Jorge Luis Borges

Borges Texts Online

Who Needs Poets? – New York Times, May 8, 1971. Adapted from Borges’ remarks at Columbia University, this essay talks about poetry.

The Library of Babel – Maintained by Jester, this is the text of Borges’ story with a lovely conceptual JPEG image of the Library.

Borges and I – Maintained by Georgetown University, this page is a hypertext version of Borges’ essay “Borges and I,” complete with several linked annotations by Dr. Martin Irvine.

Major Borges Resources

The Jorge Luis Borges Center Web page – Based at the University of Århus in Denmark, the JLBC is dedicated to the research of works by Borges, the study of themes and the style of thinking found in his work, and the compilation and translation of works by and about Borges. The layout of this website is simply beautiful to behold.

Internetaleph – Martin Hadis’ site contains an extensive collection of links – many to Spanish resources not listed on this page – and an essay on approaching Borges. This is a great resource for exploring artists and writers related to Borges as well! (English & Spanish)

miBorges.com – Maintained by Sandra Pien, this Argentine site is a fairly comprehensive look at Borges and his world. (Spanish).

Underground!

Abandoned Soviet Submarine Bases
Living in Sin City's Underground Tunnels
The Town that went Underground
Going Underground: Inside Melbourne’s storm drains
Waiting for the End of the World: Fallout Shelter Tourism
Area man digs 200-metre tunnel to Upper Canada Mall

Architectura Curiosa Nova by Georg Andreas Böckler (1664)

Source. A book on theory and application of hydrodynamics for fountains, water-jets, garden fountains and well heads with many designs for free-standing fountains and pleasure gardens.

The Book of Topiary (1904)

Logan's Run

Script
Novel Triology

The Castle - Franz Kafka

Source.

Xanadu

Source.

"It was the most radical computer dream of the hacker era. Ted Nelson's Xanadu project was supposed to be the universal, democratic hypertext library that would help human life evolve into an entirely new form. Instead, it sucked Nelson and his intrepid band of true believers into what became the longest-running vaporware project in the history of computing - a 30-year saga of rabid prototyping and heart-slashing despair. The amazing epic tragedy."

c/f DigiBarn Documents: Computer Lib/Dream Machines, Ted Nelson

Thesaurus Entry for "Mazy"

Source

mazy - Byzantine, aberrant, aberrative, adrift, affluent, afloat, alternating, ambagious, amorphous, anfractuous, balled up, bent, billowing, billowy, capricious, changeable, changeful, circuitous, circumlocutory, complex, complicated, confluent, confounded, confused, convoluted, convolutional, coursing, crabbed, curvaceous, curvate, curvated, curve, curved, curvesome, curviform, curvilineal, curvilinear, curving, curvy, daedal, decurrent, defluent, departing, desultory, deviable, deviant, deviating, deviative, deviatory, devious, diffluent, digressive, discursive, dizzy, eccentric, elaborate, embrangled, entangled, errant, erratic, excursive, fast and loose, fickle, fitful, flexuose, flexuous, flickering, flighty, flitting, flowing, fluctuating, fluent, fluxional, fluxive, fouled up, freakish, gulfy, gushing, impetuous, implicated, impulsive, inconsistent, inconstant, incurvate, incurvated, incurved, incurving, indecisive, indirect, infirm, intricate, involute, involuted, involutional, involved, irregular, irresolute, irresponsible, knotted, labyrinthian, labyrinthine, loused up, many-faceted, matted, meandering, meandrous, mercurial, messed up, mixed up, moody, mucked up, multifarious, out-of-the-way, perplexed, planetary, pouring, profluent, racing, rambling, ramified, recurvate, recurvated, recurved, recurving, restless, rivose, rivulose, roundabout, roving, ruffled, running, rushing, scatterbrained, screwed up, serpentine, shapeless, shifting, shifty, shuffling, sinuate, sinuose, sinuous, sluggish, snaky, snarled, spasmodic, spineless, stray, streaming, subtle, surging, surgy, swerving, tangled, tangly, tidal, torsional, tortile, tortuous, turning, twisted, twisting, twisty, unaccountable, uncertain, uncontrolled, undependable, undirected, undisciplined, undulant, unfixed, unpredictable, unreliable, unrestrained, unsettled, unstable, unstable as water, unstaid, unsteadfast, unsteady, vacillating, vagrant, variable, veering, vicissitudinary, vicissitudinous, volatile, vortical, wandering, wanton, wavering, wavery, wavy, wayward, whimsical, whorled, winding, wishy-washy, wreathlike, wreathy, zigzag

