82 - Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths

It is a homecoming of sorts. Sixteen years after David made Nathan read Jorge Luis Borges, the two return to discuss the great Argentinian writer in an episode that has as many labyrinths (well, not quite) and is as infinite (also probably not true) as every one of Borges’ short stories. And while this episode does have a finite beginning and a finite end and can only focus on three of the hits (Tlön, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius, The Library of Babel, and The Garden of Forking Paths), the two still can’t seem to entirely wrap their heads around the author’s rapid world building, extremely high ratio of ideas vs. word count, and surprisingly playful nature. It’s safe to say that we at Books of Some Substance think Borges is pretty cool.

Take the litmus test: Read some JLB, then be our friend.  We’ll see you at the end (or at the beginning).