A Life Jorge Luis Borges

“Any life is made up of a single moment, the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is”. This reminds one of the life of Borges. Throughout his life, he encountered many obstacles, all of which played an important role in his life. With each moment or turn of event, his life went in a new direction, but nonetheless, he never stopped writing. So, with each moment he learned more about who he was. After a lifetime of short stories, poetry, essays, translations,and other texts, Borges became known as a well-respected writer in literature in many countries around the world, especially in the Argentina and in Spanish cultures.

Borges’ writing style has been studied and analyzed throughout history and even today.

He was a man who spread his passion for reading and writing to others across the world and intrigued readers with his “magical realism”. Life began for Jorge Luis Borges on August 24th, 1899 in Buenos Aires, which is the capital city of Argentina.

He was raised in a well-to-do home where his family spoke two languages which consisted of English and Spanish. With his proper raising, Borges learned to write and he also learned to read at the age of four, which was partly due to his exposure to literature. His father studied law, but was also an avid reader and had his own library in his home. Borges’ love for books was inspired by this library. There within those walls were classics such as books written by Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe, just to name a few.

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These were some stories that Borges was exposed to at a young age and served also as inspirations for his drive to write. In an interview, Borges once said, “If I were asked to name the chief event in my life. I should say my father’s library.“ Therefore, it is not so surprising, that at the age of nine he became a published writer. Because of his fluency in both Spanish and English, Borges was able to translate a story for the newspaper. This gave Borges just the beginning and push he needed to kick off the beginning of his writing career.Even though he experienced success as an accomplished writer, life for Borges wasn’t always easy. When he was young, he struggled with acceptance from children in his school and was often humiliated and picked on by them.

He also had to move around a lot with his family, but this proved to be useful and to his advantage in years to come. One of the first moves his family made was to Europe. They made this journey to seek special medical attention for his father. Borges father had an unfixable eye condition which would eventually cause him blindness. Not only was it unfixable, but it was a hereditary condition that could be passed down to his children. The original plan was not to permanently live in Europe, but the family was forced to live in Switzerland when World War I broke out. However, living and attending school in Europe gave him a new opportunity that would eventually help him with his writing career. Borges learned yet another new language. French was taught to him at the school where he attended. Inspired by learning new languages, Borges decided to teach himself a fourth language while living in Switzerland.

The fourth language that was self-taught was the language of German. This enabled him to translate his writing into these different languages. His family also moved several more times afterwards until he finally returned to his birthplace in 1921 where he, along with a couple of friends, founded a magazine. This was a milestone in Borges’ life and was encouragement he needed in order to explore other types of writing, such as being an editor for two Journals. Then life as Borges knew began to change after Juan Peron, an army general, took on political power after being elected as President of Argentina. Borges was not happy with this nor did he agree with Peron’s goals or with the Peronist movement. Due to his opposition against the Peronist movement, he left his magazine business and began speaking across the country about his beliefs and ideas.

This gave him recognition not only in Argentina, but other countries as well. The respect he earned helped him to earn the privilege of being both the “President of the Argentine Society of writers and National Library”. The odd thing is that something tragic had taken place in Borges’ life. He had lost his eyesight because of a hereditary eye disorder that had been passed down to him from his father. Losing his sight created a challenge for him, especially as a writer and now as a librarian, but Borges still continued to work and he worked to write as much as he could using other people, such as his mother, secretary, and friends, to assist him in recording his thoughts and ideas down on paper.

Even though Borges accomplished great things in literature, it wasn’t until after 1961 that he gained popularity with the rest of the literary world. Soon after he earned the honor of receiving “The International Publishers Prize”, an award which he shared with another writer named Samuel Beckett. Borges wrote essays, shorts stories and even poetry. He also translated many works. He had a way of taking fiction to a new level by stretching genres just a little and creating works that were not just unique, but writing in such a way that he made the unbelievable actually believable. Two of his short story collections, Ficciones and Labyrinths, were translated into the English language. This is broadened his audience of readers. He also worked on the nonfiction texts. This is one thing he was so well-known for in Latin America. Some critics believed that his nonfiction essays were some of his best writings pieces. He also tried his hand at writing biographies and book reviews. Many readers will see how Borges used his nonfiction writing as a way to be creative in his short stories.

Borges also had many famous excerpts from his different works that were discussed and analyzed, but one that has been questioned and critiqued a lot comes from his short story, The Library of Babel. The famous selection that is in question from this short story is: “The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite and perhaps the infinite number of hexagonal galleries, with vast air shafts between, surrounded by very low railings. From any of the hexagons, one can see, interminably, the upper and lower floors. The distribution of the galleries is invariable. Twenty shelves, five long shelves per side, cover all the sides except two; their height, which is the distance from the floor to ceiling, scarcely exceeds that of a normal bookcase.….”

Some people who have analyzed and studied this particular selection have insinuated that he is predicting the future. They suggested that even though the text was written as if Borges was writing about a library, one should consider that Borges was actually creating an illusion. The illusion he was creating was thought to be a description of the internet and how that all written texts are connected together in different ways and related to one another. Some of his work was written with quite a bit of logic and reasoning. When writing in this way Borges made the reader think on a different level which caused the reader to attempt to draw a conclusion as to what he was really talking about in his stories. This is where Borges’ creativity was really taking shape in his writing. He made things that were believed to never have the possibility to exist or happen actually seem like it could happen or exist.

“Writing about reality as it is intertwined with illusion is what Borges does best”, according to Borges friend, Norman Thomas Di Giovanni, author of The Lesson of the Master: On Borges and His Works. Even though Borges’ writing eventually came to an end, his words and styles are remembered and studied across the world since he and his writing is internationally known. It wasn’t until the last eight years of his life that hi writing was recognized. Blind and stricken with sickness Borges did not give up easily. He trudged on and made his last eight years some of the best years of his life as far as his writing is concerned. Within a short period of time before Borges uttered his last words, he had one final close interview with his special acquaintance, Gloria Lopez.

The interview was originally in his native language and then translated into English. This interview along with other interviews that were conducted throughout his career were compiled together into one book titled, Jorge Luis Borges: The Last Interview and Other Conversations. These interviews give readers and up close and personal look inside of Borges life. However, what one learns is not as much about his life as it is about his thoughts and even his personality. As readers read his responses they can see that his answers are not all cut and dry or sincere answers, but instead they are full of color and humor.

During one of the interviews, Lopez keeps asking Borges about his blindness and asks Borges why he keeps looking at her as though he could see right through her. He responds with humor and leads her to believe it is a trick or illusion, but then goes one to say that “he will close his eyes if that will make her feel better. Jorge Luis Borges life ended when his battle with liver cancer took his last breath. He died in June of 1986. In conclusion, we can sum up Borges life with one of his own quotes. “Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone.” So if he had spent his whole life thinking things about his life like where he lived, where he went to school, and whether or not he would lose his sight like his father did, then he may have not accomplished all the things he did. So, Jorge Luis Borges was definitely a man who lived by his words.