Prosiac or Most Incidentally Poetic Titles for a Maze Game and/or Pac-Man Emulator

Source

The Amazing Maze Game
Maziacs
Fat Worm Blows a Sparky
A-Maze
Chomp (Ms. Chomp)
1001 Crystal Mazes Collection
3D Monster Maze
Gobbler
Hangly-Man
Jawbreaker
Crush Roller
Snapper
Cosmic Cruncher
Hungry Horace
Munch Man
Felix and the Fruit Monsters
Gnasher
Pac-Gal/Pac-Girl
CD-Man
Joyman
3D Maze Man: Amazing Adventures
Robby Roto
Grabman
Pacman after Dark

Stalker (1979)

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Transcript (in English).

c/f Andrei Tarkovsky’s Very First Films: Three Student Films, 1956-1960 | Open Culture
c/f Tarkovsky Films Now Free Online | Open Culture

Illustrations to Dante's "Divine Comedy" by William Blake

Source.

"The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides"

object 1 (Butlin 812.1)-- "Dante Running from the Three Beasts" object 2 (Butlin 812.3)-- "The Mission of Virgil" object 3 (Butlin 812.2)-- "Dante and Virgil Penetrating the Forest" object 4 (Butlin 812.4)-- "The Inscription over Hell-Gate" object 5 (Butlin 812.5)-- "The Vestibule of Hell and the Souls Mustering to Cross the Acheron" object 6 (Butlin 812.6)-- "Charon and the Condemned Souls" object 7 (Butlin 812.7)-- "Homer Bearing the Sword and His Companions" object 8 (Butlin 812.8)-- "Homer and the Ancient Poets" object 9 (Butlin 812.9)-- "Minos" object 10 (Butlin 812.10)-- "The Circle of the Lustful: Francesca Da Rimini" object 11 (Butlin 812.11 recto)-- "The Circle of the Gluttons with Cerberus" object 12 (Butlin 812.12)-- "First Version of Cerberus" object 13 (Butlin 812.13)-- "Second Version of Cerberus" object 14 (Butlin 812.14)-- "Plutus" object 15 (Butlin 812.16)-- "The Goddess of Fortune" object 16 (Butlin 812.15)-- "The Stygian Lake with the Ireful Sinners Fighting" object 17 (Butlin 812.17)-- "Dante and Virgil about to Pass the Stygian Lake" object 18 (Butlin 812.18 recto)-- "Virgil Repelling Filippo Argenti from the Boat of Phlegyas" object 19 (Butlin 812.19 recto)-- "The Angel Crossing the Styx" object 20 (Butlin 812.20 recto)-- "The Angel at the Gate of Dis" object 21 (Butlin 812.21)-- "Dante Conversing with Farinata Degli Uberti" object 22 (Butlin 812.101 recto)-- "The Circles of Hell" object 23 (Butlin 812.22 recto)-- "The Minotaur" object 24 (Butlin 812.23)-- "The Centaurs and the River of Blood" object 25 (Butlin 812.24)-- "The Wood of the Self-Murderers: The Harpies and the Suicides" object 26 (Butlin 812.25)-- "The Hell-Hounds Hunting the Destroyers of Their Own Goods" object 27 (Butlin 812.100)-- "Unidentified Scene in Hell" object 28 (Butlin 812.26)-- "The Blasphemers with the Usurers and the Sodomites" object 29 (Butlin 812.27)-- "Capaneus the Blasphemer" object 30 (Butlin 812.28 recto)-- "The Symbolic Figure of the Course of Human History Described by Virgil" object 31 (Butlin 812.29)-- "The Punishment of Jacopo Rusticucci and His Companions" object 32 (Butlin 812.30)-- "The Usurers" object 33 (Butlin 812.31 recto)-- "Geryon Conveying Dante and Virgil Down Towards Malebolge" object 34 (Butlin 812.32)-- "Demons Tormenting the Panders and Seducers in Malebolge" object 35 (Butlin 812.33)-- "Dante and Virgil Gazing into the Ditch of the Flatterers" object 36 (Butlin 812.35)-- "The Simoniac Pope" object 37 (Butlin 812.36)-- "The Necromancers and Augers" object 38 (Butlin 812.37)-- "The Devil Carrying the Lucchese Magistrate to the Boiling Pitch Pool of Corrupt Officials" object 39 (Butlin 812.34)-- "The Devils Under the Bridge" object 40 (Butlin 812.38)-- "Virgil Abashing the Devils" object 41 (Butlin 812.39 recto)-- "The Devils Setting Out with Dante and Virgil" object 42 (Butlin 812.40)-- "The Devils with Dante and Virgil by the Side of the Pool" object 43 (Butlin 812.41)-- "Ciampolo the Barrator Tormented by the Devils" object 44 (Butlin 812.42)-- "The Baffled Devils Fighting" object 45 (Butlin 812.43 recto)-- "Dante and Virgil Escaping from the Devils" object 46 (Butlin 812.44 recto)-- "The Hypocrites with Caiaphas" object 47 (Butlin 812.45 recto)-- "The Laborious Passage Along the Rocks" object 48 (Butlin 812.46)-- "The Laborious Passage Along the Rocks" object 49 (Butlin 812.47 recto)-- "The Thieves and the Serpents" object 50 (Butlin 812.102)-- "The Punishment of the Thieves" object 51 (Butlin 812.48)-- "The Serpent Attacking Vanni Fucci"

