Sir, - John Boland's dismissal of the work of Jorge Luis Borges (July 27th) deserves a reply. In particular, he refers to Borges' story about an author who wrote two chapters of Don Quixote which were the same as Cervantes, word for word.
John Boland asks: what does it mean? He infers that all of Borges' work is a meaningless flight of fancy. Borges believed that language itself was an aesthetic creation; that each word has been spoken or written before, by someone else.
When we read a book, something of the author's spirit comes alive; something of the way they were thinking or feeling at the time of writing. Looked at in this light, reading can be a form of magic. Writers long dead are momentarily reborn in the reader's head and heart. Even reading a dictionary is a wondrous experience, as it taps into the origins of human consciousness.
In the story referred to, Borges took this one step further and imagined that the author's spirit was so strong that it existed outside of the book. Were the two chapters so profound or the arrangement of words so beautiful that they could not be contained within a book?
A flight of fancy, to be sure, but if writing is not about flights of fancy, then it is about nothing. The themes that run throughout Borges's work are the magic of writing; the beauty and music of words; and the awesome worlds that can be created. In his world, everything connects, but the webs he weaves are what make him unique.
I recommend that John Boland reads Seven Nights, a book of lectures given by Borges. It is a wise and enlightening volume that takes the reader, not towards oblivion, but towards the wonder of the imagination. - Yours, etc.,
Terenure,
Dublin 6W.