The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.
October 14, 2001 3:33 AM   Subscribe

 
My favorite was: To die for a religion is easier than to live it absolutely. -- "Deutsches Requiem"
posted by Real9 at 5:53 AM on October 14, 2001


Love this one:

The original is unfaithful to the translation.
-- On Henley's translattion of Beckford's Vathek, 1943
posted by bjgeiger at 6:03 AM on October 14, 2001


That is a classic. This one seems timely:

Gibbon observes that in the Arabian book par excellence, in the Koran, there are no camels; I believe if there were any doubt as to the authenticity of the Koran, this absence of camels would be sufficient to prove it is an Arabian work.
-- Essay: "The Argentine Writer and Tradition"
posted by groundhog at 6:22 AM on October 14, 2001


My favorite was missing:
I cannot believe in the existence of God, despite all the statistics in the world.
It's from an interview in the N. Y. Times in the 80's.
posted by TimeFactor at 6:22 AM on October 14, 2001


there is a line from one of the stories in dreamtigers where borges observes that the face of any stranger on the subway could actually be the same as the face of christ, another made from the same mold. borges was brilliant.
posted by grabbingsand at 6:47 AM on October 14, 2001


I'm constantly reminded of Borges's remark about the Falkland/Malvinas islands war. It seems so apposite for every less-than-crucial dispute; even here on our beloved MetaFilter:
"two baldies fighting over a comb".
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:25 AM on October 14, 2001


but maybe it's like that scene in crouching tiger, where the comb represents our hearts & minds.

grabbingsand, that observation sounds like something someone said to me recently about kierkegaard's religion. i've never read kierkegaard, tho. um, or borges...

Not granting me the Nobel Prize has become a scandinavian tradition; since i was born -August 24, 1899- they have not been granting it to me.
-- Uknown source
posted by kliuless at 7:49 AM on October 14, 2001


This one could have been written about the MeFi experience: Menard (perhaps without wishing to) has enriched, by means of a new technique, the hesitant and rudimentary art of reading: the technique is one of deliberate anachronism and erroneous attributions.

The number of times I've had to look up the encyclopaedia after a massive MeFi porkie pie has been uttered, and been enriched as a consequence...
posted by RichLyon at 9:59 AM on October 14, 2001


I, unfortunately, thought this was a link about Victor Borges. Rowdy piano players of the world unite!
posted by evixir at 11:14 AM on October 14, 2001


That's Victor Borge, no ess.
posted by EngineBeak at 12:47 PM on October 14, 2001


I must say, that whole website rocks, check out the James Joyce site. I loved it because it seemed like a site created by a real person who just liked Joyce, which is what I was. I was also seventeen.
posted by dagnyscott at 8:57 AM on October 15, 2001


How odd. I'm giving a speech on Borges two days from now, and i used the libyrinth a lot for biographical info. It is a great site.
posted by sonofsamiam at 9:15 AM on October 15, 2001


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