SmorgasBorges: The Cruel Redeemer Lazarus Morell
[I'm attempting to write a quick summary of every Borges story I read from now on. I was introduced to this author only a couple of years ago, and I wasn't a Lit major in college so don't expect anything erudite.
Why I think Borges is a good author: I don't have the attention span to read entire books. I have had a life-long battle with TL;DR. Unfortunately I also like stories that include really big ideas, the kind that usually take a long time to explain.
Borges' big (twisted, maze-like) ideas for stories and extreme economy of words has a solid track record of blowing my mind in twelve pages or less.
I tend to forget things unless I write them down, so I figured I'd share what I remember.
His stories are mostly published in collections. The one I'm starting with is Collected Fictions.
I couldn't think of a good name for this (hopefully) series, so I'm calling it SmorgasBorges instead.]
First up is “The Cruel Redeemer Lazarus Morell”
This story takes place during the days of slavery in the south. Lazarus is a criminal mastermind who has a loyal following of about 1000. Sort of like a mafia boss. Their racket is truly wicked.
Lazarus has “Strikers” whose mission is to offer freedom to slaves who wish to escape. The slave is told that if he runs away from his current master and lets the the Striker sell him to another master, the Striker will help him escape again and then they’ll split the money from his sale. Sounds good right? Get your freedom and some cash.
The deal, of course, is raw.
They don’t offer to just let him go free on the second “escape.” They say they need more money for unanticipated expenses that suddenly came up, so they have to sell him again. The slave would eventually try to escape on his own, only to be recaptured and beaten. Eventually the Strikers would give the slave his final freedom.
Profiting from crushing a slave’s hope for freedom is particularly cruel when you have an active hand in instilling that hope.
But Lazarus’ grade-A douchebaggery doesn’t stop there. By law, when a slave owner posts a reward for a runaway slave, anybody can claim him. So he’d wait until the reward was posted before trying to sell the slave again. That way it wasn’t a crime, just a breach of etiquette for him to sell the slave to another master.
He does a few more incredibly awful things in this story but that’s the one that gets the most description.
Good idea for a series. Maybe I’ll copy the theme. But given the pronounciation of ‘Borges’, I’ll call my series, ‘BorgesForays’.
Gordon Mohr
8 Dec 08 at 1:17 am
i wish i read more. Hopefully, i’ll loose all signal when things swap ove digitally and my lack of t.v. will foster more reading on my part. till then ill have to live vicariously.
MOOBS
9 Dec 08 at 8:21 am