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October 17, 2005
Borge's Tlon
I was very interested in Borges' approach to this story. Instead of directly describing a world, he describes an encyclopedic account of this world. In this way, it would seem, the reader is allowed to get a sense of the labyrinth that is Tlon as a whole rather than being ensconced in it directly.
When inside a labyrinth, the person experiencing it can only experience the boundaries immediately around them. But seen from above, the labyrinth can be appreciated as a whole and individual elements can be examined. Borges' technique similarly affords the reader a context from which this imaginary world might be explored.
Another theme that I enjoyed was that of linguistic differences and philosophical debates within this imaginary world. This added a good deal of richness to this environment. One could imagine it as a truly three-dimensional world to explore, rather than a flat world with simple rules.
Posted by Andrew Maskin at October 17, 2005 12:32 AM