Heresy as Motif in the Short Stories of Borges

Author(s): Ted Lyon and Pjers Hangrow

Source: Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 3, No. 5 (Fall - Winter, 1974), pp. 23-35
Published by: Latin American Literary Review
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 HERESY AS MOTIF IN THE SHORT STORIESOF BORGES

For my thoughts are not your

thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways, saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts higher than
your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8,9.

As early as 1930, heresy and its resultant frustrations occupy

prominent position in the prose of Jorge Luis Borges. By 1936, in
the essay "Circular Time," Borges is talking of heresy, heresio
logy, heresiarchs, and the human consequences of such doctrines
and beliefs. From his most brilliant decade, the 1940's, to his
most recent fiction, El congreso [The Assembly], 1971, heresy is a
constant motif, a basic recurring element which grants thematic
unity to his extensive collection of short stories.
As here defined, heresy is defiling, challenging or opposing
that which is considered sacred or divine. In the limited context
of Christianity such heresies as salvation through knowledge alone
(Gnosticism) or the affirmation that Christ was merely an inspired
man and not a God (Christology) are already well known. Yet
Borges goes much beyond Christianity in discovering heresies and
explores its many facets in a universal setting. Not only does he
base his prose on creeds and countercreeds or world religions, he
also delves into sacred personal beliefs and venerable national
myths. He does not avail himself of heresy to denounce or criticize
religion but rather as a literary device to expand his created world,
to reveal basic themes of life and existence.
No specific religion, sect or dogma comes under direct fire in
the author's prose; he is a universalist, not confined to one
historical time or place. Judaism, and especially the mystery-delv
ing Kabbalists,1 most often provides ideological bases ("Death
1 See
Jaime Alazraki's "Borges and the Kabbalah,'' TriQuarterly 25, Prose for

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 24 LATINAMERICAN LITERARYREVIEW

and the Compass," "The Aleph," "The Theologians" and the

poem "The Golem"). Islam, Hinduism and certain Eastern
religions rank second in the canon of organized religions serving
as inspiration for writings on heresy ("The Circular Ruins," "The
Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths," "The Garden of Forking
Paths," etc.). Christianity and its multiple doctrines follow ?
"The Gospel According to Mark," "Three Versions of Judas," El
congreso, etc. In "The God's Script" Borges even uses the back
drop of ancient Mayan belief although the ideas are based on the
Kabbalah and the resultant mixture comes out a heretical hybrid
of philosophy and religion. The creeds of these religions offer the
metaphysical elements which may assist in explaining the complex
universe, a constant yearning among Borgesian characters.

The Heresy of Philosophy

Borges frequently refers to "God" and to the "divine," but

seldom makes qualitative remarks regarding what god, or which
divinity. His works present a god that simply "is"; Borges rarely
evokes traditional religious notions of god but instead makes re
ference to an infinite, unconditional, and indefinable deity, a god
whose presence pervades the universe, one who created all,
Tillich's god, the "ground of being." Certainly Borges is not
alluding to an anthropomorphic deity, nor to any type of god
that can be limited or conditioned, for as he asserts, "we would
distrust the intelligence of a God who maintains heavens and
hells. God does not hate and does not love anyone."2 Without
trying to form a complete analysis of Borges' complex theology, it
is here sufficient to
recognize that his prose assumes a "divine
presence"; most of his works exude such a being. What exactly he
conceives that presence to be he does not prescribe, considering it
an impossible task to approach god through words or rituals. For
Borges to describe the god(s) hovering above nearly every story
would be tantamount to personal heresy.
It is likewise heretical to think that the universe can be
explained in terms of a philosophy or a theology. Definitions,
words and theories are insufficient expressions of the true nature
and meaning of the intricate universe. As Borges has expressed,
"it is hazardous to think that a coordination of words (philosoph
ies are nothing else) can have much resemblance to the universe."3

Borges. Fall, 1972, pp. 240-267 for a detailed study of Kabbalistic influences in
Borges.
2
Borges, Jorge Luis. Other Inquisitions. Austin, University of Texas Press, 1964,
p. 88. All other references from this work are noted in text, immediately following
quotation.
3
Labyrinths, New York, New Directions, 1964, p. 207. Other references from
this work are noted in text.

