Spikosauropod
The Prophet & Moderator
Registered: 06-2007
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Jorge Luis Borges
According to Paul Workman, our best key to understanding TLR is Jorge Luis Borges. I have found what I believe is Borges most representative work:
Ficciones
I read the pages that were accessible on Amazon. It looks intriguing, so I ordered a copy.
This is like a homework assignment from one of our masters. I think you had all better do your reading!
Last edited by Spikosauropod, 7/5/2008, 2:56 am
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7/5/2008, 2:44 am
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paulworkman
The Creator of The Lost Room
Registered: 07-2008
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Re: Jorge Luis Borges
Well, I don't know if it's the best key. There are a lot of influences, including hard-boiled detective fiction, "Twin Peaks", "The Twilight Zone", etc. Also I'm sure Chris and Laura's influences varied from mine. And some of the core ideas we thought up before I had read any Borges.
But Borges inspired the style of the short story and the (for lack of a better word) mind-f**k aspects of the Objects, for me anyway. He provided a shining example of how to relate the reader, the work, and the concepts.
Definitely read his stuff. If you like TLR you'll probably like it as well.
What's cool is that after the show aired, people made comparisons between it and various Borges short stories which we hadn't even read yet. I take that as a point of pride.
Last edited by paulworkman, 7/5/2008, 10:50 am
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7/5/2008, 10:50 am
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Spikosauropod
The Prophet & Moderator
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Re: Jorge Luis Borges
It still sounds like required reading. I started The Garden of Forking Paths on Amazon, and I can already see what you mean. I suspect this may also shed some light on Rod Serling’s ideas.
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7/5/2008, 2:26 pm
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ajane
Registered: 01-2008
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Re: Jorge Luis Borges
Good job Spikosaur! I found Borges online at my public library's web site.
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7/5/2008, 2:46 pm
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ThatsTom
Registered Collector
Registered: 05-2008
Location: Ayer, ma Leominster, ma
Posts: 297
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Re: Jorge Luis Borges
as soon as I finish the stack of books I am working on
I'll get right on it.
--- Be seeing you.
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7/6/2008, 11:55 pm
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Spikosauropod
The Prophet & Moderator
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Re: Jorge Luis Borges
I just finished reading Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius. It’s pretty high-brow stuff—a story by, for, and about intellectuals.
The real question I would want answered is why anyone would do something like is described in the story. Authors do it all the time, in a sense, but we are talking about an enterprise on the scale of the great pyramids. Why would generations of men conspire to create such a vast fiction? Did they anticipate that it would come true or was that just an unexpected outcome?
I can’t see that they would have wanted it to come true. The idea of a purely subjective reality is fun to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. No rational person would.
Last edited by Spikosauropod, 1/10/2010, 2:18 pm
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1/10/2010, 7:00 am
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Spikosauropod
The Prophet & Moderator
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Re: Jorge Luis Borges
I just finished The Garden of Forking Paths. It is a brilliant story. I have never read anything like it. Forking Paths is less overtly supernatural than Tlon Uqbar. However, it is just strange enough to make one think that some sort of supernatural aspect is implied.
Obviously Borges was intrigued by the same ideas that brought us quantum mechanics. In both Tlon Uqbar and Forking Paths he practically describes quantum superposition and/or the many worlds hypothesis. I have to think he was influenced by this science.
This really does group TLR and Borges. I have always felt that TLR was somehow about quantum superposition/many worlds.
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1/11/2010, 2:36 am
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