Borges

When I was reading Borges’s writings, I was immediately lost and confounded by the consistent change in time and tenses. It creates confusion because his writings were not written to be interpreted literally, but they were written to demonstrate underlying themes. Borges, along with fellow magical realists, used time as a means to prove that humans create their own idea of time, both the past, present, and future. In “The Garden of Forking Paths,” Borges even creates a literal object with which to demonstrate this, the labyrinth and the novel. “Every one imagined two works; to no one did it occur that the book and the maze were one and the same thing.” He used the labyrinth illustrate to show how people formed the idea in their own minds that the labyrinth and the novel were two distinct works, but, in fact they were the same thing. The labyrinth is a good illustration of the world. We are often lost in the world and do not realize that we have become so consumed with the world, that we cannot see that the world actually has two meanings and has another purpose to it as well (the novel). I find that when I spend time with the Lord and my Bible, I can see the world for more than merely a day or an hour, but also for a series of lessons that are meant to teach me something.
Another interesting point that relates to my beliefs is from “The Gospel According to Mark.” The religious content is extremely prevalent in this short story, and I found it contrary to my personal experience. Although I am not Catholic, I am an active member in my local church, and Christ is the center of my life. In this story, Espinosa read the gospel of Mark to the Gutres, but due to their ignorance, they were unable to see the purpose of the story and only saw the literal. When others look at me as a Christian, they may not understand exactly why I act or why I do the things I do because they only see the literal. I, on the other hand, feel like the Gutres at times when I read these magical realism stories. I cannot see the purpose and meaning behind it, due to my ignorance of the topic; I can only see the literal.
“Emma Zunz” is a particularly fascinating piece of art. I found, that of all of Borges’s writings, I could relate and figure out this story. Although I have not been raped nor have I had a man force my father into committing suicide, I have been wronged by others and can sometimes twist the story in my mind to create a reality that did not actually happen. When someone hurts me, intentionally or not, it is easy to convince myself that they actually meant to cause that pain. I think to myself about how that person mistreated me and how I can get revenge, but until I realize that it was an accident, I am going to feel hurt and mistreated. I created my own fantasy about the past which will affect my future. If I decide to harbor those feelings and imagine that person laughing at my suffering, I will probably react poorly in the future; however, if I forgive, I can change the future by acting kindly. This is an example of what Borges was saying with Emma. She creates this fantasy in her mind, but to her it was reality. In my American Film Noir class, we observe how characters, usually the protagonist, create this mythical world and imagine circumstances that to the reader seem ridiculous, but to the character is brutal reality. The more stories I read that incorporate magical realism, the more I can identify these types of characteristics and the more I question the real meaning of time. My view of the world in regard to time is simply that God created time for humans to refer back to a particular event, but time continues to repeat itself and yet move forward so we can continue on this linear path of life.