Elisabeth Jeremko

I was really curious to see what Borges would say about the detective genre. When I went to school at University at Buffalo, I took a course devoted to the genre of mysteries. I entered in the class skeptical of how insightful the class would be, or how talented the writers would be. Similar to what Borges said, Edgar Allan Poe was attributed in this class to being the pioneer of the genre. Borges spent a lot of time describing Poe’s personal life and relating this to his choice of romantic poetry and detective stories. To say that Dupin is mirrored after Poe himself was something new to me as an idea that has never been presented before. Another interesting point from Borges was that Poe’s plots may seem transparent to readers familiar with other forms of detective fiction, but to the first readers, they were “wonderstruck” (Borges, 497). Borges says that the “intellectual origins” (499) have been lost. He says that he wrote “Death and the Compass” but I feel that this story is almost a critique (because of the ending) how Poe or Doyle would end a story. The way Borges ends the essay is I think his most powerful commentary throughout the essay. He says that the detective genre “is safeguarding order in an era of disorder” (499). With this being said, it is not so unusual that Borges would find interest in the genre, and why he may add his own spin to it.

Victoria Gornopolskaya

After reading “Death and the Compass,” by Gorge Luis Borges, I realized I finally understood the meaning of the title as soon as I got to the end. This story involves a series of organized crimes designated in the shape of an equilateral triangle, which are actually meant to shape the form of a rhombus. The character Erik Lonnrot met his end at the endpoint of that rhombus, and since a rhombus is the traditional shape of a compass, the title of this story is logical, which is typical of Borges. This story was similar to “The Garden of Forking Paths”, in that it was twisted, sinister and shocking to read. I enjoyed this story very much, especially the last part. The villain goes into this monologue revealing his intentions, while leading up to the climactic moment that we all anticipated.
I appreciate the way Borges is able to capture this lingering feeling of fear and suspense within the story.

“The Detective Story” lecture seemed to be a tribute that Borges wrote to Edgar Allen Poe, the founder of the detective genre. In this speech Borges compares the detective story elements used by Poe to the nuances used by more recent authors. Despite the fact that Poe was the first to pioneer this brand of genre, Borges feels that his stories are somewhat lacking in terms of creativity and logic. He uses an intellectual figure named Charles Auguste Dupin, who solves crimes simply by using the cleverness of his mind.
Borges feels that even though Edgar Allen Poe created this genre, there exist many books by authors who surpass Poe’s version of the detective story. The plot which he described at with the mailman as the killer seemed very simplistic and uneventful from what I read. Borges acknowledges his own attempts at writing a detective story and closes his argument with an optimistic view towards the detective genre.

Natalya Gornopolskaya

Blog by Natalya Gornopolskaya
“Death and the Compass,” “The Detective Story”

This story was very action packed and thrilling. “Death and the Compass” to me was very reminiscent of the book”Angels and Demons”, in which one crime leads subsequently to another and forms a shapely pattern. In this story the pattern that was thought to be an equilateral triangle was actually a rhombus, and Erik Lonnrot was able to successfully piece together the puzzle. It turns out that the series of crimes were a trap designed to catch Lonnrot’s attention which they did, leading him to his ultimate demise. The scene just before Lonnrot gets shot, is electrifying, like something out of a movie. The bad guy Red Scharlach turns out to be the actual Ginsburg-Ginzburg and reveals every detail of his carefully executed plan just before taking the final step and firing his weapon. This story was fulfilled me in the way an action movie could. This shows me that Borges’s style of fiction is very flexible and entertaining.

“The Detective Story” lecture by Jorge Luis Borges was an in depth discussion on the origins and forthcomings of the detective genre. Borges describes the way Edgar Allen Poe created his poem “The Raven”. It seems as though he is undermining the works of Edgar Allen Poe altogether, even though he considers him the one who invented this style of writing. Borges even states that Poe’s body of work as whole was genius while most of his stories were flawed. What he really means is that Poe’s type of detective literature hasn’t stood the test of time. It is no longer thrilling and isn’t quite the achievement it used to be. Borges goes on to praise several authors who have written dynamic detective stories that he considers the best. Borges does however pay homage to Poe in respect to his position in starting it all. He then states that the “calm” origins of the detective genre have been forgotten everywhere but England. Nowadays people tend to lean toward the more thrilling and action packed detective stories, which really shows how greatly our times have changed.