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->''"...It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe not being arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what thing the universe is."''

to:

->''"... It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe not being arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what thing the universe is."''
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-->--'''Jorge Luis Borges''', ''The Analytical Language of John Wilkins''

Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986) is considered the greatest UsefulNotes/{{Argentin|a}}e writer of the twentieth century and an immensely influential author. His short stories, essays and poetry blend truth and fiction in unexpected ways, playing {{Mind Screw}}s[[note]]The clever thought-provoking type, not the incoherent rambling Francis E. Dec type, just to clarify.[[/note]] on the reader at every turn, and exploring deep philosophical themes (idealism, determinism, infinity, the search for personal identity, fiction vs. reality, humanity vs. divinity...) in a rigorous but entertaining way. He is considered an important precursor and originator of many {{Post Modern|ism}} devices. Borges himself was an Ultraist, a short lived movement that originated in early-20th-century Spain (where Borges arrived around 1920).

Politically, Borges described himself as a [[TheSocialDarwinist Spencerian anarchist]] and a classical liberal. He was an outspoken critic of both populist Perónism in his native Argentina and UsefulNotes/{{Marxism}}. However, his vocal support for right-wing capitalist dictators such as UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet, and a reported undercurrent of elitism and snobbery in his life and in his work, have earned him detractors.[[note]]One biographer noted that Borges once received two women visitors and had a pleasant chat with them, but only after they left did he realise that they were both black; being blind, he couldn't tell. He is said to have angrily commented "If you had told me that, I would have thrown them out!"[[/note]]

Borges became blind due to an inherited disease in his middle age and blindness is a recurring {{Motif|s}} in his later works. Other common motifs are labyrinths, mirrors, libraries, tigers, and daggers. The blind monk Jorge de Burgos in Creator/UmbertoEco's ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' is one allusion to Borges. The blind librarian in ''[[Literature/BookOfTheNewSun The Shadow of the Torturer]]'' by Creator/GeneWolfe may be another.

!!! Some of his best known short stories (Borges didn't write any novels) are:

to:

-->--'''Jorge -->-- '''Jorge Luis Borges''', ''The Analytical Language of John Wilkins''

Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986) is considered the greatest UsefulNotes/{{Argentin|a}}e writer of the twentieth century and an immensely influential author. His short stories, essays essays, and poetry blend truth and fiction in unexpected ways, playing {{Mind Screw}}s[[note]]The clever thought-provoking type, not the incoherent rambling Francis E. Dec type, just to clarify.[[/note]] on the reader at every turn, and exploring deep philosophical themes (idealism, determinism, infinity, the search for personal identity, fiction vs. reality, humanity vs. divinity...) in a rigorous but entertaining way. He is considered an important precursor and originator of many {{Post Modern|ism}} devices. Borges himself was an Ultraist, a short lived short-lived movement that originated in early-20th-century Spain (where Borges arrived around 1920).

Politically, Borges described himself as a [[TheSocialDarwinist Spencerian anarchist]] and a classical liberal. He was an outspoken critic of both populist Perónism in his native Argentina and UsefulNotes/{{Marxism}}. However, his vocal support for right-wing capitalist dictators such as UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet, and a reported undercurrent of elitism and snobbery in his life and in his work, have earned him detractors.[[note]]One biographer noted that Borges once received two women visitors and had a pleasant chat with them, but only after they left did he realise that they were both black; being blind, he couldn't tell. He is said to have angrily commented commented, "If you had told me that, I would have thrown them out!"[[/note]]

Borges became blind due to an inherited disease in his middle age age, and blindness is a recurring {{Motif|s}} in his later works. Other common motifs are labyrinths, mirrors, libraries, tigers, and daggers. The blind monk Jorge de Burgos in Creator/UmbertoEco's ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' is one allusion to Borges. The blind librarian in ''[[Literature/BookOfTheNewSun The Shadow of the Torturer]]'' by Creator/GeneWolfe may be another.

!!! Some of his best known best-known short stories (Borges didn't write any novels) are:



* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist is visiting MrExposition who explains the idea of time branching forwards into {{Alternate Universe}}s.[[note]]This story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics.[[/note]]

to:

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at in World War I where TheProtagonist is visiting MrExposition MrExposition, who explains the idea of time branching forwards into {{Alternate Universe}}s.[[note]]This story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics.[[/note]]



* "Funes the Memorious": After being concussed and paralyzed from the waist down in a riding accident, a young man suddenly finds that he has a literally PhotographicMemory -- he can remember ''everything'' that he has experienced, ''every'' second of ''every'' day of his life, down to the minutest possible detail. As he goes on living, the number of things he remembers continues piling up. This has a very strange effect on the way he sees the world, and after meeting him, Borges' narrator cannot decide whether Funes is CursedWithAwesome or BlessedWithSuck.

to:

* "Funes the Memorious": After being concussed and paralyzed from the waist down in a riding accident, a young man suddenly finds that he has a literally PhotographicMemory -- he can remember ''everything'' that he has experienced, ''every'' second of ''every'' day of his life, down to the minutest possible detail. As he goes on living, the number of things he remembers continues piling up. This has a very strange effect on the way how he sees the world, and after meeting him, Borges' narrator cannot decide whether Funes is CursedWithAwesome or BlessedWithSuck.



* Borges explains the LogicBomb in his essay ''The perpetual Race of Achilles and the Turtle''. Zeno's paradox has survived 23 centuries and now could be declared "immortal": ''In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead''. In RealLife Achilles really can outrun the Turtle, but all the mere logic in the world cannot help explain ''why''. At his other essay, "Avatars of the Turtle", he comes to its LogicalExtreme: The fact we cannot solve this paradox acts like a DreamWithinADream, showing us that RealLife is AllJustADream.

to:

* Borges explains the LogicBomb in his essay ''The perpetual Race of Achilles and the Turtle''. Zeno's paradox has survived 23 centuries and now could be declared "immortal": ''In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead''. In RealLife RealLife, Achilles really can outrun the Turtle, but all the mere logic in the world cannot help explain ''why''. At his other essay, "Avatars of the Turtle", he comes to its LogicalExtreme: The fact we cannot solve this paradox acts like a DreamWithinADream, showing us that RealLife is AllJustADream.

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-> ''"...It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe not being arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what thing the universe is."''
-->-- '''Jorge Luis Borges''', The Analytical Language of John Wilkins''''.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) is considered the greatest UsefulNotes/{{Argentin|a}}e writer of the twentieth century and an immensely influential author. His short stories, essays and poetry blend truth and fiction in unexpected ways, playing {{Mind Screw}}s[[note]]The clever thought-provoking type, not the incoherent rambling Creator/FrancisEDec type, just to clarify[[/note]] on the reader at every turn, and exploring deep philosophical themes (idealism, determinism, infinity, the search for personal identity, fiction vs. reality, humanity vs. divinity...) in a rigorous but entertaining way. He is considered an important precursor and originator of many {{Post Modern|ism}} devices. Borges himself was an Ultraist, a short lived movement that originated in early 20th-century Spain (where Borges arrived around 1920).

Politically, Borges described himself as a [[TheSocialDarwinist Spencerian anarchist]] and a classical liberal. He was an outspoken critic of both populist Peronism in his native Argentina and Marxism. However, his vocal support for right-wing capitalist dictators such as Augusto Pinochet, and a reported undercurrent of elitism and snobbery in his life and in his work, have earned him detractors.[[note]]One biographer noted that Borges once received two women visitors and had a pleasant chat with them, but only after they left did he realise that they were both black (being blind, he couldn't tell.) He is said to have angrily commented "If you had told me that, I would have thrown them out!"[[/note]]

to:

-> ''"...->''"...It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe not being arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what thing the universe is."''
-->-- '''Jorge -->--'''Jorge Luis Borges''', The ''The Analytical Language of John Wilkins''''.

