The Iowa Review
Volume 8
Issue 3 Summer
1977
The Reality of Borges
Robert Scholes
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Scholes, Robert. "The Reality of Borges." The Iowa Review 8.3 (1977): 12-25. Web.
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Article 3
a kind of music?and
if a
into a kind of witchcraft,
be made
Fitzgerald,
can do that.
man is a
he
poet,
stand for very
of verses mean? They
After all, what do the meanings
the
of
"And
shake
I
little. If
stars/
say, for example,
inauspicious
yoke
in astrology,
but the
From this world-weary
flesh," we may not believe
And then of
verses are very fine. (They are by Shakespeare,
incidentally.)
"inaus
and the fine Latin word,
course we have the many
Saxon words
the Saxon
stars." Then
"And shake the yoke of inauspicious
picious":
"From this world-weary
flesh," that have come out of Old English
words,
have
And that is not enough. For example,
witchcraft.
there
you
poetry:
when Shakespeare wrote,
to hear, why hear'st thou music
sadly?
in joy:
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights
thou receiv'st not gladly?
lov'st thou that which
Why
Music
at someone
amazed
you should feel that the idea of being
is really a silly idea. I think I could feel the beauty of
music
in joy," even without
sweets war not, joy delights
comprehending
since
the
is after all something
the
of
words,
meaning
ing
verses. The verses stand for a witchcraft
of their own: they are
al objects in their own right.
And now, I suppose I have spoken too much....
CRITICISM
/ ROBERT
sad
enjoying
"Sweets with
the mean
added
to the
strange verb
SCHOLES
The Reality of Borges
"Fame
My title is presumptuous?as
but
is not only well-known
who
of
tions about the possibilities
me or anyone
from
explanation
neither of these, though it may
is a form of incomprehension,
J. L. B.
perhaps the worstr
is the very act of writing
about an author
of our percep
has actually
shaped many
literature. Borges needs neither praise nor
of him, then, must be
else. My discussion
a
statement
It
is
both.
of
personal
partake
12
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in the form of a modest
fiction: the creation of a character named Borges,
on certain documents
that have appeared
in the English
language
name. The title of this
that
have been even
bearing
performance
might
more
and I"?or, most presumptuous,
presumptuous?"Borges
"My Borges."
writes
in
to some
of course,
My Borges
English,
though he has gone
as
to
this
Sometimes
fact.
his
works
translations
appear
lengths
disguise
fictional names like Norman Thomas
made by people with patently
di Gio
vanni. On other occasions he has
these
poems, designating
published
Eng
lish texts as translations made by some of the finest poets of our
day. Talk
He has enough
of presumption!
for both of us. He has even gone so far
as to arrange
for publication
of his works
in the Spanish
in
language,
rather pedestrian
often read like too literal copies of the
versions, which
is a Norman Thomas di Giovanni,
If there
English
originals.
really
perhaps
he is responsible
for this hackwork.*
in
The ingenuity
of Borges
his true situation can
disguising
hardly be
credited. He has gone to the incredible
of
versions
length
planting different
so
of his English
mere
error
can
sometimes
at
odds that
texts,
strikingly
account for the differences.
me
an
Let
cite
instance of this, in which
hardly
he has clearly overplayed
his hand. In a book called Other Inquisitions,
in a
based
text bearing
the possibly
spurious dateline
1946, he writes of a supposed ancestor who
left Argentine
letters
some memorable
Buenos
poetry,
December
Aires,
and who
23,
tried to reform
the teaching of philosophy by purifying it of theological shadows and
the principles
of Locke and Condillac.
He
exposing
all men, he was born at the wrong
time.
(OI,
died
in exile;
like
172)
in another book called Labyrinths
he has given us a different
version
of this same text, which
could easily be mistaken
for another and more lit
eral translation of some Spanish original. In this version,
though the date is
in the European
the same, it is presented
and Latin American
style, with
the number first: 23 December
1946. The text itself is even more
blatantly
This same "ancestor," who has now become
a "forebear,"
is
manipulated.
called one who
And
*
lowing
Naturally,
all citations will
refer to the English
texts, as designated by the fol
abbreviations:
OI = Other Inquisitions (Clarion, 1968).
L =rLabyrinths (New Directions, 1964).
BOW = Borges onWriting (Dutton, 1973).
COB = Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges (Discuss, 1970).
In one or two instances, where the Spanish suggests the possibility of a happier English
phraseology,
I have
silently
changed
the English.