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 HERESYAS MOTIF INTHE SHORT STORIESOF BORGES 25

Philosophy is at best only a meager representation of the wav the

universe seems to be, and with time, each particular philosophy
inevitably loses its meaning and importance, becoming "a mere
chapter, if not just a paragraph or a name, in the history of
philosophy" {Labyrinths, 43).
In numerous
stories Borges represents the universe as an intri
cate maze, even
and suggests that "God" created the world in
that confusing manner for a specific purpose. However, it is not
necessary for man to understand that purpose, and further it is an
act of heresy to try to approach the mind of god, which man does
when he attempts to discover purposes. In presenting the universe
as a labyrinth, Borges suggests that the world is an enormous,
complex drama. In this drama each event is a key part of the
total, each individual action is integral to the universal act, and
each man is "performing a secret drama determined and pre
meditated ? and our
by God." Thus, "the history of the universe
lives and the most our ? an
trifling detail of lives has unconjec
turable, symbolic meaning" (0.7., 125). Each act is universal;
man must comply with the requisites of the complete universal
production. Since those requisites have been framed by god, it is
not for man to discover them but rather to act out the total
scheme. The universe, therefore, appears as a labyrinth to the
human mind; man will never fully understand its processes nor its
meanings.
Despite this position in the scheme, man, by his very nature,
is destined to try to order his world and thus the concept of heresy
is built into Borges' labyrinthal universe. Many of his characters
are active personages who are not content to sit back and perform
their part of an existence which seems meaningless. Even at the
risk of committing heresy, they struggle with the meaning of the
world around them and their place in history, despite the futility
of ever perceiving the order for which they search. Indeed, the
very act of heresy is essential for Borges' characters to achieve their
full humanity; if they remain passive and avoid the struggle for
meaning they will certainly not fall into heresy but neither will
they ever reach full stature. Searching for order and perspective in
life and death, Borgesian characters formulate philosophies and
theologies that attempt to explain the unseen and the seen. Thus,
philosophy becomes heresy, for as man attempts to order the
universe and reason out his existence, he meddles with the divine.
In this struggle man frequently winds up inventing realities
that are more logical and easier to accept than the actual world.
In "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orb is Tertius" a group of intellectuals invents
a completely separate world, with the result that in the end this
alien reality supplants the realities of the present:

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26 LATINAMERICAN LITERARYREVIEW

How could one do other than submit to Tl?n, to the minute

and vast evidence of an orderly planet? It is useless to answer
that reality is also orderly. Perhaps it is, but in accordance with
divine laws
? I translate: inhuman laws ? which we never
quite grasp. Tl?n is surely a labyrinth, but it is a labyrinth
devised by men, a labyrinth destined to be deciphered by
men (Labyrinths, 17,18).

In "The God's Script" Borges suggests what might happen

were man to somehow stumble upon the secret meaning of the
universe. Tzinac?n posits that from the beginning, god saw the
end and wrote a coded message, one that would give its user
unlimited power. As the last priest in his known world, Tzinac?n
expects this privilege and commences his search for the secret and
sacred symbol that will unlock divine knowledge and power.
After considering and eliminating thousands of possibilities, he
postulates that the coded message is inscribed on the skin of the
jaguar. Deciphering the meaning and formulating it into words
occupies uncounted years but like a successful Kabbalist, Tzinac?n
envisions a giant wheel, a type of "Aleph," that unites all time
and space, the entire universe. However he wisely realizes that he
could never reveal this personal secret, to do so would amount to

betrayal and heresy, giving him power over god's creations. Such
power would alter his existence, making him a god rather than
the prisoner he really is:

May the mystery lettered on the tigers die with me. Whoever
has seen the universe, whoever has ^beheld the fiery designs
of the universe, cannot think in terms of one man, of that
man's trivial fortunes or misfortunes, though he be that very
man. That man has been he and now matters no more to
him. What is the life ofthat other to him, the nation of that
other to him, if he now, is no one. This is why I do not pro
nounce the formula, why, lying here in the darkness, I let
the days obliterate me (Labyrinths, 173).