Wilkins''

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986) is considered the greatest UsefulNotes/{{Argentin|a}}e writer of the twentieth century and an immensely influential author. His short stories, essays and poetry blend truth and fiction in unexpected ways, playing {{Mind Screw}}s[[note]]The clever thought-provoking type, not the incoherent rambling Creator/FrancisEDec Francis E. Dec type, just to clarify[[/note]] clarify.[[/note]] on the reader at every turn, and exploring deep philosophical themes (idealism, determinism, infinity, the search for personal identity, fiction vs. reality, humanity vs. divinity...) in a rigorous but entertaining way. He is considered an important precursor and originator of many {{Post Modern|ism}} devices. Borges himself was an Ultraist, a short lived movement that originated in early 20th-century early-20th-century Spain (where Borges arrived around 1920).

Politically, Borges described himself as a [[TheSocialDarwinist Spencerian anarchist]] and a classical liberal. He was an outspoken critic of both populist Peronism Perónism in his native Argentina and Marxism. UsefulNotes/{{Marxism}}. However, his vocal support for right-wing capitalist dictators such as Augusto Pinochet, UsefulNotes/AugustoPinochet, and a reported undercurrent of elitism and snobbery in his life and in his work, have earned him detractors.[[note]]One biographer noted that Borges once received two women visitors and had a pleasant chat with them, but only after they left did he realise that they were both black (being black; being blind, he couldn't tell.) tell. He is said to have angrily commented "If you had told me that, I would have thrown them out!"[[/note]]
out!"[[/note]]



* ''"Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius"'': An AncientConspiracy to create a complete fictional universe is discovered by the [[AuthorStandIn narrator]] in the form of an encyclopedia describing the nation of Uqbar and its mythology about the land of Tlön. Its plan is to [[RewritingReality recreate]] Earth in the form of Tlön by subconsciously persuading everyone that it is true. [[spoiler:They succeed.]]
* ''"Literature/TheLibraryOfBabel"'': This story describes a universe consisting of a huge, endless library, that contains all possible books (that is to say, all possible combinations of letters, spaces, and punctuation given a certain number of characters per book)-- but arranged with no discernible order or pattern.
* ''"The Garden of Forking Paths"'': The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist is visiting MrExposition who explains the idea of time branching forwards into {{Alternate Universe}}s.[[note]]this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics[[/note]]
* ''"Death and the Compass"'': A GenreDeconstruction of the DetectiveFiction that seems to follow a ConnectTheDeaths plot -- but with a twist at the end.
* ''"Funes the Memorious"'': After being concussed and paralyzed from the waist down in a riding accident, a young man suddenly finds that he has a literally PhotographicMemory -- he can remember ''everything'' that he has experienced, ''every'' second of ''every'' day of his life, down to the minutest possible detail. As he goes on living, the number of things he remembers continues piling up. This has a very strange effect on the way he sees the world, and after meeting him, Borges' narrator cannot decide whether Funes is CursedWithAwesome or BlessedWithSuck.
* ''Literature/TheHouseOfAsterion'' (1947): A monologue from Prince Asterion where he denies the claims he is arrogant, misanthropic or mad, or how he isn't a prisoner inside his home of infinite doors. A PerspectiveFlip of [[spoiler: the myth of the Minotaur from the monster's point of view.]]
* ''"Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote"'': A brief memoir of a French poet and essayist whose final project was to attempt to copy ''Literature/DonQuixote'', but in a new way: rather than slavishly copying the original, he attempted to arrive -- from ''his own'' experiences -- at a number of lines identical to the original. (He succeeded in reconstructing two and a half chapters without ever rereading the book.) The narrator, presenting us with two identical passages, points out the incredible effort needed for a twentieth-century man to be inspired to write the same words as Miguel Cervantes, given their inevitable differences in point of view.
* ''"The Aleph"'': A mediocre poet has found in his basement an Aleph, a point that reflects every other point in the universe and from which everything can be seen simultaneously and together... [[MundaneUtility and he uses it to write a poem]].
* ''"The Cult of the Phoenix"'': A group of madmen, outcasts, women, children, and urchins founds a philosophical school that lasts for thousands of years and secretly manipulates all other religions behind the scenes. [[spoiler:They're the good guys.]]
* ''"Averroes's Search"'' An exploration of the TragicDream in the character of Averroes, an Islamic philosopher who hoped to explain Creator/{{Aristotle}}’s works to Islamic culture. [[CultureClash Averroes's problem is that, being confined to the sphere of Islam, he cannot understand the terms “Tragedy” and “Comedy” that constantly pop up in Aristotle’s canon]]. Suddenly there is NoEnding and [[spoiler: Borges is BreakingTheFourthWall to inform us that this story is his own TragicDream, because as a twentieth-century author with nothing better to go on than some literary references, he has no better chance of successfully comprehending the character of a twelfth-century Arab than that twelfth-century Arab could comprehend Aristotle.]]
* ''"The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths"'': A deconstruction of SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: The prideful King of Babylon mocks the King of Arabia by forcing him to enter his labyrinth. The King of Arabia asks for God's help, [[DeusExMachina and gets out]]. He tells the King of Babylon he knows a better labyrinth and some day he will show it to him. Years later, the Arabian King makes war and dethrones the King of Babylon, [[spoiler: drags him out into the Arabian desert and abandons him there, where he died from thirst and hunger in a "labyrinth with no walls"]].
* ''"The Immortal:"'' A literary agent announces the discovery of a diary of a man that claims to have achieved CompleteImmortality.
* ''"The Dead Man:"'' Borges narrates the seemingly impossible life and death of Benjamín Otalora, a courageous Argentinean hoodlum who emigrated to the frontier and became the leader of a band of smugglers, [[{{Deconstruction}} explaining why it was possible.]]
* ''"Deutsches Requiem:"'' The last testament of Otto Dietrich zur Linde, [[ThoseWackyNazis the one-legged commandant of a Nazi concentration camp]]. After being tried and convicted of crimes against humanity, Zur Linde reflects that while his comrades were mere {{Straw Nihilist}}s, he (and Hitler) were real {{Ubermensch}}en, and tries to [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture explain humanity's future]] while he awaits the firing squad; his position is that the violence of Nazi Germany has successfully dethroned and destroyed the weak, hypocritical phantoms of Judaism and Christianity forever... and all it took was the sacrifice of Germany itself.

to:

