How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #1
"[T]he clocks chimed the hour of the inescapable game; the dreamer was running across the sand of a desert in the rain, but he could recall neither the figures nor the rules of chess. At that point, Hladik awoke. The din of the rain and the terrible clocks ceased." (1)
Starting a story with dreams really puts us in alternate reality mode, don't you think? And this dream in particular sounds super ominous – we're pretty sure this whole thing won't end well.
Quote #2
Each enactment lasted several seconds; when the circle was closed, Hladik would return, unendingly, to the shivering eve of his death. (3)
Eek! The countless death-imaginations that Jaromir experiences in his mind are almost worse than the actual execution.
Quote #3
Then it occurred to him that reality seldom coincides with the way we envision it beforehand; he inferred, with perverse logic, that to for see any particular detail is in fact to prevent its happening. (3)
Jaromir starts to play with the idea of fate in his head, and attempts to control his future by a process of elimination: if he can imagine it, it probably won't happen. Do you think his logic makes sense?
Quote #4
He knew that time was rushing toward the morning of March 29; he reasoned aloud: It is now the night of the twenty-second; so long as this night and six more last I am invulnerable, immortal. (3)
Okay, folks, here's one more mental activity that our guy uses in an attempt to delay the inevitable: can he stop time with his mind by living in the moment? Hmm. This idea really highlights the subjective nature of time: if we feel like time is passing more slowly, will it? Borges never misses a moment to get deep on us.
Quote #5
The first volume documents the diverse eternities that mankind has invented, from Parmenides' static Being to Hinton's modifiable past; the second denies (with Francis Bradley) that all the events of the universe constitute a temporal series. (4)
Jaromir's book, A Vindication of Eternity, deals with a lot of different perceptions of time. It's amazing the way Borges crams so many complex ideas into one tiny sentence: Is time static? Can we change the past? Do events create a temporal series of cause and effect? Whew, we're pooped just thinking about thinking about these things.
Quote #6
It argues that the number of humankind's possible experiences is not infinite, and that a single "repetition" is sufficient to prove that time is a fallacy. …Unfortunately, no less fallacious are the arguments that prove that fallacy. (4)
This is a classic Borgesian move: he throws out an idea, and then gives us its contradiction. This way, he gives us a whole lot to think about, but doesn't close off any possibilities.
Quote #7
This play observed the unities of time, place, and action... (5)
Borges is probably making a reference to Aristotle's Poetics here, which said that books shouldn't be so all-over-the-place that they're not unified in their plot. But Borges was also a big fan of Ludovico Ariosto, whose most famous work, Orlando Furioso, got a lot of flack for not following Aristotle's rules. Do you think Borges abides by the Poetics?
Quote #8
The play has not taken place; it is the circular delirium that Kubin endlessly experiences and reexperiences. (5)
Circular delirium, hmm. Sounds familiar, don't you think? And not because it could totally be the name of a Jamiroquai song. Actually, Jaromir himself is experiencing a kind of circular delirium as he thinks about all the ways in which he might die.
Quote #9
If, he prayed, I do somehow exist, if I am not one of Thy repetitions or errata, then I exist as the author of The Enemies. (6)
This sentence really packs a deep ol' punch. In Jaromir's mind, the existence of God is a given, no questions asked. His own existence, on the other hand, is what's in doubt. In other words, God is not a projection of Jaromir's imagination – it's the other way around. But Jaromir, of course, imagines the existence of other characters, like those in his play. So does that make Jaromir God to his characters?
Quote #10
God had performed for him a secret miracle: the German bullet would kill him, at the determined hour, but in Hladik's mind a year would pass between the order to fire and the discharge of the rifles. (11)
You know what's funny? Out of all the complex interpretations of time in this story, this one actually seems the most straightforward.