<story><title>CERN day 1: rebuilding the first web browser</title><url>https://remysharp.com/2019/02/12/cern-day-1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aaronharnly</author><text>This reminds me of the wonderful short story by Jorge Luis Borges, “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”. In the story, the character attempts to authentically rewrite Cervantes’ Don Quixote — not by simply copying the known text, not even by attempting to re-live Cervantes’ life and spontaneously writing the novel just as Cervantes did, but by somehow living his own 20th century life and happening onto writing a novel that is word for word identical to Don Quixote. It’s a marvelous, impossible premise which speaks to our fantasies of creativity and fetishization of original artifacts.&lt;p&gt;“Those who have insinuated that Menard devoted his life to writing a contemporary Quixote besmirch his illustrious memory.  Pierre did not want to compose &lt;i&gt;another&lt;/i&gt; Quixote, which is surely easy enough — he wanted to compose &lt;i&gt;the&lt;/i&gt; Quixote. Nor, surely, need one be obliged to note that his goal was never a mechanical transcription of the original; he had no intention of &lt;i&gt;copying&lt;/i&gt; it. His admirable ambition was to produce a number of pages which coincided — word for word and line for line — with those of Miguel de Cervantes.”&lt;p&gt;Here’s a PDF of an English translation:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hispanlit.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;Borges-Pierre-Menard.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hispanlit.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;Borges-P...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story has some really funny sections where Borges compares a passage by Cervantes with an (identical) passage by Menard, comparing their style and meaning (which are not the same!). It&amp;#x27;s just fantastic.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nanna</author><text>This makes me think of Terry Gilligam&amp;#x27;s recent film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018), which spirals recursively into a retelling of a retelling of a retelling of a ... of Don Quixote. A mind bending film - 30 years in the making! - shame it&amp;#x27;s plagued by rights issues which prevent its general release. If it screens in a film festival near you, go see it!&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Man_Who_Killed_Don_Quixote&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;The_Man_Who_Killed_Don_Quixote&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>CERN day 1: rebuilding the first web browser</title><url>https://remysharp.com/2019/02/12/cern-day-1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>aaronharnly</author><text>This reminds me of the wonderful short story by Jorge Luis Borges, “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”. In the story, the character attempts to authentically rewrite Cervantes’ Don Quixote — not by simply copying the known text, not even by attempting to re-live Cervantes’ life and spontaneously writing the novel just as Cervantes did, but by somehow living his own 20th century life and happening onto writing a novel that is word for word identical to Don Quixote. It’s a marvelous, impossible premise which speaks to our fantasies of creativity and fetishization of original artifacts.&lt;p&gt;“Those who have insinuated that Menard devoted his life to writing a contemporary Quixote besmirch his illustrious memory.  Pierre did not want to compose &lt;i&gt;another&lt;/i&gt; Quixote, which is surely easy enough — he wanted to compose &lt;i&gt;the&lt;/i&gt; Quixote. Nor, surely, need one be obliged to note that his goal was never a mechanical transcription of the original; he had no intention of &lt;i&gt;copying&lt;/i&gt; it. His admirable ambition was to produce a number of pages which coincided — word for word and line for line — with those of Miguel de Cervantes.”&lt;p&gt;Here’s a PDF of an English translation:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hispanlit.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;Borges-Pierre-Menard.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hispanlit.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;Borges-P...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The story has some really funny sections where Borges compares a passage by Cervantes with an (identical) passage by Menard, comparing their style and meaning (which are not the same!). It&amp;#x27;s just fantastic.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>matthewwiese</author><text>I am so happy I decided to stumble into the comments section for this article. Your contribution of this short story by Borges is almost sublime in its essential similarity to the article of OP. I&amp;#x27;ve already been a fan of Borges, but I had never heard of this piece of his before. It has positively tickled all the right literary fancies for me. Thanks much for the comment, as the story was a pleasant accoutrement to my lunch!</text></comment>