* ''"Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius"'': "Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius": An AncientConspiracy to create a complete fictional universe is discovered by the [[AuthorStandIn narrator]] in the form of an encyclopedia describing the nation of Uqbar and its mythology about the land of Tlön. Its plan is to [[RewritingReality recreate]] Earth in the form of Tlön by subconsciously persuading everyone that it is true. [[spoiler:They succeed.]]
* ''"Literature/TheLibraryOfBabel"'': "Literature/TheLibraryOfBabel": This story describes a universe consisting of a huge, endless library, that contains all possible books (that is to say, all possible combinations of letters, spaces, and punctuation given a certain number of characters per book)-- but arranged with no discernible order or pattern.
* ''"The "The Garden of Forking Paths"'': Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist is visiting MrExposition who explains the idea of time branching forwards into {{Alternate Universe}}s.[[note]]this [[note]]This story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics[[/note]]
mechanics.[[/note]]
* ''"Death "Death and the Compass"'': Compass": A GenreDeconstruction of the DetectiveFiction that seems to follow a ConnectTheDeaths plot -- but with a twist at the end.
* ''"Funes "Funes the Memorious"'': Memorious": After being concussed and paralyzed from the waist down in a riding accident, a young man suddenly finds that he has a literally PhotographicMemory -- he can remember ''everything'' that he has experienced, ''every'' second of ''every'' day of his life, down to the minutest possible detail. As he goes on living, the number of things he remembers continues piling up. This has a very strange effect on the way he sees the world, and after meeting him, Borges' narrator cannot decide whether Funes is CursedWithAwesome or BlessedWithSuck.
* ''Literature/TheHouseOfAsterion'' "Literature/TheHouseOfAsterion" (1947): A monologue from Prince Asterion where he denies the claims he is arrogant, misanthropic or mad, or how he isn't a prisoner inside his home of infinite doors. A PerspectiveFlip of [[spoiler: the [[spoiler:the myth of the Minotaur from the monster's point of view.]]
view]].
* ''"Pierre "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote"'': Quixote": A brief memoir of a French poet and essayist whose final project was to attempt to copy ''Literature/DonQuixote'', but in a new way: rather than slavishly copying the original, he attempted to arrive -- from ''his own'' experiences -- at a number of lines identical to the original. (He succeeded in reconstructing two and a half chapters without ever rereading the book.) The narrator, presenting us with two identical passages, points out the incredible effort needed for a twentieth-century man to be inspired to write the same words as Miguel Cervantes, given their inevitable differences in point of view.
* ''"The Aleph"'': "The Aleph": A mediocre poet has found in his basement an Aleph, a point that reflects every other point in the universe and from which everything can be seen simultaneously and together... [[MundaneUtility and he uses it to write a poem]].
* ''"The "The Cult of the Phoenix"'': Phoenix": A group of madmen, outcasts, women, children, and urchins founds a philosophical school that lasts for thousands of years and secretly manipulates all other religions behind the scenes. [[spoiler:They're the good guys.]]
* ''"Averroes's Search"'' "Averroes's Search": An exploration of the TragicDream in the character of Averroes, an Islamic philosopher who hoped to explain Creator/{{Aristotle}}’s works to Islamic culture. [[CultureClash Averroes's problem is that, being confined to the sphere of Islam, he cannot understand the terms “Tragedy” and “Comedy” that constantly pop up in Aristotle’s canon]]. Suddenly there is NoEnding and [[spoiler: Borges [[spoiler:Borges is BreakingTheFourthWall to inform us that this story is his own TragicDream, because as a twentieth-century author with nothing better to go on than some literary references, he has no better chance of successfully comprehending the character of a twelfth-century Arab than that twelfth-century Arab could comprehend Aristotle.]]
* ''"The "The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths"'': Labyrinths": A deconstruction of SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: The prideful King of Babylon mocks the King of Arabia by forcing him to enter his labyrinth. The King of Arabia asks for God's help, [[DeusExMachina and gets out]]. He tells the King of Babylon he knows a better labyrinth and some day he will show it to him. Years later, the Arabian King makes war and dethrones the King of Babylon, [[spoiler: drags him out into the Arabian desert and abandons him there, where he died from thirst and hunger in a "labyrinth with no walls"]].
* ''"The Immortal:"'' "The Immortal": A literary agent announces the discovery of a diary of a man that claims to have achieved CompleteImmortality.
* ''"The "The Dead Man:"'' Man": Borges narrates the seemingly impossible life and death of Benjamín Otalora, a courageous Argentinean hoodlum who emigrated to the frontier and became the leader of a band of smugglers, [[{{Deconstruction}} explaining why it was possible.]]
* ''"Deutsches Requiem:"'' "Deutsches Requiem": The last testament of Otto Dietrich zur Linde, [[ThoseWackyNazis the one-legged commandant of a Nazi concentration camp]]. After being tried and convicted of crimes against humanity, Zur Linde reflects that while his comrades were mere {{Straw Nihilist}}s, he (and Hitler) were real {{Ubermensch}}en, and tries to [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture explain humanity's future]] while he awaits the firing squad; his position is that the violence of Nazi Germany has successfully dethroned and destroyed the weak, hypocritical phantoms of Judaism and Christianity forever... and all it took was the sacrifice of Germany itself.



* ''"Half-Way House" by Ellery Queen'': A simple critique of the rules of MysteryLiterature and how that genre is different from the [[{{Adventure}} Adventure Novel]] or the SpyFiction. Also explains why Ellery Queen works could be considered as GrowingTheBeard on the genre. You can find the quote at the Creator/ElleryQueen page.

to:

* ''"Half-Way House" by Ellery Queen'': A simple critique of the rules of MysteryLiterature and how that genre is different from the [[{{Adventure}} Adventure Novel]] or the SpyFiction. Also explains why Ellery Queen works could be considered as GrowingTheBeard on the genre. You can find the quote at the Creator/ElleryQueen page.



* ''"[[Quotes/SecretIdentityIdentity Borges and I]]"'': This short story (that you can read in the link) explains the curious relationship between the normal person Jorge Luis Borges actually was, and the literature SacredCow SophisticatedAsHell GentlemanSnarker Borges his public was expecting to meet. You can see it's an essay about the SecretIdentityIdentity trope.

to:

* ''"[[Quotes/SecretIdentityIdentity "[[Quotes/SecretIdentityIdentity Borges and I]]"'': I]]": This short story (that you can read in the link) explains the curious relationship between the normal person Jorge Luis Borges actually was, and the literature literary SacredCow SophisticatedAsHell GentlemanSnarker Borges his public was expecting to meet. You can see it's an essay about the SecretIdentityIdentity trope.



* ''Literature/BookOfImaginaryBeings'': Borges details mythical creatures. Considered the TropeCodifier (or UrExample) of all books on mythical creatures today and popularized of many obscure mythical creatures, but it also includes literary creations and creatures he made up himself. The most notable of these joke mythical creatures is the Peryton, a half-stag, half-bird monster that cast a human shadow (for they were the souls of {{Atlantis}} survivors trapped in monstrous forms, only able to escape by killing a human and devouring the victim's heart). Borges claimed it came from Myth/ClassicalMythology (specifically a medieval German tome on the subject that was destroyed in World War 2), which many people believed in, turning the Peryton into a fantasy staple.

to:

* ''Literature/BookOfImaginaryBeings'': Borges details mythical creatures. Considered the TropeCodifier (or UrExample) of all books on mythical creatures today and popularized of many obscure mythical creatures, but it also includes literary creations and creatures he made up himself. The most notable of these joke mythical creatures is the Peryton, a half-stag, half-bird monster that cast a human shadow (for they were the souls of {{Atlantis}} survivors trapped in monstrous forms, only able to escape by killing a human and devouring the victim's heart). Borges claimed it came from Myth/ClassicalMythology (specifically a medieval German tome on the subject that was destroyed in World War 2), UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), which many people believed in, turning the Peryton into a fantasy staple.



** The movie version of ''"Death and the Compass"''; the added material actually makes the story ''more'' of a MindScrew.
** "Days of Hate", a screenplay adaptation of ''"Emma Zunz"''.
* AncientConspiracy: ''"Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius"''; played with in ''"The Cult of the Phoenix"''. Invoked at ''"Death and the Compass"''. Deconstructed in ''"The Lottery in Babylon"'': The conspiracy is so secretive, nobody could be sure it is ancient or not.

to:

** The movie version of ''"Death "Death and the Compass"''; Compass"; the added material actually makes the story ''more'' of a MindScrew.
** "Days of Hate", a screenplay adaptation of ''"Emma Zunz"''.
"Emma Zunz".
* AncientConspiracy: ''"Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius"''; "Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius"; played with in ''"The "The Cult of the Phoenix"''. Phoenix". Invoked at ''"Death "Death and the Compass"''. Compass". Deconstructed in ''"The "The Lottery in Babylon"'': Babylon": The conspiracy is so secretive, nobody could be sure it is ancient or not.



