Jorge Borges Reader Response
Jorge Borges is talented when it comes to writing short stories of suspense, but for anyone like me, Borges will be hard to read and enjoy. In his writings, “The Garden of Forking Paths”, “The Gospel of Mark”, and “Emma Zunz”, I feel like Borges is expecting his audience to know more about the subjects and topics he writes about than they should, especially in “The Gospel of Mark”. While reading “The Gospel of Mark” I thought that I had everything figured out, I even knew what the plot was about or so I thought. I found that how I was viewing the story compared to how Borges was meaning to share by the story were two different views.
As much as I would like to give examples of how his writings and short stories are similar to events in my life, I cannot, simply because Borges writes in a way that is too complicated for me to understand and enjoy. I do not wish to make anyone feel like Borges is a bad author, because he seems very intelligent; he is just not a person I can relate to. Give me Cortazar or Marquez to read and I will be entertained. I think I can relate to these authors better because reading their short stories, to me is like opening up a picture book with words, they both paint beautiful images through words that keep me so interested.
I do not like to put down an author’s wirings or books because they put a lot of effort and time into it. I think Borges helped me see that I will not always relate to everything I read, but to have an open mind in the beginning, try to relate as much as I can, and in the end I’ll appreciate the reading more.
It is true that Borges is writing for a specific audience, but it is worth giving it a try. It is a good exercise to practice seeing the possibilities and implications in stories. This will make your a more sophisticated reader! But I agree that Marquez paints a more beautiful picture with the words.
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