tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8785065039608350318.post1669777001419673151..comments2023-09-07T04:49:10.648-07:00Comments on Literature and the Contemporary: Borges week 2, prompt 1 RevisionAdamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8785065039608350318.post-51645170133117582672011-04-10T12:12:19.498-07:002011-04-10T12:12:19.498-07:00What I like: I like the style, complete with the ...What I like: I like the style, complete with the sudden questions and the short, sometimes weird answers. This is a style which seems appropriate to someone in this state of mind. The style is somewhat confused, and that's appropriate. I also like the shift toward Borges at the end. You're making "The Circular Ruins" into a story about chaos and confusion. You know, that's not at all an obvious reading, and this story could easily have turned into half story (as above) and half essay (relating it to your more thoroughly justified interpretation of the story). But it's an interesting reading, and you've provided it with some foundation. In fact, you're very brief analysis of a couple quotes from "The Circular Ruins" may be the best critical work you've done this semester.<br /><br />What I don't like: The story itself hasn't grown much. It's still very personal (whether real or or fictional) in an very *abstract* way. We get a description of the death, and a handful of promising descriptions of the dead friend, but the narrator's reactions are all general, abstract. There are no scenes: "In situation x I did y, which was crazy/sad/weird, but then realized afterward how that relates to the death of my friend." That's just a crude summary of how scenes might work here - but even Borges, as weird and abstract as *he* is, puts his characters in scenes, where they do things, no matter how bizarre.<br /><br />Short version: This has some interest and merit; I would have been happier if either the Borges section had been more thoroughly developed, or if the story had become more detailed and concrete, with fleshed out characters.Adamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16302919444091859459noreply@blogger.com