What is a book? Jorge Luis Borges in English [LECTURE]

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ต.ค. 2024
  • Fragments from "This Craft of Verse", a book of lectures given in English between 1967 and 1968 at Harvard University.
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ความคิดเห็น • 44

  • @NONOBoy1920
    @NONOBoy1920 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +26

    Great work! Thank you! Borges is a pure god of literature

    • @diccionariosxxi
      @diccionariosxxi  6 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      No problem. Borges converted everything to literature; philosophy, art, history, religion, science, mathematics, etc., he turned all that into literature. Thank you for commenting.

  • @leandromartinez5163
    @leandromartinez5163 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +43

    Idk how explain but the way JLB speak English is similar to the way he speak Spanish,like the same flows and pauses in the sentences.

  • @josephasghar
    @josephasghar ปีที่แล้ว +40

    Well I never quite expected JLB to sound like this. Very interesting.

    • @diccionariosxxi
      @diccionariosxxi  ปีที่แล้ว +16

      I see Borges the same way Nietzsche saw Schopenhauer, as an Educator. But there are times when I also see him as a friend and at others as a hero.

    • @IlIlIlIlIlIlIllIlIII
      @IlIlIlIlIlIlIllIlIII 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@diccionariosxxi Might not be the best example unless you plan on absolutely loathing everything about JLB in a few years.

    • @diccionariosxxi
      @diccionariosxxi  3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      ​@@IlIlIlIlIlIlIllIlIII ​ No, never. I used the analogy focusing only on the essay Nietzsche wrote, "Schopenhauer as Educator". You probably say it because Nietzsche started admiring Schopenhauer but as the years passed, he distanced himself from his philosophy. That will not happen to me regarding Borges, don't worry. Thanks for commenting

  • @Rafael-oi6dj
    @Rafael-oi6dj 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +23

    No doubt Borges was one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century

  • @prometheusboat
    @prometheusboat ปีที่แล้ว +24

    Our meetings with books create a reality each time we read them. Something that did not exist in the books themselves.

    • @diccionariosxxi
      @diccionariosxxi  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yes, I agree, thank you for the comment

  • @castelodeossos3947
    @castelodeossos3947 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +32

    “A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore risky to send it out into the world. How often it must be impaired by the eyes of the unfeeling and the cruelty of the impotent.” Mark Rothko

    • @charlytaylor1748
      @charlytaylor1748 16 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      gosh, I must be one of the unfeeling impotent. I can't stand Rothko.

  • @miloshp7399
    @miloshp7399 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +16

    This is a perfectly fine Nobel prize acceptance speech 🙂

  • @edgeofthought
    @edgeofthought 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Fantastic! This video is my first-ever intro to JLB, never heard of him before. And I say this while studying Seneca, with a giant personal library behind. I really really appreciate this video, thank you Diccionarios XXI. 👏👏👏 .... I have subscribed.

    • @diccionariosxxi
      @diccionariosxxi  หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Hi, I am glad you liked the video. I certainly recommend all his lectures at Harvard University. Thank you for subscribing.

    • @edgeofthought
      @edgeofthought หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@diccionariosxxi good yeah. I went looking for the whole single lecture where this came from, in the past few days. Found it/them, several, and heard more.
      He thinks exactly like me and probably you, and it makes me think that we all are going through successful ego deaths and finding the healthy divine spirits toward what can be the best mortal human life. The “daemon of Socrates” isn’t only that of his own, I keep trying to find it in others, it’s everywhere. 🙂

    • @diccionariosxxi
      @diccionariosxxi  หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@edgeofthought That's an excellent observation but I don't know if "daemon" is the right word, maybe "spirit" or "ghost". You are very fortunate to have come across Borges' work and have been able to appreciate it. It is life changing event, even more when one is at a young age. Thanks for commenting

  • @მალხაზ-ვ4მ
    @მალხაზ-ვ4მ ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Amazing. Thank you for sharing this sir.

    • @diccionariosxxi
      @diccionariosxxi  ปีที่แล้ว +1

      You're welcome, share with others. Thanks for commenting.

  • @gibsonraymonda
    @gibsonraymonda ปีที่แล้ว +6

    If a book has anything to say, it burns with a quiet laugh, because any book worth its salt points up and out of itself. -Bohumil Hrabal, from Too Loud a Solitude

  • @paulklee5790
    @paulklee5790 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +18

    His joke about buying too many new books is especially poignant as by the time of this talk he was completely blind…

  • @carbonc6065
    @carbonc6065 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Excellent

  • @kaynetuohy7588
    @kaynetuohy7588 ปีที่แล้ว +64

    He sounds Irish at times to me…

    • @TheMLMGold
      @TheMLMGold 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Haha I heard that too...esp how he says 'what is a book in itself'

    • @simonreilly7020
      @simonreilly7020 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +12

      I think his knowledge of old English influenced his English accent. If you listen to the first lines of Beowulf the h and r sounds are quite similar. He was also a fan of Scottish literature and philosophy (Hume) and I think you hear that in the quick he trills some of the words. There’s also some carry over from his Spanish. I find Borges’ language fascinating because his Spanish is very influenced by the English language yet is still Spanish

    • @demoniqpng8623
      @demoniqpng8623 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      ​@@simonreilly7020Possibly for the Irish/galish settlements in Argentina.

    • @jayedgardyson1920
      @jayedgardyson1920 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

      That he does, to be sure…

    • @themagikian4237
      @themagikian4237 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      He sounds Irish as he flattens and hardens his As. Harder Hs and Ws too. More emphasis on Cs and Ks, which sound the same. He definitely picked up some of his English from an Irish person. It's too strong and distinctive, and he does it everytime. It's not just inflection.

  • @stalkek
    @stalkek 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Strange how Irish he sounds.

  • @Noneatall246
    @Noneatall246 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    A book without its reader is a pile of paper

  • @mansichaudhary5206
    @mansichaudhary5206 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    Where can I listen whole lecture?

    • @diccionariosxxi
      @diccionariosxxi  5 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      Hi, this lecture is called, "The Riddle of Poetry", you can easily find it on TH-cam.

    • @gabrielcaprav
      @gabrielcaprav 20 วันที่ผ่านมา

      This lecture is part of a larger series of lectures Borges gave at Harvard. The series is called ''This Craft of Verse.'' I think you can find it in its entirety here on TH-cam.

  • @nipasy
    @nipasy ปีที่แล้ว +6

    Does anyone know the source for the Plato quote at 1:50? I asked ChatGPT (yes, I know...) and it told me there's no book of Plato that mentions that.

    • @marktheaustin
      @marktheaustin ปีที่แล้ว +12

      Phaedrus (274d-275e)
      scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg012.perseus-eng2:274-275

    • @prometheusboat
      @prometheusboat ปีที่แล้ว +5

      It may very well be that it was a false memory, or "borgian trolling".
      Borges often created fictions out of authors, and wrote stories based on books that were never written.

    • @prometheusboat
      @prometheusboat ปีที่แล้ว +4

      Or it could be his interpretation of a section of Phaedrus like the following: "They (book readers) will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks."

    • @sloaiza81
      @sloaiza81 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Its in Timaeus, the book plato holds in the school od Athens.

    • @sloaiza81
      @sloaiza81 5 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      ​@@prometheusboatit's in Timaeus. The book he holds in the school of Athens.