object 52 (Butlin 812.49 recto)-- "Vanni Fucci Making Figs Against God" object 53 (Butlin 812.50)-- "The Centaur Cacus" object 54 (Butlin 812.51 recto)-- "The Six-Footed Serpent Attacking Agnolo Brunelleschi" object 55 (Butlin 812.52)-- "Agnolo Brunelleschi Half Transformed by the Serpent" object 56 (Butlin 812.53 recto)-- "The Serpent Attacking Buoso Donati" object 57 (Butlin 812.54)-- "Buoso Donati Transformed into a Serpent; Francesco De' Cavalcanti Retransformed from a Serpent into a Man" object 58 (Butlin 812.55)-- "Ulysses and Diomed Swathed in the Same Flame" object 59 (Butlin 812.56 recto)-- "The Schismatics and Sowers of Discord: Mohammed" object 60 (Butlin 812.57)-- "The Schismatics and Sowers of Discord: Mosca De' Lamberti and Bertrand De Born" object 61 (Butlin 812.58)-- "The Pit of Disease: The Falsifiers" object 62 (Butlin 812.59 recto)-- "The Pit of Disease: Gianni Schicchi and Myrrha" object 63 (Butlin 812.60)-- "The Primaeval Giants Sunk in the Soil" object 64 (Butlin 812.61 recto)-- "The Complaint of the Giant Nimrod" object 65 (Butlin 812.62 recto)-- "Ephialtes and Two Other Titans" object 66 (Butlin 812.63)-- "Antaeus Setting Down Dante and Virgil in the Last Circle of Hell" object 67 (Butlin 812.64)-- "The Circle of Traitors: The Alberti Brothers" object 68 (Butlin 812.65)-- "Dante Striking Against Bocca Degli Abati" object 69 (Butlin 812.66 recto)-- "Dante Tugging at Bocca's Hair" object 70 (Butlin 812.67)-- "Ugolino Relating His Death" object 71 (Butlin 812.68)-- "Ugolino and His Sons in Prison" object 72 (Butlin 812.69 recto)-- "Lucifer" object 73 (Butlin 812.71)-- "Dante with Virgil and Cato" object 74 (Butlin 812.70)-- "Virgil Girding Dante's Brow with a Rush" object 75 (Butlin 812.72)-- "The Angel in the Boat Departing after Wafting Over the Souls for Purgatory" object 76 (Butlin 812.74)-- "The Ascent of the Mountain of Purgatory" object 77 (Butlin 812.73 recto)-- "The Rest on the Mountain Leading to Purgatory" object 78 (Butlin 812.75 recto)-- "The Souls of Those Who Only Repented at the Point of Death" object 79 (Butlin 812.76)-- "The Lawn with the Kings and Angels" object 80 (Butlin 812.77)-- "Lucia Carrying Dante in His Sleep" object 81 (Butlin 812.78)-- "Dante and Virgil Approaching the Angel Who Guards the Entrance of Purgatory" object 82 (Butlin 812.79)-- "The Angel Marking Dante with the Sevenfold P" object 83 (Butlin 812.80)-- "The Rock Sculptured with the Recovery of the Ark and the Annunciation" object 84 (Butlin 812.81)-- "The Proud Under Their Enormous Loads" object 85 (Butlin 812.82)-- "The Angel Descending at the Close of the Circle of the Proud" object 86 (Butlin 812.83)-- "The Terrace of Envious Souls" object 87 (Butlin 812.84)-- "The Angel Inviting Dante to Enter the Fire" object 88 (Butlin 812.85)-- "Dante at the Moment of Entering the Fire" object 89 (Butlin 812.86)-- "Dante and Statius Sleeping with Virgil Watching" object 90 (Butlin 812.87)-- "Beatrice on the Car with Matilda and Dante" object 91 (Butlin 812.88)-- "Beatrice Addressing Dante from the Car" object 92 (Butlin 812.89)-- "The Harlot and the Giant" object 93 (Butlin 812.91)-- "The Spiral Stairway" object 94 (Butlin 812.90 recto)-- "Dante Adoring Christ" object 95 (Butlin 812.92)-- "The Recording Angel" object 96 (Butlin 812.93)-- "Dante and Beatrice in the Constellation of Gemini and the Sphere of Flame" object 97 (Butlin 812.94)-- "Saint Peter Appears to Beatrice and Dante" object 98 (Butlin 812.95)-- "Saint Peter and Saint James with Dante and Beatrice" object 99 (Butlin 812.96)-- "Saint Peter and Saint James with Dante and Beatrice and with Saint John Also" object 100 (Butlin 812.97)-- "The Vision of the Deity from Whom Proceed the Nine Spheres" object 101 (Butlin 812.98)-- "Dante in the Empyrean Drinking at the River of Light" object 102 (Butlin 812.99)-- "The Queen of Heaven in Glory"

