Kyriakos
05-26-2012, 07:50 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_South_%28short_story%29
The South (original title in Spanish is El Sur) is one of Borges' most famous stories, and moreover the one he regarded as his best.
The wiki link provides a synopsis. I could create an even more brief one here:
Juan Dahlman, the protagorist, is a peaceful person keeping a low profile in Buenos Aires, while also having a small estate in the South of the country, which he has not gotten a chance to visit although he would like to go and perhaps live there. One day, as he is returning to his house, having bought a copy of the 1001 Arabian nights, he climbs the stairs carelessly and is hit on the forehead by a freshly painted beam. This leads him to soon develop a very high fever.
When he arrives at the hospital, despite his original hope that he would find peace there, he suffers horribly at the hands of the doctors, ending up wishing to die, and hating himself.
The rest of the story is usually seen as being a dream, a vision, or a delirium of Dahlman, who in this case has remained in the hospital but instead is of the view that he was allowed to exit, and travels to the south. There, in the South, he is called to a knife duel, which he will certainly lose and die, but he is of the view that this is the death he would prefer, this death he would wish when he still was inside the horrible hospital.
The story functions on many levels. First there is the past of Dahlman, and the point made in the story that the South also represents a journey to the Past, due to its different ways, the gauchos (a form of argentinian peasant/tough person) and an older way of life than the one found in the metropolis. Dahlman journeys to the past, and there dies, perhaps because he is dieing in the present as well. Having possibly substituted the present in the hospital, with a journey to the past and the countryside of the South, Dahlman is unable to escape his fate, and ends up embracing it.
Some important elements of the story point to the direction of such an explanation of what is going on, although it could be argued that they are not utterly definitive. Of these arguably the most important one is that a stranger calls him by his name, the same stranger who at first gives him the impression of someone he knows, and later on thinks he reminded him of some staff at the hospital.
Overall The South is a very interesting short story. I too find it rather intruiging that Borges himself called it his best. At the time he had already written some far more famous work, like The Library of Babel and Founes, while also some - on the surface- more striking pieces, such as The mystical wonder, Tlon Ugbar Orbis Tertius and Pierre Menarre: Writer of Don Quixote.
So The South has become for his scholars an enigma by itself. Constructed as a Borgesian labyrinth, on the surface it seems like a simple story. However it does make one feel a bit dizzy while reading it, perhaps as a sign of the depths which are not yet seen, but are felt.
In this thread you can discuss The South, if you have read the story, and comment on a possible deciphering of the plot. :)
The South (original title in Spanish is El Sur) is one of Borges' most famous stories, and moreover the one he regarded as his best.
The wiki link provides a synopsis. I could create an even more brief one here:
Juan Dahlman, the protagorist, is a peaceful person keeping a low profile in Buenos Aires, while also having a small estate in the South of the country, which he has not gotten a chance to visit although he would like to go and perhaps live there. One day, as he is returning to his house, having bought a copy of the 1001 Arabian nights, he climbs the stairs carelessly and is hit on the forehead by a freshly painted beam. This leads him to soon develop a very high fever.
When he arrives at the hospital, despite his original hope that he would find peace there, he suffers horribly at the hands of the doctors, ending up wishing to die, and hating himself.
The rest of the story is usually seen as being a dream, a vision, or a delirium of Dahlman, who in this case has remained in the hospital but instead is of the view that he was allowed to exit, and travels to the south. There, in the South, he is called to a knife duel, which he will certainly lose and die, but he is of the view that this is the death he would prefer, this death he would wish when he still was inside the horrible hospital.
The story functions on many levels. First there is the past of Dahlman, and the point made in the story that the South also represents a journey to the Past, due to its different ways, the gauchos (a form of argentinian peasant/tough person) and an older way of life than the one found in the metropolis. Dahlman journeys to the past, and there dies, perhaps because he is dieing in the present as well. Having possibly substituted the present in the hospital, with a journey to the past and the countryside of the South, Dahlman is unable to escape his fate, and ends up embracing it.
Some important elements of the story point to the direction of such an explanation of what is going on, although it could be argued that they are not utterly definitive. Of these arguably the most important one is that a stranger calls him by his name, the same stranger who at first gives him the impression of someone he knows, and later on thinks he reminded him of some staff at the hospital.
Overall The South is a very interesting short story. I too find it rather intruiging that Borges himself called it his best. At the time he had already written some far more famous work, like The Library of Babel and Founes, while also some - on the surface- more striking pieces, such as The mystical wonder, Tlon Ugbar Orbis Tertius and Pierre Menarre: Writer of Don Quixote.
So The South has become for his scholars an enigma by itself. Constructed as a Borgesian labyrinth, on the surface it seems like a simple story. However it does make one feel a bit dizzy while reading it, perhaps as a sign of the depths which are not yet seen, but are felt.
In this thread you can discuss The South, if you have read the story, and comment on a possible deciphering of the plot. :)