Ficciones

Stopped 1/3 of the way through, wasn't for me. Audiobook didn't feel like the best format, and trying to read on Kindle put me to sleep.

I understood approx. 10% of this book. Will revisit later.

Imposible opinar de una obra tan genial como esta. Solo diré 2 cosas:

* Si bien comprendo la necesidad de promover el acceso de lo jóvenes a Borges, lamento haber leido varios de estos cuentos en el colegio, con una mirada que impedía su disfrute.
* Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius es im-pre-sio-nan-te.

Reading this book was like getting stuck in conversation with a boring co-worker who doesn't want to get back to work.

I did not like it.

To quote Cliff from BTF Book Reviews, steal this book. Going off of that, if someone lends you the book don't give it back, and if you own it, don't lend it to anyone

A work of genius, I'm sure, but it just wasn't for me.

My first experience with Borges and I finally see why he is constantly referenced. Short stories that I usually read have never come close to the concept and structures present in Ficciones. The referential, highly literary, mindbending stories all mesh together well yet stand apart on their own, each presenting Borges's thoughts on philosophy, writing, mortality, and other hefty concepts. Favorite story would probably be The Library of Babel.

This collection is really good but maaaaaan is it dry. I was reminded of being in college the way this felt like homework. After every story, I had to consult Wikipedia to analyze what I had just read.

Now, having said that. I am glad I read it all. I was under the impression that the whole book would be thought experiments and linguistic exercises but he really did have a variety of different types of stories. We had existentialism, murder mystery, war, fate, etc. all laid out. Very cool stuff, but just go into it knowing that you'll probably be doing outside research to fully appreciate this book.

Racconti, molto complicati e di non facile comprensione. 5

Pittig, echt even inkomen, vooral de laatste korte verhalen waren sterk.

Borges' book is well written, insofar as much as a translated book can be. The stories are varied but often hard to follow. Whether that's due to my comparitively lacking vocabulary or whether it just didn't translate well, I'm not entirely sure. I read most of the stories, but skippied some that didn't really interest me. The one about the Spy in WWI was perhaps my favorite.

« Tu che mi leggi, sei sicuro d'intendere la mia lingua? »
(La biblioteca di Babele)

No, in effetti Sig. Borges, non ne sono affatto sicuro. Anzi, potrei tranquillamente affermare che non ho inteso quasi nulla, non so se per pigrizia mentale, se perché mi mancano le basi culturali o se perché mi ha parlato, attraverso questi racconti, nel momento sbagliato.

Finzioni (Ficciones) è una raccolta di racconti di Jorge Luis Borges, scritta tra 1935 e 1944, credo che siano di stampo “fantastico”, ma non ne sono proprio sicurissimo, in effetti, si collocano decisamente in una branchia della letteratura che non saprei bene come definire: sembrano impostati come saggi ma che hanno anche la poesia e la magia della letteratura fantastica.

Nella premessa, Borges espone la sua onestissima dichiarazione d'intenti: «Delirio faticoso e avvilente quello del compilatore di grossi libri, del dispiegatore in cinquecento pagine d'un concetto la cui perfetta esposizione orale capirebbe in pochi minuti! Meglio fingere che questi libri esistano già, e presentarne un riassunto, un commentario. Così fecero Carlyle in “Sartor Resartus”, Butler in “The Fair Haven”: opere che hanno il difetto, tuttavia, di essere anch'esse dei libri, non meno tautologici degli altri. Più ragionevole, più inetto, più pigro, io ho preferito scrivere, su libri immaginari, articoli brevi».

In questa antologia si possono trovare una gran quantità di pseudobiblia, di libri inventati dall'autore semplicemente perché recensirli è più “facile” che scriverli! Si forse ce ne sono anche troppi e il libro bisogna tener presente consta di neanche un centinaio di pagine, questo esprime la giusta misura del mio tedio nell'aver portato avanti la lettura.

Dei quattordici racconti presenti, direi che mi sono piaciuti nell'ordine decrescente:

La biblioteca di Babele (il migliore e l'unico che mi ha davvero entusiasmato e che ricorderò)
La lotteria a Babilonia
Le rovine circolari

un po' pochini, lo ammetto. Per tutti gli altri: ho capito poco, non mi sono sforzato abbastanza, la noia ha preso il sopravvento, mi sono addormentato, pensavo al prossimo libro da leggere.

Mi scuso Eccellentissimo Maestro, ma proprio non ho capito la sua favella.

finalmente pude con este laberinto, corto pero intenso, con paredes de letras aleatorias q casualmente formaban palabras legibles y a su vez estas conformaban relatos de gran intensidad y meta referencial. es 1 engaño lo corto q es, me costó mucho continuarlo pero lo aprecié como experiencia lectora. hubo unos cuantos q quise pasar sin leer nada, pero los finales de cada uno llenaban mis expectativas y me permitían continuarlo. mas tentaciones de droppiarlo estuvieron siempre presentes. es q es demasiado cargado. es un libro barroco, pero q hay q leer x lo menos 1 vez

The next time I am going to read Ficciones I am sure my rating of the book is going towards a considerable increase if, at all, there is scope for it actually in my wonderment of an author who I believe writes with words which I felt were more like ebullient grains of sand. These stories are like essential morsels in the world of literature which, on discovery, leave you speechless and jubilant at the same time. Crisp sandy granules perfecly symmetrical and assymetrical alike is what I fill my palms with once I'm in the middle of a nameless tale... only to end up with empty clean hands once agian at the end of it. Only this time, I look at my own hands and they feel strangely transformed for they touched something entirely new.
Writing is an art. And the structural mazes conceived by the words of Borges makes you believe so. I loved the experience of reading each story in its own way... There are some I could get more deeply into than others but maybe with Borges it's not the story that you read but perhaps it is that each (Borgesian) story leads to stories... to those uninhabited steps which somebody did tread and... there you are... all of a sudden... a witness to the tracks.
More than anything, I believe, Borges checks the reader, tests and contradicts him/her with another possibility of another perception which you thought has not been and would not be perceived. What we think is there surely, he has the power to render fictive... and vice versa.

INTRIGUING. SPECULATIVE. PERCEPTIVE. PROFOUND.

In particular, I enjoyed ‘Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote', ‘An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain', ‘The Library of Babel', ‘Funes', ‘Theme of the Traitor and Hero'. I took time to finish this anthology... I relished each moment... I visited a literary space rife with palpable words of imagination... I read and breathed beautiful forms of literary fiction.