go. Everyone I think is connected and that goes the same for objects. When things in our lives start to go all weird and we start to lose track, many people tend to find comfort different ways. And so perhaps the lady in the story holds on to that coin because she feels that she need to find reason to her existences. That just my take on it.

tung kim

The others was another great story I thought. I always thought to myself what it would be to meet my future self. Would I be the same as I am now, how much would I really change, would I be successful in my life or be in ruins. Another thought would that I would also wonder is that what I would say to my past self. Would I tell him to watch out for curtain things and prevent hardship and heartache? The story is very strange in the end in that they both chose not to go meet up and that shows that they both are still the same in their logic and actions. I don’t think I would be able to do that my wonder would over rule my logic and I would make my self to the meeting place.

tung kim

I remember reading this story somewhere before in my life and after reading it again I started to remember why I liked this story. There are many symbols in it that I thought was very well hidden such as the book being truth that it was the key to human kind understand that such a thing as a book of infinitely existed. But in the end we could comprehend such a thing, we as a society would not accept such a thing existed and book was later hidden for all time. I did enjoy reading this book and I’m sure that there are more symbols then just that. Borges is a very interesting man and in a way very crafty in adding like clues into his stories.

Janie Cherestal

“The Mirror and the Mask” was one of Borges more complicated stories. It described a poet’s attempt to create the perfect poem about a war as a favor for the king. As a thank-you, the king gives the poet a mask for the first poem, then a mirror for the second. However, with each poem, the poet displays physical changes, and by his last poem, looks like a completely different person. This poem is just one line, and the king states that it is the most beautiful thing in the universe. With that, he gives the poet a dagger, which he uses to kill himself, and the king becomes a beggar. I felt confused at to what this one line was, and wondered if it was the name of God. This would explain why the king called it the most perfect piece he ever seen, and why the poet commits suicide, for Borges had stated in one of his stories that men are not meant to discover God’s name.

Janie Cherestal

I found Borges’ “Book of Sand” to be one of his better short stories due to the fact that it was concise and to the point without any confusing symbolism. In the story, the narrator purchases a fascinating book with infinite pages from a peddler, but soon becomes horrified by the object and terribly paranoid that someone will steal it from him. Eventually, he decides that he must get rid of the book and decides that the safest place to lose it is in a giant library among countless volumes. I felt that the feature of an eerie book that drives its owner mad was pretty interesting and it was fun to read how strongly it effected the narrator. I was surprised that Borges did not end up killing off the narrator as he usually does to one of the characters in his stories, and wondered what Borges was trying to say about religion by having a Bible seller give the terrible book to the narrator.

Katherine Tesi

I found Borges’ “The Book of Sand” relatively interesting, but it was surely no surprise that Borges once again uses the idea of the infinite and labyrinths. We find Borges as the narrator and main character again, which I have found that I like a little better. I find it more intriguing when Borges is the main character, simply because I feel as though the story being told could be a first hand account of an event. We also find a theme of religion within this story in that the stranger is selling Bibles and Borges has a collection of Bibles. Throughout all of the time that Borges has spent referring to the infinite and labyrinths, I have found it increasingly interesting as the stories have progressed. I really do enjoy how many of his stories portray an idea similar to this one; if a person becomes obsessive about the infinite in any aspect of life, it will surely drive them insane. In the stories which have been read during class, we find that the characters are temporarily consumed by this obsession but they seem to always return to reality.

Michael Lampasona

This story was about a library that had every possible book within its shelves. All the books were the same length, and arranged in the same fashion on the shelves. Since every combination of 22 letters was used to form the words in the book, there were a seemingly infinite number of books. However, there is a limit to the number of possible combinations so the number of books is actually finite. During the story, men try to find the one book that will bring them salvation. Also, there is mention of the one divine book that exists within the library. In search of great books, some books from the library are destroyed. However, Borges points out that there are so many books, even destroying some does not eliminate the handful of almost identical books that are left behind. This analogy can be applied to many situations in the world, not only this library.

I found this story compelling. It reminded me of when I walk into a library and am astounded by the number of books. Even though every possible combination of letters is not actually in our libraries, the pure amount of knowledge on the shelves is unbelievable. Borges expresses this idea well in this fictional work.