Labyrinths

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There is something fascinating and enthralling in reading anthologies or collected works of authors – especially when done in a continuous bout. I find it very intriguing to pick out the niche nuances, unique tricks or quirks of the author, and spot the recurring theme of the works. I just finished enjoying such an experience, having just closed the cover of Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges.

Labyrinths is a collection of short fictional stories, essays, and parables that explore the compelling and contrasting methods of thinking in which mankind tries to understand the world, their selves, and their gods. The ‘labyrinths’ of the title refers to everything and nothing in the human experience; the literal labyrinths of a house, the labyrinths of one’s mind, the endless labyrinths of theology, philosophy, mythology, and idealism.

 I found it fascinating and provocative; an enjoyable challenge that raises more questions than it answers and almost metafictively becomes a comment or an examination of itself. Borges’ doomed and dispirited cast of characters reflect a self-deprecating – almost loathing – omniscient narrator and author who in turns takes an almost fiendish delight in torturing both characters and readers alike with questions and scenarios that are both unanswerable and the simplest of things to fathom.

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Citing renown and celebrated works such as The Divine Comedy and Don Quixote, as well as featuring cameos from Pascal, Judas, Kafka, and Bernard Shaw, Borges explores these conflicting ideologies that humanity has invented to refute, recast, disassemble, and reinvent literary tropes, traditions, behaviours of the fictional heroes, and the world theories put forward by other literary giants. Thus, turning the entire collected work into another step that keeps the paved road of literature going: ever winding forwards and backwards without an end in sight – a twisted labyrinth.

It's a fascinating read and indeed a challenge, the reward being a widened sense of perception and ability to question what is and what is not.

Author: Jorge Luis Borges, 1962

Published: First published in the USA by New Directions, 1964. Pictured edition published by Penguin Books, 1970.