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[proximoception]

Another one: "House of Asterion" is Borges' rewrite of Kafka's Metamorphosis, the great masterpiece of self-pity.

Comments

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

And "The Burrow" is at the root of this perhaps even more than the bug story. And maybe crossed with "Investigations of a Dog" - the denialism, the worship of a hero that won't save you? Kafka, too, had that strange worship from afar of valor and/or brute, fascistic health.

The petulant arrogance, desperate arrogance is the new element here - very un-Kafkan, un-Browningian. Sounds more like the speaker of Ozymandias. I wonder if this story might plug into Borges' theory of a secretly suicidal Hitler, dramatized also in "Deutsches Requiem". Can't remember the date - must be sometime mid-'40s though.

Might even work as a reversal of "Before the Law" - someone whose only purpose is to be defeated.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Me to me: Nothing is more Browning-y than a speaker's bluster, moron.