The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges is part of Ficciones aka Fictions, which is ranked 50th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, while Labyrinths has the 313th place, when using the same algorithm – hundreds of books from that list are reviewed on my blog, and if you would be bothered this is the link https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html for the best beano there

 

The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges is part of Ficciones aka Fictions, which is ranked 50th  on The Greatest Books of All Time site, while Labyrinths has the 313th place, when using the same algorithm – hundreds of books from that list are reviewed on my blog, and if you would be bothered this is the link https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html for the best beano there

 

 

9 out of 10

 

‘The truth, briefly stated, is that Borges is arguably the great bridge between modernism and post-modernism in world literature... His stories are in bent and hermetic, with the oblique terror of a game whose rules are unknown and its stakes everything’ – well, there you have it, how can I get to this, under the circumstances

 

Kingsley Amis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/memoirs-by-kingsley-amis-author-of-take.html had some very strong things to say about various modern writers, although I do not know if he had an analysis, or anything to say about Jorge Luis Borges, maybe he was not even familiar with the magnum opera

‘First you want to get hold of something to say, then you fudge up a plot of a story of some kind, and then you put in bits of things you have seen and heard round the place, and then you try and make it all sound sort of interesting or witty or funny or unusual or striking in some way. If you find some bit that isn't that, you work at it until it is, or at least as near it as you can get.’

 

-          Jorge Luis Borges seems to me the epitome of sophistication, complexity

 

Alas, that is part of the problem for the under signed…

Maybe The Problem.

 

Flow https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/flow-by-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi.html is a classic of Positive Psychology – its author is the co-founder of the discipline, or the science, I am not sure what to call it

You find in it the conditions of being in The Zone, getting to the zenith, climax, and they would be, in brief

 

-          Constant and instant feedback, time changes, minutes feel like hours, and days may fly like seconds

-          You have clear goals (maybe we should add meaningful here and mention Victor Frankl in passing

 

This has to be an autotelic experience, you are in control – which interestingly is a character strength, listed under temperance, as self -control – nothing else matters, implying maximum concentration, I guess…

But the one that is hanging over The Garden of Forking Paths would be the challenges rule, meaning you have to be between burnout and boredom, and what I am trying to say is that this story kind of Burns me out

 

-          It seems to be beyond my powers of comprehension…

 

Well, not really, I mean I get it, but it is not so accessible, easy to digest, to get in, as to be the item to have in an audiobook format and say yes, those forking paths, possible future are with me, I get it and, more importantly, I enjoy it

‘Happiness Activity No 9: Savoring Life’s Joys-paying close attention, taking delight in life’s momentary pleasures and wonders, through thinking, writing, drawing or sharing with another’ this is from The How of Happiness https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html and on the one hand Borges is elating, but also challenging…

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

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