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Here's a thread of Borges recommendations. I love Borges, and his short stories are especially interesting for their eclectic, yet concentric, themes. Borges writes all kinds of stories--each time, finding a new way to say that there is nothing new to say.
One of Borges' better known stories is "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," which I've translated from the Spanish here.
https://ohtimethypyramidsblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/tlon-uqbar-orbis-tertius-a-new-translation/
Borges engages in some satirical Berkeleyan world-building, which is tons of fun. Attend also to his discussion of language and rhetoric.
https://ohtimethypyramidsblog.wordpress.com/2019/07/29/tlon-uqbar-orbis-tertius-a-new-translation/
Borges engages in some satirical Berkeleyan world-building, which is tons of fun. Attend also to his discussion of language and rhetoric.
My second favorite is the also well-known "Library of Babel," translated below. This is Borges at his sincerest: language gives us the mere *illusion* of originality. Yet Borges finds a silver lining in this dismal claim: every phrase has meaning. https://ohtimethypyramidsblog.wordpress.com/2019/05/02/library-of-babel-a-new-translation/
Averroes's Search is another of my favorites (translation forthcoming, I promise!). Here, Borges is more openly satirical, examining the concepts of authorship and personal experience.
I'm a big fan of The Other Death, which is a relatively obscure one. Borges often references Virgil (the poet, unfortunately, not me 
)--in particular the famed Fourth Eclogue, likely the basis for Dante's study of him as well. Here, the oblique allusion is especially striking.
)--in particular the famed Fourth Eclogue, likely the basis for Dante's study of him as well. Here, the oblique allusion is especially striking.
I like to pretend not to be a fan of "normie" Borges stories like "The South" and "Emma Zunz," but I have no poker face. Obviously they're great. Emma Zunz is metal.
"On Exactitude in Science" is extremely short. It's presented as a quoted excerpt (Borges loves doing that). Like his other story Funes the Memorious, it evokes the problem of Tristram Shandy's diary, an especially critical consideration during the heyday of analytic philosophy.
"The Theologians" is very good too, and speaks to Borges' tremendous facility with philosophy and theology. Borges here discusses the hair-thin line between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and laments the twistability of quotes.
"The Garden of Forking Paths" (I've never liked this title translation, although it's now canonical. I prefer "The Garden of Paths that Diverge") is a philosophical treatment on the nature of time and history...with THE MOTHER OF ALL PLOT TWISTS!!!
Not a short story, but "Yo, Judio" is a clever and courageous essay excoriating antisemitism, affirming Borges' solidarity with his Jewish friends and colleagues, and restating his reverent fascination with the mysticism of the religious communities he so often wrote about.
"Three Versions of Judas" is another theologically-inclined story. I wrote this piece in @Athwart_Mag today on what Borges is telling us about nuance, dogma, and apologism. https://www.athwart.org/epidemic-of-nuance-borges-three-version-of-judas/
I’m grouping together “The Secret Miracle,” “Pierre Menard,” and “The Immortal” as a set of his short stories about authorship, derivation of content, and novelty of artistic work. (Might be controversial to put Secret Miracle here...maybe I’ll defend that in an essay.)
