Barth

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Barth

(see map) On this page: {Quotes} {A Writer is...} {Abrevs for Borges' works} See also: [Ultraism]

Quotes


Stuff


A Writer is...

A writer is a user of symbols. This By a quite strange irony (or by the usual sort of irony that goes around, pretending to be silvery or goldery -- but in point of ac tual fact, is simply the same old Irony (that we know and love), but simply wearing a DIFFERENT HAT -- (see map)) THIS was listed as "Preface by Jorge Luis Borges" on the cover, but inside, it is listed as the FORWARD, but in fact this forward-preface preceeds the preface by Ronald Christ. START AGAIN. TAKE TWO... "A writer is a user of symbols. This word, in the broadest sense, may stand for a range of things: tales, metaphors, plots, word music, the dramatic moment. Bernard Shaw once said that the writer does not work from an idea but toward an idea; similarly, Kipling wrote that it is given a writer to invent a fable, but that its morality must be found by the reader. So, in Kim [
Kipling], the native characters are move likable than the British officialdom [that] Kipling wanted to extol. All these, of course, are but variations on the old concept of the Holy Ghost or the Muse. Modern mythology prefers the Subliminal Self. "Some un-suspected things, many secret links and affinities, have been revealed to me by this book of Ronald Christ's. I am often asked what my message is; the obvious answer is that I have no message. [No, really???? ;)] I am neither a thinker nor a moralist, but simply a man of letters who turns his own perplexities and that respected system of perplexities [which] we call philoophy into the forms of literature. The fact that in one of my stories the man is both the dreamer and the dream does not necessarily mean that I am a follower of Berkley and of the Buddah. However, the writer must be thankful for being shown that he has gone beyond what he attempted, beyond his intentions. "The fact that I am dictating these lines in the very same room of the Biblioteca Nacional where I first had the pleasure of meeting Ronald Christ[, ] makes me feel the reality -- or un-reality -- of that un-graspable substance, Time. "My gratitude to Ronald Christ." -- Jorge Luis Borges December 17, 1968 Buenos Aires, Terra AS QUOTED IN: "The Narrow Act: Borges' art of allusion", Ronald Christ, (New York/London, 1969) -- New York University Press, Terra. NOTE: I have taken certain editorial liberties with the next (as noted by the [] thingies). wibble. (oh, yes, and natch *i* added the bit about Terra. May our world find its way in these absurd times. Peace to all, later. Pizo)

Borges' Works

(abreviations) NOTE: I am indebted (as all we are is) to Ronald Christ for the following list (to which i have freely added to the end of) P. xvii, Loc. Cit. "Finally a word about references. All of Borges' works which have been collected in book form will generally be abbreviated in the text and indicated by the following signs:" A El AlephEvairsto Carrigeo D Discusión HE Historia de la eternidad F Ficciones H El hacedor HI Historia de la infamia IA Idioma de los argentinos OP Obra poetica OI Otras inquisiciones P Poemas TE El tamaño de mi espersanza (and the rest) BB Biblioteca Babelia (not to be confused with Zaphod Beeblebrox) [
42] NF Non Fictions (that nice Jewish chap) This is NOT the end. (or it is not the end?)

Important works

Chronology