** Perhaps the only ''positive'' use of this trope ever takes place in "The Secret Miracle".

to:

** Perhaps the only ''positive'' use of this trope ever takes place in "The Secret Miracle".Miracle."



-->''I had realized many years before I met David Jerusalem that [[ArtifactOfAttraction everything in the world can be the seed of a possible hell; a face, a word, a compass, an advertisement for cigarettes—anything can drive a person insane if that person cannot manage to put it out of his mind. Wouldn't a man be mad if he constantly had before his mind's eye the map of Hungary?]] I decided to apply this principle to the disciplinary regimen of our house, and—'' [--4--]... [[ColdBloodedTorture ''In late 1942, Jerusalem went insane; on March 1, 1943, he succeeded in killing himself'']].

to:

-->''I had realized many years before I met David Jerusalem that [[ArtifactOfAttraction everything in the world can be the seed of a possible hell; a face, a word, a compass, an advertisement for cigarettes—anything can drive a person insane if that person cannot manage to put it out of his mind. Wouldn't a man be mad if he constantly had before his mind's eye the map of Hungary?]] I decided to apply this principle to the disciplinary regimen of our house, and—'' [--4--]... [[ColdBloodedTorture ''In late 1942, Jerusalem went insane; on March 1, 1943, he succeeded in killing himself'']].himself.'']]



* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Arguably, "Garden of Forking Paths". Definitively, "Death and the Compass", "The Dead Man"]]

to:

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler: Arguably, [[spoiler:Arguably, "Garden of Forking Paths". Paths." Definitively, "Death and the Compass", Compass" and "The Dead Man"]]Man."]]



* BigBad: [[spoiler: Azevedo Bandeira]] in "The Dead Man", [[spoiler: Red Scharlach]] in "Death and the Compass".
* BilingualBonus: There is a famous Brahms composition called ''Ein deutsches requiem'' that could be translated as ''A german requiem'', but the title of one of Borges' stories is "''Deutsches Requiem''" -- "A requiem ''for'' Germany". The tale is told by a Nazi who admits that his party has destroyed their own country.

to:

* BigBad: [[spoiler: Azevedo Bandeira]] in "The Dead Man", [[spoiler: Red [[spoiler:Red Scharlach]] in "Death and the Compass".
Compass."
* BilingualBonus: There is a famous Brahms composition called ''Ein deutsches requiem'' that could be translated as ''A german German requiem'', but the title of one of Borges' stories is "''Deutsches Requiem''" -- "A requiem ''for'' Germany". The tale is told by [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany a Nazi Nazi]] who admits that his party has destroyed their own country.



* BrownNote: "The Zahir".
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: Red Scharlach]] in "Death and the Compass"; [[spoiler:Azevedo Bandeira]] in "The Dead Man"; [[spoiler:James Alexander Nolan]] in "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero"; [[spoiler:Eric Einarsson]] in "The Bribe".

to:

* BrownNote: "The Zahir".
Zahir."
* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler: Red [[spoiler:Red Scharlach]] in "Death and the Compass"; [[spoiler:Azevedo Bandeira]] in "The Dead Man"; [[spoiler:James Alexander Nolan]] in "Theme of the Traitor and the Hero"; [[spoiler:Eric Einarsson]] in "The Bribe".Bribe."



* CreatorBreakdown: '' "Averroes's Search" '': Subverted when Borges realizes he has broke the [[MutuallyFictional Stable Fictional Loop]] and incurred in an [[OntologicalMystery Ontological Paradox]], the short story suffers a NoEnding.
* ConnectTheDeaths: "Death and the Compass".

to:

* CreatorBreakdown: '' "Averroes's Search" '': Search": Subverted when Borges realizes he has broke the [[MutuallyFictional Stable Fictional Loop]] and incurred in an [[OntologicalMystery Ontological Paradox]], the short story suffers a NoEnding.
* ConnectTheDeaths: "Death and the Compass".Compass."



* DeathOfTheAuthor: "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" is very much a [[InvokedTrope discussion of this idea]], before the TropeNamer essay: the fictional Menard recreates Don Quixote word for word from memory and some summaries. The text of story then suggests that the copy is '''more interesting''' than the original, since it was impacted by world events in the centuries between. (The obvious reading of Borges' story being that "Authorial-based interpretations of a text can result in flat nonsense, if applied without careful thought".)
* DelayedRippleEffect: "The Other Death".
* {{Determinator}}: Deconstructed in "The Garden of Forking Paths", "The Shape of the Sword" and "Emma Zunz". The protagonists had a goal and they will cross the DespairEventHorizon to achieve it, only to ask themselves if WasItReallyWorthIt for the rest of their lives. The protagonist of "The Other Death" achieved his goal, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath but just at the moment of his death after trying for it all his life]]. The narrator [[EsotericHappyEnding thinks nobody could be happier than him]].

to:

* DeathOfTheAuthor: "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" is very much a [[InvokedTrope discussion of this idea]], before the TropeNamer {{Trope Namer|s}} essay: the fictional Menard recreates Don Quixote ''Literature/DonQuixote'' word for word from memory and some summaries. The text of story then suggests that the copy is '''more interesting''' than the original, since it was impacted by world events in the centuries between. (The obvious reading of Borges' story being that "Authorial-based interpretations of a text can result in flat nonsense, if applied without careful thought".)
thought.")
* DelayedRippleEffect: "The Other Death".
Death."
* {{Determinator}}: Deconstructed in "The Garden of Forking Paths", "The Shape of the Sword" and "Emma Zunz". Zunz." The protagonists had a goal and they will cross the DespairEventHorizon to achieve it, only to ask themselves if WasItReallyWorthIt for the rest of their lives. The protagonist of "The Other Death" achieved his goal, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath but just at the moment of his death after trying for it all his life]]. The narrator [[EsotericHappyEnding thinks nobody could be happier than him]].



* {{Doppelganger}}: "The Other" and "August 25, 1983".
* DreamWeaver: "The Circular Ruins"

to:

* {{Doppelganger}}: "The Other" and "August 25, 1983".
1983."
* DreamWeaver: "The Circular Ruins"Ruins."



* TheEmpire: England and Germany:
** "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a Stale Beer-type of SpyFiction set in World War I, where a Chinese is obliged to spy for Germany, and is chased by an Irish agent working for the English. The Chinese reflects that for him, Germany is a barbarian country (maybe excepting Goethe) and the Irish agent must surely know that his masters despise him for being an Irishman, but they are both still obliged to be the {{Unwitting Pawn}}s of countries they hate.

to:

* TheEmpire: England [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire England]] and Germany:
[[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany Germany]]:
** "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a Stale Beer-type of SpyFiction set in World War I, where a Chinese man is obliged to spy for Germany, and is chased by an Irish agent working for the English. The Chinese man reflects that for him, Germany is a barbarian country (maybe excepting Goethe) [[Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe Goethe]]) and the Irish agent must surely know that his masters despise him for being an Irishman, but they are both still obliged to be the {{Unwitting Pawn}}s of countries they hate.



