Theroux reads Borges

October 8, 2007 4:27 PM

Paul Theroux reads Jorge Luis Borges’s short story The Gospel According To Mark and discusses Borges with The New Yorker’s fiction editor, Deborah Treisman. mp3
posted by vronsky (11 comments total)

That was very nice, thanks.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 5:06 PM on October 8, 2007

Great story with fascinating commentary at the end. I remember reading Borges’s story “The Library of Babel” in high school and being totally mindfucked for hours.
posted by tepidmonkey at 5:12 PM on October 8, 2007

This recent Paul Theroux essay, from the NYT Book Review, has one of the best first sentences of a book review ever.
posted by stbalbach at 6:07 PM on October 8, 2007

That is probably one of the worse stories by Borges I have ever come across. But then again I don't like Theroux's writing so I'm actually not surprised.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 6:40 PM on October 8, 2007

Well, that was the best-spent 20 minutes I've had in a really long time. Theroux did an excellent read and the discussion afterward was enlightening.
vronsky, thanks.
posted by sluglicker at 6:50 PM on October 8, 2007

Yes, thanks for posting that vronsky.

My personal favorite Borges story is "The Aleph." I read it for a class in art school and it opened whole new worlds of thought for me.
posted by ranchocalamari at 7:55 PM on October 8, 2007

Their 'analysis' at the end seemed rather weak, IMO. Some thin attempts at interpretation and pointing out the superficial 'clues' in the story, while not delving any deeper into recurring Borges themes.
posted by signal at 8:09 PM on October 8, 2007

Perhaps it's been too long since i've floated through a lecture, but I found the entire thing so engaging that tears welled up inside me quite a few times during the piece. Paul Theroux manages to orate Borges' piece without slipping up once, something i doubt i could do on a good day.
posted by phylum sinter at 11:55 PM on October 8, 2007

Akira Rabelais recorded "The Library of Babel." If you don't want to suffer the mystery-meat site navigation, the mp3 is at:

http://www.akirarabelais.com/borges/libraryofbabel.mp3
posted by D.C. at 12:05 AM on October 9, 2007

vronsky: thank you!
posted by the quidnunc kid at 3:16 AM on October 9, 2007

Thanks for this. In addition to being a powerful story and reading, I learnt two things. It's Ther…oo not Ther…eau. In addition, it added a little more information to a this question I had (something rosebengal mentioned) - the of use spider webs to bandage lamb cuts.
posted by tellurian at 3:55 AM on October 9, 2007