13
I am
sure
Borges
would
approve.
left
tried
some memorable
to
letters and who
endecasyllables
Argentine
the teaching
it of theological
of philosophy,
purifying
in his courses
and expounding
the principles
and
of Locke
He died in exile; like all men, he was given bad times in
to reform
shadows
Condillac.
which to live.
(L, 218)
The perfidy,
the trickery of this Borges can
This
hardly be exaggerated.
same ancestor?or
one
case to have
forebear?is
said in the
the
expounded
of
in
and
the
to
Locke
other
have
this
very
philosophy
exposed
philosophy.
Which
side is he on? It is enough to make us wish that there were
indeed
some wr-text in
that
to
be
consulted
resolve
this
Spanish
might
difficulty.
But if we should approach the pretended
Spanish "original" of this passage,
we
was
from one or the other of the
might find only that it
clearly derived
two
we
in
which
would
settle
versions,
English
nothing. Or
might discover
or
even another
the Spanish some third term
altogether,
possibly
philoso
us further?Leibnitz,
or Descartes.
It is
pher, added to confound
perhaps,
in some cul-de-sac
this fear of finding myself
of pseudo-translation
which
denies me the satisfaction
of examining
the Spanish version,
just to see
tricks this Borges has been up to.
case for the
(whether British or North Ameri
clinching
Anglicism
this
elusive
of
be
author
in the writers
to
found
he alludes
can)
may
are in his works,
most
a
There
of
few
course,
frequently.
perfunctory
to Cervantes,
a
references
and Unamuno,
to
Quevedo,
designed
provide
sort of literary local color, and there are even
to
South
pseudo-allusions
American
authors who are probably
inventions
of Borges himself,
like the
notorious Honorio
Bustos Domecq
and B. Suarez Lynch. But the authors
he returns to most often are a relatively
small group of British men of let
ters who were prominent
at the end of the last century: G. K. Chesterton,
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Oscar Wilde,
G. B. Shaw, Rudyard Kipling,
and
H. G. Wells.
He knows these writers
better and reads them more
sympa
what
The
an
teachers
do. Can you imagine
English
English
was
an
man
was
of
"He
who
also
Wilde,
saying
professor
ingenious
even
an
is
It
to
harder
writer
right"? (OI, 81).
imagine
Argentine
saying
it. After all, not even the French, who dare to admire Poe, have gone so
Even Gide only pitied him. But Borges
is clearly
far as to admire Wilde.
thetically
in
steeped
Americans,
are
Val?ry,
have been
than most
of these British writers.
the North
They,
along with
and a few Europeans
and Hawthorne,
like Kafka
and
his true literary ancestors. The man may
indeed, as he claims,
an
in the
born and raised
would
Argentine?but
Argentine
in his work? He himself has
writer have so many gauchos
argued
subtly
in the Koran because
that there are no camels
saying,
they went without
so to
to be
in the
invisible
surely, gauchos
speak. Well,
ought
equally
the work
Poe
14
of a genuinely
Argentine
though he may indeed reside
work
in the
English
writer. No,
in Argentina
the man
in order
is English
to
disguise
to the core,
his origins
fin de si?cle.
now
find
with
the title
is a mere
it even more
of me to have prefaced
presumptuous
"The Reality
of Borges"?but
if you think my
fictional Borges
in
truth
value, you will
game, totally lacking
neither me nor him. As he has said himself,
have understood
"A false fact
a
true"
be
false
for
(OI, 71). By sketching
may
you
essentially
factually
version of Borges,
I have intended
to raise some
rela
about
the
questions
fiction and reality which he has considered
himself
and
tionship between
as any
I
writer.
have
And
also
upon which he has shed as much
light
living
intended to warn you that in my less obviously
false presentation
of Borges
in the remainder of this essay, there will also be a certain measure
of fiction.
to consider what
to say about the fact/
But now I propose
had
has
Borges
in a very humble way
some
fiction relationship,
beginning
by considering
of the instances of the word "reality" in his texts. My first set of illustrations
will be taken from his essays on other writers collected
in Other Inquisitions,
where he takes up this problem on many occasions, with different
emphases
that are often quite illuminating.
he introduces a persistent
of Quevedo,
theme in his critical work.
