Abstract
This chapter follows the political thread that runs through the story, interrogating its purpose as a didactic tool. Renunciation stories are told to kings in an attempt to control or mitigate their tyrannical behavior. The king-and-ascetic dialogue sets up a confrontation between power and authority, which paradoxically the king loses to a powerless adversary. This chapter explores how Renunciation stories can be used to achieve political goals, with renouncer figures serving as instruments of awareness in political genres—fables or mirrors for princes. The discussion reaches beyond Borges to a constellation of stories from the Borgesian hypertext (from Burton’s hermit trilogy in the 1001 Nights to Victorian renouncer stories) that complicate the pen-vs-sword problem. Ultimately, Renunciation stories raise the bigger questions of the power of storytelling and the possibility of truth-telling that were also central preoccupations for Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault. It also reassesses Borges’s ambiguous position against this rich political tradition.
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Notes
- 1.
“The Dialogues of Ascetic and King”, SNF 383.
- 2.
See “The Return of Diogenes as Postmodern Intellectual”, Andreas Huyssen’s Foreword to Sloterdijk ix–xxv.
- 3.
It is spun out by Plutarch 469, and recalled by Cicero 18: 518–519, among many others. It is also developed at length in Dio Chrysostom’s fourth Discourse, Michel Foucault’s main source for his analysis of the notion of parrhesia (truth telling), on which more below.
- 4.
“Diogenes ’ answer negates not only the desire for power, but the power of desire as such” (Sloterdijk 161). On the Cynic way of life, see also Kalouche 181–192.
- 5.
Kalouche 189. More on ancient cynicism in Chapter 3.
- 6.
Pizzagalli 154–160.
- 7.
Translated from the Pali by T. W. Rhys Davids: Müller (1879, vols. 35–36).
- 8.
The concluding paragraphs go further still, morphologically extending the pattern of “zero and infinity” to “a god and a dead man”, which allows Borges to read the legends of Adonis, Osiris, Tammuz, and Odin as variants on the king-and-ascetic archetype. The story of Jesus is an implicit addition to this heterogeneous list. The sonnet “Juan I, 14” provides a missing link by developing an analogy between Harun al-Rashid leaving his palace in disguise to lose himself in crowd of obscure people and the incarnation of the son of god into a humble human life (OC 2: 271).
- 9.
Sarma 3.
- 10.
On the European translation and reception of Kalila wa-Dimna , see Ballaster (2005b: 43–44).
- 11.
Ballaster (2005b: 43).
- 12.
On fables as a pedagogical genre in the Arabic tradition, see Irwin (1992: 36–50).
- 13.
Ballaster (2005a: 358).
- 14.
Robert Irwin argues that Kalila wa-Dimna is not really a mirror for princes, since the animal kings “are usually presented in an unflattering light”, contrary to the other mirrors written by Al Muqaffa, where the royal character is always a positive role model: “The animal kings tend to be capricious and stupid, and when they do act wisely it is because they have happened to take the advice of some animal wiser than themselves. For example, in Kalila wa-Dimna the lion king of the fable of ‘The Lion and the Bull’ does not act wisely or generously”. Elsewhere in the work, kings are explicitly shown as greedy, capricious, or vengeful (1992: 40). I believe, however, that negative examples can be used to equal pedagogical advantage. Thus Scheherazade’s stories feature both virtuous and evil women for Shahryar’s edification.
- 15.
On the origins and evolution of adab into a classical literary genre, and on the presence of adab spirit in the 1001 Nights, see Marzolph and van Leeuwen II: 470–472, as well as Chraïbi and Sermain’s introduction to Antoine Galland’s translation of the Nights : Galland 1: iii–ix.
- 16.
Scheherazade is the most prominent but not the only example of wise young women in the Nights. On Tawadudd and other learned virgins, see Marzolph and Van Leeuwen I: 408–410.
- 17.
“Both stories are built on the education of rulers” and “teach through the narration of stories” (Naithani 2004: 273), see also Irwin (2004: 246–257) and Ghazoul (1996: 135).
- 18.
Burton’s conclusion stresses the copying, storing and disseminating of the stories (X: 6).
- 19.
Storytelling belongs to “action”, a category defined in contradistinction to “labor” (life) and “work” (production), as something that affects the polis: Arendt (1998: 184) and Wilkinson 78. Arendt was also an admirer and shrewd reader of Karen Blixen’s stories: see Chapter 4.
- 20.
Jackson 14.
- 21.
The long narrative cycle is titled variously “The Story of the Three Calenders, Sons of Kings, and of the Five Ladies of Bagdad” (Galland /Mack 66–140) and “The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad” Burton I: 82–186; these are the two versions discussed here, as they constitute the main references for Borges.
- 22.
Amine was beaten and left gruesomely scarred by his own son: “The Story of the Three Calenders”, Galland/Mack 140.
- 23.
The Sleeper Awakened takes advantage of his day-long stint as the Caliph to punish corrupt imams: “The Story of the Sleeper Awakened”, Galland/Mack 617.