* FallenPrincess: Teodelina Villar from "The Zahir".
* {{Foil}}: He said that Creator/GKChesterton was this to Creator/OscarWilde: the former was a conservative, orthodox Catholic who stood for health, order and harmony, but whose works were always teetering on the edge of nightmare, whereas the latter was a socialist, feminist aesthete with no formal religious affinities who stood for pleasure and beauty, but whose work (counter to Chesterton's opinion of it) was fundamentally happy and innocent.
* {{Gaslighting}}: In "The Aleph", the narrator initially doubts that Carlos Argentino Dineri really has an Aleph (a point in space containing the entire universe) in his cellar. The narrator eventually sees it for himself and is shaken by the experience--but he dislikes Dineri, so he pretends that he saw nothing in order to make Dineri doubt his own sanity.

to:

* FallenPrincess: Teodelina Villar from "The Zahir".
Zahir."
* {{Foil}}: He said that Creator/GKChesterton was this to Creator/OscarWilde: the former was a conservative, orthodox Catholic who stood for health, order and harmony, but whose works were always teetering on the edge of nightmare, whereas the latter was a socialist, feminist UsefulNotes/{{feminis|m}}t aesthete with no formal religious affinities who stood for pleasure and beauty, but whose work (counter to Chesterton's opinion of it) was fundamentally happy and innocent.
* {{Gaslighting}}: In "The Aleph", the narrator initially doubts that Carlos Argentino Dineri really has an Aleph (a point in space containing the entire universe) in his cellar. The narrator eventually sees it for himself and is shaken by the experience--but he dislikes Dineri, so he pretends that he saw nothing in order so, to make Dineri doubt his own sanity.sanity, he pretends that he saw nothing.



* GreatBigBookOfEverything[=/=]TomeOfEldritchLore: "The Book of Sand".

to:

* GreatBigBookOfEverything[=/=]TomeOfEldritchLore: "The Book of Sand".Sand."



--> ''There are no decent words to name it, but it is understood that all words name it, or rather, inevitably allude to it; I might be speaking in a conversation and the adepts would suddenly smile or become uncomfortable, because they felt that I had unknowingly touched on the Secret.''
* InspectorLestrade: Inspector Treviranus in ''Death and the Compass''. [[spoiler: Subverted when it turns out that his mundane solution for the first murder was true, while the GreatDetective was misled by his own cleverness.]]

to:

--> ''There -->''There are no decent words to name it, but it is understood that all words name it, or rather, inevitably allude to it; I might be speaking in a conversation and the adepts would suddenly smile or become uncomfortable, because they felt that I had unknowingly touched on the Secret.''
* InspectorLestrade: Inspector Treviranus in ''Death and the Compass''. [[spoiler: Subverted [[spoiler:Subverted when it turns out that his mundane solution for the first murder was true, while the GreatDetective was misled by his own cleverness.]] ]]



* MagicRealism: Many of his stories are in this genre, and he was part of the so-called "Latin American Boom" that helped popularize it.
** Arguably, he's also one of the founders of it and by far one of the best known, along with Creator/GabrielGarciaMarquez.
* MeaningfulName: Plenty, often combined with ShoutOut. For example, Carlos Argentino Daneri in "The Aleph" is a play on '''Dan'''te Alighi'''eri''' (his cousin is called Beatriz), and Pedro Damián in "The Other Death" references medieval philosopher Pier Damiani, as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the story itself.

to:

* MagicRealism: Many of his stories are in this genre, and he was part of the so-called "Latin American Boom" that helped popularize it.
**
it. Arguably, he's also one of the founders of it and by far one of the best known, along with Creator/GabrielGarciaMarquez.
* MeaningfulName: Plenty, often combined with ShoutOut. For example, Carlos Argentino Daneri in "The Aleph" is a play on '''Dan'''te Alighi'''eri''' (his cousin is called Beatriz), and Pedro Damián in "The Other Death" references medieval philosopher Pier Damiani, as [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the story itself.



** [[spoiler: Deconstructed in]] "The Dead Man".

to:

** [[spoiler: Deconstructed [[spoiler:Deconstructed in]] "The Dead Man".Man."



* MindScrew: Where to start?
** Special mention goes to "Averroes's Search". In it, the Islamic philosopher Averroes investigates a Greek translation and ponders the meaning of "tragedy" and "comedy", which he can't understand because he lives in a culture in which the art of dramatic performance doesn't exist. After hearing with some guests a story about China and the performers that live there and completely missing the point about the whole "acting" thing, he starts meditating and eventually has a sudden realization about the meaning of "tragedy" and "comedy", [[spoiler:which turns out to be wrong]]. He then [[spoiler: disappears, as do his house and all those that were in it, without leaving a trace.]] Borges then explains within the story that he himself had to understand Averroes to write the story, and like Averroes, had no real chance of doing so. The writer [[spoiler:could no longer believe in Averroes as a character and he naturally disappeared completely along with his house.]]

to:

* MindScrew: Where to start?
**
start? Special mention goes to "Averroes's Search". In it, the Islamic philosopher Averroes investigates a Greek translation and ponders the meaning of "tragedy" and "comedy", which he can't understand because he lives in a culture in which the art of dramatic performance doesn't exist. After hearing with some guests a story about China and the performers that live there and completely missing the point about the whole "acting" thing, he starts meditating and eventually has a sudden realization about the meaning of "tragedy" and "comedy", [[spoiler:which turns out to be wrong]]. He then [[spoiler: disappears, as do his house and all those that were in it, without leaving a trace.]] Borges then explains within the story that he himself had to understand Averroes to write the story, and like Averroes, had no real chance of doing so. The writer [[spoiler:could no longer believe in Averroes as a character and he naturally disappeared completely along with his house.]]



* MortalityEnsues: The protagonist of "The Immortal" finds a river that makes anyone who drinks from it immortal; after around a thousand years he [[spoiler:and the other immortals]] gets bored and goes off on a [[spoiler:ultimately successful]] search for a hypothetical sister river that will make him mortal again.

to:

* MortalityEnsues: The protagonist of "The Immortal" finds a river that makes anyone who drinks from it immortal; after around a thousand years he [[spoiler:and the other immortals]] gets bored and goes off on a [[spoiler:ultimately successful]] [[spoiler:successful]] search for a hypothetical sister river that will make him mortal again.



** ''The shape of the sword'': A man with a scar tells Borges how he got it: When he was a young irish rebel, a comrade called Moon, whom he saved from death, betrayed him to the Englishmen and he gave Moon a MarkOfShame. When Borges asks him to finish the story, [[spoiler:the man reveals himself as the traitor Moon. His GuiltComplex is so big he only can tell the story of his treason invoking a PerspectiveFlip]].
* PirateGirl: "The Widow Ching, Lady Pirate"
* ThePlan: [[spoiler: "Death and the Compass"]]; [[spoiler: "The Dead Man"]].

to:

** ''The shape "The Shape of the sword'': Sword": A man with a scar tells Borges how he got it: When he was a young irish Irish rebel, a comrade called Moon, whom he saved from death, betrayed him to the Englishmen and he gave Moon a MarkOfShame. When Borges asks him to finish the story, [[spoiler:the man reveals himself as the traitor Moon. His GuiltComplex is so big he only can tell the story of his treason invoking a PerspectiveFlip]].
* PirateGirl: "The Widow Ching, Lady Pirate"
Pirate."
* ThePlan: [[spoiler: "Death [[spoiler:"Death and the Compass"]]; [[spoiler: "The [[spoiler:"The Dead Man"]].Man."]]
* PoesLaw: His prologue to Thorstein Veblen's ''[[RichInDollarsPoorInSense Theory of the Leisure Class]]'':
-->''When, many years ago, I was given this book, I thought it was a {{satire}}. I learned later that it was the first work of a distinguished sociologist. At any rate, when we look closely enough at '''any''' society, we can see that it is not a {{utopia}} and its [[CrapsackWorld fair description]] runs the risk of bordering on satire.''[[note]]Considering that Veblen was, if not a full-fledged UsefulNotes/{{socialis|m}}t, then certainly a trenchant critic of the UsefulNotes/{{capitalism}} of his time, this was a remarkable thing for Borges to write.[[/note]]



* PoesLaw: His prologue to Thorstein Veblen's ''[[RichInDollarsPoorInSense Theory Of The Leisure Class]]'':
-->''When, many years ago, I was given this book, I thought it was a {{satire}}. I learned later that it was the first work of a distinguished sociologist. At any rate, when we look closely enough at '''any''' society, we can see that it is not a {{Utopia}} and its [[CrapsackWorld fair description]] runs the risk of bordering on satire.''



