Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges

by Richard Burgin

Jorge Luis Borges, one of the indisputably great writers of the 20th century, was born in Buenos Aires in 1899. Never having been awarded the Nobel Prize, which his readers worldwide believed he deserved, this story writer, poet, essayist & man of letters died at age 86. This anthology of interviews with him features more than a dozen conversations that cover all phases of his life & work. Conducted between 1964-84, the interviews reveal him as a remarkably candid, humorous man, by turns skeptical & enthusiastic, & always a singularly incisive & adventurous thinker. He discusses his blindness, his family & childhood, early travels, literary friends & struggles to find his literary identity. In depth he examines the meanings & intentions of his own famous stories & poems, & he speaks of the writers whose works he has loved--Dante, Cervantes, Emerson, Dickinson, H.G. Wells, Kafka, Stevenson, Kipling, Whitman, Frost & Faulkner--& of those whom he disliked, such as Hemingway & Lorca. Borges expresses his contempt for Péron & assesses the tumultuous politics of Argentina. He speaks also of the imagination as a type of dreaming, about issues of collaboration & translation, about philosophy & about time. Many of the interviews were conducted by notable figures, including Alastair Reid, Willis Barnstone & Ronald Christ. As Borges speaks in these conversations, readers who have fallen under the spell of his magical prose & poetry will find additional sustenance.Richard Burgin's books include the story collections Feat of Blue Skies , Private Fame & Man without Memory . In his 1st book on Borges, Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges , he was the sole interviewer. Burgin is the editor of Boulevard magazine & an associate professor of communication & English at St Louis University.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

159 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Richard Burgin’s stories have won five Pushcart Prizes and been reprinted in numerous anthologies including The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction, The Best American Mystery Stories, and New Jersey Noir (edited by Joyce Carol Oates). He is the author is 16 books including two novels, “Rivers Last Longer” and “Ghost Quartet,” eight collections of short fiction, as well as the interview books “Conversations with Jorge Louis Borges” and “Conversations with Isaac Bashevis Singer.” His book The Identity Club: New and Selected Stories was listed as one of The Best Books of 2006 by The Times Literary Supplement and as one of the 40 Best Books of Fiction of the last decade by The Huffington Post. Other books have been listed as Notable Books of the Year by The St. Louis Post Dispatch and three times by The Philadelphia Inquirer. In France a Richard Burgin reader, L’Ecume Des Flammes was published in 2011, which received a rave review in Le Monde. He is the founder and current editor of the literary magazine Boulevard.

Reviews

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Borges is that rare combination of great writer/despicable human being." J. P., talking to his students. A UCLA colleague of mine went one better, "Borges was the poet laureate of the military regime of 1930-1946." (You know, the one that was pro-Axis during World War II.) I never met Borges but once came quite close. He gave a talk at the Sao Paulo Museum of Art (MASP) in Brazil in 1984 while I lived just a few blocks down the street. I seldom judge writers by their politics, but in the case of Borges could not force myself to go hear him. These interviews help explain why. Some Borgesian wisdom: "Now Argentina is ruled by officers and gentlemen." ---on the coup that made 20,000 Argentines disappear after 1976. (Borges later claimed his blindness had made him blind to the atrocities of the regime; a lame and liberal excuse.) "I did not know the Brazilians had a literature."; "There are whole blocks of American cities where people are afraid to walk on account of the Blacks." (Starting to see a pattern here, reader?) One knows, of course, of his hatred for Juan Peron and Evita, "a common prostitute." Borges is on more solid ground with his pronouncements on literature, such as calling Garcia Lorca, whom he once met in person, "a professional Andalusian" or preferring Edward Fitzgerald, translator of "The Rubyat of Omar Khayam", to F. Scott. This collection of decades of Borges pontifications is both chilling and provocative.

[M. Sarki · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are far too many examples of Borges' genius presented in this book for somebody like me to comment on them. That is, other than to say that I loved this book and my introduction to Borges on a more personal note. He is definitely somebody worth reading and listening to.

