Writing the Impossible | Jorge Luis Borges

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3 жыл бұрын

The short stories of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges are unlike those of any other author. Despite an average length of only a few pages, each tale is packed full of mind-boggling impossibilities of physics, philosophy and psychology, some of which are even hard to imagine. We'll be taking a look at how Borges crafted his stories and some of the incredible thinking going on behind the scenes.
FURTHER READING/VIEWING/LISTENING
'Labyrinths' by Jorge Luis Borges: www.amazon.co.uk/Labyrinths-S...
'This Craft of Verse' Lectures by Jorge Luis Borges: • Jorge Luis Borges: Thi...
On Alexius Meinong's Theory of Objects: • Nonexistent Objects & ...
Radio Programmes about Borges' work and life:
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b04...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3c...
MUSIC
'jake' - Che-Yu : / jake-1
'sonder' - Che-Yu : / sonder-1
"Ebbs and Flows" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
'5:54 AM (Dawn)' - Ross Budgen: • ♩♫ Emotional and Ambie...
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I do not own any of the clips used.
This video is a review for critical and educational purposes and is protected under article 15 and 105 in the United States Fair Use code, as well as Fair Dealing in UK copyright law. My use of both the footage and music from this work is for the sake of analysis. This video is NOT an infringement on copyright.

Пікірлер: 62

@martinstent5339 Жыл бұрын

I’m reading Borges now (already on my 3rd collection!), and I wanted to highlight something that you only briefly mention. That he intends, and often succeeds, to induce the feeling of unreality in the reader. I often put the book down at the end of a story and look around me at a room that seems to be different. Of course it is I who have changed while reading the story, not the room about me. A trick you didn’t mention was that some of his stories loop back on themselves, so you read a sentence that suddenly induces a feeling of déjà vu simply because you had read that sentence an hour ago in the same story. This man was really a genius, and I intend to read everything he wrote over the next months. Beware his inappropriate adjectives!!

@ReframedYT Жыл бұрын

Such a great observation! Can't wait to get back into his work when I get the chance, myself.

@CosmiaNebula 2 жыл бұрын

I object to the characterization of his stories as "rejection of scientific, logical and perceivable reality" In fact, his stories are **rigorously** fantastic, almost to the level of mathematical rigor. His stories are sometimes quoted as epigraphs in mathematical papers and books. Source: I'm a mathematician.

@nlsantiesteban Жыл бұрын

This...100%. He works extrapolate mathematical, philosophical, theological, metaphysical, and literary concepts into narrative forms.

@Bbopjonez 8 ай бұрын

You can say you are a mathematician and tell me that 1 + 1 = 5 and that doesn’t mean it is true. You should cite from one of Borges’ stories should you wish to refute the narrator’s claims. Consistent with the narrator’s claim for example is Borges’ poem El Sueño where he states that the role of dreams is to “destejer el universo…el ilusorio punto de los geometras, la línea, el plano…borrar el cosmos y erigir el caos.” If Borges sees dreams as valuable as our wakefulness as his many stories and poems about them would convince us, then his descriptions of how dreams defy mathematics and logic and undo our known universe are an affirmation of what is stated in the video.

@SwoopGD 16 күн бұрын

Borges was a visionary in the purest sense. Criminally underrated and unadaptable.

@plouischenu Жыл бұрын

How a work of such quality could have so few viewers yet? I'll share to the ones in France that could be interested

@cheeze6850 2 жыл бұрын

Single-handedly convinced me to buy a copy of Ficciones, thank you!

@thoughts0utloud Ай бұрын

Discovered Borges in 2020 and’ve reread his collected fictions each successive year-doing so now. Really enjoyed this!

@seansabu310 7 күн бұрын

I think Borges is speaking to the sub conscious somehow whether he meant to or it just naturally happened as s phenomenon I dunno but his writing seems to coalesce with the readers imagination which I actually think Borges provided a structure to the imagination as having environs with tangibliilty and actuality. A place with the ability to be inhabited, experienced,explored , interacted with, communicate it's descriptions to others and most of all that can be remembered , he was writing cosmic narrations of the inner world of ones psyche as a vast universe unto itself . Borges was delineating the complexities nuances and structure of the human imagination and that structure was a labrythn

@VashikArmenikus 2 жыл бұрын

This was an amazing video essay. This was what exactly I was looking for. Such a well-researched and well-written essay. Thank you for your hard work! And please... keep going.

@peterdennis6106 6 ай бұрын

Absolutely excellent summary of one of (in my opinion) the 20th Century's greatest minds

@NKRevolution Жыл бұрын

This could use some work. Borges’ best writings demonstrate metaphysical reality and you spend the entire video arguing that his output reflects unreality. The situations demonstrated in his writings come after the confines of physics you keep imposing on him. He uses laws that should be true outside of what we can perceive and paints a portrait of what reality is like beyond us. That is why he is so incredible. Absolutely unbelievable presentation keep it up 👏🏻

@seams4186 2 жыл бұрын

The greatest writer ever!

@skwalka6372 2 жыл бұрын

Why do you say that? Have you read all the writers that ever existed? You don't need to go far to find writers who are far superior to Borges, my friend.

@seams4186 2 жыл бұрын

@@skwalka6372 Yes, I have

@seams4186 2 жыл бұрын

I have, in fact, read all the writers that ever existed. Borges is the superior one.

@skwalka6372 2 жыл бұрын

@@seams4186 Borges is good enough for Latin America, I suppose.