- 24.
The Caliph gets a lesson from a working-class child on how to handle theft: “The Story of Ali Cogia, a Merchant of Bagdad”, Galland/Mack 795.
- 25.
The discovery of a woman’s corpse leads to the vizir’s kitchen slave: “The Story of the Three Apples”, Galland/Mack 179.
- 26.
This is stressed by Harun al-Rashid’s vizir Giafar: “Commander of the Faithful, I take the liberty to recommend to your majesty, that this is the day which you have appointed to inform yourself of the exact government of your capital city, and the little places about it, and this occasion very opportunely presents itself to dispel those clouds which could obscure your natural gaiety” (“The Adventures of Harun al-Rashid”, Galland /Mack 727).
- 27.
Valantasis (1995: 544–552).
- 28.
On the political significance of the king-in-disguise motif in the context of the nineteenth-century serial novel, see Jullien (2009: 25–70).
- 29.
The king later forgives Williams his criticism and gives him gold (IV, 8).
- 30.
“Not all these, laid in bed majestical, / Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave, / Who with a body fill’d and vacant mind / Gets him to rest…” (Henry V, IV, 1).
- 31.
For a reading of Shakespearean Kings and Fools in the light of Cynic parrhesia , see Hershinow 807–835.
- 32.
Although the copy in the Borges family library was the rare 17-volume Luristan edition: Fishburn (2015: 96).
- 33.
The Calcutta II edition incorporated two distinct collections of fables “at some time between the 16th and the end of the 18th century”: Irwin (1992: 43). On the different editions published since the nineteenth century, see Marzolph and Van Leeuwen 2: 545.
- 34.
In contrast to prevailing readings, Mia Gerhardt mostly dismisses attempts to analyze the king’s progress toward clemency. For her, stories and frame are not interrelated (399), the stories are told in no meaningful order, and the king “rarely comments on what he has heard” (398). But this sequence of pious tales and beast fables is one such rare case when Shahryar does in fact react, strongly and meaningfully, to the stories.
- 35.
Encompassing Nights 145–153 in volume III: 114–162.
- 36.
Ballaster (2005b: 4); see also Lefkowitz 18–19.
- 37.
Irwin (1992: 50).
- 38.
The Case of the Animals (2009: 65) (Prologue). On the reception, popularity, and numerous translations of the story in Europe and Asia, see the introduction, especially 3–4.
- 39.
Irwin (2004: 252).
- 40.
Ibid. On the insertion of this animal fable (which was not part of the original core of the Nights) into later editions (in particular Calcutta II, the basis for Burton’s translation), see Irwin (1992: 49–50).
- 41.
A recent children’s edition of this story adapted the ending to better fit contemporary sensibilities: instead of animals remaining subject to men as in the original (albeit with the implicit caveat that all creatures are accountable to God), the animals win the case: the king of the Jinn orders men to change their destructive ways and behave responsibly toward nature (The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity 2005).
- 42.
A secondary theme in these stories is the importance of prayer: animals are blessed if they pray (III: 126), and killed if they don’t (III: 125, 131). Shahryar , who sometimes forgets to say his prayers before falling asleep (III: 114, Note 1), takes notice, and thanks Shahrazad for her lesson (III: 132). Thus the fables teach the king a double lesson: political (his duty toward his subjects) and religious (his duty toward God).
- 43.
The shepherd trope is widespread across cultures: in the Epistle of the Animals the king is described as caregiver and shepherd (152, 270), echoing Diogenes’s political distinction between a shepherd and a butcher. A good king, Diogenes told Alexander , should be like a shepherd, whose role “is simply to oversee, guard, and protect flocks, not, by heavens, to slaughter, butcher, and skin them… There is a world of difference between the functions of butcher and shepherd, practically the same as between monarchy and tyranny” (Dio Chrysostom 189).
- 44.
Aśvaghoṣa xxxiii–xlii. Further back still, it echoes the Indian classical tradition’s theme of asceticism as a necessary phase to be overcome: Milanetti 285–291.
- 45.
Perhaps this is why Burton chose as his epigraph for his version of the 1001 Nights a quote from the Decameron (“Niuna corrotta mente intese mai sanamente parole”), which features on the first page of his translation along with the picture of the labyrinth, and which he translated by the equivalent proverb “To the Pure All Things Are Pure” (III: 6). In the Decameron, the plague is both cause and metaphor of the societal breakdown, while the temporary retreat of the youthful characters to country villas, away from the diseased city-state, allows them playfully to transition back to its reformed version.
- 46.
On the hermit’s shift from seclusion to engagement, see Ware in Wimbush and Valantasis 4–6. The ironic observation that “those who have chosen to live outside society have always been eagerly sought out for advice on how to live within it” forms the starting point of Peter France’s Hermits (France xiii).
- 47.
Euripides 248.
- 48.