** He was a die-hard classical liberal, anticommunist, and pal of Augusto Pinochet, and many of his works (such as ''Tlon Uqbar Orbis Tertius'') are thinly-veiled rants about how classical liberalism is the only value system that sees "the ''real'' reality", and all those ''other'' value systems which he doesn't believe in make people lose sight of what's real and what's fake.
* RealityWarper: "The Circular Ruins"
* RecursiveReality: '' "Averroes' Search" '': On the last page, Borges realizes that he has broke the [[MutuallyFictional Stable Fictional Loop]] and incurred an [[OntologicalMystery Ontological Paradox]]:
--> I felt, on the last page, that my narration was a symbol of the man I was as I wrote it and that, in order to compose that narration, I had to be that man and, in order to be that man, I had to compose that narration, and so on to infinity.
* RewritingReality: "Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius" and "The Other Death".

to:

** He was a die-hard classical liberal, anticommunist, and pal of Augusto Pinochet, and many Pinochet. Many of his works (such as ''Tlon Uqbar ''Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius'') are thinly-veiled rants about how classical liberalism is the only value system that sees "the ''real'' reality", and all those ''other'' value systems which he doesn't believe in make people lose sight of what's real and what's fake.
* RealityWarper: "The Circular Ruins"
Ruins."
* RecursiveReality: '' "Averroes' Search" '': Search": On the last page, Borges realizes that he has broke brokem the [[MutuallyFictional Stable Fictional Loop]] and incurred an [[OntologicalMystery Ontological Paradox]]:
--> I -->I felt, on the last page, that my narration was a symbol of the man I was as I wrote it and that, in order to compose that narration, I had to be that man and, in order to be that man, I had to compose that narration, and so on to infinity.
* RewritingReality: "Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius" and "The Other Death".Death."



* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: An early example of the device, "Death and the Compass" offers an interesting DoubleSubversion in that the villain's intended victim is [[spoiler: the detective himself, who turns up early after deducing the particular place and time suggested by the pattern to try and stop the last murder. He thus becomes the victim of an ambush by the killer, his longtime ArchEnemy.]] The added twist makes this story a bit of an early, UnbuiltTrope version of the device.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: "Death and the Compass", "The Garden of Forking Paths".]]
* ShoutOut: Pretty much every author in the Western ''and'' Eastern literary and philosophical canon gets a ShoutOut in some Borges story or another. For example, "Death and the Compass" has [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to philosopher Baruch Spinoza and authors Creator/EdgarAllanPoe and Creator/JamesJoyce, among others.

to:

* SerialKillingsSpecificTarget: An early example of the device, "Death and the Compass" offers an interesting DoubleSubversion in that the villain's intended victim is [[spoiler: the [[spoiler:the detective himself, who turns up early after deducing the particular place and time suggested by the pattern to try and stop the last murder. He thus becomes the victim of an ambush by the killer, his longtime ArchEnemy.]] ArchEnemy]]. The added twist makes this story a bit of an early, UnbuiltTrope version of the device.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: "Death [[spoiler:"Death and the Compass", "The Garden of Forking Paths".]]
Paths."]]
* ShoutOut: Pretty much every author in the Western ''and'' Eastern literary and philosophical canon gets a ShoutOut in some Borges story or another. For example, "Death and the Compass" has [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] ShoutOut[=s=] to philosopher Baruch Spinoza and authors Creator/EdgarAllanPoe and Creator/JamesJoyce, among others.



* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: "The House of Asterion"
* TimeStandsStill: "The Secret Miracle"
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler: "The Circular Ruins"]]
* TragicDream: '' "Averroes's Search" '' : Averroes tries to explain Creator/{{Aristotle}} without understanding the terms ''Tragedy'' and ''Comedy'' and [[spoiler: Borges trying to imagine Averroes]].

to:

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: "The House of Asterion"
Asterion."
* TimeStandsStill: "The Secret Miracle"
Miracle."
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler: "The [[spoiler:"The Circular Ruins"]]
Ruins."]]
* TragicDream: '' "Averroes's Search" '' : ''Averroes's Search": Averroes tries to explain Creator/{{Aristotle}} without understanding the terms ''Tragedy'' and ''Comedy'' and [[spoiler: Borges [[spoiler:Borges trying to imagine Averroes]].



** "The Other Death"; "The Immortal". The reliability of the narrator is [[LampshadeHanging questioned explicitly]] in the stories themselves; the latter one almost takes it into {{Deconstruction}} territory.

to:

** "The Other Death"; "The Immortal". Immortal." The reliability of the narrator is [[LampshadeHanging questioned explicitly]] in the stories themselves; the latter one almost takes it into {{Deconstruction}} territory.



* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: Lönnrott in "Death and the Compass"]], [[spoiler:every Babylon citizen (except those ''already'' in TheConspiracy)]] in "The Lottery in Babylon"

to:

* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: Lönnrott [[spoiler:Lönnrott in "Death and the Compass"]], [[spoiler:every Babylon citizen (except those ''already'' in TheConspiracy)]] in "The Lottery in Babylon"Babylon."



--> ''The Company, [[TheConspiracy with godlike modesty, shuns all publicity. Its agents, of course, are secret; the orders it constantly (perhaps continually) imparts are no different from those spread wholesale by impostors.]]\\

to:

--> ''The -->''The Company, [[TheConspiracy with godlike modesty, shuns all publicity. Its agents, of course, are secret; the orders it constantly (perhaps continually) imparts are no different from those spread wholesale by impostors.]]\\



** "The Immortal". The narrator, after discovering the famed City of the Immortals deserted and in ruins, returns, dejected, to the village of the primitive troglodytes who live nearby, and names one of them who follows him around "Argos", after Odysseus' old dog. One day, when he uses this name, the previously nonspeaking troglodyte suddenly quotes a line from Literature/TheOdyssey. The stunned narrator asks how much of it does the troglodyte know.
--> '''"Argos"''': [[spoiler:Very little, less than the meagerest rhapsode. It has been eleven hundred years since I wrote it.]]
** "Death and the Compass".
--> '''Lönnrot''': Are you looking for the Secret Name, Scharlach?
--> '''Red Scharlach''': No. I am looking for something more ephemeral and slippery. [[spoiler:I am looking for Erik Lönnrot.]]

to:

** "The Immortal". Immortal." The narrator, after discovering the famed City of the Immortals deserted and in ruins, returns, dejected, to the village of the primitive troglodytes who live nearby, and names one of them who follows him around "Argos", after Odysseus' old dog. One day, when he uses this name, the previously nonspeaking troglodyte suddenly quotes a line from Literature/TheOdyssey.''Literature/TheOdyssey''. The stunned narrator asks how much of it does the troglodyte know.
--> '''"Argos"''': --->'''"Argos"''': [[spoiler:Very little, less than the meagerest rhapsode. It has been eleven hundred years since I wrote it.]]
]]
** "Death and the Compass".
--> '''Lönnrot''':
Compass."
--->'''Lönnrot''':
Are you looking for the Secret Name, Scharlach?
--> '''Red --->'''Red Scharlach''': No. I am looking for something more ephemeral and slippery. [[spoiler:I am looking for Erik Lönnrot.]]

