I mostly read (hard) sci-fi written by straight white dudes, so the tweet on the screenshot made me feel a bit defensive. In the replies and qrts people are patting themselves on the back for reading marginalized fantasy writers exclusively and this "consumption as activism" seems rad-libby to me, but maybe I'm wrong.
(reading Borges who would be considered White anywhere except the US) checkmate. I'm so enlightened
I used to love Borges but he is so fucking reactionary. Not a word about communism in any of his work but he has a short story about like a Nazi writing a play in his head while he's about to be executed. A long time ago I mentioned Borges to someone from South America once and the guy immediately said that the dude was super racist and would say things like "Africans have never achieved anything of note." Play a drinking game when you read Borges's short stories—down a shot whenever he mentions that a character has "Indian features" and is therefore indifferent to killing or being killed. As a lib I thought I understood philosophy because I read Borges's entire book of essays but its all idealistic shit, nothing about dialectical materialism is in there, not a single word. I haven't read it in awhile but I think Funes the Memorious is a great story though and I'm also partial to The Aleph. Also Borges hates Peron and Evita so, so fucking much. All I really know about those two is that Borges passionately reviled them.
I think it's about a dude being executed by Nazis, actually. Supposedly Inception is influenced by this story.
I googled around and I'm mixing up Deutsches Requiem (about an unrepentant Nazi on trial) with The Secret Miracle (about writing a play in your head before you're executed).