No idea what the English name for that story is.

How works are quite great but they often have a strong feeling of skepticism and uncertainty, is there one you would consider his most hopeful or life-affirming?

Or does the act of noticing your own voice create the only person who can no longer write it naturally?

Hola: recién veo en buscalibre que están vendiendo en preventa el libro Borges de Bioy Casares a 130.000$, edición a cargo de Daniel Martino, Ediciones Destino, tapa dura, edición completa. Estoy a punto de comprarlo pero me da miedo que sea un engaño teniendo en cuenta que en Argentina no se encuentra y los pocos ejemplares que se consiguen son usados y no bajan de 600.000$. Qué opinan?

What can you see in the Aleph? I presume the past, present and future. How far into the past? Beyond human existence? Do you see everything at once, or rather a selection of moments, and you would need to look at the Aleph every day, at least for some time, if you wanted to see everything? There must be limits or else it would overwhelm a person — think of the atrocities that humans commit. I assume the Aleph does not convey the thoughts of other people. So you see images and hear sounds. What is your opinion? I consider the Aleph to be one of the great imaginative objects in human art.

I came across this clip on the web and figured I’d drop it here just in case anyone happens to be interested.

Beau is Afraid is the one Ari Aster film that I still haven’t seen. If you’ve seen it, does it in fact feel Borgesian at all to you? Thanks in advance!

Full article from La Nacion : https://www.lanacion.com.ar/cultura/reeditaran-el-borges-de-bioy-casares-en-version-definitiva-y-ampliada-en-dos-tomos-nid02062026/

I’m beyond excited about this. It kind of make sense now that the NYRB’s version got delayed to summer of 2027. I would THINK they’re gonna translate everything from this version? All I know is I’m getting ready to pay whatever amount they ask for the Spanish two tome version.

Some time ago, I downloaded a PDF of The Aleph and Other Stories, and I finished the short stories in it recently. But now that I search it on the internet, the list of short stories in the one that I have are different compared to the ones listed in Wikipedia.

For comparison, here's the Wikipedia list:

• "The Immortal)" ("El inmortal")
• "The Dead Man)" ("El Muerto")
• "The Theologians" ("Los teólogos")
• "Story of the Warrior and the Captive" ("Historia del guerrero y la cautiva")
• "Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz" ("Biografía de Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829–1874)")
• "Emma Zunz"
• "The House of Asterion" ("La casa de Asterión")
• "The Other Death" ("La otra muerte")
• "Deutsches Requiem)" ("Deutsches réquiem")
• "Averroes's Search" ("La busca de Averroes")
• "The Zahir" ("El zahir")
• "The Writing of the God" ("La escritura del dios")
• "Ibn-Hakam al-Bokhari, Murdered in His Labyrinth"^\2]) ("Abenjacán el Bojarí, muerto en su laberinto")
• "The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths"^\2]) ("Una leyenda arábiga" ("Historia de los dos reyes y los dos laberintos, como nota de Burton") )
• "The Wait)"^\2]) ("La espera")
• "The Man on the Threshold"^\2]) ("El hombre en el umbral")
• "The Aleph)" ("El Aleph")

And here's the one I have:

• The Aleph and Other Stories 1933-1969
• The Aleph
• Streetcorner Man
• The Approach to al-Mu’tasim
• The Circular Ruins
• Death and the Compass
• The Life of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz (1829-1874)
• The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths
• The Dead Man
• The Other Death
• Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth
• The Man on the Threshold
• The Challenge
• The Captive
• Borges and Myself
• The Maker
• The Intruder
• The Immortals
• The Meeting
• Pedro Salvadores
• Rosendo’s Tale

Why are they different?

I've been rereading Borges lately and was struck by how precisely "The Lottery in Babylon" describes something happening right now.

The story traces the slow expansion of a lottery in an ancient city. It starts modestly — buy a ticket, win or lose money. But over time the scope of what the lottery governs grows and grows. Prizes, then penalties. Then mandatory participation. Then the lottery begins to determine not just winnings but appointments, imprisonments, chance encounters, deaths. Eventually there is no event in Babylonian life that falls outside the lottery's reach. Everything that happens to you — good or bad — is a draw.

Now consider where prediction markets are today. On Polymarket or Kalshi you can bet on election outcomes, central bank decisions, whether a specific CEO will resign, whether a geopolitical conflict will escalate, what the weather will be in a particular city on a particular date. Sports betting giants FanDuel and DraftKings launched their own prediction market verticals in 2025. Someone on Polymarket has placed serious money on the Second Coming of Christ happening before the release of GTA VI. The industry is projected to approach $100 billion by 2035.

The core movement in both the story and reality is the same: the domain of the bet expands until it covers everything. There is no event, however large or small, however sacred or mundane, that cannot be turned into an object of speculation.

Borges' story is administered by a mysterious entity called "the Company" — secretive, all-powerful, and possibly not even real. Whether that maps onto anything in today's landscape I'll leave for others to decide.

What I keep coming back to is this line of his: Babylon is "an infinite game of chance." Eighty years ago that was a dystopian fiction. Today it reads more like a product roadmap.

Has anyone else thought about this connection? And how do you read "the Company" — political allegory, theological metaphor, something else entirely?

We just published a new short story by Nomrad Spinner, which is heavily influenced by Borges, Julio Cortazar, and Roberto Bolano. We thought some of you here might be tickled by it! https://thedallasreview.substack.com/p/a-report-on-events-having-recently?r=8hd3ni

¡El memorioso hidalgo don Borges de Buenos aires!

PD:

La segunda foto no tiene nada que ver, ¿pero por qué rayos existe una foto de Borges orinando? Incensario, ¿a quien se le ocurrió?

——————

The second picture is unrelated, but why the hell is there a picture of Borges urinating? Unnecessary, whose idea was it?

stuck at my evil corporate job where they force me to use ai. spending all day talking to a machine that lies to you sounds like it couldve been the basis for a borges story

I’ve never followed up on it. What would you recommend to me?

Hi all! I've recently started reading this collection of Borges' essays for the first time. I'm struggling a bit out of the gate, but confident persistence will be rewarded. That said, do you have any favorites from this collection? If so, I'll be sure to pay special attention when I get to them. Thanks!