TERRA FIRMA: LEARNING FROM THE MASTERS — WRESTLING WITH MENTORS
MENTOR #1: JORGE LUIS BORGES There is, in one person, a strange sea within. Every time you pick up one of his short stories, or read through one of his poems, you feel like you’re setting forth on an epic journey to mysterious, undiscovered lands. (I’m still freaking out about Hampton Sides’ fabulous The Wide Wide Sea , where Captain Cook is sailing hither and yon, from darn near pole to pole, in this wooden ship—a wooden world, actually—encountering new peoples, sometimes hostile, almost always magical, and moving through these uncharted spaces as if he were mapping the universe!) That one person? Jorge Luis Borges. I have learned more about mystery and magical moments from him than from almost anyone. Here is a poet whose poems can read like a novel, a short-story prose master whose stories can read like poems. Borges enters mental climes that are almost always uncharted. Think of it! His short stories unfold like novels, and he is careful—or perhaps un-careful —to unfold his tales w...
