Borges Documentary

Borges has been one of my favorite authors since I was a teenager. In this documentary, I was excited to see how they would adapt some of his more “new media”-y, more theoretical stories to the screen. I was a little disappointed that they stuck to fairly straightforward narratives. I would love to see images of the Library of Babel, for instance. That being said, I was interested to learn more about Borges the man, a subject I had never investigated before. It’s hard to imagine the world view of a man who is capable of coming up with narratives and metaphors that are so all encompassing and microcosmic, so maze-like but so contained. I thought the documentary did a good job of representing his background and influences. I loved seeing what he looked like and hearing him speak about himself. I was also surprised that he was so spiritual, although in retrospective this makes sense, because as disconcerting as they may be, all his stories seem to point to some higher organization and purpose. This insight gave me a new reading of the texts.