I’m teaching a new course on modernism and post-modernism this semester, and I’m very happy to be diving back into a few old favorites, such as Kafka and Borges. Both of these writers have a gift for frustrating the reader — they present gloriously odd situations or twisty metaphorical setups that end up confusing, delighting, and provoking. I’ll spoil just one story for you in my post today to demonstrate how you can try your hand at a mind-bending tale.
The tale I’ll look at is Borges’ “The Secret Miracle.” Like the best Borges stories, it mixes a little political intrigue with a fascinating touch of magic and myth, and also leaves the reader with profound questions. Set during the German takeover of Prague in World War II, the story follows Hladik, a Jewish writer obsessed with finishing his masterwork. He is quickly captured and sentenced to die by firing squad in the first paragraph of the story, immediately establishing a highly tense scene of waiting for death.
In the days leading up to his execution, Hladik tries to imagine his death a thousand different ways, torturing himself with the thought of it. His greatest regret is that he will not be able to finish his play. He prays to God, begging for a reprieve of just one year so that he can write it.
The morning of the scheduled execution, Hladik is taken to the appointed place. The soldiers aim and the command is given; but at just that moment, time stops. Only Hladik’s thoughts are allowed to continue, but everything else is frozen. In time he realizes he has been granted his prayer; he will have a year to create his masterwork, but it will only be in his own mind. Hladik spends the year working over the piece purely in his own thoughts. The moment he perfects it, time resumes, and he is executed.
It’s an astonishing story that manages to captivate and also to aggravate. The story stays with you, tugging on your sleeve, demanding things. Is a work of art truly complete if it only exists in the mind of its creator? Was Hladik’s “secret miracle” a blessing or a curse? That, I think, is the true nature of what is so effective in this Borges story (and in other Borges stories). The magical premise is an ambiguous one, interpretable as either blessing or curse. It makes you wonder whether the character has received a gift or is being tortured, knowing that his work will never be known.
Find a blessing/curse
That’s something that we can all learn from this story, and something we can use in our own stories. In many classic myths, the lesson is “be careful what you wish for”; you can think of something that could be a gift or a curse as well. Instead of giving your character a clear gift or curse, give them something more complex.
Question Perception
The other magnetic aspect of this story is how it plays with perception and reality. In the beginning, Hladik is able to make his own death real just by imagining it; he actually endures his own death hundreds of times because of his creative imaginings. Later, he is satisfied by the power of his own imagination; it is enough to create the work in his own mind. (I wonder, though, if I would be satisfied if I could only create my stories in my mind; would you?) The thin line between dreams and reality is always a fruitful metaphor. Think about how you can play with dreams making things real or reality informing our dreams.
Hopefully, this mind-bending Borges story will get you thinking about your own role as a creator and thinker — and hopefully you’ll be writing some mind-bending work of your own.
Thank you for this extraordinary piece, Blair. I don’t know about you, but if I were teaching a class about Borges and Kafka, I would impart my view that “Kafkaesque” has become one of the most abused words in any language. Kafka struggled to convey a vision that grew partly out of his experience as an educated, German-speaking citizen in a country or a city (Prague, then Vienna) landlocked by bigger powers in the early 20th century. But after decades of careless misuse, any bureaucratic or judicial proceeding whose workings are not clearly and simply explained, or frankly any strange phenomenon, gets tagged with blithe ignorance as “Kafkaesque.”
Clearly Kafka was on to something a little more. Just as there is more to a dream than the fact of not actually occuring, the circumstances of Kafka’s The Trial and of stories like “The Metamorphosis” are not automatically applicable to any and all bureaucratic or unusual machinations and happenings. It might be an interesting assignment to ask the class to examine its assumptions about the meaning of “Kafkaesque” and to pen an essay on the subject.
Oh, neato! I love Borges. I wrote my ‘senior thesis’ at UC Berkeley on his works. I had to make up an ‘individual major’ because I’d screwed around for 3 years & had NO prerequisites for anything.
I grouped a bunch of my classes & called my major, ‘Modern Intellectual Movements.’( ‘Movements’ was the operative word.) I used Borges as representative of this era. Mostly, though, I chose him because I enjoy his writing more than that of any other author I’ve read. I want to be challenged by ideas, I want to puzzle over the meaning of a story.
But I also love Borges because he shows one how to get by as a lazy writer: for example, he wrote many short stories that were ‘reviews’ of entire novels–which he then did not have to write. How brilliant is that?
He also wrote single paragraph ‘stories’ that were as elegant & precise as any poem.
Unfortunately, the old Borges became connected with the awful Pinochet party somehow–but I like to think Mr. B was simply old & unaware. I don’t understand how a man, who wrote what he did, could suddenly support someone like Pinochet. But–Allende DID nationalize a lot of private property & pissed off a LOT of normal people in SA. He SURELY did not deserve to be murdered by Kissinger & Pinochet! But who knows what lies & propaganda Kissinger, et al, spread in SA to whitewash that murder? Borges may have heard those lies & believed them.
BLH, I am SO pleased that you are using Borges in your class! And please write more about ‘modern’ vs ‘post-modern’ for us.
Also, what is ‘meta-fiction?’ Is that just short for ‘metaphysical fiction?’
Finally–do you like Percival Everett? I LOVE his stuff. I only just ‘found’ him as an author & have read as many of his books as I can find. “I Am Not Sidney Poitier” is a SCREAM! Just super funny–& wicked.
L&K–MaryB