"To read Borges is to have your head squeezed by lemons," said a friend of mine recommending mind-bending titles to me.
What did I know back then? What do I know now?
Borges is like a haunted house. You dread entering into it, but curiously enough, you do enter. And once you're in, you're trapped for good.
The Form of the Sword is a short story from Ficciones. It's about an Irishman recalling the events of how he got the scar on his face... with a twist.
[spoilers ahead]
The way I read it, I believe it's a story about guilt and how it metaphorphs the guilty person into someone they are not, sometimes, into their complete opposite. We can see why Borges chose this particular way to tell the story, to let the narrator tell his own story through the eyes of someone else. It's a sensible technique to use for storytelling when it comes to guilt and self-disgust.
What I didn't like about the story is how straightforward it ended. It could've been done subtly for a doubled effect.
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