The fictions literally could not have taken shape but for the presence of villainy at their very heart. Instead, infamy functions here as an aesthetic, formal principle. Nor do they suggest the lighthearted view of Gide’s Nietzschean hero Lafcadio. But Borges does not consider infamy primarily as a moral theme the stories in now way suggest an indictment of society or of human nature or of destiny. It is true that, especially in his earlier works, Borges writes about villains: The collection History of Infam ( Historia universal de la infamia, 1935) contains an engaging gallery of scoundrels. Like Kafka and contemporary French existential writers, he is often seen as a moralist, in rebellion against the times. Commentators cast around in vain for suitable points of comparison and his own avowed literary admirations add to the confusion. Borges is a complex writer, particularly difficult to place. American and English critics have called him one of the greatest writers alive today, but have not as yet (so far as I know) made substantial contributions to the interpreation of his work. Several volumes of translations in English have recently appeared, including a fine edition of his most recent book El hacedor ( Dreamtigers) 1 and a new edition of Labyrinths, which first appeared in 1962.
There are signs however, that he is being discovered in this country with some of the same enthusiasm that greeted him in France, where he received major critical attention, and has been very well translated. William Faulkner, Edgar Lee Masters, Robert Penn Warren, and Wallace Stevens, this neglect is somewhat unfair.
Mirror on mirror mirrored is all the ShowĪlthough he has been writing poems, stories, and critical essays of the highest quality since 1923, the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges is still much better known in Latin America than in the U.
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