Tzinac?n realizes that it is impossible for finite man to decipher

and control the universe, for in the hypothetical instant in which
he might, he would lose his identity and become infinite. And
in Borges, even the thought of approaching the infinite is
traumatic, as seen in "Averroes' Search": "The fear of the crassly
infinite, of mere space, of mere matter, touched Averroes for an
instant. He looked at the symmetrical garden; he felt aged,
useless, unreal" (Labyrinths, 152). Clearly, the infinite, the
divine realm, is not intended for man, yet still he searches for its
key. It is thus that he turns to philosophy, and it is thus that in

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 HERESYAS MOTIF INTHE SHORT STORIESOF BORGES 27

"the history of philosophy are doctrines, probably false, that

exercise an obscure charm on human imagination" (O.I., 37).
Borges' characters invariably strive for the meaning of their
existence through diverse methods; one is no more valid than
another; all lead to some type of frustration. Borges has added a
distinct flavor to the existentialist tradition of the Twentieth
Century, although*he by no means could be classified solely an
existentialist. He asserts that: "Pondering the incalculable and
enigmatic nature of reality, I do not believe that the simple
symmetry of... human classifications would be sufficient to ex
plain reality; such calculations (of man) are little more than
hollow mathematical flattery."4 This metaphysical skepticism
affirms that if there is order in existence, that order is not
accessible to man. Rejecting philosophical idealism, Borgesian
fiction emphasizes the failure of philosophical theories to ade
quately represent the realities of the world and universe. Indeed,
as these philosophies boldly attempt to interpret reality, they not
only fail as theories but also enter the realm of heresy. As Borges
himself succinctly states:

There is no classification of the universe that is not arbitrary

and conjectural. The reason is very simple: we do not know
what the universe is... We must go even further; we must
suspect that there is no universe in the organic, unifying
sense inherent in that ambitious word. If there is, we must
conjecture its purpose; we must conjecture the words, the
definitions, the etymologies, the synonymies of God's secret
dictionary (O.I., 104).

As a result of the impossibility of penetrating the divine scheme,

human theories which attempt to bring order and understanding
are both provisional and heretical.

Heresy As the Usurpation of Divine Power

As already stated, the Borgesian universe is labyrinthal, a

maze fashioned by the unfathomable mind of divinity, destined
to remain eternally indecipherable to man. Scharlach states
("Death and the Compass"): "I felt that the world was a
labyrinth, from which it was impossible to flee" (Labyrinths, 85).
As already seen, Borges' view of existence necessitates a belief in
the divine, although he does not attempt to define or delimit this
deity, for to do so would be a form of heresy. Rather, Borges

4 Discusi?n. Buenos Aires, Emec?, 1966, p. 40. Translation is ours.

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 28 LATINAMERICANLITERARYREVIEW

attempts to accede to divine power, so perfectly demonstrated in

"The Library of Babel": "Man, the imperfect librarian, may be
the product of chance or malevolent demiurgi; the universe, with
its elegant endowment of shelves, of enigmatical volumes, of
inexhaustible stairways..., can only be the work of a god"
(Labyrinths, 52).
This god, or gods, whom man cannof question or com
prehend, has created an ordered chaos of the cosmos wherein man
must wander constantly yet unsuccessfully, endeavoring to deci
pher the supreme puzzle. This universe does not preclude use of
man's inherent intelligence, though to attempt to unravel the
labyrinth of the universe is not within his jurisdiction and con
stitutes usurpation of the powers of deity: "We don't know the
designs of the universe but to think clearly and do good helps
these designs, which will never be made known to us" (O.I., 49).
The heresy of imitating god's attributes, a challenge to that
which is considered divine, is an integral part of the heresy in
Borges' framework of the world. His protagonists, regardless of
time and circumstance, again and again outstep their mortal
limits, seeking either to disentangle their personal enigmas or to
structure their own labyrinths, all courses of action which bear
serious consequences. Life, Borges suggests, is a riddle, an intri
cate puzzle with ever-changing rules that man must accept with
flexibility or break himself trying to solve. And yet, with all its
confusion, life for Borges is still more preferable than the immor
tal state of deity. An analysis of several short stories demonstrates
the pervasiveness of this theme of divine imitation, surfacing in
much of fiction.
The contrast between "Death and the Compass" and "Story
of the Warrior and the Captive" offers insight into the Borgesian
concept of heresy. L?nnrot, in the first story, fancies himself "a
reasoner," and uses his intelligence to unravel a maze of
pure
mystery and murder. He has supreme confidence in his rational
ability to decipher the name of God and to thus discover the
assassin. But reason is a tool of man, and L?nnrot, the smug
heretic, discovers all too readily the fallacy of reasoning which
leads him to the solution of the maze and to his simultaneous
destruction. Droctulft, the barbarian, and the Englishwoman
savage of "Story of the Warrior and the Captive" provide the
direct antithesis to L?nnrot. The warrior willingly abandons his
own army during a seige against an intricate and advanced city to
fight and die for a complex labyrinth of civilization he will never
be able to understand: "He knows that in it (the city) he will be
a dog, or a child, and that he will not even begin to understand it,
but he also knows that it is worth more than his gods and his
sworn faith and all the marshes of Germany" (Labyrinths, 128).

