The Circular Ruins (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Jorge Luis Borges
- First Published: 1940
- Type of Plot: Fantasy
- Time of Work: Unspecified
- Setting: An unnamed jungle
- Principal Characters: The dreamer, His son
- Genres: Short fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Philosophy or philosophers, Magic or magicians, Surrealism, Dreams, Jungles or rain forests, Idealism, Immunity
- Locales: South America
The Story
In “The Circular Ruins,” from a nameless home in a time not marked on calendars, a figure known only as “the taciturn man” or “the gray man” beaches a bamboo canoe on the bank of a jungle river. When he lands, he kisses the mud and heads inland to the circular ruins: the ruins of an abandoned temple to a god no longer worshiped. He sleeps there in the ruins, and when he awakes, he will begin a task of creation.
He awakes in the morning and sees tracks around him, which inform him that the local residents of the area have observed him during the...
[The entire page is 1528 words long]