[Hon Lady Selene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readers are usually intimidated by Borges's fiction, his deep layered stories with nothing didactic in them, but to this reader, it has always been the non-fictional Borges that intimidates the most. This is probably why I've focused much of my attention on his non-fictions, to try to understand Borges at his most honest. These interviews have taken this process to a completely new level. An outspoken Borges is a dangerous thing.

And it comes out of nowhere. Burgin has been his friend for many years but even he stumbles into the labyrinth of Borges's mind only to find the Minotaur: Borges's candidness.

Burgin: You're a metaphysical writer and yet so many writers like, for example, Jane Austen or Fitzgerald or Sinclair Lewis seem to have no real metaphysical feeling at all.
Borges: When you speak of Fitzgerald, you're thinking of Edward Fitzgerald, no? Or Scott Fitzgerald?
Burgin: Yes, the latter.
Borges: Ah, yes.

But there is something to Borges's forthrightness that has always appealed to readers of all backgrounds and this might have something to do with the fact that Borges is Sensible in his unreservedness. Borges, whose friend once tells him he [Borges] will live forever. To which Borges replies: "Don't be so pessimistic."

The reality (of this reader) is that Borges was a supremely arrogant man but he had full right to be so. He had what it takes to back up his arrogance: sensibility, blindness and books; and with them he transmuted this arrogance into Practicality. Which turned into Writing. There is something quite commendable in this.

Borges: Well, because I think of reading a book as no less an experience than traveling or falling in love. I think that reading Berkeley or Shaw or Emerson, those are quite as real experiences to me as seeing London, for example. Of course, I saw London through Dickens and through Chesterton and through Stevenson, no?

I highly recommend this book to all my friends, Borges discusses everything from his own favourite stories (La Intrusa, The South), meeting Lorca (whose metaphors of Mickey Mouse as USA annoys him), Sartre (a true thinker), Neruda (with whom he agrees Spanish is a clumsy language), Unamuro (who sent him a letter on infinity, I wish I could read it).

Burgin: You love painting and architecture, don't you? I mean your stories seem to me very vivid visually.
Borges: Are they really visual, or does the visibility come from Chesterton?

One is Over The Moon by our shared passion for Chesterton 😁

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't actually read any of Borhes' works (or Burgins) but I really enjoyed the book. His analysis of other writers and his own works gives a lot of insight to the way writers influence each other. Also, his take on the philosophy of life, art and literature really resounded with me (though I didn't agree with all of his opinions) ... I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in philosophy and latin american literature.

[Philipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming conversation between a young undergrad (Richard Burgin) and a 70-year old blind Borges. I could read Borges talk about literature all day long: the man who loved books most of all. He can talk about books he likes and books he doesn't like, and explain why he doesn't like a particular book, and if you don't agree with him, you at least understand why he feels that way. I feel like we venerate the classics too much, and don't allow people to just not like certain books. They're the classics, after all! And if we get away from that pedestal, maybe we can get people back to reading again.
And if Borges loves a book or an author, then he will tell you!

BURGIN:
What novelists do you think could create characters?

BORGES:
Conrad, and Dickens. Conrad certainly, because in Conrad you feel that everything is real and at the same time very poetical, no? I should put Conrad as a novelist far above Henry James. When I was a young man I thought Dostoevski was the greatest novelist. And then after ten years or so, when I reread him, I felt greatly disappointed. I felt that the characters were unreal and that also the characters were part of the plot. Because in real life, even in a difficult situation, even when you are worrying very much about something, even when you feel anguish or when you feel hatred - well, I've never felt hatred- or love or fury maybe, you also live along other lines, no? I mean, a man is in love, but at the same time he is interested in the cinema, or he is thinking about mathematics or poetry or politics, while in novels, in most novels, the characters are simply living through what's happening to them. No, that might be the case with very simple people, but I don't see, I don't think that happens.

