BORGES

You know what happens when you assume...

Jorge Luis Borges

Last week I read several pieces by Borges. I read "The Garden of Forking Paths," "The Gospel According to Mark," and "Emma Zunz." They were all wonderfully written stories, however, there was often times confusion and holes in his stories. He would assume the reader knew a lot more than they probably did. Similar to the past authors, Borges creates alternate realities for his characters.

The first story I read was "The Garden of Forking Paths."  It was a very long story. I feel the whole which path should you follow has been done so many times I just didn't enjoy this story. Also I found it kind of hard to follow and I think that had to do with how long it was.

"Emma Zunz" was another piece by Borges that I read. This story definitely kept me on my toes. In the story Emma kills the man who killed her father. She tells the police an entirely different story. People will see her as a helpless person who killed someone by protecting herself. She will go on living in different worlds. Many people lie. In fact, most people do. It is not the right thing to do because lying creates different realities. Depending on what degree of a liar you are, you could have so many realities you won't be able to keep track of them all. This story reminded me of a boy I knew in high school. He would lie all the time about the silliest things. When people would bring him up, every one always had different information about him. He lived so many different lives. I know Emma only lived with the lie about killing the man but the boy in my class was almost like a fiction character to me, know one really knew who he was.

In "The Gospel According to Mark," apparently the Gutres did not know who Espinosa was. Well, don't feel bad, I did not know either. In this story Borges assumes a lot. Like the reader knows what Espinosa stands for. Espinosa was 33 years old at the time of the story, the age Jesus was when he died on the cross. His first name was Baltasar, which was one of the wise men and Espinosa was the name of the man who scientifically proved Jesus to be real.

"The Gospel According to Mark" the Gutres decide to crucify Espinosa. I kind of thought this was weird. They believed by sacrificing Espinosa they would be able to stop the rain. The Gutres were ignorant. Borges used magical realism to create a reality for these people. The reality was that by sacrificing Espinosa they would gain what they want. This is not true. Espinosa had so many similarities with Jesus Borges, perhaps, suggests that this is his fate.
Borges was a great author. I enjoyed him more than I did Marquez. My favorite story of his was probably "Emma Zunz." I would love to read more work by him.