History Creator / JorgeLuisBorges

* {{Determinator}}: Deconstructed at ''"The Garden of Forking Paths"'' and ''"Emma Zunz story"''. Both protagonists had a goal and they will cross the MoralEventHorizon and the DespairEventHorizon to achieve it, only to ask themselves if WasItReallyWorthIt. ''"The other death"'' protagonist will achieve his goal, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath but just at the time of his death]]. The narrator [[EsotericHappyEnding thinks nobody could be happier than him]].

Borges became blind due to an inherited disease in his middle age and blindness is a recurring {{Motif|s}} in his later works. Other common motifs are labyrinths, mirrors, libraries, tigers, and daggers. The blind monk Jorge de Burgos in Creator/UmbertoEco's ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' is one allusion to Borges. The blind librarian in ''The Shadow of the Torturer'' by GeneWolfe may be another.

* ''"The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths"'': A deconstruction of SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere: The Prideful King of Babilon mocks the King of Arabia by forcing him to enter his BigLabyrinthineBuilding. The King of Arabia asks for God's help, [[DeusExMachina and gets out]]. He tells the King of Babylon he knows a better labyrinth and some day he will show it to him. Years later, [[spoiler: The Arabian King [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge makes war and dethrones the King of Babylon, [[CrossingTheDesert cross with him the Arabian desert]] and abandones the King of Babylon there, [[ThirstyDesert where he died from thirst and hunger]] ]].

* ''"Emma Zunz story"'': To set right a MiscarriageOfJustice, the female protagonist decides to cross the DespairEventHorizon to assure she will cross the MoralEventHorizon.

* Determinator: Deconstructed at ''"The Garden of Forking Paths"'' and ''"Emma Zunz story"''. Both protagonists had a goal and they will cross the MoralEventHorizon and the DespairEventHorizon to achieve it, only to ask themselves if WasItReallyWorthIt. ''"The other death"'' protagonist will achieve his goal, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath but just at the time of his death]]. The narrator [[EsotericHappyEnding thinks nobody could be happier than him]].

* DelayedRippleEffect: "The Other Death".

* RewritingReality: "Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius".

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist visiting MrExposition who explains TheProtagonist SecretLegacy by exploring the idea of time branching forwards into [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]] [[hottip:*:this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics]]. [[{{Irony}} Ironically]], TheProtagonist is also [[spoiler: a {{Determinator}} who will make sure [[YouCantFightFate there is only one possible universe]] ]].

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist visiting MrExposition who explains TheProtagonist SecretLegacy by exploring the idea of time branching forwards into [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]] [[hottip:*:this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics]]. [[Irony Ironically]], TheProtagonist is also [[spoiler: a {{Determinator}} who will make sure [[YouCantFightFate there is only one possible universe]] ]].

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist visiting MrExposition who explains TheProtagonist SecretLegacy by exploring the idea of time branching forwards into [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]] [[hottip:*:this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics]]. Unfortunately, TheProtagonist is also [[spoiler: a {{Determinator}} who will make sure [[YouCantFightFate there is only one possible universe]] ]].

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist visiting MrExposition who explains TheProtagonist SecretLegacy by exploring the idea of time branching forwards into AlternateUniverses [[hottip:*:this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics]]. Unfortunately, TheProtagonist is also [[spoiler: a {{Determinator}} who will make sure [[YouCantFightFate there is only one possible universe]] ]].

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist visiting MrExposition who explains TheProtagonist SecretLegacy by exploring the idea of time branching forwards into Alternate Universes [[hottip:*:this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics]]. Unfortunately, TheProtagonist is also [[spoiler: a {{Determinator}} who will make sure [[YouCantFightFate there is only one possible universe]] ]].

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist visiting MrExposition who explains TheProtagonist SecretLegacy by exploring the idea of time branching forwards into Alternate Universes [[hottip:*:this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics]]. Unfortunately, TheProtagonist is also [[spoiler: a {{Determinator}} who will make sure [[YouCantFightFate there is only one universe possible]] ]].

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": The FramingDevice is a spy story set at World War I where TheProtagonist visiting MrExposition who explains TheProtagonist SecretLegacy by exploring the idea of time branching forwards into Alternate Universes. [[hottip:*:this story is famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics]]. Unfortunately, TheProtagonist is also [[spoiler: a {{Determinator}} who will make sure [[YouCantFightFate there is only one universe possible]] ]].

* "The Garden of Forking Paths": Explores the idea of time branching forwards into [[AlternateUniverse Alternate Universes]] and weaves it with a spy story set in WorldWarI. Famous for anticipating the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics.

* "The Library of Babel": TropeNamer for [[LibraryOfBabel the eponymous trope]], this story describes a universe consisting of a huge, endless library, that contains all possible books (that is to say, all possible combinations of letters, spaces, and punctuation given a certain number of characters per book)-- but arranged with no discernible order or pattern.

* LibraryOfBabel: The TropeNamer, as mentioned above.

