The Impossible Fiction of Jorge Luis Borges

The short stories of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges are unlike those of any other author. Despite an average length of only a few pages, each tale is packed full of mind-boggling impossibilities of physics, philosophy and psychology, some of which are even hard to imagine. We'll be taking a look at how Borges crafted his stories and some of the incredible thinking going on behind the scenes.

FURTHER READING/VIEWING/LISTENING

Radio Programmes about Borges' work and life:

MUSIC

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

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I do not own any of the clips used.
This video is a review for critical and educational purposes and is protected under article 15 and 105 in the United States Fair Use code, as well as Fair Dealing in UK copyright law. My use of both the footage and music from this work is for the sake of analysis. This video is NOT an infringement on copyright.

[martinstent]

I’m reading Borges now (already on my 3rd collection!), and I wanted to highlight something that you only briefly mention. That he intends, and often succeeds, to induce the feeling of unreality in the reader. I often put the book down at the end of a story and look around me at a room that seems to be different. Of course it is I who have changed while reading the story, not the room about me. A trick you didn’t mention was that some of his stories loop back on themselves, so you read a sentence that suddenly induces a feeling of déjà vu simply because you had read that sentence an hour ago in the same story. This man was really a genius, and I intend to read everything he wrote over the next months. Beware his inappropriate adjectives!!

[michaelmcdonald]

I have recently begun to read Borges for the first time. Not being a scholar, but a person who has a well rounded experience in literature, I am under the opinion that his works are the result of an incredible imagination and sense of what words/ phrases are at their stripped down best to convey an idea. His ability to convey information without superfluous content is what in my mind sets him above other fiction I am familiar with. Sort of an educated Bukowski.

[RankedThreeGuys]

Borges was a visionary in the purest sense. Criminally underrated and unadaptable.

[plouischenu]

How a work of such quality could have so few viewers yet? I'll share to the ones in France that could be interested

[cheeze]

Single-handedly convinced me to buy a copy of Ficciones, thank you!

[CosmiaNebula]

I object to the characterization of his stories as "rejection of scientific, logical and perceivable reality"
In fact, his stories are **rigorously** fantastic, almost to the level of mathematical rigor. His stories are sometimes quoted as epigraphs in mathematical papers and books.

Source: I'm a mathematician.

[VashikArmenikus]

This was an amazing video essay. This was what exactly I was looking for. Such a well-researched and well-written essay. Thank you for your hard work! And please... keep going.

[thoughtsutloud]

Discovered Borges in 2020 and’ve reread his collected fictions each successive year—doing so now. Really enjoyed this!

[NKRevolution]

This could use some work. Borges’ best writings demonstrate metaphysical reality and you spend the entire video arguing that his output reflects unreality. The situations demonstrated in his writings come after the confines of physics you keep imposing on him. He uses laws that should be true outside of what we can perceive and paints a portrait of what reality is like beyond us. That is why he is so incredible.

Absolutely unbelievable presentation keep it up 👏🏻

[hh-enrt]

Dude. You’re doing god’s work out here. Cant wait to see this channel grown.

[peterdennis]

Absolutely excellent summary of one of (in my opinion) the 20th Century's greatest minds

[TheKnight-zfeb]

The new movie from Christopher Nolan, "Tenet", it would be very possible to be a Borges idea, a world where time is reversed. (I know the movie doesn't deal with a "world" but Borges would write that way just like he did in Tlön)

[george]

I can't believe how awesome this video was, I hope more people watch your videos in the future

[xxxxxtyhfrt]

Excellent. I have only recently stumbled on Borges... and this essay certainly helps. I also appreciate your pronunciation. Thanks!

[sodancethesamba]

There are plenty of objects with only one side, take Moebius strip for example. A disk also can be one sided if you identify its antipodal points - mathematicians call it a Real Projective Plane. Many (not all) apparently impossible ideas described by Borges find its place in Mathematics and even Physics. The ideas presented in The Garden of Forking Paths are precisely what corresponds to the so called Many-World interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. It is quite remarkable that he have thought about it independently.

[nicolasjustiniano]

No way. I watched your video/essay about Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi about 5 minutes ago so I had the fantastic idea to check your new uploads. There's no way you do this amazing quality content!
Hope my English is readable as least (my main language is Spanish and, hey, I can say your pronunciation of "Borges" is truly admirable!)

[seansabu]

I think Borges is speaking to the sub conscious somehow whether he meant to or it just naturally happened as s phenomenon I dunno but his writing seems to coalesce with the readers imagination which I actually think Borges provided a structure to the imagination as having environs with tangibliilty and actuality. A place with the ability to be inhabited, experienced, explored, interacted with, communicate it's descriptions to others and most of all that can be remembered, he was writing cosmic narrations of the inner world of ones psyche as a vast universe unto itself . Borges was delineating the complexities nuances and structure of the human imagination and that structure was a labrythn

[thomasdeeter]

Love a post that requires me to take notes. Thank you🐍🤜💥

[iphymurphy]

Thank you dreamtigers is my favorite book you are very insightful<3

[whamster]

Amazing Essay!
I think it's pretty funny that the one sided coin was lost forever in that manner