Essay
On First Meeting Borges
The adjective plot thickens
I can’t remember which Medium writer put me onto Borges’ story, The Circular Ruins, but I am indebted to them.
It’s the first time I have read Borges. I had come across his name often of course. I was curious about his style, his approach, his syntax. What was it that made Borges great?
The adjectives arrest. In the first paragraph. Loads of them. Unabashed, in-your-face adjectives used with lavish intensity. What an antidote to Stephen King!
I circled the most striking:
unanimous night
sacred mud
miasmal jungle
incessant trees
pallid eyes
invincible intent
propitious temple
inconsolable shriek
sepulchral niche
dilapidated wall
unfamiliar leaves
They are all Latin or Greek, adjectives which are less concrete, more torturous, more exacting than one-syllable adjectives: big, small, sly, old, drunk, mean, ill, rich, rough, dark, etc.
The average number of syllables for each adjective is four, but three of them…
