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"Nobody should dare write 'outskirts' without having spent hours pacing their high sidewalks; without having desired and suffered as if they were a lover; without having felt their walls, their lots, their moons just around the corner from a general store, like a cornucopia ... I have now conquered my poverty, recognizing among thousands the nine or ten words that get along with my soul; I have already written more than one book in order to write, perhaps, one page. The page that justifies me, that summarizes my destiny, the one that perhaps only the attending angels will hear when Judgement Day arrives."

  • "A Profession of Literary Faith," Jorge Luis Borges

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Weekly Reading Assignment:

We'll discuss the following four essays; those essays that we don't discuss partially or in full will be assigned reading for the following week.

Literary Pleasure
An investigation of the Word
The Perpetual Race of Achilles and the Tortoise
The Duration of Hell

Please order Borges' collected poems: https://www.amazon.com/Borges-Selected-Poems-Jorge-Luis/dp/0140587217

We'll switch from Borges' essays over to his poetry for awhile just as soon as everyone who wants to participate is able to procure the text linked directly above. Please message me if you'll need more time to procure your copy.

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Recommended texts:

If you have trouble procuring a copy of the text before our meeting, please message me and I'll link to the appropriate material.

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Hosting:

We'll meet in the Blinding Cyclops Discord server. Here's the link: https://discord.gg/4uCVFs4vHw

Message me if you need any guidance.

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Seminar Description:

Jean Luis Borges (1899 - 1986) spent his career as a writer imagining labyrinths and paradoxes that recast the nature of reality. In this seminar, we’ll engage his works in rough chronological order as we attempt to escape those labyrinths and resolve those paradoxes. What did Borges mean? Who was he? Why did he write what he wrote?

Given that Borges was an author with both an impressive canon of fiction, and non-fiction works, one thesis of this seminar is that we must fully engage both if we wish to rigorously answer the above questions. Accordingly, we’ll read not only his fiction, but also his poetry, philosophy, literary theory, cultural analysis, interviews, and lectures.

This seminar will read and discuss the works listed below. Each week we’ll cover between 30-75 pages. Many will wish to participate in each seminar and discuss each reading so as to completely work through Borges' canon. It’s equally possible to drop in and out of sessions as one’s time and interests dictate. All styles of honest and rigorous participation are welcome.

Fiction list: A Universal History of Iniquity (1935); The Garden of Forking Paths (1941); Six Problems for Don Isidora Parodi (1942); Artifices (1944); The Aleph (1949); The Maker (1960); The Book of Imaginary Beings (1967); In Praise of Darkness (1969); Brodie’s Report (1970); The Book of Sand (1975); Shakespeare’s Memory (1983).

Nonfiction list: select essays and lectures (1922-1986); Evaristo Carriego (1955); The Craft of Verse (1967-68); Borges on Writing (1971); Seven nights (1977); Borges at Eighty (1982).

Poetry list: Fervor de Buenos Aires (1923); Moon Across the Way (1925); San Martin Copybook (1929); The Maker (1960); The Self and the Other (1964); For Six Strings (1965); In Praise of Darkness (1969); The Gold of the Tigers (1972); The Unending Rose (1975); The Iron Coin (1976); The History of the Night (1977); The Limit (1981); Atlas (1984); Los Conjurados (1985).

This seminar is the first in an intended series that will cover writers who create at the intersection of speculative fiction, philosophy, and experimental aesthetics.

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