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 HERESYAS MOTIF INTHE SHORT STORIESOF BORGES 29

The blond captive woman, conversely, chooses the life of bar

barism, and contentedly drinks animal blood to indicate her
isolation from that same civilization for which Droctulft gives his
life. Although directly opposite in action, the warrior and the
captive are similar in method, never attempting to decipher the
complexities and confusion of their lives but instead yielding to
"a secret impulse, an impulse more profound than reason, and
both heeded this impulse, which they would not have known how
to justify" (Labyrinths, 131). Both accept the insoluble labyrinth
of life, leaving inviolate the powers of deity, and finding hap
piness therein.
One of the most sacrosanct attributes of divine intelligence is
the power of creation. In "The Circular Ruins" and "Tl?n,
Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" this power is usurped by man, as the
stranger in the first story shaped from his dreams a living son, the
most arduous and heretical task that man can conceive. Never
theless, the dreamed creation could not be interpolated into rea
lity until the multiple gods of the temple granted the magical gift
of life. The creation of an entire planet is the purpose of a secret
society in "Tl?n, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," on the condition that the
association, under the direction of an eccentric American million
aire, Ezra Buckley, make no pact or covenant with Jesus Christ.
This heresy, the rejection of divine assistance in a project requir
ing the usurpation of divine powers, evokes a delightful Borgesian
comment. "Buckley did not believe in God, but he wanted to
demonstrate to this nonexistent God that mortal man was capable
of conceiving a world. Buckley was poisoned in Baton Rouge in
1828..." (Labyrinths, 15). In this rapid juxtaposition of time and
space (suggesting perhaps cause-and-effect), the heretic is re
warded.
To decipher a god's identity and his writings is likewise
heresy, for man does not have that power; to do so he must
intrude on divine right. In "The God's Script" Tzinac?n struggles
to find the secret writings in order to take upon himself the
powers of God. A similar heresy is performed in "Three Versions
of Judas" wherein Runeberg postulates that Judas is the actual
embodiment of God; to complete Christ's glorious purpose, there
was a need for betrayal, and so God fulfilled the plan and
selected the vilest destiny of all, to be the betrayer Judas. As the
mortal Savior/traitor, he voluntarily selected hell because hap
piness is also a divine attribute denied to man. And for the
heretic Runeburg, who blasphemiously divulges the terrible secret
of identity, the future holds only suffering and death.
A variation on man's usurpation of the divine is found in
"The Secret Miracle." A Jew sentenced to death by the Third
Reich is apparently able to suspend chronological time, a power

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30 LATINAMERICANLITERARYREVIEW

