Sunday, March 22, 2009

JORGE LUIS BORGES


said this:

"A writer, or any man, must believe that whatever happens to him is an instrument; everything has been given for an end. This is even stronger in the case of the artist. Everything that happens, including humiliations, embarrassments, misfortunes, all has been given like clay, like material for one's art. One must accept it. For this reason I speak in a poem of the ancient food of heroes: humiliation, unhappiness, discord. Those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make from the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so."

Borges "Blindness" Selected Non-Fictions

I love this quotation, because one of my great fears in life is meaningless suffering, pointless pain. I am always afraid of making some easily avoided mistake in my life that will ruin it in some way. There is comfort and truth, I believe, in Borges' words.

3 comments:

kswolff said...

Try and fail. Try harder and fail better. I also like the militant, "No compromise!" Furthermore, editors and publishers don't have a monopoly on aesthetic taste, common sense, or knowledge of the market. Just because they hold the metaphorical "keys to the kingdom" (whether or not you get published), doesn't mean they have a gambler's chance of profiting from the Market (our Hallowed Laissez Faire Ponzi Scheme we hope won't eat our retirement and savings).

Roxy Katt said...

Pierce Inverarity's motto:

"Keep it bouncing. That's all the secret, keep it bouncing."

(something like that. The quotation may not be perfectly accurate, but I'm sure it's close.)

kswolff said...

South Park had a great episode about the Underpants Gnomes. The Gnomes stole underpants as a part of their scheme to "make profit."

Step 1: Get underpants.
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit.

It's just that simple, folks! Now give me your life savings and cash out your 401K. The stock market will never go down and we'll all be bazillionaires! I'm undecided who is less delusional, a stock broker or someone huffing crystal meth.