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* {{Gaslighting}}: In "The Aleph", the narrator initially doubts that Carlos Argentino Dineri really has an Aleph (a point in space containing the entire universe) in his cellar. The narrator eventually sees it for himself and is shaken by the experience--but he dislikes Dineri, so he pretends that he saw nothing in order to make Dineri doubt his own sanity.

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* RealitySubtext: In the essay "Kafka and His Precursors", Borges presents us with various literary works whose tone and material seem like forerunners of Creator/FranzKafka. Before Kafka, though, no one would have said they had much in common. Borges argues that the reality of the author's later career ''[[MindScrew created its precursors]]'', retroactively linking these dissimilar works together.

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* RealitySubtext: RealitySubtext:
**
In the essay "Kafka and His Precursors", Borges presents us with various literary works whose tone and material seem like forerunners of Creator/FranzKafka. Before Kafka, though, no one would have said they had much in common. Borges argues that the reality of the author's later career ''[[MindScrew created its precursors]]'', retroactively linking these dissimilar works together.


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** He was a die-hard classical liberal, anticommunist, and pal of Augusto Pinochet, and many of his works (such as ''Tlon Uqbar Orbis Tertius'') are thinly-veiled rants about how classical liberalism is the only value system that sees "the ''real'' reality", and all those ''other'' value systems which he doesn't believe in make people lose sight of what's real and what's fake.
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This is not one of his "recurring themes".


Politically, Borges described himself as a [[TheSocialDarwinist Spencerian anarchist]] and a classical liberal. He was an outspoken critic of both populist Peronism in his native Argentina and Marxism, and one of his recurring themes was the use of literature and the written word to fabricate false and delusional worldviews, a common classical liberal criticism of fascism and Marxism. However, his vocal support for right-wing capitalist dictators such as Augusto Pinochet and a purported undercurrent of elitism and snobbery in his life and in his work have earned him his fair share of detractors.

to:

Politically, Borges described himself as a [[TheSocialDarwinist Spencerian anarchist]] and a classical liberal. He was an outspoken critic of both populist Peronism in his native Argentina and Marxism, and one of his recurring themes was the use of literature and the written word to fabricate false and delusional worldviews, a common classical liberal criticism of fascism and Marxism. However, his vocal support for right-wing capitalist dictators such as Augusto Pinochet Pinochet, and a purported reported undercurrent of elitism and snobbery in his life and in his work work, have earned him his fair share of detractors.
detractors.[[note]]One biographer noted that Borges once received two women visitors and had a pleasant chat with them, but only after they left did he realise that they were both black (being blind, he couldn't tell.) He is said to have angrily commented "If you had told me that, I would have thrown them out!"[[/note]]
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** Another subversion is ''The Condemned'': In some street of Buenos Aires, two BitPartBadGuys are going to fight. Ezequiel Tabares wants revenge because El Chengo stole his lover Matilde from him, and impatiently waits for El Chengo, repeatedly entering a little bar. [[spoiler: Ezequiel can see the new houses built at the street, and the new buses pass through him. He doesn’t realize that he’s DeadAllAlong and condemned to a GroundhogDayLoop of his final seconds on earth… but if he could realize, he would not care either. ]] [[ThePowerOfHate His own hate fulfills him]].

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** Another subversion is ''The Condemned'': "The Condemned": In some street of Buenos Aires, two BitPartBadGuys are going to fight. Ezequiel Tabares wants revenge because El Chengo stole his lover Matilde from him, and impatiently waits for El Chengo, repeatedly entering a little bar. [[spoiler: Ezequiel can can't see the new houses built at the street, and the new buses pass through him. He doesn’t realize that he’s DeadAllAlong and condemned to a GroundhogDayLoop of his final seconds on earth… but if he could realize, he would not care either. ]] [[ThePowerOfHate His own hate fulfills him]].
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* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: "The Cult of the Phoenix" can be read as a deconstruction of this trope, in that it describes a cult which only has one ritual, the Secret, which ritual is basically the entire nature of the cult itself; any member of the cult can initiate anyone else into it; some members of the cult are ashamed of the ritual, and for that reason are despised by other members, but they despise themselves even more; any member of the cult can be found in any walk of life; members of the cult often think that innocent words refer to the Secret, etc. Not surprisingly, some readers have speculated that the entire story is a kind of extended metaphor for some sort of sexuality, possibly homosexuality, possibly sexuality itself, except that there are too many details in the story for this to be strictly accurate.

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* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: "The Cult of the Phoenix" can be read as a deconstruction of this trope, in that it describes a cult which only has one ritual, the Secret, which ritual is basically the entire nature of the cult itself; any member of the cult can initiate anyone else into it; some members of the cult are ashamed of the ritual, and for that reason are despised by other members, but they despise themselves even more; any member of the cult can be found in any walk of life; members of the cult often think that innocent words refer to the Secret, etc. Not surprisingly, some readers have speculated that the entire story is a kind of extended metaphor for some sort of sexuality, possibly homosexuality, possibly sexuality itself, except that there are too many details in the story for this to be strictly accurate. [[note]]The Secret is said to involve the use of gum arabic, wax or cork, which aren't exactly necessary tools for sexual intercourse, and the members of the cult are said to have suffered "no persecutions", which isn't exactly true about LGBT people over the centuries. Borges himself is said to have said that the Secret was heterosexual sexual intercourse, except that that doesn't explain why the Cult is so furtive about itself. The interpretations go on.[[/note]]
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Added DiffLines:

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: "The Cult of the Phoenix" can be read as a deconstruction of this trope, in that it describes a cult which only has one ritual, the Secret, which ritual is basically the entire nature of the cult itself; any member of the cult can initiate anyone else into it; some members of the cult are ashamed of the ritual, and for that reason are despised by other members, but they despise themselves even more; any member of the cult can be found in any walk of life; members of the cult often think that innocent words refer to the Secret, etc. Not surprisingly, some readers have speculated that the entire story is a kind of extended metaphor for some sort of sexuality, possibly homosexuality, possibly sexuality itself, except that there are too many details in the story for this to be strictly accurate.

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* EldritchLocation: The City of the Immortals in "The Immortal", which is so horrible that the narrator can't clearly describe it except as a blight upon all creation.



* WhamLine: "The Immortal". The narrator, after discovering the City of the Immortals deserted and in ruins, returns, dejected, to the village of the primitive troglodytes who live nearby, and names one of them who follows him around "Argos", after Odysseus' old dog. One day, when he uses this name, the previously nonspeaking troglodyte suddenly quotes a line from Literature/TheOdyssey. The stunned narrator asks how much of it does the troglodyte know.

to:

* WhamLine: WhamLine:
**
"The Immortal". The narrator, after discovering the famed City of the Immortals deserted and in ruins, returns, dejected, to the village of the primitive troglodytes who live nearby, and names one of them who follows him around "Argos", after Odysseus' old dog. One day, when he uses this name, the previously nonspeaking troglodyte suddenly quotes a line from Literature/TheOdyssey. The stunned narrator asks how much of it does the troglodyte know.


