It was Borges all along!

One of the pieces of writing advice I tend to give others and also myself is, “A perfect map of the world would be the size of the world.” Meaning that to perfectly describe every aspect of a scene in say, a novel, in total detail would take as long as living it in real time, and we cannot ask a reader of a novel about a year in the life of some people to spend a year reading it—an author makes choices of what details carry more than their own weight, and which less and can be cut. That one line, a metaphor that explains so much and is so clear, much better than the much longer explanation.

Anyway, I have been saying it for years (it is a lesson I need to keep learning) and was never able to remember who I was quoting. Maybe Douglas Adams? Maybe Neil Gaiman (I didn’t know he was a monster when I started this journey?) Privately, I sort of hoped I wasn’t quoting anyone—was I clever enough to have made this line up?

Reader, I am not—it was Jorge Luis Borges all along. There is no such quotation but the metaphor is clearly from the short story “On Exactitude in Science” (occasionally translated on “On Rigor in Science,” which I think is better, not that I’m being asked). You can read it at that link above and I think you should—the whole story is only a single paragraph and it packs in so much. I can’t tell if he was actually talking about writing or something else—I don’t know a tonne about how Borges thought. But it’s a cool piece and I’m not mad that I didn’t come up with it myself. Plus—mystery solved!

Hmm, this is a short post, a few other things:

—did you know that The Counting Crows came out with an album this year? It’s called Butter Miracle, the Complete Sweets, which is an odd name but probably makes sense if you understand what the album is about, which I don’t. I may find out with repeated listening, which I will undertake because I love the Counting Crows, and this album seems, on first (and second and third) encounters to be pretty good. I feel bad about this, I feel I should like better bands, but I like the Counting Crows and I can’t quit them and I’m glad they have a new album. There, I said it.

—Mark, talking about Trey Yesavage, said, “I have extension cords older than that guy!”

—today I saw someone riding a recumbant bike on Bathurst Street (on the sidewalk) with a toy poodle on each knee so the poodles were going up and down as he pedalled, seemingly delighted, as the bike moved along.