h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Life of Jorge Luis Borges - Argentinian Writer - A1131706
Author: deemikay - U189265

Hopefully this is okay... any comments, please let me know.

deemikay

I don't know anything about the topic, but the style and writing are of an excellent quality, and I found it very interesting to read.

Good job

Thank you!

Any other comments?



deemikay

This is marvellous. Borges is one of my favourite authors, and this says all that needs to be said. Only one thing I'd change is to reowrd the last sentence:

Many people have happily called themselves his friend.

I am particularly fond of the Library of Babel story (no surprise there) and the fiction of the Lottery in Babylon.

David

Good call about the last line... it was awee bit sloppy. Now changed!

Borges is one of my favourite author's as well... and I'm sure good ol' Douglas Adams would've like him as well. The whole idea of the Guide is quite Borgesian: an almost infinite book in the palm of your hand with the words "Don't Panic" on it.

I don't know if you've read The Book of Sand but it's about a book with infinitely many pages and once you've turned away from a page, you can never get back to it. I've been to a few websites like that!

deemikay

This is good, but it doesn't really get across the strangeness of Borge's fiction. You might like to give a slightly longer description of at least one of his stories in order explain the strangeness. You could take for example 'I have no head', in which he argues convincingly the case that while everbody else has a head, he just has a consciousness hovering over his shoulders. Or you could give the example of the guy rewriting Don Quixote. His version is word for word identical with the original, but because it is written in the 20th century rather than the 16th (17th?) it has a completely different significance.

You might like to provide a pronunciation guide for Borge's name (I can't pronounce Spanish, but I know it's not pronounced the way it looks). Finally, you might like to provide the description of Borge: the most famous author to never with the Nobel prize for literature. I'm sure you can find out who said this by looking at the back cover of any of his books.

*cough* are you a memeber of the bookworms clubs as you're a fiction fan... A745544, I'm sure we'll be linking to this entry when it makes the edited guide.

*wanders off fresh from blantent plugging about the place*

Sorry, that should be "The greatest author to never win the Nobel Prize for Literature".

Hi Gnomon,

Good idea to maybe add a bit more about his stories. Some are *very* strange.

I wanted to concentrate on his life more in the entry (as opposed to the one I did on Bruce Chatwin) as most people, if they're aware of him at all, know about his stories but nothing about his life. The opposite could be argued about Chatwin. I was worried that descriptions of his stories might make them appaer cold, analytical games. Which they're not of course. But people might get scared away!

But I'll stretch out the themes in his fiction a little bit more and maybe mention more about The Library of Babel as I use a quote from it as an intro.

As for the Nobel prize, my first draft of this had this quote by Marquez: "I hope he receives it [the prize]... And I still don't understand why they haven't given it to him." So I might try and work it back in. Lots of people think he did win (there's even an article in the Guide that says he did!) so it probably would be best to set the record straight.

And his name is pronouced Hor-hay Lwees Bor-hes {though the g's are like the "ch" in "loch", easy for me because I'm a Scot. ) I'll add it in as a footnote.

And Z... I didn't know there was a bookworm's club... I think I'll be making my way over to investigate though!

deemikay

- I'll try again.

>>Borges significance cannot be underestimated.

- you mean overestimated, no?

And there are some typos. I'll come back when I've something intelligent to say.

yes I do mean "overestimated".

deemikay

Changes made. A new section on his stories has been included, mention of the Nobel Prze (and his lack thereof) and a little pronunciation footnote. Oh, and that pesky "underestimated" has gone. I had a quick scan for typo's and changed all that I could see. If there's any more, please let me know.

Thanks for all your comments!

deemikay

This looks very good now.

Thanks

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