The hosts discuss their favorite things seen this year and delve into the philosophy, comedy, satire, and poignancy of Jorge Luis Borges' "The Aleph". They also recommend movies and TV shows, talk about making informed charitable donations, explore the limitations of language, discuss therapy during the holiday season, and analyze Borges' symbolic reflections.
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Quick takeaways
The Aleph is a philosophical exploration of the limitations of language and our futile attempts to capture the complexity of reality.
The story raises questions about the fallibility of perception and memory, and the challenges of conveying transcendent experiences through language.
Deep dives
The Aleph
The Aleph is a quintessential Borges short story that touches on themes of infinity, paradoxes, labyrinths, revenge, mysticism, memory, and the passage of time. The story follows Borges as he mourns the death of Beatriz Viterbo, with whom he was deeply in love. Each year, on her birthday, he visits her old house, now occupied by Carlos Argentino, her cousin. Through playful sarcasm and satire, Borges criticizes Argentino's pretentiousness and his literary aspirations to describe the entirety of the Earth in poetry. Meanwhile, Borges reflects on the ephemeral nature of memory and time, realizing that everything is constantly changing and fading away. Ultimately, the story is both a poignant love story and a philosophical exploration of the limitations of language and our futile attempts to capture and comprehend the complexity of reality.
The Aleph and the Ineffable Nature of Perception
In this podcast episode, the concept of the Aleph is explored, which represents an object that allows the viewer to perceive everything in the universe simultaneously. The narrator, Borges, recounts his encounter with the Aleph and his struggle to describe the experience in a way that captures its infinite nature. The story raises questions about the limitations of language in conveying transcendent experiences and the challenges of memory. It also delves into the complex relationship between perception, memory, and the ability to hold onto meaningful moments.
The Unreliable Narrator and Gaslighting Revenge
The podcast discusses the character Carlos Argenziano, who introduced Borges to the Aleph. Borges, feeling a mix of envy, resentment, and fascination, seeks revenge on Carlos by making him doubt his own sanity after the Aleph's destruction. This highlights Borges' selfishness and pettiness, as he takes pleasure in Carlos' confusion. The episode also explores the fallibility of perception and memory, as Borges struggles to remember and describe his encounter with the Aleph. Ultimately, Borges' attempts to gaslight Carlos and his own disingenuousness reveal his own shortcomings as a character.
An episode interesting from every point of view, we train our eyes on Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Aleph.” The first segment wins the kudos of the learned, the academician, the Hellenist, as we talk about the favorite things we saw this year. The second segment — baroque? decadent? the purified and fanatical cult of form? — dives into the philosophy, comedy, satire, and poignancy of this classic story. Once again, we show our awareness that truly modern podcasting demands the balm of laughter, of scherzo. The finicky will want to excommunicate our discussion without benefit of clergy but the critic of more manly tastes will embrace this episode as he does his very life.
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