Writing
He says of one sonnet, "I shall not say that it is a
of reality,
transcription
. . ."This
for reality is not verbal.
between
and
opposition
language
reality,
the unbridgeable
to the
vis
them, is fundamental
gap between
Borgesian
and
In
ion, and to much of modern
poetic theory.
epistemology
particular,
the notion of a lack of contact between
is a character
language and world
are
istic of those schools of critical
called "formalist."
thought that
usually
In its extreme form this view is highly vulnerable
to attacks such as that
made by Fredric
for language
of Language,
Jameson in The Prison-House
is seen in this view as cutting man off from authentic
experience
by its arti
It is frequently
ficialities
and evasions.
is a typical
assumed
that Borges
is self-contained
that language
and self-sufficient
formalist, who holds
case.
us return to that
in
is
not
But
fact.
this
the
Let
self-referential,
simply
statement about the Quevedo
In
it
to
poem.
you the first time I
presenting
cut
in
is
it
Here
off
mid-sentence.
the
whole
actually
thing:
You may
these words
of reality, for reality is not
say that it is a transcription
verbal, but I can say that the words are less important than the scene
or the virile accent that seems to inform them.
(OI, 40)
they evoke
I shall not
Poems
between
are made
the words
and reality is not, yet there is something
is important.
In this case
the reality which
of words
and
15
here
there
a "scene" evoked
two
and an "accent"
actually
things:
by the words
that seems to inform them. This scene and this accent, then, are mediations
Born of words,
between
moved
language and world.
they have nevertheless
a
words
a
toward
The
words
suggest
beyond
experiences.
speaker with
virile accent; they imply a human being of an order of reality greater than
a scene which
their own. And they also present
is realer than
language,
or inventions,
it
falls
short
of
fictions
These
then, move
though
reality.
are
offers a key that
reality, not away from it. Artful writing
the doors of the prison-house
of language.
this idea further in his
"Avatars
discussion,
Borges develops
philosophic
of the Tortoise":
language
can open
toward
to think that a coordination
are
of words
(philosophies
can
to
have
much
the
universe.
is
resemblance
It
also
else)
nothing
to think that one of those famous coordinations
hazardous
does not re
an infinitesimal
semble it a little more than the others, if
in
way.
only
It is hazardous
(OI, 114)
term "coordination
of
stories.
and
ophies
They
is not. But again
universe
ordinations
catch more of
The
words," of course, applies equally well to philos
are all fictions because
are verbal and the
they
comes the
notion.
Some of these co
qualifying
the universe
than others. And Borges
adds that,
one in which he recog
in this context, the
of those he has considered
only
nizes "some vestige
of the universe"
is Schopenhauer's.
this, we
Reading
or even
or
are permitted,
to
ask
anyone
obliged,
by what
faculty Borges
in a mere coordina
else is capable of recognizing
of the universe
vestiges
I don't want to pause and consider this question here. Or you
tion of words.
seems to
we are in
I
statement
can't. But Borges's
say
might
imply that
some
or
touch with reality in
way, either through valid perceptions
through
lead us into
intuitions which are non-verbal.
this further would
Considering
so
ones Borges himself constructs,
labyrinths darker than the
philosophical
let us avoid them and pick up the thread of his thought.
between
Twice, when turning to the question of the relationship
language
the
of
has recourse
fiction?and
to
?especially
language
reality, Borges
the same quotation
from Chesterton.
he
Chesterton's
view,
Summarizing
is
"He reasons that
rich and that the
writes,
reality
interminably
language
of men does not exhaust that vertiginous
treasure" (OI, 50). This position
is very close to the others we have been
but here the solution
considering,
is a bit more explicit. In both cases the quotation
from Chesterton
leads to
a discussion
of allegory, and in both cases Borges
is cautious about reveal
own views?or
he is
of them. But he clear
ing his
perhaps
simply uncertain
a certain kind of
serve as the
entertains
that
the
ly
possibility
allegory may
16
vehicle
that links the verbal
sion he reports
that Chesterton
cosmos with
considered
the greater
reality.
In one discus
capable of "somehow"
allegories
(OI, 50). And in the other he de
to "ungraspable
reality"
corresponding
that allegory
same notion somewhat more thoroughly,
the
suggesting
velops
a
"it is made
and
because
useful
between
be
mediator
may
reality
language
a sign of other signs" (OI,
a
not
is
it
of
words
of
but
up
language,
language
for ex
that Dante's
Beatrice,
Chesterton,
155). And he adds, following
a
virtue
active
a
is
of
the
she
not
word
of
the
"is
faith;
sign
sign
ample,
more
indicates?a
that this word
and the secret illuminations
sign,
precise
a richer and
faith" (OI, 155).
