Deal Me In Challenge: The Circular Ruins by Jorge Luis Borges

Card Drawn:

"He understood that modeling the incoherent and vertiginous matter of which dreams are composed was the most difficult task that a man could undertake, even though he should penetrate all the enigmas of a superior and inferior order; much more difficult than weaving rope out of sand or coining the faceless wind."

"The Circular Ruins" is one of Borges' shorter works and might be slightly more accessible but that does not make it any less challenging. While the short-story form lends itself to brevity within a condensed narrative framework, it is not uncommon to be presented with only sketches or impressions as opposed to dense exposition that one would find in a novel. Thus, the very conciseness of the form induces ambiguity, suggestiveness and story-material that exists on the periphery, outside the text. Yet, Borges is one of those unique talents that seems to constantly push the boundaries of traditional narrative conventions of the short-story form. Here, with this story, he somehow miraculously packs an immense amount of detail and ideas within such a limited amount of space without compromising the intense qualities or complex meanings of the narrative. It is truly a wonder to behold.

This story is typical Borges and contains many of his familiar motifs: magical-realism, dreams, metaphysics, mirroring, illusions, paradoxes, ontology, human consciousness, cosmogony, art vs. artifice, parable, a self-reflexive narrative (the paradoxical relationship between reader, text and author is most prominent) and of course, myth-making. The premise revolves around a wizard who enters a mysterious ancient temple in the attempt to create man through dreams: 

"The purpose which guided him was not impossible, though supernatural. He wanted to dream a man; he wanted to dream him in minute entirety and impose him on reality." 

He is playing God but struggles to fully triumph over the powerful dream-world in order to conjure an idealized man and this serves a metaphor for the artist's difficult creative process. The "twist ending" is indicative of this metaphorical representation, creating a mirroring or doubling-effect that is cleverly executed. The final sentence is haunting and gives me goosebumps. 

Another interpretation is to read this text as a possible parody of the fantasy genre. Borges can be seen as subverting conventional genre tropes such as wizards and magic by placing them within his own unique metaphysical realm of the imagination, a dialectical exploration of mythopoesis through art. In his typical postmodernist fashion, Borges' concern with the creative imagination in direct correlation with literary aesthetics is inherently paradoxical--more specifically, the construction and deconstruction of the subjective self. For him, reality cannot be understand in empirical terms; it is far more subjective and mysterious than we can possibly conceive.