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.