sign than the monosyllable
happier
that allegory
fails
In both these discussions
of allegory, Borges
suggests
are
to
its fictions
but succeeds
reducible back
when
single word-concepts,
its fictions function as complex
when
away from simple con
signs moving
in lan
the tendency
cepts toward the "ungraspable
reality." For Borges
a movement
more
is
from
The
toward
away
guage
precise
reality.
logic
it must
Thus
become.
the more
and fixed the terminology,
inadequate
is
in images,
and open to truth.
its best,
intuitive,
thinking
a kind of game, often admirable,
not
is
but
logic
likely to catch
in its
Nathaniel
An
like
much of the universe
Hawthorne's,
allegory
play.
so to
to reason," may
indeed ap
at its best is "refractory,
which
speak,
a
But Borges reproaches Hawthorne
for
tendency
proach the ungraspable.
to mere moral
intuitions
fables. The
toward reducing his own allegorical
of a moral at the end of a tale is, of course, an attempt to reduce
pointing
to the simple, to substitute a concept for an image, and hence
the complex
of truth. "Better," he says, "are those
is a move
away from the possibility
or moral and that seem to
a
not
for
do
look
fantasies
that
pure
justification
than an obscure terror" (OI, 51).
have no other substance
In discussing
the writer to whom he is most justly generous, he elaborates
concrete
his illustrations
and specific. Having
this notion further, making
as a
of H. G. Wells
and recounted
discussed
the excellence
storyteller,
with amusement
the reaction of Jules Verne toWells's
The First Men in the
Il invente!'"),
that
Moon
(Verne "exclaimed
suggests
Borges
indignantly,
even more
rests on something
than
achievement
Wells's
ingen
important
allegory,
Whereas
at
uity:
of Wells's
first novels?The
Island of Dr.
opinion, the excellence
or
a
The
Man?has
Invisible
for example,
Moreau,
deeper origin. Not
a
an
tell
but
tell
do
story,
ingenious
story symbolic of
they
only
they
are
in
somehow
inherent
human
all
The haras
destinies.
that
processes
sed invisible man who has to sleep as though his eyes were wide open
our solitude and our ter
his eyelids do not exclude
because
light is
a servile creed in
of seated monsters
who mouth
ror; the conventicle
In my
17
is always
and is Lhasa. Work
their night is the Vatican
that endures
an
to
it
is
all men,
infinite and plastic ambiguity;
all things
capable of
own
a
it is mirror
features
that reflects the reader's
like the Apostle;
in an
and it is also a map of the world. And it must be ambiguous
evanescent
in spite of the author; he must
almost
and modest
way,
appear
nocence
mirable
This
to be ignorant of all symbolism. Wells
in his first fantastic exercises, which
(OI, 87)
part of his admirable work.
is one
of the most
displayed
are to me
lucid in
ad
the most
that
and succinct paragraphs
of literary
perceptive
us
it
to
and
takes
criticism
the heart of Borges's
encountered,
notion of literary reality. Wells's work is a "mirror that reflects the reader's
own features and it is also a map of the world."
I wish to suggest that the
are
and maps
here were not chosen
two images employed
lightly. Mirrors
us.
are
of
around
the
world
two highly
different
ways
imaging
They
also images that Borges returns to again and again in his own fiction. They
are
non-verbal
are, of course, pointedly
signs of reality, and they
signs of dif
is based on a sign system that is highly
in
ferent sorts. Mapping
arbitrary
its symbols but aspires toward an exact iconicity in its proportions.
Mirrors,
on the other hand, are superbly
of reality, but
iconic in their reflections
in at least three respects. They
reduce three dimensions
artificial
patently
and reduce size (our face in
to a plane surface of two; they double distance
reverse
a mirror is only half its true size), and, most significantly,
they
right
and left.
are visible and com
The distortions
of maps and mirrors, because
they
the reality they image, are obvious. With
with
language, however,
parable
are less obvious
sinister. Thus
and therefore more
the distortions
fiction,
us
is
human
situations
and
of
which
actions,
superior to phi
gives
images
tries to capture these things in more abstract coordinations
which
losophy,
for literature,
like Shelley,
and other apologists
Like Sidney,
of words.
But this
is answering
Plato's charge that poets falsify the universe.
Borges
the others
is a more total answer and a stronger one for two reasons. Unlike
the Platonic premise. Borges does not
itself by accepting
it does not weaken
some eternal realm of
ideas. His
toward
literature
that
argue
perfect
points
he uses this
concerns a complex human reality. And furthermore,
argument
an attack on
it a
as the
itself. He denies
philosophy
ground for
complexity
His
to judge the value of literature.
from which
very
position
privileged
he
it of its power of evaluation.
robs
of
says,
Philosophy,
philosophy
praise
"I think that people who
it
"a
kind
haziness."
of
"dissolves
reality," giving
live a poor kind of life, no? People who are too sure
have no philosophy
...
