Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by laydownyoursoul
The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges
5.0
This was like sitting around a campfire with Borges and Guerrero, retelling their favourite stories from all of history.
Wow, wasn't sure what to expect going into this book, but it ended up being a delightful read. Thoroughly entertaining, this alongside the shortness of each entry made it very moreish and I kept coming back and reading more whenever I had a few minutes to spare. Highlighted a lot of passages and opened a huge number of tabs to do further research.
Was very interesting seeing some modern authors alongside the ancient or medieval, in particular the recurrence of Kafka and C.S. Lewis, alongside Poe was interesting in terms of potential influence and placing Borges in a cultural and historical context. Also gained an appreciation for a lot of classic and historical sources that I previously might not have given a chance, but am now interested in reading having seen them transformed or translated by Borges.
Very cool how this blurred the line between fiction and non-fiction. At least one entry falsely claims to come from a real mythological creature backed by historical sources, and several more stories I wonder to what extent are being retold based on myth vs just being a new tale created by Borges.
Some parts and quotes I liked:
The creature from Perelandra which starts singing with renewed enthusiasm once the human narrator leaves, rejoicing in regaining its privacy.
"The blessed were to be reborn in the form of spheres, and... they would roll into eternity"
"The name of this fish is Bahamoot [Behemoth]... as its support, water; and under the water, darkness: and the knowledge of mankind fails as to what is under the darkness" followed by an alternate theory of what is under a creature - another (longer) list of things on top of each other, where what is at the bottom is still unknown.
"Pliny says that he saw a Hippocentaur, preserved in honey"
"To oblige it I behave as if I had understood and nod. Then it jumps to the floor and dances about with joy"
On the "Double" or Doppelganger - "it comes to fetch men to their deaths. Meeting oneself was, therefore, most ominous"
"The Holy Spirit had compose two books. The first, as we all know, was the Bible; the second, the Universe, whose creatures contain immortal teachings"
The story of the Chinese Foxes was delightful.
"There can be nothing accidental in a book dictated by a divine intelligence" (on kabbalah)
"They were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come"
"Chesterton derived his famous metaphor for night: 'a monster made of eyes'"
The idea that a holy hare is rewarded by being sent to the moon, where it uses a magic mortar to create the elixir of life.
The story of the Hydra's one immortal head, that is still alive today and buried "hating and dreaming"
"The idea of a house built expressly so that people will become lost in it may be stranger than the idea of a man with the head of a bull... it is fitting that at the centre of a monstrous house there should live a monstrous inhabitant"
"No one, of course, would occupy himself with such studies if there were not a creature called Odradek" (about the study of where this name comes from). And of the same creature's laugh "it is only the kind of laugh that has no lungs behind it"
"To mitigate the astonishment this allegory may produce, let us recall that the Panther was not a fierce and fearsome beast for the Saxons, but rather an exotic sound"
"This is not a beast as is commonly understood; but its true nature is [a substance]"
Wow, wasn't sure what to expect going into this book, but it ended up being a delightful read. Thoroughly entertaining, this alongside the shortness of each entry made it very moreish and I kept coming back and reading more whenever I had a few minutes to spare. Highlighted a lot of passages and opened a huge number of tabs to do further research.
Was very interesting seeing some modern authors alongside the ancient or medieval, in particular the recurrence of Kafka and C.S. Lewis, alongside Poe was interesting in terms of potential influence and placing Borges in a cultural and historical context. Also gained an appreciation for a lot of classic and historical sources that I previously might not have given a chance, but am now interested in reading having seen them transformed or translated by Borges.
Very cool how this blurred the line between fiction and non-fiction. At least one entry falsely claims to come from a real mythological creature backed by historical sources, and several more stories I wonder to what extent are being retold based on myth vs just being a new tale created by Borges.
Some parts and quotes I liked:
The creature from Perelandra which starts singing with renewed enthusiasm once the human narrator leaves, rejoicing in regaining its privacy.
"The blessed were to be reborn in the form of spheres, and... they would roll into eternity"
"The name of this fish is Bahamoot [Behemoth]... as its support, water; and under the water, darkness: and the knowledge of mankind fails as to what is under the darkness" followed by an alternate theory of what is under a creature - another (longer) list of things on top of each other, where what is at the bottom is still unknown.
"Pliny says that he saw a Hippocentaur, preserved in honey"
"To oblige it I behave as if I had understood and nod. Then it jumps to the floor and dances about with joy"
On the "Double" or Doppelganger - "it comes to fetch men to their deaths. Meeting oneself was, therefore, most ominous"
"The Holy Spirit had compose two books. The first, as we all know, was the Bible; the second, the Universe, whose creatures contain immortal teachings"
The story of the Chinese Foxes was delightful.
"There can be nothing accidental in a book dictated by a divine intelligence" (on kabbalah)
"They were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come"
"Chesterton derived his famous metaphor for night: 'a monster made of eyes'"
The idea that a holy hare is rewarded by being sent to the moon, where it uses a magic mortar to create the elixir of life.
The story of the Hydra's one immortal head, that is still alive today and buried "hating and dreaming"
"The idea of a house built expressly so that people will become lost in it may be stranger than the idea of a man with the head of a bull... it is fitting that at the centre of a monstrous house there should live a monstrous inhabitant"
"No one, of course, would occupy himself with such studies if there were not a creature called Odradek" (about the study of where this name comes from). And of the same creature's laugh "it is only the kind of laugh that has no lungs behind it"
"To mitigate the astonishment this allegory may produce, let us recall that the Panther was not a fierce and fearsome beast for the Saxons, but rather an exotic sound"
"This is not a beast as is commonly understood; but its true nature is [a substance]"