The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night by Anonymous (Translator - Burton, Richard Francis)

Volume 01
Volume 02
Volume 03
Volume 04

Volume 05

Volume 06

Volume 07

Volume 08

Volume 09

Volume 10

Volume 11

Volume 12

Volume 13

Volume 14

Volume 15
Volume 16

Mazes and Labyrinths by W.H. Matthews (1922)

Title Page
Preface
Contents
List of Illustrations
Chapter I. Introduction
Chapter II. The Egyptian Labyrinth
Chapter III. The Egyptian Labyrinth (continued)
Chapter IV. The Cretan Labyrinth
Chapter V. The Cretan Labyrinth (continued)
Chapter VI. The Cretan Labyrinth (continued)
Chapter VII. The Etruscan or Italian Labyrinth
Chapter VIII. The Labyrinth in Ancient Art
Chapter IX. Church Labyrinths
Chapter X. Turf Labyrinths
Chapter XI. Turf Labyrinths (continued)
Chapter XII. The Origin of Turf Mazes
Chapter XIII. The Floral Labyrinth and the Dwarf-Shrub Maze
Chapter XIV. The Topiary Labyrinth, or Hedge Maze
Chapter XV. The Topiary Labyrinth, or Hedge Maze (continued)
Chapter XVI. The Topiary Labyrinth, or Hedge Maze (continued)
Chapter XVII. Stone Labyrinths and Rock Engravings
Chapter XVIII. The Dance or Game of Troy
Chapter XIX. The Bower of ''Fair Rosamond''
Chapter XX. Maze Etymology
Chapter XXI. Labyrinth Design and Solution of Mazes
Chapter XXII. The Labyrinth in Literature
Chapter XXIII. Miscellanea and Conclusion
Appendix: Bibliography of Mazes and Labyrinths

On the Concept of History - Walter Benjamin (1940)

Available online, in full.