@seams4186 2 жыл бұрын

@@skwalka6372 and the entire world!

@hh-en5rt 2 жыл бұрын

Dude. You’re doing god’s work out here. Cant wait to see this channel grown.

@ReframedYT 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot! Glad you enjoyed :)

@george5247 2 жыл бұрын

I can't believe how awesome this video was, I hope more people watch your videos in the future

@ReframedYT 2 жыл бұрын

Very kind of you to say, glad you enjoyed it!

@TheKnight-zf5eb 2 жыл бұрын

The new movie from Christopher Nolan, "Tenet", it would be very possible to be a Borges idea, a world where time is reversed. (I know the movie doesn't deal with a "world" but Borges would write that way just like he did in Tlön)

@sodancethesamba911 2 жыл бұрын

There are plenty of objects with only one side, take Moebius strip for example. A disk also can be one sided if you identify its antipodal points - mathematicians call it a Real Projective Plane. Many (not all) apparently impossible ideas described by Borges find its place in Mathematics and even Physics. The ideas presented in The Garden of Forking Paths are precisely what corresponds to the so called Many-World interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. It is quite remarkable that he have thought about it independently.

@skwalka6372 2 жыл бұрын

It is even more remarkable when you consider that Borges never attended a university (as a student) and was entirely self-taught.

@roseCatcher_ Жыл бұрын

The idea of Many World interpretation, realities existing simultaneously and closing in on each other, has been there in human theologies and mythologies for more than 6000 years. It's not new.

@DanAvenell 7 күн бұрын

@@roseCatcher_ Which theologies?

@nicolasjustiniano9593 2 жыл бұрын

No way. I watched your video/essay about Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi about 5 minutes ago so I had the fantastic idea to check your new uploads. There's no way you do this amazing quality content! Hope my English is readable as least (my main language is Spanish and, hey, I can say your pronunciation of "Borges" is truly admirable!)

@nicolasjustiniano9593 2 жыл бұрын

Also, I'd like to suggest you to research about Ezra Pound (ideogrammic method, orientalism, and his influence on others). It's kinda interesting to read about these controversial artists (Pound was a fascist, Borges, during his last years, probably forgot his libertarian thoughts when he was younger).

@ReframedYT 2 жыл бұрын

@@nicolasjustiniano9593 Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm actually thinking about a video topic that deals with 20th century fascist thinkers - I'm a little familiar with Pound but I'll definitely research a bit more. Thanks for the suggestion!

@martinamattar8709 2 жыл бұрын

This is great!!! Thank you

@MV-vv7sg Жыл бұрын

Great video again. Can’t wait too see what you go on to good.

@gerardlabeouf6075 11 күн бұрын

Amazing video

@iphymurphy6078 3 ай бұрын

Thank you dreamtigers is my favorite book you are very insightful

@nelsonrosasaguilera3425 2 жыл бұрын

Wonderful job! thank you for this

@ReframedYT 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)

@eleusis7778 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome ! Thank you.

@ReframedYT 2 жыл бұрын

thank you for watching :)

@archiji806 2 жыл бұрын

Ty for the video. I liked it a lot)

@Ryndika 4 ай бұрын

In 3d videogames, there are objects with only one side.

@michaelgonzalez9058 7 күн бұрын

A planet can be more small than miniatue-miniature of life

@otavioschmidt3799 2 жыл бұрын

Great videos

@samuelamsterdam6215 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing Essay! I think it's pretty funny that the one sided coin was lost forever in that manner

@ReframedYT 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! It's such a great story, Borges has a wickedly cruel sense of humour sometimes...

@user-rg6yb5gr9q 11 күн бұрын

damn this was insane

@df7679 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing

@ReframedYT 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@mahendra100100 Жыл бұрын

This is a wonderful essay on Borges. May I have your permission to use some of the material presented here so pithily in an essay I am planning to write? I will of course acknowledge your help.

@ReframedYT Жыл бұрын

That's very kind of you to say! Of course - I'd love it if you could send me a link when you're finished, curious to see what you make of it all :)

@pandittroublejr Жыл бұрын

👍🏾

@TatuCarreta Ай бұрын

aguante argentina, peron, charly garcia y borges (si no pongo a charly en el medio se agarran a las trompadas) viva pappo tambien

@reaganwiles_art 4 ай бұрын

A discrepancy in Borges' seeming interests further queers his stories, in that Borges considered himself a poet and poetry, the music of words, his obsession and not his weird little stories.

@misterbonzoid5623 3 ай бұрын

'queers'? 'discrepancy'? 'obsession'? What a lonely comment.

@AlexanderDavidson-lr7dg 11 сағат бұрын

There is a certain irony for me, in the presentation of this upload. I dont like to criticize and I know a lot of consideration has gone into this video. However, when I read Borges I 'hear' a moist avuncular, tongue very much in cheek, cheekily humorous voice. This however, is totally at odds with the presentation which comes across to me as a kind of factoidal robotic attempt at academic pseudo-neutrality which is what, to me, Borges is actually gently ridiculing. I found I had to give up on it as it was so devoid of humour that it was too dry for my mental palette. I am aware that that will meet with rancour from those who still, I used to partake in such mental beverages myself, who still partake of mental aridity. And I agree with NKRevolution about being hyperreality or surreality but without a twinkle in the eye to match Borges's any 'analysis' is going to fall short.