Funes the Memorious is a short story written by Jorge Luis Borges. Released in 1942, it is the ninth story in Borges' collection Ficciones and tells of a man given the ability to remember everything.
Characters[]
- Jose Luis Borges - the narrator, a fictionalized version of the author
- Ireneo Funes
- Bernardo Haedo - Borges' cousin
Plot[]
In 1884, Borges visited the city of Fray Bentos in Uruguay alongside his cousin Bernardo Haedo as a storm approached. During this, the two of them encountered a teenage boy named Ireneo Funes. Bernardo asks the boy what time it is, and Ireneo recalls his name and the time with perfect accuracy.
Three years later, Borges returns to Fray Bentos to study Latin. While there, he learns that Ireneo has been crippled in a horseriding accident. Shortly after this, Ireneo sends a note asking for some of Borges' texts in Latin along with a dictionary. Though unnerved by this, Borges complies to this request. A few days later, he receives a telegraph stating that his father has fallen ill. While preparing to return to Buenos Aires, Borges remembers the Latin texts he gave to Ireneo and visits his house.
Borges finds Ireneo on the patio. On noticing Borges, Ireneo speaks to him in perfect Latin - reciting a line from Pliny's Historia Naturalis. It is revealed that the accident gave Ireneo a perfect memory. He is able to perceive all things in perfect detail and clarity - on looking at a wine glass, he can view the history of the bottle and even the grapes that make up the wine. Due to his crippled state, Ireneo has effectively been left alone with his memory and spends most of his time trying to explore and elaborate on his memory - trying to recreate an entire day in perfect detail from his own memory and trying to form a new system of ennumerations for numbers (giving each a new individual name). His extreme skill does come with a caveat - Ireneo is completely unable to view objects in abstraction. The world of Ireneo Funes is made up of a series of nigh-infinite and "interolerably uncountable" details. He has also been driven to insomnia due to the sheer amount of detail that he remembers.
At this time, Ireneo was only nineteen years old. Two years later, Ireneo dies of a pulmonary congestion.
Sources[]
- Wikipedia