ENGLISH REVIEW SHEET

BORGES
THE LIBRARY OF BABEL I seriously dont know why Im doing this (writing this review sheet), but I am doing this and there must be a book out there in the library of Babel that explains why I am doing this.

THEME-METAFICTION Metafiction exists everywhere in Borges stories. In this one, the librarian is analogical to Borges-an aging, soon-to-be-blind librarian. An instantly-recognizable celebrity beloved not only in his native Argentina but also abroad, Borges completely lost his sight in the same year that he was appointed Director of Argentina's National Library.

THEME-LITERATURE AND WRITING It is axiomatic that everything (or most of the stuff) that we write down (including this review sheet), is legible. However, in this great thought experiment, Borges blows our mind by revealing to us how language unravels itself in the infinite and nonsensical library. (Everything has a hidden meaning inside the disorder of the grand order of the book. Do you actually understand what Im writing now?)

THEME-RULES AND ORDER The library is probably the most ordered library- All of the rooms look exactly the same, and contain the same number of books with the same number of pages. However, the information inside the books is disordered as it is only another random combination of letters; HOWEVER, Borges suggests in the end that this library is periodic and thus is ordered. The rules and order in its library creates disorder in the book, which creates order in the vast and infinite library. This completes blows our mind and also destabilizes the text.

THEME-MIRRORS In this universe, every meaning exists as library contains all meaning. This, thus, satisfies the description of a Utopia (especially toward writers and passionate readers). However, librarians are constantly committing suicide in this universe. Why? Because they could not find meaning! Every meaning is in the library so that there is no meaning after all. When a signifier means everything, it means nothing as the signifier loses meaning. Borges also connected the binary oppositions of (all meaning and no meaning, Utopia and Dystopia) in this story so that it is more mind-blowing.

THE GARDEN OF FORKIN G PATHS My decision of writing a review sheet represents a choice inside the infinite diverging space-time.

THEME-TIME Borges plays with the abstract, taken for granted idea of time in this story. He constructs a model, the garden of forking paths to represent the infinitely diverging time -space that sounds crazy but is viable in Schrodingers famous thought experiment the Schrodingers cat. Also, the forking paths may be predictive in the use of hyperlinks in the internet world today. Every click represents a choice and a point of divergence (not mathematically speaking). This time theme creates a necessary ambiguity about fate and destiny (if everything happens in the infinite-time space, then there cant be destiny; however, because everything must happen in one time or another, then the events of his particular time are fated to happen, since they do not happen in any other time->destabilizing the model itself?)

THEME-LITERATURE AND WRITING (INTERTEXTUALITY) Again, we are faced with this theme (isnt that an idea in the Library of Babel?). In this story, the theme of literature and writing is reflected in its ambiguity of the writer and questions of authorship, publication, and the nature of writing. Some texts he created are imaginary, while others are truthful (blurs the line of fiction and non-fiction again); this intertextuality is a connection to the theme of the hyperlinks and also to the structure of the garden of forking paths itself. What is the significance of missing narrative? How does that challenge the author? How does the unreliability of the history text destabilizes the primary source (which is deeply connected to history)?

THEME-FATE VS FREE WILL On the one hand, the notion of infinite futures suggests that each individual narrative would have the appearance of being fated, as it must follow an order of events not repeated in any other time. On the other hand, the excerpts that Dr. Albert reads from Ts'ui Pen's book suggest that certain outcomes will occur no matter the circumstances that lead to them. (The battle story which have two versions which lead to the same outcome, so fate and free will are not binary oppositions but actually interconnected? What? Borges is missing with our mind.)

THEME-BETRAYAL Should one follow ones race/country rather than ones principles? In the story the narrator, Yu Tsun, followed his loyal to his race, not to the country. His final words say that he (his boss) does not know my endless contrition, and my weariness). What is Borges stance on nationalism? How does that connect to social background (Argentina being a former colony of Spain))

THE SECRET MIRACLE Lets hope that the time stops one second before the test starts, and gives me one year to think about how to write the English essay.

THEMES-VERSIONS OF REALITY The fact that the story opens with a dream is a clue that the most important events of "The Secret Miracle" could take place within Jaromir Hladiks mind. Or we could take it that the most important stuff actually happened in reality, but it still happened in his mind (the mental time is one year) so time is subjective. The many different ways that Jaromir experiences time in dreams, in circular obsessions, in literature, and finally, in a kind of suspended-reality in which the physical universe freezes are all a little bit different.

THEMES-LITERATURE AND WRITING Again? Yeah. Borges loves writing about writing (metafiction). Without literature and writing, Jaromir wouldn't have his "secret miracle." Without the secret miracle inside his head, however, we wont have this writing. Wait, it is circular? (How is that suggestive about time?) After all, our protagonist is a writer, and he is preoccupied with the "problematic pursuit of literature," seeking to redeem his lackluster career through the completion of one last play. But since Borges is always getting all universal on us, it's important to think about the bigger picture: this story examines what it means to be dissatisfied with the act of writing, what it means to suffer for one's art, and how it feels when the ideas finally start flowing.

