Thursday, March 26, 2009

Brian, Borges & Bioy

To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death; what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal.

I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedious way of saying that I do not exist.

Brian Cowen, Taoiseach, March 25th, 2009
Blimey!!!!!

No.

Sorry.

This was a certain Jorge Luis Borges, quoted by Mr. Chris God-free Morell who, by the way, has nothing to do with a certain Seňor Morel, protagonist in Seňor Adolfo Bioy Casares' novel "La invención de Morel".

Well, yes, Seňor Casares had something to do with Seňor Borges.

No, none of the seňores had anything to do with any Taoiseach.


P.S. Sorry for any inconvenience: First the title, then the story.

3 comments:

  1. Borges, who had a lot of affinities with Joyce, and a lot of disappointements, in his country, with the Perons' mediocrity, would have totally understood your use of his irony in this Irish political tragi-comedy.

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  2. Sean: Since everything implies its opposite, it was an easy mistake to make.

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  3. Claudia,
    re 'affinities': The last three words in Borges biogram of Joyce, published February 5th, 1937, are: 'He is blind.'
    Interesting, hm?

    Stan,
    why would the devil beat his grandmother? - 'cause she didn't find an excuse. :)

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