I think that philosophy
about reality and about themselves.
may give
that I have
18
the world
a kind
of haziness,
but
that haziness
is all to the good"
(CWB,
156).
now to the passage on Wells,
there is yet one more aspect of
Returning
it that must be considered.
The notion that art is a mirror is not a new one.
We are all familiar with the classical view that art is a mirror held up to
mirror
version of this notion?a
nature, and with Stendhal's more pointed
a
carried
down
the
and
the
mud
below
being
roadway, reflecting
sky above.
is more modest,
But Borges's mirror
and does only what
mirrors
ordinary
see in it not nature or the world but
a mirror
do. We
"it
is
ourselves:
only
a map,
art is merely
that reflects the reader's own features." Of the world,
are there in
to
but it is a map that points accurately
that
things
reality. In
man we
own solitude and
Wells's
of
the
invisible
"our
recognize
image
our terror"; and in the "conventicle
a servile
of seated monsters who mouth
we see an
in their
and "Lhasa." Such
night"
image of "the Vatican"
us
and
such
take
into
mirroring
mapping
deeply
reality though the images
are
than
rather
And this is a major
fabulations
transcriptions.
obviously
too
to
it.
cannot
is
It
for
realism
be transcribed
subtle
catch
point. Reality
we
a
But
invention,
way toward re
may open
by fabulation,
directly.
by
come. We
come as close to it as human
will
that
ingenuity may
ality
rely
we know their limitations
on maps and mirrors
and know
because
precisely
as both map and mirror
at
how to allow for them. But fiction functions
are
as
a
same
are
time. Its images
the configurations
the
of
fixed,
map
a mirror,
like the features
reflected
various,
fixed, and perpetually
by
never gives the same image to the same person.
"Work that en
which
dures," says Borges, "is capable of an infinite and plastic ambiguity."
creed
The world
that Borges maps
for us in his own fictions seems at first to
be as strange an image of reality as the work of a medieval
cartographer.
It is a world populated mainly by gauchos and librarians, men of mindless
extremes meet,
and others of lettered inactivity. These
of course,
brutality
in the figure of the detective,
who both acts and ratiocinates.
But for the
most part the extremes are what Borges chooses to present
to us. His map
concentrates
He
of the world excludes much of the middle
of
life.
ground
on the
meet
where
heroes
and
warriors
and
monsters,
fringes,
demigods,
in
and interact. And his map abounds
their
cartographers,
busily making
own maps
is
and titling them "Reality." For Borges
the ultimate
futility
in "The Circular Ruins" who hopes to "dream a man
that of the creature
. . .with minute
to discover
that
integrity and insert him into reality"?only
a
someone
else's dream world, and not in "reality" at
he is himself
fiction in
notion that the world may be a dream is perhaps what
all. This vertiginous
am
name
most
when
think
of
Borges. But I
trying to
they hear the
people
a fictitious
a value held
not
him
is
notion
that
this
but
suggest
by
position
19
to
itself. Unlike
the figure in
by him
provoke reality into showing
in
is
and knows
it. The fires
"The Circular Ruins," Borges
reality himself
us and all we per
of time are consuming
him, even as they are consuming
assumed
ceive:
is the substance
I am made
of. Time is a river which
sweeps me
me but I am the
am the river; it is a
I
which
but
tiger
destroys
along,
consumes me, but I am the fire. The world,
it is a fire which
tiger;
234; OI, 187)
alas, is real; I, alas, am Borges.
(L,
Time
in all
is finally
its awful reality
When
asked
inescapable.
a
to
must
he
the world which
dis
whether
the writer has
responsibility
is
in
that
issues
fiction
and
the
social
charge by writing
"engaged
political
of the times," Borges has not answered
formalist dis
simply, "No," with
dain, but spoken as follows:
The
world
I think
it is engaged
all the time. We don't have to worry about that.
we have to write
in the style and mode
of our
Being contemporaries,
times. If I write a story?even
about the man in the moon?it
would be
an
I'm an Argentine;
and it would
fall back
story, because
Argentine
on Western
to. I
I belong
civilization
that's the civilization
because
don't think we have to be conscious
about it. Let's take Flaubert's
novel
as an
a
Salammb?
novel, but any
example. He called it Carthaginian
a nineteenth-century
one can see that it was written
French
realist.
by
I don't suppose a real Carthaginian
out of it; for
would make anything
it a bad joke. I don't think you should try
all I know, he might consider
to be loyal to your century or your opinions,
because
you are being
a certain voice, a certain kind of
to
the
time.
have
them
all
You
loyal
and you can't run away from them, even
face, a certain way of writing,
or contemporary,
since you
if you want to. So why bother to be modern
can't be anything else?
