The Aleph by Juan Luis Borges exemplifies many aspects of magical realism and challenges the accepted notions of reality and existence. Borges uses this story to blur the dividing lines between binaries and to challenge philosophical issues. Some of the binaries that are addressed are reality and fantasy, life and death, existence and absence, and small and large. Borges attaches magical characteristics to events that would otherwise appear realistic, so that the reader cannot decipher between the two. This sense of reality and involving the audience in the literature makes the fantastic elements even more apparent and subversive.
Beatriz’s cousin Carlos Argentino Daneri is an eccentric writer who seems overconfident in his work and is “full of pointless analogies and idle scruples” (pg 275). He has been writing a poem for years titled The Earth, in which he is trying to describe everything on Earth down to a fine detail. This is a very philosophical thought in itself: it challenges what is accepted as existence. That is exactly the very focus of this tale – it brings a new perspective on everything.
Daneri frantically calls Borges one day because a café wants to repossess the house to expand business. Daneri goes on to explain that in the corner of the cellar, there is an Aleph – “one of the points in space that contain all points” (pg 280). The Aleph is a magical creation that Borges blends into the truth so that it appears to be real. It relates to the philosophical basis of existence because the Aleph is where all of existence in the entire world is located. This challenges the binaries of real and fake, existence and absence.
After entering the Aleph, Borges becomes aware and overwhelmed by what he sees. “How can one transmit to others the infinite Aleph, which my timorous memory can scarcely contain?” (pg 282). Simultaneously, infinity unfolded before his eyes, in a dreamlike yet real state. What Borges sees in the Aleph is full of binaries that appear together and take on different meanings. Borges’ vision is explained, “I saw millions of delightful and horrible acts…dawn and dusk…saw simultaneous night and day…the earth in the Aleph, and the Aleph once more in the earth”. This is an amazing notion and epitomizes the basis of philosophy. At this one point in time, Borges is able to see all of history and the future, the inconceivable universe, everything that humankind has and hasn’t seen. He sees that nothing exists as he thought it did, and never will. The aleph shows all points in time, everyone, and everything.
The Aleph itself is a binary: “the Aleph was probably two or three centimeters in diameter, but universal space was contained inside it, with no diminution in size. Each thing was infinite things”. The Aleph is very small, yet the entire realm of existence, in full size, fits inside it. Every vision was something, yet everything was also something else. Philosophically, this forces the reader to challenge common assumptions about what things really are. Each element divides from each other and multiplies back into each other. The way that everything existed never really exists anymore. When Borges exits the Aleph, he refuses to talk about his experience. He instead, pretends he saw nothing and tries to convince Daneri that he is crazy. Later, Borges reflects that he believes in Alephs, but thinks that the one in the cellar was a false Aleph. He finds it very difficult, and nearly impossible to describe the visions from the Aleph. What Borges saw means something completely different from what Daneri, or anyone else would see. The philosophical question of “what is?” comes to par – what is real to one person can be imaginary to another. Everything takes on different meanings and is interpreted in millions of different ways.
Either way, the Aleph is the place where all common assumptions, knowledge, and reality are destroyed. It is impossible to attach an explanation to such a concept. The Aleph and its magical yet real qualities evoke, and then undermine, common philosophical issues. He forces us to think, what is the purpose of our existence in this universe? The conflicting binaries force the audience to rethink these philosophical questions that before seemed so unimportant. In The Aleph, Borges uses magical realism as a basis to incorporate the concept of parallel universes into reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment