Borges

Although there were some ideas that I enjoyed, I was not a huge admirer of Borges. In my opinion, the readings were hard to understand and I felt the meaning of the stories were different.  For example, in the story “The Gospel According to Mark”, I thought the girl was the reason the man was crucified, but really the girl was an offering to the man. Borges’ writing is confusing and hard to follow because the hints are deep within the text. I do not enjoy readings in which the meanings are deeply hidden. After reading the story, “Garden of Forking Paths,” I could relate to the meaning because I have chosen many different paths in my life. I believe that every choice a person makes does have an effect on that person’s life.  I always ask myself: would have, could have, or should have?  The story focuses on time and space, and branching into parallel universes. Once again, in this story, there were a lot of hints that I did not understand. When the text mentions that the author turns left, I did not think of it as being a hint in the story. Turning left meant the author was telling the story in a different manner or the author making a different decision. The “Garden of Forking Paths” relates to “Emma Zunz” because both characters made choices and the choices led to different outcomes. It is very important that people make wise decisions because they can affect the future. After the character kills the man who kills her father, she decides to make it appear as the killer raped her. I was fascinated by how the story left the reader thinking about choices because I could never imagine living two separate lives. In one life, she lives as an innocent rape victim and really she is not really a victim. I try to live my life with honesty and integrity and would never lie. As a reader, I would not recommend the author, Borges, because he is very hard to follow and leaves the reader confused.  I had to read each story two or three times to understand, and sometimes I did not even understand it until we had our class discussion. I gave Borges a good try and I did like experiencing something different; however, I am glad we are done reading Borges.