Borges & $

June 15, 2016 12:08 AM

The true author of Borges’ fictions was the third man: the broken, middle-aged Borges, the pencil-pusher who toiled away in the basement of a municipal building. He was a working stiff trying to support his family—just like anyone else—trapped in a labyrinth, feeling that his life was somehow a mistake. He is inseparable from the financial struggle he tried so hard not to write about. An essay by Elizabeth Hyde Stevens
posted by chavenet (21 comments total)

This misprint made my day: "A year later, when she called on him, she found the girl’s father nailed to the wall. "
posted by Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez at 1:27 AM on June 15, 2016 [7 favorites]

Also: "In his spare time, he learned German in order to read Sartor Resartus in the original. "

Sartor Resartus was written in English by Thomas Carlyle.
posted by Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez at 1:31 AM on June 15, 2016 [6 favorites]

Maybe they got Carlyle mixed up with Teufelsdröckh.
posted by Dr Dracator at 2:01 AM on June 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yes, I'm assuming she has a source that says something like he learned German in order to understand Sartor Resartus, meaning he wanted to understand the jokey German names etc in it, and she misunderstood.

I still don't understand the nailed to the wall bit.
posted by Segundus at 2:01 AM on June 15, 2016

It should probably be something like "A year later, when she called on him, she found the girl’s father had nailed the doll to the wall."

But it's Borges, who knows.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:07 AM on June 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's a great read all the same!
posted by Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez at 2:15 AM on June 15, 2016

Great essay, I'd love to read a book called Financial Planning Strategies of The Poets.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:30 AM on June 15, 2016 [7 favorites]

I had no idea that library work was so hellish
posted by thelonius at 5:35 AM on June 15, 2016

I had no idea that library work was so hellish.

People entertain a lot of twee bookish fantasies about it, but librarianship is typically a poorly-paid public service job with a huge amount of bureaucracy slathered on.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:35 AM on June 15, 2016 [4 favorites]

I posted an AskMe about the business side of poetry in case anyone has any resources for more reading on this. Thanks again for the post!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:47 AM on June 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Potomac Avenue: "Great essay, I'd love to read a book called Financial Planning Strategies of The Poets."

The Financial Lives of the Poets: A Novel

(I haven't read this but _The Zero_ was wonderful.)
posted by chavenet at 6:50 AM on June 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Heh, I must have heard that title and regurgitated it just now. Cool thanks!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:24 AM on June 15, 2016

Jennings and Ellands new crtical study of Benjamin is fantastic for t his kind of detail, the kind of cobbled together fellowships, personal loans, journalist gigs, translations, none of which really kept the wolf from the door.
posted by PinkMoose at 7:41 AM on June 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ithaca is Borges
posted by The Ted at 9:21 AM on June 15, 2016 [4 favorites]

Once again, it seems the answer is mostly being born into a well-to-do family and having access to the unpaid labor of women, though I appreciate that the author points out that he did his best work under the duress of a crumby job.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 1:04 PM on June 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

That was a great read. Thank you for posting.
posted by GrapeApiary at 1:41 PM on June 15, 2016

This is a good time to bring up DFW's review of a previous Borges biography which I feel is essential reading (the review, not the biography):
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/books/review/07WALLACE.html
posted by Dmenet at 2:53 PM on June 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Potomac Avenue: "Great essay, I'd love to read a book called Financial Planning Strategies of The Poets."

The Financial Lives of the Poets: A Novel

(I haven't read this but _The Zero_ was wonderful.)

I read it; mediocre.
posted by grobstein at 2:55 PM on June 15, 2016

A much better evocation of similar themes, from around the same time, was The Ask.
posted by grobstein at 2:56 PM on June 15, 2016

librarianship is typically a poorly-paid public service job with a huge amount of bureaucracy slathered on.

Which we bookworms appreciate greatly even though librarians typically pooh-pooh our expressions about it. I was introduced to one of my favorite pieces of classical music, not at big-city college, but on a between-term summer visit to the hometown library, nearly empty that sunny afternoon. The very patient lady who'd helped us in our HS years apparently had been keeping it in abeyance. Just for this one visit. Thanks forever Marie.
posted by Twang at 4:30 PM on June 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

IANAL (the L being librarian) However, I work in a library. It can be stultifying, and bureaucratically nonsensical, but it's the first job I've ever had that I don't actively hate.
I know, to a lot of you that's not high praise, and you want to tell me to "follow my bliss" and "do what I love" and the money will follow.
We're mostly adults here though and should know that's a huge load of horseshit.
I have discovered that "following my bliss" and "doing what I love" so the money will follow, takes something that I used to love and destroys it. Turns it into a job. An awful job, so now , one thing I hate a job, has become two things I hate, and one I used to love.
So I've discovered, for me, that if I accidentally (which is how this turned into a career) fall ass backward into a job, that I don't actively hate, I can continue doing it, and continue not actively hating it.
Then I end up with spare time that I don't have to spend drinking and drugging myself into a stupor because life is pointlessly awful, and instead, do some of those things I love.
and do them for myself.
And not make it in blue because the client says, or play it with feeling, or whatever fucking nonsense those with more money say in order to make those of us with less, feel worse. Because now they can go fuck their mistress and shower money on other entitled assholes. Pigfuckers.
So yeah, I guess I came to say working in a library doesn't have to be awful. And if it is you should find some other non awful way to make ends meet.
posted by evilDoug at 6:33 PM on June 15, 2016 [3 favorites]