pynchon/borges

[Michael J. Hußmann]

jbor at bigpond.com (jbor at bigpond.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. [...]"
>
> Correct?

Apart from the bit about Rivadavia Street and the true South (and a
passing mention of Martin Fierro), I can see no correspondence between
"El Sur" and Pynchon's text. I only have the German translation of "El
Sur" available, but the suggestion that Pynchon was quoting verbatim
from Borges' story is clearly wrong.

- Michael


Michael J. Hußmann

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