Haughty, quirky - a genius, too

[Michael J. Hußmann]

Ya Sam (takoitov at hotmail.com) wrote:

> When on page 263 of his now classic 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow Thomas 
> Pynchon tells us that Rivadavia Street is ''where the true South begins,'' 
> the sly American is sampling Jorge Luis Borges' personal-favorite story, El 
> Sur. He continues for a few paragraphs, word for word, before returning to 
> his own text.
>
> http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/books/14895289.htm

Hadn't we discussed that one a couple of weeks ago? Enrique Fernandez'
claim that Pynchon had been quoting verbatim from Borges' "Es Sur" is
patently false. Agreed, the source of the notion that Rivadavia Street
is where the true south begins is probably "El Sur" (and for all I know,
it may not even be an actual saying among the inhabitants of Bunenos
Aires, but have been invented by Borges), but that's where the
similarity ends, even when labyrinths and Borges himself are referred to
(more than once) in this chapter. In GR, Squalidozzi goes on educating
Slothrop about the political situation in Argentina, whereas in "El
Sur", Dahlmann continues on his way to the station, musing about a cat
in a cafe. There's no quote, verbatim or otherwise, from "El Sur".

BTW, the author's remark about "Italo Calvino and Stanislaw Lem. The
latter won a Nobel Prize ..." is also wrong, as Lem never received a
Nobel price.

- Michael


Michael J. Hußmann

E-mail: michael at michael-hussmann.de
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