pynchon/borges

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 28/06/2006:

> http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/14895289.htm
>
> "At one point in Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon moves the action to Buenos 
> Aires and makes Borges a minor character in his novel -- a nod that 
> his sampling El Sur is there for some reason the reader should ponder. 
> Pynchon quotes a Borges sonnet, this time with full attribution. It is 
> quite beautiful in English, the gift of this bilingual master who 
> echoes in many languages and many minds as a reminder that literature 
> itself can be greater than most of the small stuff we call life."
>
> Incorrect? The two lines attributed to Borges on p. 383 aren't 
> actually written by Borges? And they're obviously in Spanish, not 
> English.
>
> But what about von Göll's "I can take down your fences and your 
> labyrinth walls, I can lead you back to the Garden you hardly 
> remember" (388)? Is there a Borges sampling or allusion in that 
> couplet?

E.g.,

http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lt/lt204/forking_paths.htm

best