which man does not actually possess, after asking for god's inter
vention. The assistance is given only after he discovers god by
chance, randomly and not rationally, as "one of the letters on
one of the pages of one of the four hundred thousand volumes of
the Clementine," after which his request for an additional year to
finish his literary labors is granted. In Hladik's mind, a year does
transpire between the final command for execution and moment
of his death, although in actuality he dies at the set hour. The con
demned finishes his work within the maze of his mind and thus
justifies his entire existence. The heresy inherent in such an
attempt to control time is mitigated by Hladik's supplications to
the divine mind, and his reliance on impulse and chance to guide
his plea.
An actual physical labyrinth is created by the King of Babylon
in "The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths." This imitation
of the divine design of the universe is scandalous "for confusion
and marvels belong to God alone and not to man." In "Theme
of the Traitor and the Hero," Ryan solves the maze of history, an
integral part of the divine power to order time, only to lose all
desire to make known the solution, similar to the aforementioned
Tzinac?n.
The Nazi zur Linde, condemned to death in "Deutsches
Requiem," perceives in his final moments the circular labyrinth
of life that time and divinity have shaped for men and nations. In
the defeat of Hitler and Germany, zur Linde finds happiness, not
because he seeks punishment nor because he realizes that to
deplore a part of the scheme of the universe is to blaspheme god,
rather, he glimpses the totality of the maze, the "secret conti
nuity" of the world, and perceives in the fall of the Third Reich
the perfected destiny of Germany. In the divine plan it matters
neither who the victims nor the victorious are, as long as the circle
is complete and the necessary results prevail. Zur Linde avoids
heresy because he recognizes and accepts man's inability to order
the labyrinth of the universe, and consequently, finds peace in
this knowledge.
In "The Gospel According to Mark," man takes upon
himself a divine role, and later he must of necessity bear the
immediate consequences of playing Christ. This heresiarch, Espi
nosa, attempts to solve the enigma of the Gutres by placing
himself as the supreme intelligence, the source ?f all knowledge;
later he receives the same fate as Christ. Emma Zunz takes upon
herself the role of avenger in the death of her father, a role
normally reserved for divine justice only. And even though she sees
the fulfillment of the her vengeance, she finds no satisfaction in that
fulfillment. A novel twist to the concept of heresy isman's attempt
to limit and order the paths of the labyrinth of life leading to the

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 HERESYAS MOTIF INTHE SHORT STORIESOF BORGES 31

supreme essence. For in man's attempt to reach the divine, to

define the orthodox and heretical through the establishment of
dogma, the usurpation of sacred rights occurs, so pos
religious
tulated in "The Theologians," where two rivals, Aureliano and
Juan de Panonia, expend their lives in the refutation of various
heresies, attempting always to beat the other in the rational
treatises they present. Irony, a common Borgesian tool, succinctly
appears in the use of Juan's successful refutation of the heresy of
circular time as the decisive factor in his conviction for heretical
opinions. That two directly opposed philosophies could both be
branded as heresy points to the absurdity of man's endeavor to
define religion and orthodoxy.
In a short essay entitled "A Prayer" Borges again expresses
his belief in an unfathomable universe designed by a supreme
intelligence. However, he concludes with a plea to "die comple
tely," to die with his body, his constant mortal companion. This
heresy, the desire to remain mortal, also is manifest throughout
Borges' other literary works. His preference for man's confused
wanderings in the universal labyrinth of immortal existence is
shown in "Funes." a chance accident Ireneo receives a
Through
perfect memory, another divine attribute usually denied man. It
is the acquisition of this immortal power that makes Funes appear
"as monumental as bronze, more ancient than Egypt, prior to the

prophecies and pyramids" although in actuality he is only 19. But

a perfect memory becomes a form of hell because each recollec
tion of the past is an exact duplicate, requiring the same amount
of time as the original experience. Sleep is an extreme difficulty
and differences, abstracting," an im
"forgetting generalizing,
possibility. Such an existence expanded infinitely into immortal
ity bothers Borges, as witnessed in the lucid story "The Immor
tal." Here a tribune of a Roman legion seeks for immortality,
only to find its manifestation in the irrational gods who have
created the labyrinth that man calls life. These divine intelligences
are described as naked, barbaric troglodytes who must exist with
the terrible knowledge of their own immortality. Indifferent, be
cause all things happen to those who live forever, unpitying, the
immortals live in a total world of thought, never speaking,
moving, nor in reality living. Nothing holds any value because
nothing is unique and will not happen over and over again. An
existence equatable to hell, the ultimate search of the immortals
becomes one for the river that can again grant mortality and
death.
Thus, Borgesian man exists in a labyrinth he can neither
understand nor control. Neither can he define nor duplicate the
supreme powers that fashioned it. Life is neither orderer nor
rational, and man cannot make it so. To strive for such an impos

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 32 LATINAMERICANLITERARYREVIEW

sibility, to seek to unravel the eternal enigma, is to defile and

challenge the sacred, to commit heresy. This recurring motif
throughout Borges' works, in all its infinite variations, stems
from the same basic root, the usurpation of divine power by man.
Whether the heretic tries to unveil the name of god or assumes the
actual power of creation, he violates the maze of mortality by
attempting to imitate the attributes of a deity who reigns in
seeming confusion and chaos. In such a maze, man mustvwander
and be content to accept the whims and caprices of the labyrinth's
creators, recognizing that life's only peace lies in the knowledge
of self limitation.

