Borges at Eighty: Conversations - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253166268 ISBN 13: 9780253166265

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 1982

Synopsis

The words of a genius: Borges at Eighty transcends our expectations of ordinary conversation. In these interviews with Barnstone, Dick Cavett, and Alastair Reid, Borges touches on favorite writers (Whitman, Poe, Emerson) and familiar themes labyrinths, mystic experiences, and death and always with great, throw-away humor. For example, discussing nightmares, he concludes, When I wake up, I wake to something worse. It s the astonishment of being myself. "

About this title

Review

One of the collection's most interesting aspects is the interaction of these incompatible elements: the obvious pleasure Borges takes in the opportunity to present himself for public consumption, and his reflexive skepticism about the necessary fraudulence of the writer as personality... The man we see in these eleven interviews is a person made of books, a librarian who often remarked that his idea of paradise was an endless library -- a sort of eternal busman's holiday.

One of the collection s most interesting aspects is the interaction of these incompatible elements: the obvious pleasure Borges takes in the opportunity to present himself for public consumption, and his reflexive skepticism about the necessary fraudulence of the writer as personality... The man we see in these eleven interviews is a person made of books, a librarian who often remarked that his idea of paradise was an endless library a sort of eternal busman s holiday. "

About the Author

Jorge Luis Borges (1890-1982), Argentine poet, critic, and short-story writer, revolutionized modern literature. He was completely blind when appointed the head of Argentina's National Library.

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253166268
• ISBN 13: 9780253166265
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Barnstone Willis