Katherine Tesi

I really like Borges’ “The Other”. I thought the entire idea behind the story was interesting, original and intriguing. Once again, I found the story with Borges himself in it more entertaining. I was really impressed by how much he carried his use of parallel worlds throughout the story. Borges shows the parallel of locations (Cambridge and Geneva) and with the exchange of money at the end of the story. He also found a way to work deceit into the story, like a handful of his others, by mentioning how the two versions of him were unable to deceive each other because they knew one another (or themselves) too well. As the story ends Borges reveals his explanation of the encounter. He believes that the physical encounter was real however the young version of Borges spoke to him in a dream. This is the reason why the young Borges could forget the conversation but the old Borges is “tormented by the memory”. As an old man Borges comes to realize that as a young man he dreamed the unattainable date on the dollar bill. I found his explanation really interesting. I definitely had to read the last few paragraphs a few times to understand what he was saying, but once it clicked I found it to be a really remarkable idea.