THEMES-DREAMS There are a lot of dreams in this story. If Jaromir, according to Berkeleyan idealism, is an imagination of God (Dreamed by God), then isnt Jaromir god in the perspective of their characters? (Possible Connection to Circular Ruins, possible destruction and destabilizes reality and the story)

THEMES-UNIVERSALITY By referencing Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, Borges makes Jaromir's story seem universal: his experience isn't just a Jewish religious experience, but a human one. CIRCULAR RUINS There is someone dreaming me writing this review sheet. And Im also dreaming about someone (or Am I?)

THEME-DETECTIVE STORY

I merely placed this theme here because it is one of the easier ones to see. A detective story, in the popular genre, arrives with a surprising and satisfying consequence/solution, in which this story does, as the reader finally realizes that the dreamer is also dreamed by another man.

THEME-REALITY? OBJECTIVITY? So, what is reality? To most people (and most readers), reality is taken as granted, but it is repeatedly destroyed in Borges. In this, reality is described as the consciousness of the dreamed, and the dream of the dreamer.(Possible Connection to popular culture the Inception, Possible Connection to Through the Looking Glass (Red King dreaming about everything)) Reality is merely a construction is Borges that breaks down in the end to fulfill a satisfying conclusion for the reader. (How is that itself contradicting and circular in a way (readers consciousness->reality?)

THEME-IDEALISM There is a possible connection to Idealism (most probably Berkeleyan Idealism, which is often explored in Borges works) in the story. If everyone is merely is something (if anything) dreamed by the dreamer, then what does that say about life? Mean ing? (Thats why critics say that this story is horrifying).

THEME-LITERATURE AND WRITING AGAIN? Yes, again. Think about the narrator in this case. Isnt the narrator playing god? How could the narrator stand in a third-person point narrative view narrating and knowing everything that happened? What if the narrator is the person that dreamed the person inside this story? How does that destabilizes the whole story? Borges loves to play with narrative. TLON, UQBAR, ORBIS TERTIUS

THEME-METAFICTION This story mixes fictional characters (Herbert Ashe, Ezra Buckley) with the names of Borgess real friends (Adolfo Bioy Casares, Carlos Mastronardi, Nestor Ibarra, Ezequiel Martinez Estrada). Reality and imagination are constantly intermingled: Real books such as the Encyclopedia Britannica are mirrored by invented ones such as The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia and A First Encyclopedia of Tln; nonexistent books are ascribed to real authors; and preposterous theories share paragraphs with Arthur Schopenhauer, and David Hume. Assumptions about how to separate what is true from what is untrue are challenged, parodied, and subverted.

THEME-IDEALISM

This is the story where Berkeleyan Idealism is explicitly brought up and discussed. In the hypothetical world of Tlon, materialism is merely the most unacceptable way of describing reality, while Berkeleyan Idealism is one of the more plausible ones. IF Berkeleyan idealism is true, then there is no plagiarism as every literature is a variation of the same plot (m ind-blowing thought).

THEME-MIRRORS Mirror is an important theme in this story. Tlon is a mirror image of our world- Materialism VS Berkeleyan Idealism, Concrete VS Abstract (No nouns there + everything is based on mental perceptions). However, Borges deconstructs the binary opposition by describing Tlon in the language of this world, and thus saying that no matter how radical the idea is, it is limited to this world the basic social conventions of people, and inevitably, to this language. Tlon shows characteristics of both a dystopia and a Utopia, and thus Borges challenges and destabilizes this binary opposition by combining both into one world. (Borges love destabilizing everything)

THEME-LITERATURE AND WRITING Really? Again? In this story, literature and writing is reflected again through the unreliable narrator commenting on imaginary books. The authority of the narrator is established through its first-person narrative (seems real), but also destabilized at the same time as this is a first-person narrative. Because it is a first-person narrative, it could be biased and thus unreliable. This creates tension on the layer of the narrator, and thus continues to destabilize the story itself. THE IMMORTAL

THEME-IMMORTALITY This categorization does not mean that this theme only exists in this story. Rather, the theme of immortality is explored in many stories (the garden of forking paths, where there is infinite possibilities of reality; the Circular Ruins, that people are no t hurt from fire and is merely a dream of another person; the secret miracle, where time becomes subjective), this categorization itself is misleading (another Borges theme, which is unreliable narrator). Anyways, the immortality experienced by the narrator suggests that when one achieves immortality, one achieves eternal life, and thus could do anything. However, since one lives an infinite time, one necessarily repeats what other Immortals has done before (Doesnt this sound like Library of Babel (every thing that is written is already written before)? Doing stuff->writing Stuff, Infinite Library->Infinite Life, periodic?) And thus loses meaning again. There is no point in life (as everything has been done) and thus meaning is only created when people are mortal (connection to librarians in Library of Babel). (There is also a sense of Utopia VS Dystopia here, as immortality is what a lot of people want to reach, but the narrator argues that there is no meaning).

THEME-LITERATURE AND WRITING Dude, Really? Yes. In this story, we have another unreliable narrator (Could Borges create a more reliable one? No. Sorry. Nada) with the script (primary source) connecting this back to the garden of forking paths and the unreliable narrator. However, this time, we do get a full script (dont be too excited yet) with erased parts (what the..) so that the scripts authenticity, or authority, is challenged. The narrator is also challenged as he says that this is a verbatim translation of the transcript. We dont know who the translator is and translation makes the script unreliable. First person narrative is another recurring theme and the discussion of immortality also destabilizes the text.