Borges needs no introduction from the likes of Mimicry. But in case you've somehow managed to miss his enigmatic train of synchronistic writings, well... what can we say? For any self-respecting "dabbler" in ahistorical history, occultism, post-modernism, mysticism and ingenious artistic/literary device, the 20th century produced nothing so thrilling as Borges' corpus. It's our impression that J.L.B. is appreciated mostly in literary and historical circles, which makes sense of course. But it's a sad testimony of the times that most modern proponents of "magic" etc. aren't instinctively drawn to what's so eloquently nailed down in Borges' works. Why, if they tolerate Eco and the Da Vinci Code, do they not flock to Borges? Approaching the subjects of Infinity, Mysticism, Myth etc in modern times isn't easy, but you've gotta wonder: have 'gnostics' really suffered such a cognitive/instinctive lapse that they have to content themselves with Theosophical Society lingo & just keep fanning those dying embers of 19th Century Idealism? And must we always turn to pseudo-Jungian neo-scientism to make ourselves feel, oh I don't know... "legitimate"? Or shall we make like Eco and make it all into a funny little jigsaw puzzle of literary device for post D&D dorkdom to chew on from smug armchairs of anal retentive-ness and fear of the irrational? Wouldn't it be nice to dispense with such tedium and just get on with it?
With Borges we are often transported from the flatland of narrative to a direct experience of the sphere-land of Visionary Geography. The only way to pull that off is to create an all-encompassing Art, which is what Borges has done with his slick & quick short-story/essay format. Funny how the tried and true old-fashioned ways (historical and fictional storytelling) persist when it comes to approaching the Infinite. One need only glance at the Zohar for lucid confirmation of this point. We recommend you don't do that actually, but it's comforting that the scattered modern mind responds well to this same technique. Borges' seemingly fractured, Microcosmic approach to the Macrocosm is well appropriate, and totally unparalleled in it's overarching success — especially when it comes to unpacking the larger-than-rational for today's ADD-afflicted readers.
Seeing that J.L.B. provides us with the closest thing we moderns have to a concrete written testimony of what we all supposedly mean when we say "the 4th dimension" (to use current lingo), it's understandable that certain science brains and literary freaks who love Blake and Joyce celebrate Borges with the same passion that some of the more clued-in Historians do. Too many of the rest of us lag behind this train. Why? Oh the usual: he's impossible to classify, hard to describe without sounding like an idiot, and coveted by various elites who seem like complete jerks... you know the story. Plus, "essays and short stories" probably doesn't sound serious or exciting enough for post-jock pseudo-intellectuals, much less all those smarmy "edgy" academics in leather jackets with their noses way up Zizek. Doubly cursed in these times, Borges didn't include enough cool looking diagrams or pretensions to "hidden knowledge" to cause certain other folks *ahem* to take notice. All we're saying, whoever you are, is put one of these Borges' collections on the back of your toilet and you'll be fucked for life.
Here are all his "fictions" and "non-fictions" collected in separate volumes, for your eternal astonishment and bewilderment. Let us pre-empt the emails we will receive promoting the merits of earlier, single editions of what is collected here with a grouchy, impatient "yeah... yeah..." . Our copies of those are dog-eared and well loved too. But give the young'uns a break, huh? Oh, and we've been saving Borges' poetry for the end of life, so having averted our eyes from it, we can't truthfully recommend it... we're saving that for Judgement Day.