"Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote''" (original Spanish title: "Pierre Menard, autor del ''Quijote''") is a short story by
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
writer
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
.
It originally appeared in Spanish in the
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
journal ''
Sur
Sur or SUR or El Sur (Spanish "the South") may refer to:
Geography
* Sur or Shur (Bible), the wilderness of Sur/Shur from the Book of Exodus
* Sur (river), a river of Bavaria, Germany
* Súr, a village in Hungary
* Sur, a district of the city of ...
'' in May 1939. The Spanish-language original was first published in book form in Borges's 1941 collection ''
El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan
"The Garden of Forking Paths" (original Spanish title: "El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan") is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It is the title story in the collection ''El jardín de senderos que se bifurc ...
'' (''The Garden of Forking Paths''), which was included in his much-reprinted ''
Ficciones
' (in English: "Fictions") is a collection of short stories by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges, originally written and published in Spanish between 1941 and 1956. Thirteen stories from ''Ficciones'' were first published by New Direc ...
'' (1944).
Plot summary
"Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote''" is written in the form of a review or literary critical piece about Pierre Menard, a fictional eccentric 20th-century French writer and polymath. It begins with a brief introduction and a listing of Menard's work.
Borges' "review" describes Menard's efforts to go beyond a mere "translation" of ''
Don Quixote'' by immersing himself so thoroughly in the work as to be able to actually "re-create" it, line for line, in the original 17th-century Spanish. Thus, Pierre Menard is often used to raise questions and discussion about the nature of
authorship,
appropriation, and
interpretation.
Analysis
"Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote''" is a form of
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
, but through the medium of fantasy, irony, and humor. His narrator/reviewer considers Menard's fragmentary ''Quixote'' (which is line-for-line identical to the original) to be much richer in allusion than
Miguel de Cervantes' "original" work because Menard's must be considered in light of world events since 1602. Cervantes, the reviewer claims, "indulges in a rather coarse opposition between tales of knighthood and the meager, provincial reality of his country". While Menard writes of the distant past ("the land of Carmen during the century of Lepanto and Lope"), in Cervantes "there are neither bands of Gypsies, conquistadors... nor ''
autos de fé''". In "
The Library of Babel
"The Library of Babel" ( es, La biblioteca de Babel) is a short story by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain ...
", Borges contemplates the opposite effect: ''impoverishment'' of a text through the means of its reproduction. In a pattern analogous to the
infinite monkey theorem
The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. In fact, the monkey would ...
, all texts are reproduced in a vast library only because complete randomness eventually reproduces all possible combinations of letters.
Both stories deal with the difficulty of creating meaning or perhaps finding or determining meaning. In the case of Quixote, the meaning depends on reader-response and/or context of the work. In the case of the Library of Babel, meaning is hard to find as any coherent works are rare. By implication the library contains all possible works. However, any work with meaning is random and not the product of human action and therefore drained of meaning. In the case of Quixote the human action of writing and reading the work affect meaning.
Borges wrote the story while recovering from a head injury. It was intended as a test to discover whether his creativity had survived the severe
septicaemia that had set in after his head wound became infected. Following its completion, Borges was satisfied that his creativity remained and thus proceeded to write the rest of the stories that later made up the book ''El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan''. As so often in his writings, the story abounds in clever references and subtle jokes. His narrator/reviewer is an arch-Catholic who remarks of the readers of a rival journal that they are "few and
Calvinist
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...
, if not
Masonic and
circumcised
Circumcision is a surgical procedure, procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin ...
". According to
Emir Rodríguez Monegal
Emir Rodríguez Monegal (28 July 1921 – 14 November 1985), born in Uruguay, was a scholar, literary critic, and editor of Latin American literature. From 1969 to 1985, Rodríguez Monegal was professor of Latin American contemporary literatur ...
and
Alastair Reid, Menard is in part "a caricature of
Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...
and
Paul Valéry
Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mus ...
... or
Miguel de Unamuno and
Enrique Larreta".
Publishing history
Two English-language translations were published more or less simultaneously in 1962: one by James E. Irby in a diverse collection of Borges works entitled ''Labyrinths''; the other by Anthony Bonner as part of a collaborative translation of the entirety of ''Ficciones'' (1962). The Bonner translation is reprinted in ''Borges, A Reader''.