(BOW, 51)
The problem
is not to "represent" his own time. This he
for the writer
cannot
is to be like the apostle, all things to all
but
The
do.
problem
help
men. To reach
and contem
the immediate
reality to truth, beyond
beyond
porary to those aspects of the real which will endure and recur. No dream
a real
ever becomes
a man of letters
tiger
tiger, but the image of
struggling
to capture the
is an image that may still be valid when both
tiger's reality
men and
are extinct and
writer
tigers
replaced by other forms of life. The
seeks this kind of durability
odds:
for his work?against
great
There
is no exercise
which
of the intellect
20
is not,
in the final
analysis,
as a
A philosophical
doctrine
of
begins
plausible
description
a mere
the universe; with the passage of the years it becomes
chapter?
or a name?in
if not a paragraph
the history of philosophy.
In literature
is even more notorious.
this eventual
43)
(L,
caducity
useless.
is in
These are the views of Pierre Menard,
author of the Quixote, who
one sense
in
hero
and
his
fool.
another
greatest
By acting
Borges's greatest
on the
in this passage, Menard
has refused the
feelings of futility expressed
of literary creation. He has sought to defy time by plunging
possibilities
it toward
backward
Spain. But his work, be
through
seventeenth-century
cause it is his and to the extent that it is his, must be read as that of a fin de
an archaic
as tied to his time as
si?cle Frenchman
style. He is
affecting
even
curse of
he
to
avoid
the
Flaubert,
though
sought
temporality
by hid
no real
voice
in
and
the
he
the
Cervantes.
Either
has
of
ing
past
assuming
into the voice of the dead Spaniard, or he has his own,
ity, and is absorbed
of William
that of a contemporary
James and the friend of Val?ry. Readers
or
is re
will see him as "brazenly pragmatic"
relativistic.
Borges
hopelessly
us in this tale that there is no
a meaner.
without
Lan
meaning
minding
It can never be self-referen
itself always assumes a larger context.
guage
we
to
must
in
it
locate
it in a frame of reference
order
because
tial,
interpret
is real and Menard,
is ineluctably
which
temporal and cultural. The world
alas, is Menard.
is a further
There
I have
at so far, but
paradox here, which
only hinted
himself
has
is
articulated.
itself
real, is in time
Borges
clearly
Reality
and subject to the same consuming
fires as the creatures and things which
constitute
it. He has expressed
in his "Parable of Cervantes
this exquisitely
which
and the Quixote,"
from which
I quote:
Vanquished
by reality, by Spain, Don Quixote died in his native
in
the
year 1614. He was survived but a short time by Miguel
lage
vil
de
Cervantes.
For both of them, for the dreamer and the dreamed
one, the whole
in the opposition
scheme of the work consisted
of two worlds:
the un
real world of the books of chivalry, the ordinary
everyday world of the
seventeenth
century.
not
did
suspect that the years would
They
finally smooth away that
not suspect that La Mancha
did
and Montiel
and the
discord,
they
no less
lean
would
for
than
the epi
be,
posterity,
knight's
figure
poetic
sodes of Sinbad or the vast geographies
of Ariosto.
For in the beginning
of literature is the myth, and in the end as well.
(L,242)
21
Thus reality itself is a thing which
fades into mythology
with the passage
is
and what endures
of time. Or rather, most of reality fades into obscurity,
into mythology.
transformed
Truth vanishes. Fiction
if it partakes
endures
enables it to survive as myth. The real
of that reality beyond
reality, which
not
is
has
that
but is to come. In one of his fin
which
yet happened
reality
us to consider
est essays, "The
this
of History," Borges encourages
Modesty
on the way
situation. He begins
that
by remarking
governments
try to
or simulate historical
an "abundance
occasions with
of pre
manufacture
followed
(OI, 167). But
conditioning
by relentless publicity"
propaganda
is "more mod
facade there is a "real history," which
behind this fraudulent
a
with
"essential
dates
that
for
he
est,"
may be,
suggests,
long time, secret."
