Borges and I

2 ideas

1. Borges and I: the split self

   In a one-page parable, the narrator describes "Borges" as the public figure whose name appears on lists of professors and in biographical dictionaries, who takes his tastes (hourglasses, maps, coffee, Stevenson) and turns them into vain, theatrical literary attributes. The private self lives so that Borges can write, slowly losing everything to him, and the text ends: "I do not know which of us has written this page."

2. Public persona absorbs the private self

   Whatever the private self produces or loves is taken over by the public persona, and it survives only as that persona's property. Even attempts to escape by adopting new tastes or inventing new games get absorbed in turn, so the private self cannot reclaim itself and can only watch its own traits turn into a recognizable style that belongs to someone else.

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