Ashley Duvelius' Take on the Intriguing Borges

          Good evening my fellow bloggers and literary critics!  I have just finished reading a few short stories from the often misunderstood Borges.  I can honestly say I don't favor Borges over Cortazar or Marquez, but his stories still fascinated me.  My mind has been broadened by Borges' three short stories:  "The Garden of Forking Paths," "The Gospel According to Mark," and "Emma Zunz."  Out of these three, I developed an understanding and a connection with "The Gospel According to Mark" and "Emma Zunz" the most.  Before I could comprehend his literature, I had to learn his style.  Opposed to Cortazar and Marquez's plot twists, Borges goes a step further by assuming his audience knows certain levels of information.  From this base level of knowledge, Borges plays with his reader's imagination by manipulating the nature of time.  Borges enjoys writing plots involving a struggle between intellect and ignorance, as well as plots which create new realities for the main character.
          The first Borges story I read absolutely puzzled me.  After learning the reason behind my puzzlement, I felt a little embarrassed that I wasn't using my pre-existing knowledge.  It was so simple and in-my-face!  To reassert myself, Borges is a writer who assumes that his audience knows certain pieces of information.  I remembered this upon reading "The Gospel According to Mark" so that I was able to understand Borges' underlying critique.  The main character Espinosa is 33 years old in the story, which was the same age of Jesus when he was crucified (hence the story of the Gospel According to Saint Mark).  Espinosa's first name is Baltasar, who was also one of the wise men.  Also, Espinosa was the name of a scientist who had scientifically proved Jesus to be real.  Borges' assumptions gave clarity throughout reading the story.  The Gutres represented ignorance, for they found Espinosa fascinating with his stories from the Bible.  I found it disturbing that they decided to crucify Espinosa because they thought his sacrifice would bring an end to the rain that burdened their life.  Borges tried to show the ongoing question of which to live by: the dichotomy of science versus faith.  Personally, I would never do what the Gutres did to Espinosa.  Faith or no faith, to kill another human being is morally wrong and they should have at least gotten that from Espinosa's readings from the Bible.  However, in terms of magical realism, the Gutres' ignorance created their reality.  Espinosa's life had led him to them for reasons unknown.  Perhaps it was fate.  Whatever the reason, his fate was unfortunate and could have been prevented if the Gutres had any intellect like he had. That is also how I connected with this story, the strength of intellect.  I find myself to be more fact-based, for I will believe things that have proof and evidence to support them.  It was challenging for me to understand how the Gutres could commit such an act, but they were acting solely on faith rather than proof or facts.  In the end, ignorance beat intellect.  Though, one could say Espinosa was ignorant in the way he went on blindly living with the Gutres and fueling their faith.  Espinosa would have been more intelligent if he would have realized the path he was spiraling downward on and left the Gutres before it was too late for himself.      
        As appalling as the actions of the Gutres were, I gave Borges' last short story a chance.  "Emma Zunz" was a surprisingly forward tale with events that could actually happen in our reality.  I felt a real connection with Emma Zunz, who was a young woman like myself.  I have a very strong relationship with my father, and I assumed she had one with her father as well because of her later actions in the story.  My heart ached for the poor girl when she came home to find a letter telling her that her father had committed suicide.  However, she reacted differently than I would.  I would probably be in crying hysterics, while Emma just slid the letter into a drawer and immediately began plotting revenge.  This would have been my next step though.  If I knew someone was the direct cause to my father's untimely suicide, I would want to avenge him immediately.  I don't think I would go to such lengths, such as having myself declared a virgin by a doctor and then staging a rape.  My revenge would be more intelligence-based, like altering documents and planting evidence in places not involving my physical person.  Unlike "The Gospel According to Mark," I found Emma's revenge to be somewhat justified.  I still feel that killing a person is morally wrong, but a murder in self defense could be reasonable.  Loewenthal had destroyed her life by framing her father, putting him in prison, and now by causing his suicide.  My hate for Loewenthal would be overwhelming and I would probably be pushed to my edge with the death of my father.  I actually felt satisfaction for Emma Zunz as Borges ended his story with the lines "True was Emma Zunz' tone, true was her shame, true was her hate.  True also was the outrage she had suffered:  only the circumstances were false, the time, and one or two proper names."  My connection to Emma was through her actions and reactions.  If my father had died in that way and from those circumstances, I would have sought vengeance in intelligent plots similar to that of Emma's.

          I wouldn't mind reading more of Borges' stories because I feel that these were just the tip of the iceberg.  I believe that his stories challenge what I know and my beliefs, and I respect him for that.  His work was not as imaginatively pleasing as Cortazar or Marquez, but it made me wonder how my life would proceed if I were to make different choices.  I like the idea of parallel paths of life:  one choice will lead one down one path and another choice with lead one down a completely different path.  I am a strong believer in karma, for I like to make my decisions based on what I believe is morally right and fair to myself as well as for the people around me.  I think my path in life would stray drastically if I were to make different decisions, more ignorant choices.  My path would probably be different if I were to make more decisions based on faith as opposed to proven facts.  However, I am happy with the path I have been on and where my life is heading.  I'd like to thank Borges for challenging my personal beliefs, though, because it forced me to open my mind to the reasoning and actions of different kinds of people. One's got to respect someone who can do that without causing resentment.
         Thank you for taking the time to read about my continuing adventures in the world of Latin American literature!