Heresy and Humor

The concept of heresy hardly seems the place to find humor;

indeed the Bible, the Spanish Inquisition, and the Salem witch
trials are full of accounts testifying to the serious nature and
severity of punishment for those accused, convicted or even

suspected of heresy. The history of the world contains numerous

instances of injustices performed in the name of protecting society
from what at the time was deemed heretical behavior. Yet
through Borges' skeptical intellect and ability to see the world
with new light, the possibility of subdued laugther does exist.
Humor in heresy rarely produces belly-splitting guffaws; neither is
it explicit in the story. As an element of audience involvement,
the reader must mentally carry the story to conclusion, wherein he
may discover elements of wit and humor. In this fashion the
reader is placed in a position superior to the story and enjoys the
advantage of chuckling at human foible; such humor usually
arises from the final disposition of major characters. L?nrott's
extermination is more comic than tragic; by delving into mysteries
he weaves his own death web. Pierre Menard's heretical attempts
to be Cervantes and re-write his works evoke an ironical humor
in Latin American literature. Funes achieves near
unparalleled
omniscience through perfect memory but in so doing destroys
himself. The dreamer ("The Secret Miracle") creates man in his
own image but is mockingly denied the crowning achievement of
death and is hopelessly condemned to immortality. The most
obvious element of humor confronting the reader is satire, wherein
Borges turns from his philosophical concepts of the universe to
reconcile himself with the mundane and somewhat artificial
complexities of the life that surrounds. Overtly conscious of the
frailty of man-made institutions, Borges seeks through laughter
not so much to tear them down as to inspire their reexamination
or renovation.

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 HERESYAS MOTIF INTHE SHORT STORIESOF BORGES 33

"Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth," evokes

such revision. The heresy in this work (building an unsolvable
labyrinth), is also an element of humor, for in recounting the
story, it becomes obvious that while attempting to clarify the
circumstances surrounding King Zaid, the two intellectuals wind
up hopelessly muddling the whole affair. Borges' dramatic blend
ing of satire with overstatement, is comparable to a small child
possessed of an over-grown imagination. Upon further interroga
tion the child supplies necessary facts (Borges even supplies false
historical data) which are very clear and distinguishable to him
but which leave the listener completely perplexed. Borges em
ploys this technique of parody and humor in heresy to further
develop his well-known theme of the ambiguity of reality and the
false man has placed on "information."5 Borges has
importance
observed that "when I wrote 'Ibn Hakkan' it became a cross
between a permissible detective story and a caricature of one. The
more I worked on it... the stronger my need to parody. What I
ended up with I hope will be read for its humor."6
By contrast, "The Immortals" employs a humor based on
understatement. Commenting on this work Borges admits: "Bioy
and I had invented a new way of telling gruesome and uncanny
tales. It
lay in understanding grimness the and essential horror
while playing up certain humorous ? a kind of graft
aspects
between Alfred Hitchcock and the Marx Brothers."7 Heresy here
pokes fun at the commercial sale of immortality, an immortality
so estranged from its usual context that it becomes revolting and
undesirable. The element of horror, the desired effect in the story,
is emphasized by the use of a heretical theme combined with
humorous understatement. The highlight of humor is the used
car-salesman jargon directed at the successful marketing of a
grotesque "immortality."
Borges himself, the unashamed creator of new, deity-challeng
ing literary worlds, may also be considered a heresiarch; he would
take delight in such a classification. Humor in his works serves to
extend and expand the results of heresy; laughter and smiles in
this very serious world compound the effects of defiling the
sacred. By telling a story with diverse possibilities Borges calls
attention to the vain importance that man has placed on certain
artificial "truths." As previously noted, humor may arise through

5 In
private conversations with the authors as well as in recent interviews, Borges
has commented on the contemporary world: "We frequently abandon wisdom for
knowledge, and too often, knowledge for mere information, the accumulation of
data."
6 The Aleph and Other Stories, New York, Dutton,
"Commentaries," 1933-1969.
1970, p. 274.
7
Ibid, p. 279.

