thaliarchus

@thaliarchus

The poet they probably shouldn’t have sent. I watch anime and am sometimes accused of reading books. I'm writing a long gay giant robot story in verse—probably this millennium's best yuri mecha epic poem, through lack of competition.

'Now praise those names on tombs of steel engraved | And toll this rotting country’s countless bells.'

log inask
thaliarchus
@thaliarchus
NoelBWrites
@NoelBWrites
NoelBWrites
@NoelBWrites

I'm sorry I need you to know that as an Argentine and a literary dirtbag, "who is this Borges guy" is the funniest question I've gotten

TrashBoatDaGod
@TrashBoatDaGod asked:

Who is this Borges guy? Im not a literature person, but ive gone most of my life without hearing about him and the second i got to cohost it seems like everyone is stanning him like a kpop band.

Is it likely he inspired a more famous author ive heard of?

Thank you for asking! If you're not a literature person (or from Argentina), I can see why you've never heard of the guy.

Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer, possibly the most well-known Argentine writer of the 20th century. He was a prominent figure in Latin American literary traditions and his works were translated to a bunch of languages, including English, which got him international renown.

garak
@garak

Borges went on to influence more popular (and populist) authors like Borges, as well laying the philosophical and literary groundwork that later authors like Borges revisited in their works on the theme of Borges.

You must log in to comment.

in reply to @NoelBWrites's post:

Anschel
@Anschel

Worth noting, if this is post is your first introduction to Borges, that he was comically and horrifyingly right-wing, unlike pretty much every other successful Latin American author of that century. This doesn't have much impact on his stories--with a few exceptions they are quite apolitical--but I wouldn't want someone to have my experience of liking an author and then reading their extremely disturbing Wikipedia page.

login to reply
Anschel
@Anschel

Personally I think Dalí's politics are a bit hard to suss out because he lived his whole life as a sort of performance art, and it's not clear which if any of his public statements were intended sincerely.

Whereas Borges was an open and sometimes strident supporter of authoritarian governments. He proudly accepted awards from the brutal dictators of his own and neighboring countries, and helped to whitewash their images abroad. He wrote an open latter praising Nixon's bombing of Cambodia. When the Mexican government killed hundreds of student protesters in 1968, he sent a telegram of support--to the government.

The only positive thing you can say about his politics is that he was anti-fascist and supported the Allies in WWII, which was by no means a universally popular opinion in Argentina. But it's pretty clear this had little or nothing to do with political ideology, and was more that he thought English culture was superior to German culture.

As for whether it "comes up" in his writing...outside of a few political asides, the main influence is probably representation. Here is a guy who wrote dozens of stories and pretty much never reused a character, and as far as I know he wrote exactly one female protagonist, Emma Zunz. Who false accuses a man of sexual assault. (The man is in fact a bad guy and she is portrayed positively, but still. Not a great look.)

login to reply
garak
@garak

Borges went on to influence more popular (and populist) authors like Borges, as well laying the philosophical and literary groundwork that later authors like Borges revisited in their works on the theme of Borges.

login to reply