Nov 16, 2009

The Aleph | Introduction

In his 1969 study The Narrow Act: Borges’s Art of Allusion, Ronald J. Christ offers an important piece of advice to anyone reading Borges for the first time: ‘‘The point of origin for most of Borges’s fiction is neither character nor plot . . . but, instead, as in science fiction, a proposition, an idea, a metaphor, which, because of its ingenious or fantastic quality, is perhaps best call[ed] a conceit.’’ ‘‘The Aleph’’ certainly fits this description, for while it does possess the elements of traditional fiction, it is more concerned with exploring the ‘‘conceit’’ of infinity: if there were a point in space that contained all other points, and one could look at it, what would one see—and how would one describe what he or she saw to another person? Such are the questions raised by Borges’s story.

‘‘The Aleph’’ was first published in the Argentine journal Sur in 1945 and was included as the title work in the 1949 collection The Aleph. Like so many of Borges’s other stories, essays, and poems, ‘‘The Aleph’’ is an attempt to explore and dramatize a philosophical or scientific riddle. To date, the story stands as one of Borges’s most well-known and representative works.

In a 1970 commentary on the story, Borges explained, ‘‘What eternity is to time, the Aleph is to space.’’ As the narrator of the story discovers, however, trying to describe such an idea in conventional terms can prove a daunting—even impossible— task.

The Aleph Summary

‘‘The Aleph’’ begins in 1943 with Borges (the narrator) informing the reader of his love for Beatriz Viterbo, who (we are told) died in 1929. In an effort to devote himself ‘‘to her memory,’’ Borges began visiting Beatriz’s father and cousin, Carlos Argentino Daneri, every April thirtieth—Beatriz’s birthday. These visits occurred every year, and Borges gradually ingratiated himself with Beatriz’s father and cousin to the point where they began asking him to dinner.

At the conclusion of one such dinner (on Sunday, April 30, 1941), Daneri begins pontificating to Borges about subjects such as ‘‘the glorification of modern man’’ and the idea that, at this date, ‘‘actual travel was superfluous,’’ since modern man enjoys a number of ways to experience the pleasures of the world without leaving his home. Thinking his host a fool but not wanting to insult him, Borges suggests to him that he record his observations for posterity; Daneri explains that he has already begun to do so and then shows Borges the poem upon which he has been working for years. Simply titled The Earth, Daneri’s poem is an attempt to encapsulate the entire planet into verse. He reads a passage to Borges and praises his own merits as a poet; Borges, however, finds the poem uninteresting and even thinks that Daneri’s reasons for why his poem should be admired are actually more clever and artistic than the poem itself.

Two Sundays later, Daneri telephones Borges and asks him to meet at Zunino and Zungri’s salon, located next to his house. After reading him some additional fragments of the poem and telling of his plan to publish some of its initial cantos, Daneri asks Borges a favor: will he use his influence as a writer to contact his fellow author Alvaro Melian Lafinur and ask him to pen an introduction? And will... » Complete The Aleph Summary