Both stories I read over the weekend (“Theme of the Traitor and Hero” and the “Death and the Compass”) were particularly interesting. One concept that really stood out to me in the “Theme of the Traitor and Hero” was when the narrator says the following: “That history should have imitated history was already sufficiently marvelous; that history should imitate literature is inconceivable,” (Borges 125). I thought this idea to be particularly fascinating, but wondered about the validity of the statement. Don’t people “imitate” literature each time a movie or play is made based on a book? In fact, in the movie Sam posted, Jonathan Safran Foer is essentially “imitating” his own literature (and creating history) by trying to find someone with the last name “Black” in New York City, just as Oskar Schell attempted to do in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” Certainly, the idea of history imitating history is “marvelous,” but I wouldn’t say that history imitating literature is impossible. Nonetheless, the idea that Borges brings up here really got me thinking.
Since “Death and the Compass” contains many references and mentions of Judaism, I immediately thought of the Tetragrammaton (a sacred four-letter name of God that is forbidden to be written in Hebrew) when “the first letter of the Name” is uttered after Rabbi Yarmolinsky is killed. After the third crime, one of the murderer’s harlequins wrote that “the last of the letters of the Name has been spoken,” (134), indicating that there were only three letters in this secret name. Since the number three is very important in Christianity, especially with the Holy Trinity, I thought Borges may have been trying to mix Jewish and Christian ideas at that point in the story. However, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Borges is strictly referring to Judaism. Based on the fact that the first three men to die all were Jewish, and that the Jewish tradition of counting days and the Tetragramaton are mentioned in this story, I wondered about Borges’ connection to Judaism. Was Borges trying to suggest that being Jewish or simply having ties to Judaism (as Lonnrot did through studying Jewish texts) resulted in an unavoidable death? Around the time of the Holocaust, which is when Borges wrote this story, that unfortunately must have been a widely held belief among people. Regardless of his motives, it is clear that Borges has considerable knowledge of Judaism. Upon quick research, I found out that Borges proudly tried to be a Jew and connect with Judaism several times throughout his life, even though he could not find any Jewish family or ancestors. While Jonathan Safran Foer likely appreciated many if not all of Borges’ stories, I wouldn’t be surprised if the “Death and the Compass” was one of his favorites.
To add on to the idea of history- the conversation in class we had about Borges's view on history as shown in "Theme of the Traitor and Hero" was particularly interesting. He challenges the traditional definition of history (which is usually known as real events that have taken place- solid facts). His description of the setting of the story is extremely vague. This provoked the question is something still historical if the facts are not all in place, or necessarily true?
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