Lecture 1 & 2 - Pierre Menard, Author of Quixote

Pierre Menard, Author of Quixote. simply a joke for anyone who might choose to belive it or an extravagant play on the nature of words and believability?
upon first reading this piece, i belived it nothing more than an elaborate joke that simply got funnier the more effort it seem that was put in to the writting. however, the more you learn about the context in which it was written, the more meaning can be dirived from the work itself (and not just for the sake of it). looking at the history not just of the author the himself (borges) and the author himself (menard) the translating of it can not only show meaning in the nature of beliving autoritivly written work, but might also leave borges laughing in his grave at all of us for simply discussing it.