HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/anarchy/essays/term/borges.txt

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                         JORGE LUIS BORGES

                        THE BOOK OF SAND





                                Class: Spanish IIA
                                Date: April 1, 1993












 Spanish IIA

    Jorge Luis Borges is a famous Spanish author, known best for
his short stories.  In this paper, I will discuss several short
stories  written by Mr. Borges, what influenced him in his
writings, and a brief history of his place of origin, Argentina.
    Borges' The Book of Sand is the story of a man who is visited
 by a stranger trying to sell a "holy book"  called the Book of
Sand.  The narrator looks at the book and is unable to see the
first or last pages of it because, as the stranger explains, the
number of pages is infinite.  The narrator is fascinated by the
book and buys it, only to become obsessed with it, until the point
that it is all he thinks about.  He eventually gets rid of it by
mixing it up in a pile of many other books in his basement.
    As will be discussed in this paper, Borges wrote philosophy in
a lot of his works.  In The Book of Sand, infinity is depicted in
the form of a mysterious book.  It symbolizes man's constant search
for the world's existence.  Borges is saying that it is an endless
search and therefore pointless.
    The Other is the story of Borges sitting on a bench, as he
feels as though he had lived that moment already.  He begins to
speak to the man seated besides him, and finds out the stranger has
the same name, and the same address as he does.  When Borges asks
the man what year it is, the man answers 1918, even though it is
1969.  It is then that the narrator figures out he is talking to
the person whom he was fifty-one years earlier.  He then tells "the
other" him of the future, after which they part, knowing they will
never meet like this again.
    This story deals with time.  The author is very nostalgic and
lives for his memories.  It also is a philosophical story where
Borges expresses his doubt that we all may "just be an image of a
greater being".
    The Mirror and the Mask is the story of an Irish king who
tells a poet to write a poem describing his power.  The poet wrote
a praise of his fighting success, and in reward for the excellent
poem, the king gives the poet a beautiful mirror and tells him to
write another poem.  In reward for his next work, the king gives
the poet a mask.  The king then asks for a third poem and receives
a one line poem of perfection and in return gives him an elaborate
dagger.  The poet feels it to be a sin to hear such perfection and
 so he stabs himself with the dagger.  The king also feels he has
done wrong and becomes a beggar in his own kingdom never to repeat
the poem again.
    What Borges is saying in this story is that should not try to
understand G-d because he is unable to comprehend Him.  He claims
that "man's quest for truth is an utterly vain task".
    Jorge Luis Borges was born August 24, 1899 to a financially
comfortable family in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  His father was a
writer, a professor of psychology, and modern languages.  He
learned at home with a tutor until he was nine and  began to learn
English at home from his father, who always encouraged him to
write.  He came from a very literate family, and shared much
cherished time with his father's books.  Borges once said "for
years I believed I had been brought up in a suburb of Buenos Aires,
a suburb of dangerous streets and conspicuous sunsets.  What is
certain is that I was brought up in a garden, behind lanceolate
iron railings, in a library of unlimited English books."(Here, he
was referring to his father's library)   He was also greatly
influenced by published poets and writers who were friends of the
family and often visited.
    In 1914, before World War I, Borges' family went to Europe
where they traveled until the war was over.  During these years of
traveling, Borges, in his teenage years, depended a lot on the
company of his readings (mainly German philosophy and poetry).
    When his family returned to Buenos Aires, they were greeted by
a more economically flourishing and modernized (due to European
immigrants) home.  Researchers note that many of Borges' poems
centered on the older sections of the city, as if he is trying to
recapture the "essence of a world that was disappearing before
him".
    By the early 1920's, Borges had joined a group of young
writers and he undertook the publication of a literary review.  He
wrote in "Prisma" , a magazine of art and poetry.  He also
associated alot with and was greatly influenced by Macedonio
Fernandez, an "eccentric humorist-philosopher".  He was influenced
by Fernandez's view of the world and of intellectuals.
    In 1924, he wrote for the "Martin Fierro" review, that
believed in "art for the sake of art".   This is where he first
becomes famous, and in fact, it was for prose and not poetry.
    He also wrote with a group called "ultraistas" who attempted
to establish "correspondence between sound and color".  Borges
learned there to "reduce lyricism to metaphor, combine several
images into one, and rid of wordy, 'poetic' style".
    He studied and wrote alot on mysteries of the world, it's
existence, and how it came to be.  A theme of time exists through
many of Borges' writings  (as you can see in the stories discussed
earlier).  Some say the traumatic return to Buenos Aires and his
shy personality may be reasons for his interest in eternity and his
desire for control of time.  He admits in his poems that time moves
on, the world changes, that he will grow old, and that the past is
gone forever.  He says that one can only rely on their memories
(as he expresses in The Other).
    In his fifties, Borges becomes blind, but continues to lecture
in colleges and conferences around the world.  During his lifetime,
Borges was nominated several times for the Noble Prize in
Literature.  He wrote alot of short stories, literary reviews
(based on books that never existed), poems and more.  Although he
passed away on June 14, 1986, his writings live on to be shared
with all generations.
    When Borges was born, Hipolito Yrigoyen headed the Radical
Civic Union.  General Roca was president at that time and he
defended the middle class (which was what Borges was).  Argentina
had alot of trade with Britain and helped the economy to flourish.
 The people became more educated.
    As you can see, Borges' greatest influences were his
childhood, familial background, and people he met while starting to
write.  Borges writings are enjoyable and thought provoking.  I
definitely recommend it to people interested in philosophy.





    Bibliography



Fox, Goeffrey. Argentina; The Land and the People.  New York: J.B.
    Lippincott, 1990.


Borges, Jorge Luis.(Translated by: Thomas di Giovanni, Norman).
    The Book of Sand.  New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977.


Stabb, Martin S.  Borges Revisited.  Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1991


Mc Murray, George R.  Jorge Luis Borges.  New York: Fredrick Ungar
    Publishing Co., 1980.


Alifano, Roberto.  Twenty-four Conversations with Borges.  MA:
    Lascaux Publishers, 1984.








     . Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Sand (New York: E.P. Dutton,
1977), p.117.

     . George R. McMurray, Jorge Luis Borges (New York: Fredrick
Ungar Publishing Co.,1980), p. 32.
     . McMurray, p. 127.
     . McMurray, p. 156.
     . Robert Alifano, Twenty-four Conversations with Borges (MA:
Lascaux Publishers, 1984), p. 7.
     . Martin S. Stabb, Borges Revisited (Boston: G.K. Hall &
Co.), pp. 4-6.
     . Stabb, p. 13.
     . Stabb, p. 23.
     . Stabb, p. 53.
     . McMurray, p. xix.
     . Stabb, p. 11.
     . Robert Alifano. Twenty-four Conversations with Borges (MA:
Lascaux Publishers, 1984), p. 61.
     . Geoffrey Fox, Argentina; The Land and People (New York:
J.B. Lippincott, 1990), pp. 37, 175.