< previous page page_162 next page >

Page 162
But what are things at this point? And what is literature in respect to things?
Ah, kind reader, you're asking too much of me. I only wanted to tell you that Biorges's Don Isidro is Borges's character, and for this reason it is worth reflecting on his method. Biorges isn't kidding. He's talking "seriously," that is, through Parodi / parody.
Does the world really work like this? I believe that Borges would greet this question with a smile. Paraphrasing Villiers de l'Isle Adam, reality is boring, let's let our servants live it for us.
Notes
15a618ec9e7a226e83a3ec91f2bb0396.gif
1. Emir Rodriguez Monegal, Jorge Luis Borges: A Literary Biography (New York: Dutton, 1978).
15a618ec9e7a226e83a3ec91f2bb0396.gif
2. Jorge Luis Borges, "An Autobiographical Essay," in The Aleph and Other Stories, 19331969 (New York: Dutton, 1970), pp. 245246, as quoted in Rodriguez Monegal, pp. 365, 366.
15a618ec9e7a226e83a3ec91f2bb0396.gif
3. I understand that such an instance of reading goes against all the appeals to interpretive prudence that I have disseminated throughout the present book. But, as I said in 3.8, it is frequently very hard to keep the boundaries between use and interpretation. Sorry.
15a618ec9e7a226e83a3ec91f2bb0396.gif
4. For a series of studies on the relationship between Peirce's abduction, Sherlock Holmes's method, the scientific method, and literary hermeneutics, see U. Eco and T. A. Sebeok, eds., The Sign of Three (Bloomington: Indiana University, Press, 1984).
15a618ec9e7a226e83a3ec91f2bb0396.gif
5. See U. Eco "Guessing: From Aristotle to Sherlock Holmes," Versus 30 (1981):319; and M. Bonfantini and G. P. Proni, "To Guess or Not to Guess?" in Eco and Sebeok, eds., ibid.

 
< previous page page_162 next page >