* MotiveMisidentification: ''"The death and the Compass"'': GreatDetective thinks the DiabolicalMastermind is looking for a MagicalIncantation. The real EvilPlan is more sinister (and logical).
* NoEnding: '' "Averroes's Search" '' ends with all the characters and his surroundings suddenly disappearing, except maybe the Guadalquivir River.

* PopCultureIsolation: InUniverse example meets TruthInTelevision in '' "Averroes's Search" '': Averroes, an Islamic philosopher, never could understand the terms ''tragedy'' and ''comedy''.

* UnreliableNarrator: "The Other Death"; "The Immortal". The reliability of the narrator is [[LampshadeHanging questioned explicitly]] in the stories themselves; the latter one almost takes it into {{Deconstruction}} territory. "A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain" mentions a story in which, based on the final sentence, the sagacious reader can discover that the solution to the mystery was wrong and, with that additional piece of information, can reconstruct what actually happened.

* BlessedWithSuck: "Funes the Memorious".

* '' "Averroes's Search" '' An exploration of the TragicDream in the character of Averroes, Islamic Philosophers dreamed to explain Creator/{{Aristotle}}’s works to the Islamic culture. [[PopCultureIsolation His problem was that Averroes didn’t understand the terms “Tragedy” and “Comedy” that constantly pop up in Aristotle’s canon]] [[CultureClash because he was confined to the Islamic orb]]. Suddenly there is a NoEnding and the MindScrew begins: [[spoiler: Borges is BreakingTheFourthWall to inform that he realized that he had a TragicDream himself, because as a twenty century author, he has no better chances to imagine the 12th century Averroe’s character with only some literary references. This realization forces him to recognize the RecursiveReality of literature, and conduces Borges to a CreatorBreakdown and his story to a NoEnding because a minor case of AuthorExistenceFailure.]]

* AuthorExistenceFailure: '' "Averroe's Search" '': A subversion, when Borges has his CreatorBreakdown, he doesn’t believe anymore in the characters of this story, forcing a NoEnding.

* CreatorBreakdown: '' "Averroe's Search" '': Subverted when Borges realizes he has broke the [[MutuallyFictional Stable Fictional Loop]] and incurred in an [[OntologicalMystery Ontological Paradox]], the short story suffers a NoEnding.

* CultureClash: '' "Averroe's Search" '': This is the cause why Averroes, an islamic philosopher, had PopCultureIsolation.

** Special mention goes to "The Search of Averroes". In it, an Arabian professor investigates a Greek translation and ponders the meaning of "drama" and "comedy", which he can't understand becasue he lives in a culture in which the art of perfomance doesn't exist. After hearing with some guests a story about China and the performers that live in there and [[CompletelyMissingthePoint completely misses the point about the whole "acting" thing]] he starts meditating and eventually has a sudden realization about the meaning of "drama" and "comedy", [[spoiler:which turns out to be wrong]]. He then [[spoiler: disappears, as do his house and all those that were in there without leaving a trace.]] Borges then explains within the story that he himself had to understand Averroes to write the story, and like Averroes, had no real chance of doing so. The writer, [[spoiler: could no longer believe in Averroes as a character and he naturally disappeared completely along with his house.]]

* NoEnding: '' "Averroe's Search" '' ends with all the characters and his surroundings suddenly disappearing, except maybe the Guadalquivir River.

* PopCultureIsolation: InUniverse example meets TruthInTelevision in '' "Averroe's Search" '': Averroes, an Islamic philosopher, never could understand the terms ''tragedy'' and ''comedy''.

* TragicDream: '' "Averroe's Search" '' : Averroes tries to explain Creator/{{Aristotle}} without understanding the terms ''Tragedy'' and ''Comedy'' and [[spoiler: Borges trying to imagine Averroes]].

* ShoutOut: Pretty much every author in the Western ''and'' Eastern literary and philosophical canon gets a ShoutOut in some Borges story or another. For example, "Death and the Compass" has [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to philosopher Baruch Spinoza and authors EdgarAllanPoe and JamesJoyce, among others.

Borges became blind due to an inherited disease in his middle age and blindness is a recurring {{Motif|s}} in his later works. Other common motifs are labyrinths, mirrors, libraries, tigers, and daggers. The blind monk Jorge de Burgos in UmbertoEco's ''Literature/TheNameOfTheRose'' is one allusion to Borges. The blind librarian in ''The Shadow of the Torturer'' by GeneWolfe may be another.

* ThePlan: [[spoiler: "Death and the Compass"]]; [[spoiler: "The Dead Man"]].

* ShoutOut: Pretty much every author in the Western ''and'' Eastern literary and philosophical canon gets a ShoutOut in some Borges story or another. For example, "Death and the Compass" has [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] to philosopher Baruch Spinoza and authors EdgarAllanPoe and JamesJoyce, among others.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: Asterion's House.

* YourMindMakesItReal: "The Circular Ruins" in a personal level. "Literature/TlonUqbarOrbisTertius" on a global scale.

!! Some of his best known short stories (Borges didn't write any novels) are: