On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 9:48 AM, John Francis Lee <[email protected]> wrote:
> I guess it was a mistake to bring up Borges to a geek. Sorry.

On the contrary, I would guess I am a bigger Borges fan than you; I
have read through my three Collected Fictions/Nonfictions/Poetry many
times, and have written Borges pastiche (
http://www.gwern.net/fiction/Menard ). What I object to is bad
philosophizing about mind; Funes is entertaining, but the story is a
contradiction in terms - as Borges says in _This Craft of Verse_,
metaphor is at the heart of even the simplest language, so how could a
Funes speak *at all*?

(Did Borges actually believe Funes would exist or that he would live
in such a way? It's not very important, but I don't see why he would.
Borges wrote about many things he did not believe in - his ability to
handle ideas lightly and compare him is one of his most admirable
traits.)

-- 
gwern
http://www.gwern.net

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