Contemplating Reality with Borges

Ficciones or Fictions…

Have you ever considered that everything around you could be a product of your mind? If you’ve entertained such a wild idea and delved into research, you may have heard of the philosopher George Berkeley, who claimed that the physical world consists solely of the thoughts in our minds, with no material existence. The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, known for his boundless imagination, took Berkeley’s idealism to the extreme by imagining life on a planet where there is no matter. (Perhaps we are already inhabitants of such a realm!) On this planet, called Tlon, there is no spatiality. Everything exists only to the extent that it is perceived. It is a story that both amazes and delights. I hesitate to go into details, however, as I don’t want to spoil the magic of the story. Ten of Borges’ stories, including the one I mentioned, have been compiled under the title “Fictions”. Incidentally, this is a book I often give as a gift. Enjoy your reading.

“One of the schools of Tlon has reached the point of denying time. It reasons that the present is undefined, that the future has no other reality than as present hope, that the past is no more than present memory.”