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** "Death and the Compass".
--> '''Lönnrot''': Are you looking for the Secret Name, Scharlach?
--> '''Red Scharlach''': No. I am looking for something more ephemeral and slippery. [[spoiler:I am looking for Erik Lönnrot.]]
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* WhamLine: "The Immortal". The narrator, after discovering the City of the Immortals deserted and in ruins, returns, dejected, to the village of the primitive troglodytes who live nearby, and names one of them who follows him around "Argos", after Odysseus' old dog. One day, when he uses this name, the previously nonspeaking troglodyte suddenly quotes a line from Literature/TheOdyssey. The stunned narrator asks how much of it does the troglodyte know.
--> '''"Argos"''': [[spoiler:Very little, less than the meagerest rhapsode. It has been eleven hundred years since I wrote it.]]
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** "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a TrenchcoatBrigade type of SpyFiction in World War I, where a Chinese is obliged to spy for Germany, and is chased by an Irish agent working for the English. The Chinese reflects that for him, Germany is a barbarian country (maybe excepting Goethe) and the Irish agent must surely know that his masters despise him for being an Irishman, but they are both still obliged to be the {{Unwitting Pawn}}s of countries they hate.

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** "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a TrenchcoatBrigade type Stale Beer-type of SpyFiction set in World War I, where a Chinese is obliged to spy for Germany, and is chased by an Irish agent working for the English. The Chinese reflects that for him, Germany is a barbarian country (maybe excepting Goethe) and the Irish agent must surely know that his masters despise him for being an Irishman, but they are both still obliged to be the {{Unwitting Pawn}}s of countries they hate.
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** "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a TrenchcoatBrigade type of SpyFiction in World War I, where a Chinese is obliged to spy for Germany, and is chased by an Irish agent working for the English. The Chinese reflects that for him, Germany is a barbarian country (maybe excepting Goethe) and the Irish agent must surely know that his masters despise him for being an Irishman, but they are both still obliged to be the {{UnwittingPawn}}s of countries they hate.

to:

** "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a TrenchcoatBrigade type of SpyFiction in World War I, where a Chinese is obliged to spy for Germany, and is chased by an Irish agent working for the English. The Chinese reflects that for him, Germany is a barbarian country (maybe excepting Goethe) and the Irish agent must surely know that his masters despise him for being an Irishman, but they are both still obliged to be the {{UnwittingPawn}}s {{Unwitting Pawn}}s of countries they hate.
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Up To Eleven is being dewicked.


-->''Veblen thought and wrote this book in the [[{{Eagleland}} United States]]. [[{{UsefulNotes/Argentina}} Between us,]] the phenomenon of the leisure class [[UpToEleven is more serious]]. Except for the very poor, [[MockMillionaire every Argentine pretends to belong to that class]]. As a child, I have known [[{{Determinator}} families during the hot summer months hiding out in their homes, to make people believe that they vacationed in a]] [[BigFancyHouse hypothetical summer village]] or in the city of Montevideo. One woman confided to me her intention to [[MockGuffin decorate the hall with a signed painting, certainly not by virtue of calligraphy]].''

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-->''Veblen thought and wrote this book in the [[{{Eagleland}} United States]]. [[{{UsefulNotes/Argentina}} Between us,]] the phenomenon of the leisure class [[UpToEleven is more serious]].serious. Except for the very poor, [[MockMillionaire every Argentine pretends to belong to that class]]. As a child, I have known [[{{Determinator}} families during the hot summer months hiding out in their homes, to make people believe that they vacationed in a]] [[BigFancyHouse hypothetical summer village]] or in the city of Montevideo. One woman confided to me her intention to [[MockGuffin decorate the hall with a signed painting, certainly not by virtue of calligraphy]].''
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* [[Quotes/SecretIdentityIdentity ''Borges and I'']]: This short story (that you can read in the link) explains the curios relationship between the normal person Jorge Luis Borges was, and Borges, the literature SacredCow SophisticatedAsHell GentlemanSnarker his public were expecting to meet. You can see it's a essay about the SecretIdentityIdentity trope.

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* [[Quotes/SecretIdentityIdentity ''Borges ''"[[Quotes/SecretIdentityIdentity Borges and I'']]: I]]"'': This short story (that you can read in the link) explains the curios curious relationship between the normal person Jorge Luis Borges actually was, and Borges, the literature SacredCow SophisticatedAsHell GentlemanSnarker Borges his public were was expecting to meet. You can see it's a an essay about the SecretIdentityIdentity trope.



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* ''"Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius"'': An AncientConspiracy to create a complete fictional universe is discovered by the [[AuthorStandIn narrator]] in the form of an encyclopedia describing the nation of Uqbar and its mythology about the land of Tlön. Its plan is to [[RewritingReality recreate]] Earth in the form of Tlön by subconsciously persuading everyone that it is true. [[spoiler: They succeed.]]
* Literature/TheLibraryOfBabel: This story describes a universe consisting of a huge, endless library, that contains all possible books (that is to say, all possible combinations of letters, spaces, and punctuation given a certain number of characters per book)-- but arranged with no discernible order or pattern.

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\n* ''"Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius"'': An AncientConspiracy to create a complete fictional universe is discovered by the [[AuthorStandIn narrator]] in the form of an encyclopedia describing the nation of Uqbar and its mythology about the land of Tlön. Its plan is to [[RewritingReality recreate]] Earth in the form of Tlön by subconsciously persuading everyone that it is true. [[spoiler: They [[spoiler:They succeed.]]
* Literature/TheLibraryOfBabel: ''"Literature/TheLibraryOfBabel"'': This story describes a universe consisting of a huge, endless library, that contains all possible books (that is to say, all possible combinations of letters, spaces, and punctuation given a certain number of characters per book)-- but arranged with no discernible order or pattern.


* InspectorLestrade: Inspector Treviranus in ''Death and the Compass''. [[spoiler: Somewhat subverted when it turns out that his mundane solution for the first murder was true, while the GreatDetective was misled by his own cleverness.]]

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* InspectorLestrade: Inspector Treviranus in ''Death and the Compass''. [[spoiler: Somewhat subverted Subverted when it turns out that his mundane solution for the first murder was true, while the GreatDetective was misled by his own cleverness.]]
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simplify markup


* ''"The Garden of Forking Paths"'': The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist is visiting MrExposition who explains the idea of time branching forwards into [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]] [[note]]this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics[[/note]].

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* ''"The Garden of Forking Paths"'': The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist is visiting MrExposition who explains the idea of time branching forwards into [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]] {{Alternate Universe}}s.[[note]]this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics[[/note]].mechanics[[/note]]
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typo


* InspectorLestrade: Inspector Treviranus in ''Death and the Compass''. [[spoiler: Somewhat subverted when in turns out that his mundane solution for the first murder was true, while the GreatDetective was misled by his own cleverness.]]

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* InspectorLestrade: Inspector Treviranus in ''Death and the Compass''. [[spoiler: Somewhat subverted when in it turns out that his mundane solution for the first murder was true, while the GreatDetective was misled by his own cleverness.]]

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* DeathOfTheAuthor: "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" is very much a discussion of this idea, before the TropeNamer essay: the fictional Menard recreates Don Quixote word for word from memory and some summaries. The text of story then suggests that the copy is '''more interesting''' than the original, since it was impacted by world events in the centuries between. (The obvious reading of Borges' story being that "Authorial-based interpretations of a text can result in flat nonsense, if applied without careful thought".)

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* DeathOfTheAuthor: "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" is very much a [[InvokedTrope discussion of this idea, idea]], before the TropeNamer essay: the fictional Menard recreates Don Quixote word for word from memory and some summaries. The text of story then suggests that the copy is '''more interesting''' than the original, since it was impacted by world events in the centuries between. (The obvious reading of Borges' story being that "Authorial-based interpretations of a text can result in flat nonsense, if applied without careful thought".)

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