Stories read: Death and the Compass (1942) & The Garden of Forking Paths (1941)
Author: Jorge Luis Borges
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So, this time we read two short stories from Jorges Luis Borges. I see that books aren’t so popular topic in our club.
ReplyDeleteI had to read the stories again in my home, as they were hard to chew.
I did not like Death and the Compass much. The protagonist Erik Lönnrot was chasing after a murderer for the whole story. The story starts with the death of a rabbi. And what continues, I think, seemed like something that you would see on your average Hollywood film. Actually, it reminded me of Dan Browns works, which all seem to have the same pattern. Of course, at the time this was written, it probably was not so much of a cliché. But still, I cannot help that I feel so. Sadly, I cannot say more about this story.
The Garden of Forking Paths was the better one of these, and I actually liked it. As the previous, this too was a bit hard to read for me, but I think I got the grasp of it. I think the structure was fine, and the plot seemed original. The idea of the labyrinth in a book that explained (?)that there were different and simultaneous realities existing besides the one that we are living in seemed interesting. The holder of the book said that in this universe I am helping you, in the next one we are enemies. And it was said in the book the protagonist died in the second chapter, but was alive again in the next chapter. I’m not sure what is my point here. This may just as well be filler-text. Ooh, this is going to be my shortest review. Cannot help it, I didn’t get much from these short stories.
(You guessed it, Nicholas Nikkinen here; finally got this website working and I am therefore posting my input)
ReplyDeleteDeath and the Compass
This story I found very interesting. I personally thought that having Elis Lönnrot as a protagonist in a muder-investigation was a very humorous, and well-thought out, idea.
This story describes Elias Lönnrot going from one crime scene to another (three in total, and mysteriously figuring out how they are connected (I think it was through math). In the end of this excerpt Lönnrot is caught by a mob of gangsters, or that´s what I think they are, and told that - oh, it was all a set up, let´s see how you escape now - . Yes, it´s very cliché but I still found the whole crime-scene-murder-investigation aspect very appealing.
The Garden of Forking Paths
This piece is a literary masterpiece; well, ratehr it contains a literary masterpice within itself. A man (I forgot who) is trying to escape from an enemy officer trying to kill him, while trying to send a message to his army forces regarding the right cities to bomb. If we ignore a large part of the story, we come to very interesting and well-written paragraph. This paragraph focuses on the idea of other "dimensions", so to speak. By choosing to take a certain action, we are eliminating certain courses/paths our lives could have taken while at the same time creating new possibilities, with regard to the choice we have made. (This is the easiest way I can put it)
To conclude, I found both stories to be exciting in their own, individaul ways.