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 34 LATINAMERICANLITERARYREVIEW

reader afterthought, rather than the intrinsic situation of the story.

One of Borges' greatest concerns is to cause man to recognize the
folly of his present existence, of times through humorous exposi
tion of life and the human condition.

The Heretical Character

Challenging the structure of the universe, competing with

God by fashioning artificial labyrinths, attempting to control
time, or even creating a golem-being, Borges' heretics end in
frustration and death. No one is allowed to enjoy the fullness of
realization; for to do so would place him above the "divine" that
seems to gently hover over the author's prose. Yet no one is censured
by moralistic divinity nor burned in the fires of the Inquisition;
the heretic himself works out his own punishment, usually
through the realization of his inability to control forces already in
progress. For some it is immediate death: L?nrott deciphers the
Kabbalistic labyrinth only to trap himself before his killer's gun;
Villari ("The Waiting") unsuccessfully attempts to dream away
reality as well as his killers. Others drag themselves through the
drawn-out process of impending death, unable to alter the future
any longer: Hladik ("The Secret Miracle") completes his mental
drama, triggering his own death bullets; the king of Babylon
stumbles alone through the choking desert, a slow agonizing
death. The creator of a dreamed off-spring seeks the crown and
freedom of death only to realize, an echo of old Gnostic belief,
that he too is only dreamed and hence frustratingly condemned
to immortality. The heretical knowledge that an Aleph (concen
tration of all time and space into one point) does exist only
frustrates and saddens the protagonist. Tzinac?n finally unravels
the labyrinthal mysteries on the jaguar's skin but cannot act on his
knowledge. The realization of help-lessness and the inability to
modify existence are the most characteristic frustrations: "drunk
with insomnia and vertiginous dialectic, Nils Runeberg wandered
through the streets of Malm?, begging at the top of his voice that
he might be granted the grace of joining his Redeemer in Hell"
("Three Versions of Judas," Labyrinths, 100); he soon dies
ignominiously, victim of a heart attack.
Intellectual heresy, as practised by Borges' creation, is a
lonely occupation. Shutting himself off from others the heretic is
left alone to ply his trade: Abenjac?n hides in a crimson labyrinth
of his own making; Dahlmann ("The South"), seeking to control
the manner in which he dies, ends his life in a dingy hospital
room (or on a lonely plain); Tzinac?n exhausts life in a dungeon
pit. Runeberg's dissenting writings cut him off from all possible

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 HERESYAS MOTIF INTHE SHORT STORIESOF BORGES 35

communication with others. Yet despite their forced isolation,

the reader perceives that these characters are the real "heroes" of
Borges' created worlds. They have chosen to not accept the divine
scheme, rather to delve into exciting mysteries, to attempt to
exert control over the future, to order an apparent chaos. They are
the Doers, the Makers, Borges, "el hacedor," not content with
the world of darkness that settles around them. Yet their discon
tent leads only to frustration and death and as the narrator of
"The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths" tersely concludes,
"Glory to Him who lives forever."
Heresy in Borges does more than merely provide an innovative
literary base; its functions are broader than simply creating
humor. For Borges heresy serves to elucidate the essence of being.
Man has a dualistic, oxymoronic nature; his inner contradictions
may at one time deny all that he has previously held sacred and
complete. Man is both hero and traitor, creator and dreamed
creation, Christ and Judas, savage and civilized, friend and
assassin; prisoner and priest. Heretical belief and practice de
monstrate the non-static nature of man's existence, his inherent
contradictions. Borges uses heresy to challenge rigid belief. Heresy
implies an a priori system of ideas and concepts that are true
inscrutable realities; Borges defies anything so precise and closed.
The past, life, a library, a book, man's mind, time, and the universe
have all been symbolically represented by the author as a labyr
inth. Anyone who pits his own wit or wisdom against the
labyrinth ends in frustration. Yet these labyrinth-challengers are
the author's true and tragic heroes, fighting against an uncon
trollable destiny larger than themselves.

Brigham Young University TED LYON

Sweden PJERSHANGROW

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