One feels few writers have appeared besides Benjamin to have such a sensitivity for the breadth and quality of issues that needed to be addressed by Marxism for any Marxist-influenced thought to continue to have any legitimacy, beyond the inert barbarism of force, proletariat in name only, of Stalinism and its successors.

Paradoxically, the realpolitik of Marxism, always Marx's professed aims of his "theory" (not to interpret the world, but to change it), was the aspect of Marxism that stopped it dead in its tracks. The actual Marxist (-Leninist) state became incapable of interpreting the course of events in any way other than to paroxysm in knee-jerk, farcical enactments of its own party line, whether those solutions rang true or untrue before the tactical dictates of time: a petrified totalitarianism. As a result, its economy parodied liberalism (i.e. Napoleon) at its most appallingly imperialistic (having no example of economy of its own, only a critique), and the barbarity of its anti-humanism reached fiats of slaughter only debatably second to that of Fascism.

Paul Chan - My Birds . . . Trash . . . The Future.

The immediate problem that put Benjamin so far outside the purview of (and even hope for detection from) his Western Marxist contemporaries was that he recognized some sort of engagement needed to happen between Historicity and myth. When History was continuously being rewritten to suit the aims of the powerful, one could not, as dialectical Marxism seemed to rely on, posit simply that, on the on hand, the bourgeoisie conceptualization of time was ahistoric, and, on the other hand, an absolutely unequivocal discipline of Historicity existed.

Compounded with this problem was Marxist intellectuals own cupidity in relying on prognostication: that a salvation in the form of the total revolution would resolve "contradiction." Rather than perform the tortuous gymnastics needed to deny that myth, a literary trope even, was being invoked in these claims, or to dismiss the yearning inherit in the discipline of history, or worse (from a Marxist lens), to disavow history in favor of a transcendental, out-of-time conception of timeless fate (as in Heidegger), Benjamin begins to give an account of Historicity, expressly sensitive to myth, that includes the avowal of the mythic themes invoked in any accessing of the past, part and parcel of the writing of any history.

He begins to address the actual theological and mythic underpinnings of the writing of history, not to find the project out as an absurdity, but to flesh out its serious aims, those necessary to our cognitive and humane survival. He writes an actual myth, a myth that posits body and public before the forces of its actual gods, who are, in fact, non-deities: progress, labour, organization, power (capital) and the future.

Paul Chan - My Birds . . . Trash . . . The Future.

That is, he revisits Marx to save what is salvageable in Marx but needing articulation in the light of the  present--the present, which is always a surprise. Not accidentally, then, one of the themes that take relief in this concept of a cumulative, progressive (not transcendent, timeless) history is: garbage. But the dustbin of history (Marx's phrase) is not, precisely, just oblivion. It is the storage of ruins by which, in a process akin to the archaeological dig, we may yet illuminate our way to the future. It is, then, a myth for the progressive. At that, it is only marginally an optimistic one.

Perhaps its most serious philosophical critique lies in the sketch of a world of facts-- a view given articulation in the 20th century famously by Wittgenstein--rather than one of base materials. This is where Liberalism consistently outpaces radicals, in political terms: is it a fact, does it yield real world feedback capable of being reduplicated in real time? Or is it a theory, strictly surface interpretation, in the mode of detail-oriented, world-renouncing monks? A question I am really not equipped to deal with but recognize it is there; and for radicals: The Begging Question.

Paul Chan - My Birds . . . Trash . . . The Future.

Objections aside, this is the climate and background I imagine to have been part of the writing of this mesmerizing, intellectually fervid document. To my mind, it is to seek in a history grounded in base materials (history's trash) our fate, but interpreted backwards through history's long train of wrecks.

Fantastic Spaces

Images from the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.