From his lectures at the Collège de France in Paris to his last lecture series, delivered at UC Berkeley in 1983 and later published under the title The Courage of Truth: Foucault (2012).
- 49.
Foucault (2012: 34). Foucault also acknowledges the fundamental ambiguity of parrhesia , which led Plato and Aristotle to view democracy and parrhesia as incompatible, since democracy does not prevent demagogues from abusing parrhesia to spread lies and flatter the people. On the link between parrhesia and democracy, see also Dyrberg 78–81.
- 50.
Quoted in Foucault (2012: 53, Note 2).
- 51.
Foucault (2012: 59).
- 52.
Ancient anecdotes staging a dialogue (and a stern lesson) between a king and a wise advisor often make the king Oriental and the advisor Greek: for example, in Herodotus’s Histories, the dialogue between the Lydian king Croesus and Solon the Athenian law-giver, or the dialogue between the Persian king Xerxes and the Spartan Demaratus (Herodotus 13–14; 449–450). On “Asiatic despotism” as an Orientalist type theorized by Western political philosophy since Aristotle, see Grosrichard 3–25.
- 53.
London 191.
- 54.
London 193. She further stresses the influence of the fables on later unorthodox writings such as the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity , whose “Case of the Animals” found its way into the Calcutta II edition of the Nights , as we saw. The fables’ pedagogical purpose is made clearer still with Al Muqaffa’s insertion of a tale of Buddhist origin, “The King and his eight dreams”, which features a courageous and outspoken adviser (London 197).
- 55.
Ballaster (2005a: 348).
- 56.
Mahfouz 222.
- 57.
Almond (1987: 393).
- 58.
Voragine 744–752; on the power of stories in hagiography, see Jouanno 61–76.
- 59.
Harpham (1987: xiii). This central thesis of Harpham’s book can be traced back to Durkheim , whose Elementary forms of religious life argued that asceticism is a necessary part of every religion and culture: Wimbush and Valantasis xxvi.
- 60.
More on the Anthony story in Chapter 3.
- 61.
Harpham (1987: 3, xiv).
- 62.
Articulating this principle, Josaphat applies Barlaam’s stories to his own case: “Josaphat said: ‘I see myself in that story, and I think you were really talking about me’” (Voragine 748).
- 63.
Harpham (1987: 95–96).
- 64.
Harpham (1987: 96).
- 65.
See Chapter 1.
- 66.
In addition to an essay, “On Oscar Wilde” (314–316), we find no fewer than eight references to Wilde in SNF alone.
- 67.
Wilde 24.
- 68.
See Angus Wilson 23–33.
- 69.
Kipling (2013: 164).
- 70.
On Victorian critique of Eastern ethics, see Philip C. Almond (1988: 111–117 and 141).
- 71.
On Kipling’s knowledge of Buddhism and appreciation of renunciatory religions, see Edmund Wilson 57 and Green 271.
- 72.
“What shall come to the boy if thou art dead?… I will return to my chela, lest he miss the way” (Kipling 1989: 337).
- 73.
Kipling was for Borges “a lifelong companion” (Weinberger, SNF 526), one of his most constant literary models, from his early childhood readings—the Just-So Stories and Kim—to the very late stories “that nobody read”, to borrow Edmund Wilson’s title (17–69). Borges praised Kipling very highly, comparing him favorably to Maupassant, James, Joyce , or Kafka (SNF 251; CF 345), and translating many of his stories, including “The Gate of the Thousand Sorrows”, “In the House of Suddhoo”, “The Finest Story in the World”, as well as several of the “Just So Stories”, in the Revista Multicolor (Kristal 2002: 34–35 and 39).
- 74.
See for instance OC IV: 327 and 377–378; SNF 250–251; Christ 266, and Borges 1981: 32.
- 75.
Borges (1981: 32).
- 76.
For instance Edmund Wilson 30, later incorporated and reassessed in Edward Said’s celebrated essay, especially 145–149.
- 77.
Said 146.
- 78.
On Borges’s presidency of SADE and other forms of his anti-Peronist cultural and political resistance, see Williamson (2007, especially 279–288).
- 79.
According to his famous autobiographical statement Borges “grew up in a garden, behind a speared railing, and in a library of unlimited English books” (Prologue to Evaristo Carriego; see Introduction, Note 6).
- 80.
Williamson (2007: 284 and 296).
- 81.
CF 458.
- 82.
Fiddian proposes a similarly palimpsestic reading of “Theme of the Traitor and the Hero” (101).
- 83.
This is Robin Fiddian’s argument: Fiddian 175. Apostol (2013) makes a similar claim for Borges as “a luminous thinker” of postcolonial politics.
- 84.
Arendt (2006: 223). Arendt’s essay postdates Borges’s Buddha essays by over a decade.
- 85.
Arendt (2006: 22).
- 86.
Wilkinson 95.
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Jullien, D. (2019). A Lesson for the King: Renunciation and Politics. In: Borges, Buddhism and World Literature. Literatures of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04717-7_2
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