The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things…
““The other one, the one called Borges, is the one things happen to. I walk through the streets of Buenos Aires and stop for a moment, perhaps mechanically now, to look at the arch of an entrance hall and the grillwork on the gate. I know of Borges from the mail and see his name on a list of professors or in a biographical dictionary. I like hourglasses, maps, eighteenth-century typography, the taste of coffee and the prose of Stevenson; he shares these preferences, but in a vain way that turns them into the attributes of an actor. It would be an exaggeration to say that ours is a hostile relationship. I live, let myself go on living, so that Borges may contrive his literature, and this literature justifies me. It is no effort for me to confess that he has achieved some valid pages, but those pages cannot save me, perhaps because what is good belongs to no one, not even to him, but rather to the language and to tradition. Besides I am destined to perish, definitively, and only some instant of myself can survive in him. Little by little, I am giving over everything to him, though I am quite aware of his perverse custom of falsifying and magnifying things. Spinoza knew that all things long to persist in their being; the stone eternally wants to be a stone, and the tiger a tiger. I shall remain in Borges, not in myself (if it is true that I am someone), but I recognize myself less in his books than in many others or in the laborious strumming of a guitar. Years ago I tried to free myself from him and went from the mythologies of the suburbs to the games with time and infinity, but those games belong to Borges now and I shall have to imagine other things. Thus my life is a flight and I lose everything and everything belongs to oblivion, or to him. I do not know which of us has written this page.””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
The narrator sees Borges as both a mentor and a rival, merging identity with literature, acknowledging the endless influence of language and tradition.
In simple terms: Borges shapes the narrator’s sense of self through literature.
Key Takeaway
Let literature shape you, but retain self.
Themes
identity
literature
influence
Mood
introspective
nostalgic
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- academic study
- creative writing
- personal reflection
- literary criticism
Key Concepts
postmodernism
intertextuality
Questions to Reflect On
- Do you feel literature defines you?
- How can you balance influence with originality?
A Different Perspective
The narrator may lose personal agency to the author’s legacy.