no
He cites as one instance an occasion which
with
chronological
passed
marker but certainly altered the world of letters?the
date when Aeschylus
a second actor
is said to have changed
the shape of drama by introducing
a
scene.
the
Where
chorus and
upon the
only
single speaker had appeared,
on some "remote
theater" a second figure
spring day, in that honey-colored
took up a position on stage, and with this event,
came
the dialogue
and the infinite possibilities
of the reaction of some
to others. A prophetic
have seen that multi
would
spectator
him:
tudes of future appearances
Hamlet
and Faust and
accompanied
our eyes cannot
Peer
and
and
Macbeth
and
others
Gynt
Segismundo
(OI, 168)
yet discern."
characters
was
a
truly
In the
it
such.
made
one not in the world
in
invaded England
occasion
historic
it and
because
the future ratified
same essay
then
of
another
this
occasion,
Borges
speaks
of letters but in that of heroic action. When
the Vikings
the eleventh
led by Harald
and
century,
Sigurdarson
a con
the brother of England's
Saxon King Harold,
there occurred
Tostig,
in which
the English King spoke words
frontation
of great valor and fol
lowed them with deeds that led to the death of the two invading chieftains
later
and a great victory for the Saxons. As recorded almost two centuries
Snorri
historian
the
this
has
Icelandic
what
confrontation
Sturlason,
by
a
flavor of the heroic," which
he considers
Borges calls "the fundamental
value in itself. But he adds,
This
one thing is more admirable
than the admirable
reply of the
Only
a man of the
of
the
Saxon King: that an Icelander,
lineage
vanquished,
the reply. It is as if a Carthaginian
had bequeathed
has perpetuated
to us the memory
Saxo Grammaticus
wrote
of the exploit of Regulus.
men
in
his
Gesta
Danorum:
"The
of
Thule
with
[Iceland]
justification
are very fond of learning and of recording
the history of all peoples
22
and
they
are
equally
pleased
to reveal
the excellences
of others
or of
themselves."
an
the Saxon said the words, but the
day when
was
a
the historic date. A date that is proph
them,
enemy perpetuated
in
future:
the day when races and nations will
the
of
still
ecy
something
and the solidarity of all mankind
will be estab
be cast into oblivion,
lished. The offer owes its virtue to the concept
of a fatherland.
By
(OI, 169-70)
relating it, Snorri surmounts and transcends that concept.
the day when
Not
Thus
politics,
oblivion
wars, exchanges
the historian who
so offers us a
by
and by doing
men of heroic
pride. The
deeds are to survive. And
to
keep their
Buenos Aires
of words and sword-thrusts,
turns them into instances
are saved
from
of heroic
myth,
of a humanity
nationalistic
glimpse
beyond
action need the men of letters if they and their
the men of letters need the heroic actors in order
letters alive. The gaucho on the pampas and the librarian in
a
are the
each
beast, a kind of centaur,
parts of
mythical
the other for completion.
as much as a matter of do
is a matter of witnessing
for Borges,
History,
are
are
in
the
frail
The
forms
of
human vessels which
past
preserved
ing.
are
un
to die?and
these deaths,
destined
themselves
historic
too,
though
recorded. In his parable of "The Witness"
Borges writes,
needing
there was
a
the last eyes to see Christ;
day that extinguished
the battle of Junin and the love of Helen died with the death of a man.
or
I die, what
What will die with me when
pathetic
fragile form will
the world
lose? The voice of Macedonio
the image of a red
Fern?ndes,
a bar of
horse in the vacant lot at Serrano and Charcas,
sulphur in the
desk? (L, 243)
drawer of a mahogany
In time
reminiscent
of Pater, Borges
reminds us not of the in
it.
the
of
How
it resides in little things
of
but
of
fragility
tractability
reality
even those who
as well as great, and how
and
how
they pass away,
finally
can mention
have seen them pass away as well. And though Borges
the
never
his
words
will
voice of Macedonio
that
voice.
Fern?ndes,
capture
even more
is something
What
they will convey, however,
fragile: his feel
a
not
is
kind
the
voice.
And
of
the least kind.
and
about
this, too,
ing
reality
an essay or a lecture, one's
turn to
end
the
of
Approaching
thoughts
at
and spectator
clocks
ward
conclusions.
glance
Speaker
surreptitiously
and watches,
both, perhaps,
looking forward to release from the rigidity of
to conclusions,
which has ani
their r?les. Still, there is a painful dimension
one of
which
finest
much
mated
like
of his lit
"L?mites,"
poems,
Borges's
Here,
in accents
23
erary work is about something
Richard B?rgin, he observed,
very
real
indeed.
