Cy-Borges: memories of the posthuman in the work of Jorge Luis Borges PDF
Preview Cy-Borges: memories of the posthuman in the work of Jorge Luis Borges
C Y - B O R G E S .................16927$ $$FM 11-14-0813:38:13 PS PAGE1 .................16927$ $$FM 11-14-0813:38:13 PS PAGE2 C Y - B O R G E S Memories of the Posthuman in the Work of Jorge Luis Borges Edited by Stefan Herbrechter and Ivan Callus Lewisburg BucknellUniversityPress .................16927$ $$FM 11-14-0813:38:15 PS PAGE3 (cid:2)2009byRosemontPublishing&PrintingCorp. Allrightsreserved.Authorizationtophotocopyitemsforinternalorpersonaluse,or theinternalorpersonaluseofspecificclients,isgrantedbythecopyrightowner,pro- videdthatabasefeeof$10.00,pluseightcentsperpage,percopyispaiddirectlyto the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, Massachusetts 01923.[978-0-8387-5715-4/09$10.00(cid:3)8¢pp,pc.] AssociatedUniversityPresses 2010EastparkBoulevard Cranbury,NJ08512 ThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstherequirementsoftheAmerican NationalStandardforPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibraryMaterials Z39.48-1984. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Cy-Borges:memoriesoftheposthumanintheworkofJorgeLuisBorges/editedby StefanHerbrechterandIvanCallus. p.cm. Includesindex. ISBN978-0-8387-5715-4(alk.paper) 1.Borges,JorgeLuis,1899–1986—Themes,motives. 2.Futureinliterature. 3.Technologyinliterature. I.Herbrechter,Stefan. II.Callus,Ivan,1967– III.Title. PQ7797.B635Z66985 2009 868(cid:2).6209—dc22 2008015710 printedintheunitedstatesofamerica .................16927$ $$FM 11-14-0813:38:15 PS PAGE4 Contents Preface 7 Acknowledgments 9 Editors’Note 11 Introduction:DidSomeoneSay‘‘Cy-Borges’’? 15 StefanHerbrechterandIvanCallus Borges:Post- orTranshuman? 39 FloydMerrell Babelation 60 NeilBadmington Borges,Technology,andtheSameInfiniteSubstanceasthe Night 73 DavidCiccoricco OfMirrors,Encyclopedias, andtheVirtual 88 GordonCalleja SurvivinginBorges, or,theMemoryofObjectsaftertheEnd oftheWorld 108 RubenBorg BorgesandtheTraumaof PosthumanHistory 126 JonathanBoulter ArchivalImaginings 148 MartinS.Watson Borges’sCanny Laughter:‘‘ajoyceforever’’ 164 Jean-MichelRabate´ 5 .................16927$ CNTS 11-14-0813:38:17 PS PAGE5 6 CONTENTS ‘‘TheAbysmalProblemofTime’’:Dubbing Borges’sGarden 178 PaulaRabinowitz TheUnrelatedFuture:Borges,Posthumanism,andthe TemptationsofAnalogy 198 IvanCallus NotesonContributors 219 Index 221 .................16927$ CNTS 11-14-0813:38:17 PS PAGE6 Preface Stefan Herbrechter and Ivan Callus C Y-BORGES:THISCOMPOUNDWORDSEEMSALMOSTDESTINED.PER- haps it was waiting to be coined. It strikes an unlikely but appealing connection between on the one hand the virtual worlds of cybercul- ture and posthuman vistas peopled by cyborgs and hi-tech prostheses to the human, and on the other the fictional and timeless universes evokedinthewritingsofBorges.Likeall‘‘puncepts’’—thoseexamples ofparonomasiawhich,asGregoryUlmerhasexplained,makeitpossi- ble to glimpse some profound conceptualities behind a delightful pun—Cy-Borges is therefore a term that is as productive as it is teas- ing. It is teasing because it makes us wonder what Borges, a supreme manofletters,couldhaveknownaboutthecomingofthedigital;itis productive because in the process it foregrounds a paradox, which careful readers of the writer’s work will have already discerned. For though Borges speaks scantily of technology and hardly at all of the cyberculturalfuturesthatitmakespossible,hisspeculativefictionsand other prose writings contrive glimpses of posthuman conditions that are more typically associated with work by writers like William Gib- son and Philip K. Dick, or with films like The Matrix and Minority Report.MuchofthishastodowiththewayinwhichmanyofBorges’s writingsarereallyexperimentsinhowtomakethinkabletheimpossi- ble and the unconfigurable. The posthuman, as that which reconfig- ures the actual and the possible once technology reengineers human potential and institutes a new order, is therefore everywhere in Borges. For, as we argue in our own essays in the volume, is it not the posthuman order that would make it possible to realize Borges’s conceits and inhabit infinite libraries and archives, perceive plenitude inapinprick,rememberallexperience,andreturntoroadsnottaken? On this reading, the discourse and the imagination Borges brings to bearprefigurewhattheposthumanordercouldachieve.Sanstechnol- ogy, they arrive there before it, as the very memory of the uncreated and perhaps uncreatable order that technology might just set about fashioningintheposthumanfuture. 7 .................16927$ PREF 11-14-0813:38:21 PS PAGE7 8 PREFACE Cy-Borges:MemoriesofthePosthumanintheWorkofJorgeLuisBorges concernsitselfwiththeseissues,providingunprecedentedandinnova- tive‘‘posthumanist’’readingsofsuchmajorBorgesianfictionsas‘‘The Aleph,’’‘‘TheLibraryofBabel,’’‘‘FunestheMemorious,’’‘‘TheGar- den ofForking Paths,’’ and‘‘The Circular Ruins.’’It alsothrows new light on an impressive range of comparatively uncommented Borge- sian texts. It thereby presents studies that focus on the manner in which the work of Borges proceeds to recall the posthuman to itself. Borges, it transpires, is truly the precursor whom posthumanism wouldhavehadtoinventhadhenotexisted. And that, in this book on the nature and possibility of anticipation, isperhapsall theprefatorycommentthatoughttobegiven. .................16927$ PREF 11-14-0813:38:21 PS PAGE8 Acknowledgments T HISVOLUMEEVOLVEDFROMALONGCONVERSATIONWEHADDUR- ingameetinginLeedsinlate2003, whenthepunceptualpossibilities of the term Cy-Borges were first contemplated. Since then we have benefited from conversations with a number of people who, in differ- entways,helpedustorefineourthinkingabouttheaffinitiesbetween posthumanism and the writings of Jorge Luis Borges. We would like to thank Mario Aquilina, Neil Badmington, Ruben Borg, Saviour Catania,GloriaLauri-Lucente,LaurentMilesi,ManuelaRossini,and PeterVassallo. We are also grateful to those who believed in Cy-Borges. Special thanks go to all the contributors to the volume, to Greg Clingham at Bucknell University Press, and to Julien Yoseloff at Associated Uni- versity Presses. Their continued support and patience is appreciated, as is their understanding that the time frames relating to the posthu- manarerarelystraightforward. 9 .................16927$ $ACK 11-14-0813:38:24 PS PAGE9 .................16927$ $ACK 11-14-0813:38:24 PS PAGE10
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