of mirrors and of the labyrinth

from with borges (by alberto manguel):

two nightmares haunted borges throughout his life: of mirrors and of the labyrinth. the labyrinth, first discovered as a child in a copperplate engraving of the seven wonders of the world, made him fear 'a house with no doors' in whose centre a monster awaited him; mirrors terrified him with the suspicion that one day they would reflect back a face that was not his own or worse, no face at all. (page 53)

'every writer creates his own precursors'. with this statement, borges adopted a long lineage of writers who now appear borgesian avant le lettre: plato, novalis, kafka, shopenhauer, remy de gourmont, chesterton...

in 'pierre menard, author of don quixote' he argued that a book changes according to the reader's attributions. when the text appeared in sur in may 1939, several readers assumed that pierre menard was real; one such reader even went as far as telling borges that there was nothing new in what he had outlined, that it had all been noted by previous writers. pierre menard is, of course, an invention, a superb and hilarious imagining, but the notion of a text that changes according to the reader's assumptions is old. from fakes such as macpherson's ossian, over whose verses werther wept as if they belonged to an ancient celtic bard, to the 'real life' adventures of robinson crusoe and sir john madeville that led enthusiasts of archaeological truth to explore the island of juan fernandez and to unearth the ruins of what might have been cathay; from the 'song of songs' studied as a sacred text to gulliver's travels catalogued dismissively as a children's book..... (pages 62-64)

he amused himself with such subversions. 'imagine', he would say, 'reading don quixote as if it were a detective novel. (page 64)

like so many of his texts the words compose a list, since, he says, 'making lists is one of the oldest activities of the poet'. (page 70)


from borges et l'architecture by cristina grau (from the interview with borges):

le labyrinthe de kafka est un labyrinthe intime. le heros ne sait pas qu'il se trouve dans le labyrinthe. et sans doute kafka non plus ne le savait-il pas. (page 143)
(the labyrinth of kafka is an intimate labyrinth. the hero does not know that it is in the labyrinth. and undoubtedly kafka did not know it it.)

borges and maría kodama stroll along the seine, 1983

on a side note; a great book on the labyrinth is hermann kern's through the labyrinth, prestel 2000