I did not know that. Am definitely going to check it out, thanks.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:25 (ten years ago) link
I saw it years ago; it was always available on VHS. Is it out on DVD?
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:30 (ten years ago) link
Dunno
― You Never Even POLL Me By My Screenname (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:53 (ten years ago) link
http://bit.ly/1itztm9
― waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:05 (ten years ago) link
saw it years back - not my favourite Borges tbh, and since i don't remember much of it i'm guessing it's not my favourite Bertolucci either
― twistent consistent (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 20:50 (ten years ago) link
sure it's worth seeing again tho - didn't mean to be sniffy
― twistent consistent (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 20:53 (ten years ago) link
Gonna be either Garden of Forking Paths or Library of Babel
I read this book by a mathematician exploring the concepts raised in Babel which deepened my appreciation of it. Gets a bit heady at times but it was very approachable, definitely recommend it. For example iirc one of his conclusions was that the Library as described would be larger than the observable universe itself.
http://www.amazon.com/Unimaginable-Mathematics-Borges-Library-Babel/dp/0195334574
― anonanon, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 21:07 (ten years ago) link
I've come across that book before--can't remember whether I ended up reading any or not. Both "Library" and "Garden" seem interesting primarily in an information-theory context--what constitutes a message, how much metadata is required to distinguish it from background noise...
One of *my* conclusions about the Library, back when I was younger & had days to spend idly pondering these sorts of things, was that its exhaustion of language corresponds to the regeneration of a second-level language, whose 'characters' would be the individual 410-page volumes of the library, arranged in combinations to form A la recherche du temps perdu, or the King James Bible, or any other work that exceeds 410 pages in length. Theoretically, there's no reason we couldn't use this new protocol to produce an episodic narrative work of indefinite length; but if we tried to draw it out too long, we would eventually be forced to repeat entire 'books' from earlier in the narrative.
― Many American citizens are literally paralyzed by (bernard snowy), Tuesday, 15 April 2014 17:32 (ten years ago) link
... anyway, I got somewhat distracted from my original reason for clicking this thread, which was to renew my praise of "There Are More Things", a tragically unappreciated late Borges story that knocks the stuffing out of Danielewski's House of Leaves
― Many American citizens are literally paralyzed by (bernard snowy), Tuesday, 15 April 2014 17:37 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 1 May 2014 00:01 (ten years ago) link
just re-read the Lem piece, as a takedown (or at least, a delineation of Borges' failings) it's pretty cogent
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 1 May 2014 17:29 (ten years ago) link
In general agree, but think "failings" is too harsh a word, its more like a motif or trope or something. It's like saying it is a failing for Piet Mondrian to paint little colored rectangles or Hitchcock to use doubled characters.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 1 May 2014 17:43 (ten years ago) link
whatta maroon, paint some circles already
― j., Thursday, 1 May 2014 18:59 (ten years ago) link
lol
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 1 May 2014 19:08 (ten years ago) link
yeah failings is kind of harsh... limitations, maybe?
― PLATYPUS OF DOOM (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 1 May 2014 23:26 (ten years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 2 May 2014 00:01 (ten years ago) link
Everything that got a zero was robbed. Everything that got a one too.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 2 May 2014 01:41 (ten years ago) link
Feel like you get more insight, or aperçus, as Xgau used to call them, from a negative Lem writeup than from someone else's praise.
'nh' typo in thread title makes me think it is some kind of Portuguese word.
― Bee Traven Thousand (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 2 May 2014 01:46 (ten years ago) link
"The Immortal" is the only zero-vote-getter I would really miss if it were gone
― endzone selfie (bernard snowy), Friday, 2 May 2014 02:04 (ten years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/ETLr6SV.jpg
― 龜, Sunday, 24 August 2014 19:28 (nine years ago) link
On his partner/literary executor:
https://www.thedial.world/issue-7/jorge-luis-borges-legacy-maria-kodama
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 1 August 2023 19:26 (nine months ago) link
Haven't checked your link yet, but title reminds me of some discussion on another good old thread: Borges translation?
― dow, Wednesday, 2 August 2023 03:07 (nine months ago) link