Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ficciones, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Investigation and Knowledge
Language and Human Consciousness
Perspective, Authorship, and Subjectivity
Infinity
Reality vs. Illusion
Summary
Analysis
Borges writes about the fictional French writer Pierre Menard, attempting to defend his literary reputation. Borges specifies that Menard’s “visible” works are “easily enumerated,” and he goes on to list those works. They include monographs, translations, sonnets, and chapters 9 and 38 of Don Quixote (along with a fragment of chapter 22). Borges admits that this sounds ridiculous, but he then describes Menard’s ambition to write Don Quixote—Menard did not wish to create some kind of anachronistic reimagining of the story, nor did he want to copy the famous novel. Rather, he wanted to write it as Miguel de Cervantes would have written it. He planned to do this based only on his memory of reading Don Quixote as a teenager and on his study of 17th-century Spanish.
Borges often uses fictional authors and literary works to explore philosophical ideas. By giving a background on the fictional Menard’s career, Borges demonstrates his commitment to this technique. This background also serves to legitimize Menard’s strange project of writing Don Quixote himself, displaying extraordinary dedication to this mission.
Themes
Borges references a letter Menard sent him. In the letter, Menard explained that, at first, he wished to imitate Cervantes and become him. However, that was too easy—Menard instead decided to arrive at Don Quixote through his own experiences. Though Menard only managed to complete two chapters in his lifetime, Borges says that he now reads the original Don Quixote imagining that Menard wrote it. While reading the novel several nights ago, for instance, he came across a chapter he knew Menard hadn’t tried to write—and yet, he recognized Menard’s style and voice in the chapter.
Borges’s fictional friendship with Menard further emphasizes his commitment to this technique of using fictional authors and works to discuss real concepts. By ascribing Quixote’s words to Menard, though Menard did not actually write the specific chapter he references, Borges highlights the impact that one person can have on one’s perception of preexisting art and literature.
Themes
Borges wonders why Menard chose Don Quixote for this project, and he remembers Menard telling him that the novel is “accidental” and “unnecessary.” In the 17th century, Menard argued, it was natural that Don Quixote would be written, as Cervantes was responding to his environment and lived experience. In the 20th century, however, the writing of that novel would not happen naturally.
By choosing to write a novel that would not happen naturally in his present time, Menard chooses to tap into the capacity for people to inhabit other times and mindsets.
Themes
At first, Menard decides to write the novel by aligning himself with Cervantes as much as possible: he learns Spanish, re-embraces his Catholicism, takes on some of Cervantes’s own political ideas. Menard tries this approach, and then deems it too easy. Thus, Menard’s aim is to arrive at Don Quixote as himself (a Frenchman in the 20th century). This approach is almost impossible, and this is why Menard, who previously read Don Quixote but does not count it as one of the more influential books in his life, is so drawn to it.
Menard’s original plan to write Don Quixote relies on getting into the mindset of the original author. The fact that he deems this easy is a testament to human adaptability. By deciding to take the more difficult route of writing Don Quixote as himself, Menard posits that it is more difficult to maintain one’s individuality than adapt to the mindset of another person.
Themes
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Borges goes on to compare the texts of the original and Menard’s version of Don Quixote side by side, highlighting some of the differences that their respective authors’ historical contexts imbue into their texts, even though the words are the exact same.
Though the words are the exact same, Borges interprets each text differently. The difference in his interpretations is tied to the cultural and historical context in which each author wrote. Thus, Borges implies that the circumstances surrounding artistic creation and authorship can impact the meaning of a novel, which doesn’t necessarily hold any kind of inherent or universal meaning.
Themes
Finally, Borges examines Menard’s motivations for recreating the novel. Menard stated that his “useless” endeavor was to prove the idea that anyone is capable of coming up with brilliant ideas—or that to think, write, and invent are as natural to man as breathing. By arriving at Don Quixote on his own, Menard renders the original Don Quixote a “palimpsest” (a manuscript with multiple layers of writing on it). Furthermore, Menard made sure that none of his work on this new Don Quixote survived him. Borges writes that he (Borges) has tried to reconstruct this work “in vain.” Ultimately, Borges argues that Menard created a new technique of reading: one that deliberately takes a text out of its original time and place and questions the nature of authorship.
Menard wishes to prove that creativity and brilliance is a human instinct. He reveres the human mind in general rather than the minds of specific artists or writers. On the whole, Menard’s project comes to function as a sort of commentary on the very act of creation, highlighting just how contextual and ephemeral the authorial process can be.
Themes