But this is also just plain fun to read:

Lorca wanted to astonish us. He said to me that he was very much troubled about a very important character in the contemporary world. A character in which you see all the tragedy of American life. And then he went on in this way until I asked him who was this character and it turned out the character was Mickey Mouse. I suppose he was trying to be clever. And I thought, that's the kind of thing you might say when you are very very young and you want to astonish somebody. But after all, he was a grown man, he had no need, he could have talked in a different way. But when he started in about Mickey Mouse being the symbol of America, there was a friend of mine there and he looked at me and I looked at him and we both walked away because we were both too old for that kind of game, no? Even at the time.

That's how I feel when I see Jordan Peterson or the other 'dark enlightenment' people or all those AI prophets talk their breathless talk: You are a grown man! You have no need! You could talk in a different way! I'm too old for that! Even at the time!!!

[Juanjo Conti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compré el libro hace unos años en una librería de usados y solo había leído el primer capítulo.
Hace poco, compré una revista Gente del año 1972 con una entrevista a Jorge Luis Borges hecha por María Larreta y quedé enganchado con el "Borges oral" por lo que busqué el libro y lo leí desde donde lo había dejado.
A pesar de ser conversaciones en inglés, traducidas al español, salvo en contadas palabras, se puede "escuchar" a Borges mientras leemos.
Recorren muchos temas (autores, su vida, sus textos), pero si tengo que rescatar algo que me llamó la atención es que posiciona a La intrusa como su mejor cuento (esto lo repite por lo menos tres veces). Le preguntan por El sur y trae a colación este otro cuento: "Creo que es mejor que El sur. Creo que es el mejor cuento que he escrito jamás".

[Ludo Capello]

A pleasantly readable series of interviews, between the legendary, enigmatic Borges and his intelligent admirer, Richard Burgin - only an undergrad at the time. Burgin's education and enthusiasm is clear, though he is never afraid to disagree with the literary giant. He coaxes confession and insight from Borges with ease. The atmosphere is relaxed and natural, the subject matter diverse.

Being such a private man, such interviews may be the closest we have to a candid Borges autobiography (not including his autobiographical essay, which first appeared in the New Yorker and is now available in the collection The Aleph and Other Stories).

[Andrew Antes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lately I think, is this really five stars for me? Shouldn’t five stars be reserved for the best things you’ve had the pleasure of reading? But the fact is it’s a problem with the rating system itself, not with the ratings you choose. It’s rather crude, especially when in a way you are assigning a rating for somebody else to consume, possibly to affect whether or not they read it. But your rating is a mere reflection of what you gained versus what you expected, full of context specific to you and nobody else. This rating system is very anti-Borgesian. It is a five for me because I choose to rate it on that standard: how well did it provide for me what I had hoped it would provide?

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually my copy is the 1970 paperback book-length interview Burgin did with Borges. Lots of great pithiness from Borges, who comes off as a humble, yet cool, guy. Interesting things that struck me. He says give a book 10 to 20 pages and if you don't like it move on. Also, I've always thought there were some similarities between him and Lovecraft. He thought Lovecraft was terrible.

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not to be confused with Conversations by Borges with Burgin that I recently read. This book came out in 1969 and is out of print currently, although parts of it are contained in the more recent book.I thoroughly enjoyed this and will continue reading Borges.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

its pretty good but Borges is Borges and thus always elusive in a distant way. These interviews are candid but obscure. Borges would rather not be here but feels he must. There is a lack.. In any event it is a token insight into the realm of a master who feel he is being trailed....

[Hal · Rating 3 out of 5]

To me, his most memorable comment was how he became more content to be alone with nothing to do after he lost his sight and his ability to read. I also enjoyed seeing which of his stories were his favorites - very different from my favorites.

[Jurica Ranj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zanimljiva serija razgovora s jednim od najdražih mi pisaca - od razgovora o pisanju, sljepoći, kritikama djela svjetske književnosti, osvrta na političku situaciju u Argentini i Perona pa sve do metafizičkih ideja i inspiracija za neke od najboljih priča koje je Borghes napisao.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acquired Dec 14, 2006
City Lights Book Shop, London, Ontario

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice insight into Borges.