Source of the name
Borges describes his Pierre Menard as the grandson of one "Louis Menard," not otherwise identified. Borges's biographer
Emir Rodríguez Monegal
Emir Rodríguez Monegal (28 July 1921 – 14 November 1985), born in Uruguay, was a scholar, literary critic, and editor of Latin American literature. From 1969 to 1985, Rodríguez Monegal was professor of Latin American contemporary literatur ...
notes that this name belonged to a real person,
Louis Ménard
Louis-Nicolas Ménard (19 October 1822 – 9 February 1901) was a French man of letters also known for his early discoveries on collodion.
Biography
He was born in Paris. His versatile genius occupied itself in turn with chemistry, poetry, paint ...
, a self-described "pagan mystic" who was observed by contemporary
Remy de Gourmont to have composed a work called ''
Prometheus Unbound'' in both French and Ancient Greek. Gourmont describes this in florid language, saying that Ménard's "ambition already seemed to penetrate Greek thought, to reconstitute the lost works of the great tragedies, and he composed a ''Prometheus Unbound'', which, for the convenience of readers, he wrote in French, but it might have been more agreeable to him to write in the language of Aeschylus, as he did at the same time."
Influence
In his foreword to P. G. Wodehouse's ''
Sunset at Blandings'',
Douglas Adams recommended the story: "You should read Jorge Luis Borges's short story 'Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote''. It’s only six pages long, and you'll be wanting to drop me a postcard to thank me for pointing it out to you." The foreword was reprinted in Adams's posthumously published collection of writings, ''
The Salmon of Doubt
''The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time'' is a wikt:posthumous, posthumous collection of previously published and unpublished material by Douglas Adams. It consists largely of essays, interviews, and newspaper/magazine colum ...
''.
In
Italo Calvino's ''
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler'' (1979) the character Silas Flannery tries to copy a "famous novel" to gain the energy from that text for his own writing, and finally he feels tempted to copy the entire novel ''
Crime and Punishment''. This technique was actually attempted by
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...
, who retyped the entirety of ''
The Great Gatsby'' when he studied at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, prior to the writing of any of his major works.
John Hodgman
John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as '' The Areas of My Expertise'', ''More Information Than You Require'', and '' That Is All'', he is known for ...
claims to have made a "controversial shot-by-shot remake" of "Pierre Menard" in the "page-a-day calendar" portion of his book ''
More Information Than You Require
''More Information Than You Require'' is a 2008 satirical almanac by John Hodgman. It is the follow-up to Hodgman's 2005 book '' The Areas of My Expertise''. It was released October 21, 2008. The full title reads:
''More Information Than You ...
'', on the date 4 December 1998. The joke references not only the recreation nature of the original short story, but also
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American film director, producer, photographer, and musician. He has earned acclaim as both an independent and mainstream filmmaker. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultur ...
's
shot-for-shot
Shot-for-shot (or shot-for-shot adaptation, shot-for-shot remake) is a way to describe a visual work that is transferred almost completely identically from the original work without much interpretation.
Production uses
In the film industry, most ...
remake of ''
Psycho'', which was released on the same date.
''
City of Glass'' by
Paul Auster
Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Broo ...
seems to be an homage to
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...
. The character Peter Stillman Snr. is obsessed with the Tower of Babel (as in
The Library of Babel
"The Library of Babel" ( es, La biblioteca de Babel) is a short story by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain ...
) and the character (as opposed to the author) named "Paul Auster" is writing an essay which discusses the "true" authorship of the Quixote.
The story is also referenced in the introduction to
Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos (; 28 April 1953 – 15 July 2003) was a Chilean novelist, short-story writer, poet and essayist. In 1999, Bolaño won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel ''Los detectives salvajes'' (''The Savage Detectives' ...
's novel ''
Distant Star'', and along with "
An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain
"An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain" (original Spanish title: "Examen de la obra de Herbert Quain") is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. It was included in the anthology ''Ficciones'', part one (''The Garden of Fo ...
" has a noticeable influence on his other works, particularly ''
Nazi Literature in the Americas
''Nazi Literature in the Americas'' ( es, La literatura nazi en América) is a work of fiction by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. It was published in 1996. Chris Andrews’ English translation was published in 2008 by New Directions and was sh ...
''.
The story is referenced in the CD notes of
Mostly Other People Do the Killing's 2014 album ''Blue'', which is an exacting replica of
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
' famous 1959 album ''
Kind of Blue
''Kind of Blue'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Co ...
''.
The translator of the novel ''The Missing Shade of Blue'' (by Jennie Erdal) into Portuguese adopted the pseudonym Pierre Menard.
