tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post6498251065165285674..comments2024-02-12T23:25:09.583-08:00Comments on Overweening Generalist: Books, Borges, and The Library of Babelmichaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-2484511145455347282022-08-09T16:30:28.046-07:002022-08-09T16:30:28.046-07:00Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night is one ...Alberto Manguel's The Library at Night is one of my favorite reads.Kickaha23noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-23436646148492548912013-11-01T14:49:18.308-07:002013-11-01T14:49:18.308-07:00I think the reason why I return to certain writers...I think the reason why I return to certain writers over and over is mainly because, when I read them, I feel my perspectives shift, parameters and ratios alter, synapses reach out to others and dendrifyingly connect with other circuits, etc. How common is this quest to get a nervous system overhaul from the "simple" act of reading, I wonder? Does anyone cop this level of buzz from a Tweet? <br /><br />Lem championed PKD to European writers in the mid-1970s. Any reasons PKD may have fell out of favor with Lem would probably have to do with Lem's intellectual grounding in hard-core science? <br /><br />Then there's the writer who perceives another writer as infringing on their mental territory, which implies a siphoning off of the ideal audience. Borges wrote a short story "There Are More Things" which was infl by HPL, also circa the time Lem wrote about PKD as a visionary among charlatans. Borges thought HPL inadvertently fell into a sort of epigone of Poe, which I just find perplexing. Borges seems to admire HPL while wanting to keep him at a distance. <br /><br />I too find it interesting to muse on this stuff, but as secondary (or tertiary) to your own unique negotiations of the texts and how they intertwingle in your views and imaginings.michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-21145391155568505912013-11-01T11:17:28.644-07:002013-11-01T11:17:28.644-07:00Borges and PKD are two writers whose short stories...Borges and PKD are two writers whose short stories I read to gluttony when I find I need a "change of mind". After a certain point I can almost feel my brain re-wiring like a scene in Dark City.<br /><br />I find it interesting how certain authors riding (writing?) along a similar thread seem to dislike each other...PKD and Stanislaw Lem, and (so it seems) Borges and HPL, and I wonder where that comes from? Not nearly enough data, but it's interesting to muse on.Psukehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01116423188181098527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-41808381384635060052012-03-01T00:55:46.334-08:002012-03-01T00:55:46.334-08:00@1132: I haven't seen where Borges writes abou...@1132: I haven't seen where Borges writes about HPL. <br /><br />Cantor's infinite sets seem really trippy to me. A couple years ago I read a pretty good short book by a prolific writer on science and math: The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah and Infinity, by Amir D. Aczel.<br /><br />@Tom: I find Wolfe's idea totally fascinating, because it so upends my ordinary structures of thinking about writing, production, publishing, and audiences. Thanks for this!michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13526042582094867513noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-19629381238572544872012-02-29T18:49:44.617-08:002012-02-29T18:49:44.617-08:00Always love your posts about books of reading.
Ap...Always love your posts about books of reading.<br /><br />Apropos of nothing in particular that you actually wrote, I've always liked writer Gene Wolfe's claim that readers are the master group in literature, not the writers. I also like Wolfe's comment that a critical mass of good readers is absolutely necessary.Cleveland Okie (Tom Jackson)https://www.blogger.com/profile/07810736442596736041noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1178284085080580526.post-79522420952616540392012-02-27T08:39:33.138-08:002012-02-27T08:39:33.138-08:00I first encountered Borges in Paris in 1985 at an ...I first encountered Borges in Paris in 1985 at an art show on the top floor of the Pompidou Center. It had giant ashtrays and samples of various scents like bananas and a room with music videos (ZZ Top, Duran Duran, etc.) and various literary quotes, including Borges, etc. A few weeks later in Vienna I bought one of his books at an English language bookstore. (In between I had visited Ingolstadt, Bavaria, on July 23.)<br /><br />I found Borges a little condescending when writing about Lovecraft.<br /><br />I like how in mathematics they use Hebrew letters for the various cardinalities of infinity. An infinite number of numbers exist between one and zero, but the set of real numbers contains infinitely more numbers, a different cardenality of infinity.<br /><br />At the end of his life, people read aloud to Robert Anton Wilson The Cantos, Finnegans Wake, his own books, my book, etc. He said I got it about 90% right.<br /><br />I think our culture does seem in a hurry to kick the book habit. It seems in a bit of hurry about sombunall processes.<br /><br />Great blog post, as usual.Eric Wagnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04312033917401203598noreply@blogger.com