Editing The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim (section)

==Style==
Borges's mixing of the fictional and the real, which [[Jaime Alazraki]] calls a "Borgesian device," both imparts a real feeling to the fictional, and an unreal feeling to the real.<ref name = Alazraki/>  Also, the use of a summary within a summary, and the taking of those summaries and stripping them down to expose the same principle "are a form of expressing in the structure of the story the pantheistic idea that anything is all things."<ref name = Alazraki/>

[[Naomi Lindstrom]] describes the reviewer of the detective story as "a typical Borges narrator".<ref name = Lindstrom>{{cite book|last=Lindstrom|first=Naomi|title=Jorge Luis Borges: A Study of the Short Fiction|year=1990|publisher=G.K. Hall & Co.|isbn=0-8057-8327-X|pages=[https://archive.org/details/jorgeluisborgess00lind/page/18 18–20, 22]|url=https://archive.org/details/jorgeluisborgess00lind/page/18}}</ref> At times he demonstrates great knowledge of detailed information, but at other times he cannot grasp the most basic concepts. His narrative is uncertain and inconstant. His confusion serves to emphasize the incomprehension of the main character of the fictitious book as he goes on his pilgrimage.<ref name = Lindstrom/>

Borges's use of an allegory to shed light on a detective story shows his use of religious doctrines for aesthetic value.<ref name = Alazraki/>