Comments on: Does anyone come close to Borges in the field of very short fiction?

Question: Does anyone come close to Borges in the field of very short fiction?

jack_mo — Tue, 16 May 2006 17:41:31 -0800

Has anyone written and published very brief, dense prose works akin to Borges' ficciones, and are they any good?

I'm not really fussed about style or content, but other than Bolesław Prus, I can't think of anyone else who has succesfully used the very short form (and he went on a bit, comparatively speaking).

To clarify: epigrams, vignettes and extremely short fiction (like Hemingway's For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.) don't count. And I'm not sure about 'flash fiction' which, in my experience, tends to be overly concerned with squeezing the usual elements of a short story into a shorter word count, though that sort of thing might count if it can bear the weight of a comparison to Borges... if you've read him, you'll know what I'm after, I suppose.

By: sophie

sophie — Tue, 16 May 2006 17:55:09 -0800

You might try the Encyclopedia of the Dead by Danilo Kis. His short story style was heavily influenced by Borges, and the stuff in this book is quite good, particularly the title story and "the Sleepers."

By: Marquis

Marquis — Tue, 16 May 2006 18:00:21 -0800

Kafka wrote excellent, very short and vaguely allegorical pieces, which were certainly influential to Borges. They're also by far my favourite of Kafka's works.

By: anjamu

anjamu — Tue, 16 May 2006 18:19:30 -0800

You might like the work of Luisa Valenzuela, another Argentine.

If you read Spanish, try "Brevs," which collects all of her short fiction.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:01:58 -0800

Italo Calvino
- If On A Winter's Night a Traveler
- Invisible Cities
Stanislaw Lem
- Tales of Pirx The Pilot
Alasdair Grey
- Unlikely Stories, Mostly [some short, some not so short]

They're not very short, but they are short. I'm also partial to Donald Barthelme who writes short and long stories. Here are two short ones that I enjoy: The Great Hug and The Game. His topics are more human interest and less language-of-the-mind.

I also think Richard Brautigan is good at short stories dense with meaning, but they have an airiness to them that is not at all like Borges.

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:14:28 -0800

Posted this in the other thread before I saw this, but Fredric Brown's quite good, if you like science fiction.

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:20:11 -0800

I would recommend some of the Oulipo writers, specifically Harry Mathews (maybe his Singular Pleasures ?).

Also, Lydia Davis is very good at producing the kind of dense, short stories you are thinking of.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:33:10 -0800

Donald Barthelme!

Also, seconded on the Kafka.

By: scarylarry

scarylarry — Tue, 16 May 2006 20:34:19 -0800

Cortazar's Cronopios and Famas is less widely available in translation than many of his other books, but it's brilliant, and I think close to what you're looking for. The first third of the book consists in more- and less-fantastic 'instructions' for everyday actions, such as 'how to cry.' Always surprising, Cortazar can enliven anything.

I second the Alasdair Gray recommendation, though I'm not sure it meets your request as well as some other books suggested here. Read Lanark if you haven't, even though it's quite the opposite of what you're looking for. Then 1982, Janine. Then everything else.

By: signal

signal — Tue, 16 May 2006 21:01:03 -0800

Kafka-Cortazar-Borges.

By: zadcat

zadcat — Tue, 16 May 2006 21:17:51 -0800

It's a little obscure, but The Complete Butcher's Tales by Rikki Ducornet is in a similar vein.

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Wed, 17 May 2006 00:37:56 -0800

Some of the pieces in the collection The Second Book by the Bosnian writer Muharem Bazdulj are both influenced by Borges, and have a Borgesian weight to them. Very different, but brief and intense, are the pieces in Ballard's Atrocity Exhibition.

By: anotherpanacea

anotherpanacea — Wed, 17 May 2006 01:18:19 -0800

You might look at Maurice Blanchot, especially The Writing of the Disaster or The Gaze of Orpheus. However, both of those are literary/philosophical/critical, so maybe you'd prefer Thomas the Obscure or Vicious Circles, which are straight prose pieces in small dollops.

I second Lydia Davis (who translates Blanchot, so there you go) and I'll third, fourth, and fifth Italo Calvino. His Cosmicomics is a mix of Borges and quantum physics, but Invisible Cities is an exquisite piece of literature.

By: EiderDuck

EiderDuck — Wed, 17 May 2006 06:14:44 -0800

Stanislaw Lem is often considered to be influenced by Borges. I'm partial to The Cyberiad and The Star Diaries, one of the books based on the Ijon Tichy character.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Wed, 17 May 2006 07:34:18 -0800

angela carter is renowned for her short work. largely magical realist stuff.

should I mention bradbury? i'm a fan, but dense doesn't describe his work.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Wed, 17 May 2006 09:42:29 -0800

How odd, most of this page bears a striking resemblance to my bookshelves. Perhaps I've already found what I was looking for without realising it (silly of me to forget Lem, inexcusable to forget Calvino and Kafka.)

Read Lanark if you haven't, even though it's quite the opposite of what you're looking for. Then 1982, Janine. Then everything else.

Have done, even the dry pamphlets on Scottish independence! (I live in the West End of Glasgow, where you are practically required by law to read the complete works of Mr. Grey, and can't turn a corner without bumping into him and his wife, or one of his murals. Truly a remarkable man, and a lovely bloke, too - can't think of many authors who'd take such delight in talking about art and ideas with passers-by who say hello.)

Anyway, thanks awfully for all the suggestions - I'm off to investigate, especially Bazdulj, Cortazar and Mathews, who all sound right up my street.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Wed, 17 May 2006 09:46:10 -0800

Oop - and Blanchot, too.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 18 May 2006 06:12:59 -0800

Diane Williams and Ben Marcus (The Age of Wire and String) both have books that meet this description published by Dalkey Archive Press. In both cases their writing is very precise and it often takes attention to understand what is going on.