The possibilities of the art of combination are not infinite, but they tend to be frightful. The Greeks engendered the chimera, a monster with heads of the lion, the dragon and the goat; the theologians of the second century, the Trinity, in which the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are inextricably tied; the Chinese zoologists, the ti-yiang, a vermilion supernatural bird, endowed with six feet and four wings, but without a face or eyes; the geometers of the nineteenth century, the hypercube, a figure with four dimensions, which encloses an infinite number of cubes and has as its faces eight cubes and twenty-four squares. Hollywood has just enriched this vain museum of horrors: by means of an artistic malignity called dubbing, it proposes monsters that combine the illustrious features of Greta Garbo with the voice of Aldonza Lorenzo.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Combining elements creatively can produce terrifying or monstrous results, as seen in myths, theology, and art.
- In plain terms
- Mixing things together often leads to scary outcomes.
- What can you take from it?
- Be cautious when blending ideas or features artificially.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What counts as a monster?
- Is dubbing really monstrous?
Another view
The quote is subjective and not all combinations are frightening.
More from Jorge Luis Borges
The central problem of novel-writing is causality.
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