Jorge Luis Borges on Firing Line (1977)

I recently saw that "Firing Line" now has a channel on YouTube. I've mentioned the episode on "The Southern Imagination" a few times, with Eudora Welty and Walker Percy, and it is available here.

A different episode I wanted to share was the conversation with Jorge Luis Borges, recorded on February 1, 1977. If you're interested in Borges' work, I highly recommend watching the show. It's a wide-ranging discussion and Borges mind is a nimble match for Buckley's questions and comments. It's interesting to see the writers he esteems, such as Melville and Kipling, how he happens to read (or at this point, have read to him) more books in English than in Spanish, and why he believes Spanish too cumbersome a language for writing poetry.

Around the 40-minute mark Buckley and Borges take the discussion into political and nationalistic territory, but things get back on track about 10 minutes later when Borges begins to discuss teaching literature. Overall, it's a wonderful, lively conversation. Borges' endearing personality shines through, full of humor and self-deprecation. Here's one such example, starting at 8:20:

Buckley, Jr.: "Do you mean you have officially abandoned any intention of receiving the Nobel Prize?"

Borges: "No. I think it is a kind of game that is played every year. You know, every year I am to be given the Nobel Prize and then it turns out to be the next year. It's kind of a habit I have, or a kind of habit the Scandinavians have. In fact, it might be called an old Norse tradition, you know, not to give me the Nobel Prize. That's a part of Norse mythology. I'm very fond of Norse, all things Scandinavian. I love all things Scandinavian."

Buckley, Jr.: "Is it your point that you would lose respect in the Nobel Committee if they awarded you the prize?"

Borges: "I would think it was a very generous mistake, but I will accept it greedily."