The plan that Menard decided upon was "to go on being Pierre Menard and to reach the Quixote through the experiences of Pierre Menard." "'My undertaking is not difficult, essentially,"' Menard wrote to the narrator. "'I should only have to be immortal to carry it out."' But this self-absorbed posturing conceals yet another contradiction. Since it's impossible—physically, not logically this time— to be immortal, the "undertaking" is just the opposite of "essentially easy," and Menard, like the narrator, is anything but rational for brushing aside the contradiction as of little moment. Besides, it's not at all clear that immortality would guarantee completion of the task. If the task is logically impossible (given Menard's methods), then eternity guarantees only never-ending frustration.

The narrator is not essentially different from Menard. He shares his delusions of literary grandeur, and prefers specious but personally satisfying rationalization to common...