Borges versus Proust: Towards a combative literature

Comparative Literature, Winter 2003 by Conley, Tim

C'est qu'en general, plus le temps qui nous separe de ce que nous nous proposons est court, plus il nous semble long, parce que nous lui appliquons des mesures plus breves on simplement parce que nous songeons a le mesurer. La papaute, dit-on, compte par sieles, et peut-etre meme ne songe pas a compter, parce que son but est a l'infini. Le mien etant seulement a la distance de trois fours, je comptais par secondes, je me livrais a ces imaginations qui sont des commencements de caresses, de caresses qu'on enrage de ne pouvoir faire achever par la femme elle-meme (ces caresses-la precisement, a l'exclusion de toutes autres). Et en somme, s'il est vrai qu'en general la difficulte d'atteindre l'objet d'un desir l'accroit (la difficulte, non l'impossibilite, car cette derniere le supprime), pourtant pour un desir tout physique, la certitude qu'il sera realise a un moment prochain et determine n'est guere moins exaltante que l'incertitude; presque autant que le douse anxieux, l'absence de doute rend intolerable l'attente du plaisir infaillible parce qu'elle fait de cette attente on accomplissement innombrable et, par la frequence des representations anticipees, devise le temps en tranches aussi menues que ferait l'angoisse. (R 2:382-83)

For as a general rule, the shorter the interval that separates us from our planned objective the longer it seems to us, because we apply to it a more minute scale of measurement, or simply because it occurs to us to measure it. The Papacy, we are told, reckons by centuries and indeed may perhaps not bother to reckon time at all, since its goal is in eternity. Mine being no more than three days off, I counted by seconds, I gave myself up to those imaginings which are the adumbrations of caresses, of caresses which one itches to be able to make the woman herself reciprocate and complete-- precisely those caresses, to the exclusion of all others. And on the whole, if it is true that in general the difficulty in attaining the object of a desire enhances that desire (the difficulty, not the impossibility, for that suppresses it altogether), yet in the case of a desire that is purely physical, the certainty that it will be realised at a specific and fairly imminent point in time is not much more stirring than uncertainty; almost as much as anxious doubt, that absence of doubt makes intolerable the period of waiting for the pleasure that is bound to come, because it makes of that suspense an innumerably rehearsed accomplishment and, by the frequency of our proleptic representations, divides time into sections as minute as any that could be carved by anguished uncertainty. (M-K 2:397-98)

Even before we fall to Barthes and the postponement of jouissance we may think of Zeno and his paradox: the libertines shaft does not strike its target because of the infinite regression of fractions through which it must successively pass. It is well known that Borges is much enamored of this arch-sophistry-he calls it a jewel" (SNF 43)-but specifically as a site for debate, an invitation to argument and counter-sophistry. Though to an uninformed observer-who likewise sees no difference between this Quixote by Menard and that one by Cervantes-the respective arrows of Proust and Borges seem to be standing still, this is a false similitude. Proust's arrow continues in its flight, is always hurrying but never reaching. Thus the compounding of metaphors and transcriptions of sensations, for l'ecriture is the flight path both required of the arrow and unable to be taken. Borges's time's arrow, by contrast, has no target: it does not even think of itself as an arrow but as the idea of an arrow.