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Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges was born on the 24th of August 1899 into a family of soldiers and scholars in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, yet his life would be defined by the very thing he lost: his sight. By the age of 55, he was completely blind, a condition that began to fade his vision in his early thirties and settled permanently after his fifty-eighth birthday. This physical darkness did not extinguish his literary fire; instead, it forced him to construct a universe of pure imagination where books and night became his only companions. His mother, Leonor Acevedo Suárez, a woman of criollo origin who spoke often of her family's heroic actions in the Argentine War of Independence, became his personal secretary when he could no longer read or write. She memorized his words and dictated them to him, allowing him to continue his prolific output until his death on the 14th of June 1986. The irony of his blindness was not lost on him, as he famously wrote that God had granted him books and night in a single, splendid stroke. This loss of sight became the crucible for his most innovative literary symbols, transforming his inability to see the physical world into a profound ability to see the metaphysical one.
The Library of Babel
Before his eyes failed, Borges lived in a house filled with an English library of over one thousand volumes, a collection he would later cite as the chief event of his life. It was within these walls that he learned to read Shakespeare in English at the age of twelve and translated Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince into Spanish when he was only ten. The family frequently traveled to Europe, and in 1914, they moved to Geneva, Switzerland, where Borges studied at the Collège de Genève and began to read philosophy in German. This early exposure to multiple languages and cultures shaped a writer who would later claim that a translation may improve upon the original, even if it is unfaithful to it. His father, Jorge Guillermo Borges Haslam, a lawyer who harbored literary aspirations but failed to become a writer, instilled in his son a sense of shame for being bookish rather than a man of action. This tension between the martial heritage of his ancestors and his own bookish nature drove him to explore the nature of authorship and history. In 1938, shortly after his father's death, Borges suffered a severe head injury that nearly killed him from sepsis. It was during his recovery from this accident that he began to explore a new style of writing, one that would make him famous. His first story written after the accident, Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, examined the nature of authorship and the relationship between an author and his historical context, setting the stage for a career that would redefine the boundaries of fiction.
When was Jorge Luis Borges born and where did he die?
Jorge Luis Borges was born on the 24th of August 1899 in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires and died on the 14th of June 1986 in Geneva, Switzerland. He passed away from liver cancer at the age of 86 while staying in Geneva.
How did Jorge Luis Borges lose his sight and what happened to his vision?
Jorge Luis Borges began to lose his vision in his early thirties and was completely blind after his fifty-eighth birthday. His condition progressed until he could no longer read or write, forcing him to rely on his mother and later his wife to dictate his work.
What major life event influenced Jorge Luis Borges to change his writing style?
A severe head injury in 1938 that nearly killed him from sepsis caused Jorge Luis Borges to explore a new style of writing. During his recovery from this accident, he began writing stories like Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote that redefined the boundaries of fiction.
Why did Jorge Luis Borges resign from his job at the Miguel Cané Library in 1946?
Jorge Luis Borges resigned from his position at the Miguel Cané Library in 1946 because Juan Perón removed him from the post and promoted him to inspector of poultry and rabbits. He quit the following day to protest the political changes and the transformation of Argentina into a one-party state.
Who was Jorge Luis Borges married to and when did they get married?
Jorge Luis Borges married María Kodama in April 1986 via an attorney in Paraguay to circumvent Argentine divorce laws. He died of liver cancer on the 14th of June 1986 in Geneva, Switzerland, shortly after their marriage.
In 1941, Borges published his first collection of short stories, El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan, which contained the title story about a Chinese professor in England who spies for Germany during World War I. This story, along with others in the collection, explored motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, and mirrors, effectively inventing the concept of the hypertext novel. The title story concerns a man who tries to prove that an Asian person can obtain information for the authorities, but the narrative structure itself is a maze, a combination of book and labyrinth that can be read in many ways. Through this work, Borges described a theory of the universe based upon the structure of such a novel, where time forks into infinite possibilities. Despite the critical acclaim, the book failed to garner the literary prizes many in his circle expected, leading to a period of obscurity. It was not until the early 1960s that his international fame truly took root, aided by the Latin American Boom and the success of Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. In 1961, Borges received the first International Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett, bringing him to international attention. This recognition was followed by a series of lecture tours in the United States and Europe, where he became a central figure in the magical realist movement and a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature.
