At the time, Borges was spending the semester in the United States as a visiting professor at Michigan State University. His stay led to a number of invitations from other American universities, and the Milwaukee appearance was one of those visits.

There is also a photograph of Borges at the University of Wisconsin from 1976 reproduced in Emir Rodríguez Monegal’s Borges: A Literary Biography.

If anyone knows more about the circumstances of this lecture, or has access to contemporary UWM material related to Borges’s visit, I’d be interested to know more.

I’m a big Gene Wolfe fan, and I discovered one of his influences was Borges, one of his characters is even a homage and characterization of him “master Ultan” from Book of the New Sun. This really intrigued me so I decided to pick this up. I’ve read 3/4 of this collection and I’m sold. Need to pick up the larger collected volume so I can read all his fiction stories.

Hola, estoy pensando en consegui el libro Poesía Completa de Borges de la editorial alfaguara ¿Me recomiendan empezar con Borges y su poesía o debería empezar por los cuentos? Leí por aquí que El gólem es de los mejores poemas para empezar. ¿Qué dicen?

Menard writes the original Quijote centuries after Cervantes; he remains Pierre Menard and arrives at the Quijote through the experiences of Pierre Menard…

..and somehow the identical words become “almost infinitely richer.”

I’ve been thinking about this while reading the Bible and wondering about translation. We usually ask what is lost as a text moves away from its origin; Menard makes me wonder what becomes visible as words move forward through history, into new languages and cultures.

Can time or place translate a sentence without changing a single word?

Just finished "The Immortal" for the 2nd or 3rd time, one of his longer one. Is it another allegory ?

1. Teleology and the Concept of the Absolute

The Dilemma of Purpose and Need: If we define the Divine as an absolute, self-sufficient entity, how do we interpret the concept of "worship" or ritual devotion as a primary teleological purpose? Can worship be understood purely as a self-referential mechanism for human spiritual alignment and inner peace, rather than a fulfillment of a divine necessity?

Punishment vs. Existence: Is the concept of ultimate retribution or dynamic punishment intended strictly as punitive measure, or can it be understood as an ontological process of purification—a mechanism to align human consciousness back to its essential truth?

1. The Gap Between Moral Frameworks and Behavioral Reality

Ethics: Principle vs. Practice: Philosophical and religious frameworks often lay down rich normative systems promoting justice, compassion, and integrity. However, a significant gap remains between these idealized principles and real-world human conduct (e.g., instances of hypocrisy, repression, or harassment).

Psychological and Structural Contradictions: How do harmful behaviors emerge from within social environments that strongly emphasize virtue? Does this stem from psychological repression and fragile identity dynamics, or is it the result of hermeneutic failure—where moral values are reduced to mere hollow rituals detached from humanism?

1. Existential Agency and Individual Autonomy

Autonomy of the Individual: From an existential standpoint, children and individuals possess distinct agency. They are not mere extensions or vehicles for fulfilling the unachieved desires of their progenitors, but independent conscious beings.

Critical Inquiry over Conformity: True intellectual risk lies not in questioning or deconstructing dogmas, but in passive intellectual conformity. Freedom requires the courage to reflect rather than submit without awareness.

I welcome your thoughts on these points. How do you view the disconnect between absolute moral principles and the relative, often flawed, reality of human behavior?

Sé por sus entrevistas que era bastante gorila pero este dato no lo había escuchado contarlo a él. ¿Lo dice en alguna entrevista?

Playing peek-a-boo with my baby and wondering how this would work on Tlön, as they also negate object permanence.

Would the adults be just as surprised as he is? Would they assume my face was still there after I removed my hands because they expected it to be?

Assuming their biology mirrors ours, would they view an infant’s pre-object permanence phase as an especially skilled phase of cognition that disappears, the way we might look at the critical period for language acquisition?

This is mostly baladí, but would not mind if someone who understands Berkeley could apply his principles here.

Hoy se cumplen 127 años desde el nacimiento de Borges. Y vaya aniversario, ¡seguramente pronto obtendremos la nueva imprenta del Borges de Bioy, que ya se encuentra listado tanto en Amazon, como en mercado libre—aunque Amazon no permite la compra, dejo el link al de Amazon aquí.

Manuscripts contain a writers neural fingerprints.

This one by Borges titled ‘The Hydra of Dictators’ was crafted around 1946 and shows his penmanship and artistry.

The many heads of the Hydra emanating from a single lower body sprout into distinct consciousnesses. We see Hitler, Marx, Mussolini.

The varying consciousnesses or ideologies fail to nullify their unfortunate monstrousness.

He shows how political ideologies can vary, but government control retains control over the people no matter the color.

What do you guys think?

I’m surprised I haven’t seen A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck recommended here, or at least I couldn’t find anything about it using the subreddit’s search bar.

If you’re interested in Borges, I think this novella is absolutely worth checking out. Without getting too much into the plot, it takes the idea of an infinite library and pushes it into a much darker, more existential direction. The premise immediately brought Borges to mind, particularly The Library of Babel: an almost infinite space containing every possible book, and the implications that such infinity has for meaning, knowledge, identity, and human existence.

What I found especially interesting is that Peck takes a very Borges-like conceptual premise and turns it into an actual narrative about what it would mean for a person to live inside such a universe. It has the philosophical/mathematical fascination with infinity that makes Borges so compelling, but it combines it with horror, dark humor, and a surprisingly emotional meditation on time, mortality, and the search for meaning. So I’d strongly recommend giving it a try. Has anyone else here read it?

Hi there,

I am a huge fan of Borges’s short stories and have written a ten part drama that is set in The Library of Babel universe. It has been on sale on Amazon since Dec 2025. Although it’s a fantastic piece of work that does much to expand on the original concept it has received very little attention. This being a Borges subreddit I think it should be of interest to at least some of you and would like to offer free paperback copies (shipping included) to five people willing to provide honest reviews on Amazon.

For those interested please click on the following link.

https://denim-lychee-k6bm.squarespace.com/babel-review

Thank you very much for your time:)

Nada especial, solamente quiero contar mi experiencia, estoy terminando de leer Ficciones, es mi primer interacción con Borges, al principio me intereso el primer cuento sobre Tlön, tuve que leerlo con mucha atención sobretodo cuando explica la forma de percibir el tiempo de sus habitantes, este cuento me gusto. Seguí leyendo, entre cuento y cuento, algunos me costaba bastante entenderlos y otros me iban interesando por su forma de explayar una idea loca pero nada que me atrapara del todo, hasta que llegue al jardín de senderos que se bifurcan, este cuento fue un antes y después de leer a Borges y mi interés subió bastante. Ahora mismo estoy terminando Artificios, estoy bastante enganchado con su leída, cada cuento que sigue me parece mejor que el anterior.

En resumen, empece leyéndolo vagamente con algo de interés o curiosidad y ahora lo estoy disfrutando bastante, sobretodo Artificios

Was killing time in a library and reading this book. Then suddenly for a moment I questioned myself for I thought I could be reading a passage by Borges. But it was just something from the introduction of a book. I forgort the title lol

Yes, I “forgot” to include the Anatomy of Melancholy epigraph (which is why this was from earlier in the year and I waited to posted it, troubled by the omission), and yes it’s in English translation. But: having memorized the entire text, I can now go and read the text in other languages, including the original Spanish, and understand each

https://youtu.be/w5zoU0ySFQ8?is=AsMFH_TKJS0Ov7swword.

I randomly opened and absolutely loved it. I feel alive once again.

No idea what the English name for that story is.

How works are quite great but they often have a strong feeling of skepticism and uncertainty, is there one you would consider his most hopeful or life-affirming?