The novel ''
Pale Fire'' by
Vladimir Nabokov expands the concept of the 'frame narrative' of Borges' story, expanding this conceit into a novel-length structure in which a commentator appears, at first, to be simply analyzing the work of another character (a 1000 line poem, which the novel actually features) and doing so in good faith, before it becomes increasingly difficult for the reader to separate the truth about the lives of the two characters from the manner in which the commentary begins to dominate and manipulate the meaning of the fictional author's text to tell the commentator's own story.
Much as the narrator of Borges' story offers a list of Pierre Menard's fictional publications, the novel ''
Infinite Jest'' by
David Foster Wallace contains a patience-testing list of the film credits of one of the characters, expanding the comedic possibilities of the structure of fictional references by offering both titles and sometimes-lengthy descriptions of the highly-improbable (or downright impossible) films.
The story's suggestion that the reader's sense of the meaning of any text is contingent on how they attribute the text to its presumed author (since the reader attempts to interpret the text in terms of the author's life, works, beliefs, etc. for better or worse or on to absurdity, as the story ultimately suggests) is a prefiguring of the post-structuralist turn toward the de-centering of the author (that is, the de-centering of the author as ultimate authority or anchor of a text's meaning) as argued most famously by
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
in his 1967 essay ''La Mort de l'Auteur'' ("
The Death of the Author") and by
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
in
"What is an Author?"
The story is referenced in the episode "The Balance" on the cartoon program ''
Justice League Unlimited
''Justice League Unlimited'' (''JLU'') is a 2004–2006 American superhero animated television series that was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, and ...
''. The episode originally aired on 28 May 2005. In the episode, members of the Justice League visit the Library of Tartarus where the fictional Menard's story is said to reside.
It is additionally referenced in ''
House of Leaves
''House of Leaves'' is the debut novel by American author Mark Z. Danielewski, published in March 2000 by Pantheon Books. A bestseller, it has been translated into a number of languages, and is followed by a companion piece, '' The Whalestoe Let ...
'', by
Mark Z. Danielewski
Mark Z. Danielewski (; born March 5, 1966) is an American fiction author. He is most widely known for his debut novel ''House of Leaves'' (2000), which won the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. His second novel, '' Only Revolu ...
, where Pierre Menard is made out to be a real person and an example of "exquisite variation". In the novel, a footnote by Zampanó references Pierre Menard and his "variation" on the passage beginning "... la verdad, cuya madre es la historia
tc.
Pierre Menard is credited as the author of a book which was adapted into the screenplay of the 2011 film ''
A Low Life Mythology
''A Low Life Mythology'' is a 2012 film directed by Lior Shamriz and starring Nina Fog and Johannes Hendrik Langer. It was written by the director with some improvisations by the cast and includes guest appearances by artists Hito Steyerl, Wolfgan ...
''.
The story is also referenced in TV show ''
The Good Place'', season 4, episode 13, "Whenever You're Ready", in a list of projects that character
Tahani Al Jamil is working on in the afterlife. One of her projects is described as "Write "Tahani Al Jamil's 'Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote''" ' ".
In the HBO Series ''
Los Espookys
''Los Espookys'' is an American comedy television series created by Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega, and Fred Armisen, who also star alongside Bernardo Velasco and Cassandra Ciangherotti. The series follows a group of friends trying to turn their love o ...
'', season 2, episode 3, the character Tati decides to write a novel, which consists of transcribing an audiobook of ''
Don Quixote''.
See also
* "
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a short story by the 20th-century Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story was first published in the Argentinian journal '' Sur'', May 1940. The "postscript" dated 1947 is intended to be anachronistic, se ...
"
Notes
External links
"Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote"Complete Spanish text
Commentary on "Pierre Menard, Author of the ''Quixote''"by
Beatriz Sarlo
Beatriz Sarlo (born 1942) is an Argentine literary and cultural critic. She was also founding editor of the cultural journal '' Punto de Vista'' ("Point of View"). She became an Order of Cultural Merit laureate in 2009.
Biography
Beatriz Sarlo ...
"Towards a Borgean Theory of Constitutional Interpretation"A legal take on Pierre Menard rewriting the United States Constitution, by Marco Jimenez
"Atrapados en la galería de los espejos: Hacia una poética de la lectura en Pierre Menard de Jorge Luis Borges"by Santiago Juan-Navarro.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre Menard, Author Of The Quixote
Menard, Pierre
Short stories by Jorge Luis Borges
1939 short stories
Works based on Don Quixote
Works originally published in Sur (magazine)
Postmodern literature
Metafictional works