The Politics of the Pen
Borges's political views were as complex and contradictory as his fiction, often placing him at odds with the prevailing currents of his time. He was a vocal supporter of Hipólito Yrigoyen and the Radical Civic Union in the 1920s and 1930s, but by the 1960s, he had grown more skeptical of democracy. In 1946, when Juan Perón began transforming Argentina into a one-party state, Borges was removed from his position at the Miguel Cané Library and promoted to a post as inspector of poultry and rabbits at the Buenos Aires municipal market. He resigned the following day, a decision that made him a cause célèbre for the Argentine intelligentsia. The Argentine Society of Writers held a formal dinner in his honor, and he later recalled feeling deeply depressed and ashamed every morning because Perón was president. His opposition to the Communist Party of Argentina led to a permanent rift with his longtime lover, Estela Canto, and he frequently expressed contempt for Marxist and communist authors. Yet, in the 1980s, towards the end of his life, he regained his earlier faith in democracy, applauding the election of Raúl Alfonsín and welcoming the end of military rule. His political stance was not merely a matter of opinion but a deeply felt conviction that the individual should be strong and the state weak, a belief absorbed in his childhood from his father's influence.
The Infinite Library
Borges's work is renowned for its exploration of the infinite, the labyrinth, and the nature of reality itself. His stories often feature fantastical themes, such as a library containing every possible 410-page text, a man who forgets nothing he experiences, and an artifact through which the user can see everything in the universe. The Library of Babel, a story about a library containing every possible book, is one of his most famous works, reflecting his interest in compounding fantasy, philosophy, and the art of translation. He believed that fiction did not depend on the illusion of reality; what mattered ultimately was an author's ability to generate poetic faith in his reader. His stories often have fantastical themes, such as a year of still time given to a man standing before a firing squad, and he examined the themes of universal randomness and madness. The term Borgesian came to reflect a quality of narrative non-linearity, and his influence on twentieth-century literature worldwide has been so deep and pervasive that any science fiction written in English since about 1960 may consciously or subliminally reflect his work. He revealed a first-hand knowledge of science fiction authors, including H. P. Lovecraft, Robert A. Heinlein, A. E. van Vogt, and Ray Bradbury, and his influence can be seen in the works of Philip K. Dick, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, and Gene Wolfe.
The Shadow of the State
Borges's relationship with the state was fraught with tension, particularly during the periods of military rule in Argentina. During the 1970s, he at first expressed support for Argentina's military junta, but was scandalized by the junta's actions during the Dirty War. In protest against their support of the regime, he ceased publishing in the newspaper La Nación. In 1985, he wrote a short poem about the Falklands War called Juan López y John Ward, about two fictional soldiers who died in the Falklands, in which he refers to islands that were too famous. He was an observer at the trials of the military junta in 1985 and wrote that not to judge and condemn the crimes would be to encourage impunity and to become, somehow, its accomplice. The news of the missing people, the crimes and atrocities the military committed inspired him to return to his earlier Emersonian faith in democracy. His political views were not merely a matter of opinion but a deeply felt conviction that the individual should be strong and the state weak, a belief absorbed in his childhood from his father's influence. He was a vocal critic of the Communist Party of Argentina and frequently expressed contempt for Marxist and communist authors, poets, and intellectuals. His opposition to the Party in this matter ultimately led to a permanent rift with his longtime lover, Estela Canto, and he frequently expressed contempt for Marxist and communist authors, poets, and intellectuals.
The Final Word
In his final years, Borges traveled internationally, often accompanied by his personal assistant María Kodama, an Argentine woman of Japanese and German ancestry. In April 1986, a few months before his death, he married her via an attorney in Paraguay, in what was then a common practice among Argentines wishing to circumvent the Argentine laws of the time regarding divorce. He died of liver cancer on the 14th of June 1986, aged 86, in Geneva, Switzerland. During his final days, he began brooding about the possibility of an afterlife, probing Kodama as to whether she inclined more towards the Shinto beliefs of her father or the Catholicism of his mother. He instructed her to call two clergymen, a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister, and was visited by Father Pierre Jacquet and Pastor Edouard de Montmollin. His burial was preceded by an ecumenical service at the Protestant St. Pierre Cathedral, and he was laid to rest in Geneva's Cimetière de Plainpalais. His grave, marked by a rough-hewn headstone, is adorned with carvings derived from Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse art and literature. The legacy of his work continues to influence writers and thinkers around the world, and his influence on twentieth-century literature worldwide has been so deep and pervasive that any science fiction written in English since about 1960 may consciously or subliminally reflect his work.