Man, I almost forgot about two incredible birthdays happening today!! Not only is it the b-day of our bass player Doug (happy birthday Doug!!), but it is also the 110th birthday of one of the all-time great writers, Jorge Luis Borges!!

Borges was one of the first major post-modern authors, and, although his stories are full of allusions and profound ideas, he is also one of the funniest authors I have ever read (although his sense of humor may not appeal to everyone). Plus, he only wrote short stories, so you can try him out without wasting too much time!

Borges had a strange relationship with modern authors in that, while he had great respect for many of them (especially Joyce, by whom he was obviously influenced), he didn't understand why their books needed to be so long! In fact, one of his most characteristic strategies was to imagine that a large book had already been written, and then write a literary analysis of it!

I could write a lot about Borges, whom I loooooove, but here's a taste of his style. Writing about an author who admired Cervantes enough to try to emulate him, Borges remarks:

"Initially, Menard's method was to be relatively simple: Learn Spanish, return to Catholicism, fight against the Moor or Turk, forget the history of Europe from 1602 to 1918 - be Miguel de Cervantes. Pierre Menard weighed this course...but he discarded it as too easy."

Again, maybe not for everyone, but if you're interested, try the following stories:

The Garden of Forking Paths

Death and the Compass

The Aleph

Feliz cumpleaños Maestro!!!