Speaking
of that poem
to
an
let's say, with
easy to write
poem,
original
original
or
I
if
the
mean,
think, that's what
you
surprising thoughts.
thoughts
case
in
But
in
I
did
no?
the
of
"L?mites,"
poets
England,
metaphysical
that every
have had the great luck to write a poem about something
or may feel. For
I am feeling
body has felt
example, what
today in
am
tomorrow
to
New
York
until
and
won't
be
back
going
Cambridge?I
or
am
I
I
last
and
that
for
the
feel
Wednesday
Tuesday
doing things
time.
most human
that most common
And yet, I mean
feelings,
feelings,
over and over
have found their way into poetry and been worked
again,
as
But
last
here
I've
have
the
for
thousand
should
been,
years.
they
a
I
been very lucky, because
mean,
having
long literary past,
having
I seem to have found a subject that is fairly
read in many
literatures,
new and yet a
I
Because when
subject that is not thought extravagant.
we
a
are
at
certain
that
the
for
say, especially
age,
things
doing many
last time and may not be aware of it?for all I know I may be looking
out of this window
for the last time, or there are books that I shall
never read, books that I have
think
already read for the last time?I
men have.
let's say, the door, to a
that
that I have opened,
all
feeling
It's quite
(COB, 90, 91)
is seen by Borges as less in its
than in
originality
has felt, or may feel"?a
its universality:
that everybody
senti
"something
is a
ment that brings Borges very close to Samuel Johnson. There
reality of
shared human experiences,
then, that justifies poems and fictions by their
or a
it. Far from being
self-referential
cul-de
labyrinthine
encompassing
and
sac, poem and story exist to bridge the gap between
people
things?and
one person and another. In this connection
it is interesting
to ob
between
a
a
serve that
to
bears
resemblance
Borges's poem
startling
fugitive piece
written
103, the closing paper in the Idler series,
by Johnson himself?Idler
in which he speculates on the phenomenon
of finality:
The
value
of the poem
no close
the Idler and his readers have contracted
Though
friendship,
are
are
to
not pure
There
few
both
part.
they
unwilling
perhaps
things
we
can
some
emotion
of
without
which
of uneasiness,
this
say,
ly evil,
is the last. Those who never could agree together,
shed tears when mu
them to final separation;
has determined
of a place
tual discontent
the last look
which has been frequently visited, though without pleasure,
is taken with heaviness
of heart; and the Idler, with all his chilness of
24
is not wholly unaffected
tranquility,
by the thought that his last essay is
now before him.
This secret horror of the last is inseparable
from a thinking being,
whose
life is limited, and to whom death is dreadful.
I do not mean to suggest that Borges,
like Pierre Menard,
has been trying
are
to rewrite Dr.
the
their
For, though
opposite.
subjects
Johnson. Quite
are
each irrevocably
of their time, in style and emphasis,
quite similar, they
and in those unspoken
links
values that inform style and emphasis. What
is reality itself, and in particular
the human
them despite
these differences
condition
of that reality. And Johnson, I am sure, would
applaud Borges's
most
statement
succinct
in this matter. Literature,
he has
of his position
mere
a
not
"is
It
of
words"
that a
said,
(BOW,
164).
requires
juggling
writer have what Chesterton
called "everything." A notion which
Borges
glosses
in the following
way:
a writer
is more than an encompassing
it is
this everything
word;
For
literal. It stands for the chief, for the essential, human experiences.
a writer needs loneliness,
and he gets his share of it. He needs
example,
he
and
also
and
shared
unshared
love. He needs friendship.
love,
gets
In fact, he needs the universe.
(BOW, 163)
To
universe
of men and women
at any rate?needs
the
to say the big
of
course, but also the little ones:
things,
a bird was
a small, birdlike
things like, "Perhaps
singing and I felt for him
mean
I say the writer I
affection"
the one
(OI, 180). And when
specifically
who is called Jorge Luis Borges, for whom many
in many
lands feel
people
a strong human affection,
and of whom
it is very appropriate
to speak in
in which he spoke of H. G. Wells.
the same language
to
precisely
Referring
wrote:
Wells's
scientific
romances,
early
Borges
And
the universe?the
need him
writer. We
I think
like the fables of Theseus
or Ahasuer
they will be incorporated,
of the species and even transcend the fame
us, into the general memory
of their creator or the extinction
were
of the language
in which
they
written."
(OI,
88)
So be it.
25