Borges, the Other Borges, and the Digital Borges

     The translation of "La Duración del Infierno" has been a tough one.  Because this essay is one of Jorge Luis Borges' early writings, the style and grammar of the sentences can be complex and baroque.  I am almost done with the translation though, and I want to publicly thank my friend Joshua Adachi for reading it and giving me feedback.  He's noted the areas in which my translation seems convoluted and incomprehensible and areas in which the tone doesn't match the rest of the essay.  Of course if there are still any problems with the translation, and I'm sure there will be, I am completely responsible for them.

     For now I've decided to post some YouTube videos related to "El Libro de Arena."  As you may guess, there is a whole digital culture out there dedicated to Borges, and I seem to have tapped into it by writing this blog.  If Borges differentiated between himself as the person who lived day to day and the other Borges who was a celebrity writer, he might have nonetheless been surprised to hear that there is a virtual, digital version of him out there, and that all these constituent elements of his digital identity—the Borges fan art on DeviantArt, the video versions and extrapolations of his stories on YouTube, and the transcriptions of his writings into HTML—can become, as Josh tells me, an object of study in itself: the anthropology and sociology of the digital cult of Borges.

     The following short film is an adaptation of "El Libro de Arena."  The film is written and directed by Snigdhendu Bhattacharya and is called "The Sandbook."  I am impressed by the creativity and time dedicated to create the central prop (character?) of the film—the Book of Sand.  Enjoy.