I'm halfway through my first semester at Stonecoast. Before starting the program I had ideas of what an MFA program would be like, and the reality has been pretty consistent. The workflow during the semester has been manageable. However, this mid-semester point is a bit painful.

I am feeling a little overwhelmed with the combination of being hit by my busiest time of the year at work, the need to produce 3 new stories, revise last month's story, and write 2 annotations. However, if I space all of this work out, it will be fine.

One of the things the I love about Stonecoast is the reading list & annotation writing because I'm receiving wide exposure to literature that I have not yet read or may have otherwise overlooked. For example, I just finished reading Jorge Luis Borges collection Fictions and the anthology Polyphony 6.

One of the Borges stories was "The Library of Babel" which was phenomenal. It is a wonderful example of a magical realism story. I'm not sure why I'd never read the story before, but I'm sure glad I did. Not only is it a splendid example of a well-written piece of prose, but it's highly imaginative without ever losing its credibility. The story feels true from beginning to end. "Babel" is also a poignant metaphor of humanity's struggle to find purpose and meaning within the universe.

By chance, I also read Polyphony 6 since Jim wanted me to read one of the Polyphony anthologies. The first story in Polyphony 6 is "The Library of Pi" written by Ray Vukcevich. If I had not just finished reading "Babel," I would have completely missed the homage to Borges.

I always find this type of discovery a little nerve-wracking because I would have completely missed some of the hidden meanings in "Pi," if I have not read "Babel". Vukcevich made some clever tie-ins with "Babel" that drew heavily upon the creative concept of Borges story. Both "Pi" and "Babel" operate on the theory that everything that could ever be expressed (in any language and any form) was contained in the digits of pi and in the books of the Library. Both stories also included a Librarian of sorts that was analogous to god in that he/she had direct knowledge of where/how to find information within pi and within the Library. It is this similarity between the two stories and how they unfold that make the comparison so interesting.

If you're looking for some interesting reading, I would highly recommend reading "The Library of Babel" and "The Library of Pi" together.