Deal Me in Challenge: The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges

“A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.”

My first diamond card and the first short-story from the DMI challenge to receive 5 stars!

Borges is a literary magician and his writing is unlike anything I have ever encountered before. Reading The Aleph feels like stepping into a lucid yet incomprehensible dream: a surreal and metaphysical journey into the unknown full of symbolism, metaphorical conceits and mysticism all wrapped up in a complex puzzle with no easy answers. If that wasn't confusing enough, Borges actually writes himself into the story so not only are we as readers presented with a self-reflexive meta-narrative, the paradoxical relationship between art and fiction becomes even more pronounced. Trying to unravel the many mysteries and high concept ideas embedded within the narrative is part of the fun. 

His dazzling poetic prose and sophisticated language can be difficult to grasp at first but it also helps to read slowly, taking the time to immerse yourself in his world. His writing might be challenging but the reader will certainly be rewarded by putting in the extra effort. There is so much to unpack in this story that would require a much longer review on my part and I am currently not feeling up the task. Perhaps I will write a more extensive analysis at some point but for now I just want to luxuriate in that sublime feeling of reading such a mind-blowing piece of writing. One of the defining characteristics of great literature for me is being able to read a work multiple times and still derive pleasure from discovering something new. Borges is one of those gifted writers capable of crafting some of the most mesmerizing and otherworldly stories that reveal more layers of meaning with each new reading. 

You might be asking yourself, what exactly is an Aleph? Well, the details are somewhat ambiguous but it is a mythical device that essentially allows a person to view the entire universe all at once. Pretty cool stuff. Borges has a lot of fun playing around with this plot device, exploring a wide range of literary discourses and philosophical ideas such as aesthetics, art as representation, history, memories, perception, epistemology, unrequited love, poetry, the creative power of language, concepts of time and space, infinity. As I mentioned earlier, there is a lot going on here. Borges incorporates more story ideas complexities into a few pages than most authors do in an entire novel. 

This is one of those masterful stories worth revisiting again and again.