#37 Thurs (7/28/22) - [OW] Piranesi and Borges, again

Acquired two new books from U of I Library:

Piranesi, The Imaginary Views (Miranda Harvey) and

Borges, The Passion of the Endless Quotation (Lisa Block de Behaar, William Egginton, tr.)


Piranesi's imaginary views would, one might think, be restricted to his Carceri d'Invenzione (Prisons of Imagination), but he also produced numerous views of Roman ruins reconstructed to what they might have looked like prior to their desolation. This slim picture book does reproduce several of the Carceri plates, with a comparison of some of the early and the revised plates. The revisions always seem both more detailed, more crammed, but also darker and heavier.  Also included are many depictions of temples, domes and fora, in gleaming, pristine grandeur. 

Having just completed Egginton's book on Cervantes, I am eager to see his translation of these critical essays on Borges by Block de Behaar.  I also need to complete the Barrenechea book as well as the Jaime Alazraki critical essays, and the Literary Philosophers.  There is so much to think about with Borges.  I also posted in RdlR a short essay from Postil Magazine called The Memory Palace of Jorge Luis Borges on the Funes fiction. This is such an apt title that I plan to steal it for my own works in future!


See also the essay "Borges and Piranesi" (OZ, Vol. 14, 1992) by Reinhold Martin.


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