Website review: Habitus - A Conversation with Jorge...

luckige luckige discovered this in Literature •11 reviews since Feb 8, 2008
icon tagsliterature, borges •habitusmag.com/index.php

Thumbs up People who like this website

Klassy
San Francisco
valerionson
Orem
susk
Oregon
Scarlette
Denver
sustainablogger
Saint Louis
tmcp21
Ohio
frankielollz
New York
RedLodgeZombie
Brooklyn
mrcclass
Halifax
luckige
Sao Paulo

StumbleUpon is the best way to discover great web sites, videos, photos, blogs and more - based on your interests. Everything is submitted and rated by the community. Discover, share and review the best of the web!

Thumbs up Reviews of this website

luckige discovered 6 months ago
From the page: "STUDENT: You wrote that the theme of time is one of the most important. Could you tell me why you believe this? I have found it essential. For example, you can conceive of the universe without space since space is a creation that owes itself to touch and sight. But we are going to eliminate touch and sight, and weâ€re going to suppose simply a conscience. This conscience, or these consciencesâ€"they could be infiniteâ€"must communicate through words of our own sound or through music, that would be more beautiful still. So we would have a purely temporal universe, without space. But a universe without time is for me inconceivable. "
jpcruz rated 5 months ago
From the page: "My father showed me his library, which seemed to me infinite, and he told me to read whatever I wanted, but that if something bored me I should put it down immediately, that is, the opposite of obligatory reading. Reading has to be a happiness, and philosophy gives us happiness, and that is the contemplation of a problem. Quincy said that discovering the problem is no less important than discovering a solution, and I donâ€t know if any solutions have been discovered, but many problems have been discovered. The world continues to be more enigmatic, more interesting, more enchanting."
mrcclass rated 5 months ago
I am not sure where I came across this first but I am happy to have this amusing interview with Jorge Borges a wonderful writer, more relevant for our times than most I can name. The other reviews cite a variety of passages from the interview- that is about right because the interview is rich. Here is my selection from the interview: "My father showed me his library, which seemed to me infinite, and he told me to read whatever I wanted, but that if something bored me I should put it down immediately, that is, the opposite of obligatory reading. Reading has to be a happiness, and philosophy gives us happiness, and that is the contemplation of a problem. Quincy said that discovering the problem is no less important than discovering a solution, and I don't know if any solutions have been discovered, but many problems have been discovered. The world continues to be more enigmatic, more interesting, more enchanting."
Reea rated 5 months ago
From the page: "For me death is a hope, the irrational certitude of being abolished, erased and forgotten. When I'm sad, I think, what does it matter what happens to a twentieth-century South American writer; what do I have to do with all of this? You think it matters what happens to me now, if tomorrow I will have disappeared? I hope to be totally forgotten, I believe that this is death. But perhaps I'm wrong and what follows is another life on another plane, with distinct conditions, no less interesting than this one, and I will accept that life, too, just as I have accepted this one. But I would prefer not to remember this one in the other, being younger." excerpt from a unique interview with Borges. link found on Jedencorrell's pages.
Jedencorrell rated 5 months ago
As if one needed more reasons to adore Borges...
"For me death is a hope, the irrational certitude of being abolished, erased and forgotten. When I'm sad, I think, what does it matter what happens to a twentieth-century South American writer; what do I have to do with all of this? You think it matters what happens to me now, if tomorrow I will have disappeared? I hope to be totally forgotten, I believe that this is death."
Thanks for stumbling this to me, Mrcclass.
IntrepidDreamer rated 6 months ago
STUDENT: You say that you accept and resign yourself to what life gives you, but are you not constructing this life through your actions? I don't believe in free will. In this case, I'm not constructing. Now, if you believe in free will, free will is a necessary illusion. But regarding my past, I can accept that everything that I have done has been conditional upon world history, upon the entire cosmic process that came before. But if I'm told in this moment that I'm not free, I give myself away. Here are my two hands, and I say, I can choose which I'm going to drop onto the table, and in this moment I'm sure, but, now that I've let fall the left hand, how can I accept that this was determined and letting the right fall would have been impossible? But in what we refer to as the past, on the contrary, you can think, if I acted badly, I have no reason to repent, as it was already determined, and the ideas of punishment and reward both would be false, since everything has been predetermined; that free will doesn't exist, that everything has been conditional. But this depends on the temperament of the individual. Perhaps those of you who are young feel free will more easily. As for me, it happens that it's very difficult to believe in it. with thanks to xineann,etcetera and hapax for the recommendations
xineann rated 6 months ago
      A Conversation with Jorge Luis Borges
    Sometime ago I said that philosophy is a fantastic branch of study. But I didn't mean anything against philosophy, on the contrary; it could be said, for example, that it was exactly the same [as poetry] maintaining that the syntax is from two distinct places, [and] that philosophy deserves a place in the order of aesthetics. If you look at theology or philosophy as fantastic literature, you'll see that they are much more ambitious than the poets. For example, what works of poetry are comparable with something as astonishing as Spinoza's god: an infinite substance endowed with infinite attributes? Every philosophy creates a world with its own special laws, and these models may or may not be fantastic, but it doesn't matter. I've entered into poetry, and also fables, that is, I'm not a novelist. I've read very few novels in my life; for me the foremost novelist is Joseph Conrad. I've never attempted a novel, but I've tried to write fables. I've dedicated my life to reading more than anything, and I've found that reading philosophical texts is no less pleasant than reading literary texts, and perhaps there is no essential difference between them. My father showed me his library, which seemed to me infinite, and he told me to read whatever I wanted, but that if something bored me I should put it down immediately, that is, the opposite of obligatory reading. Reading has to be a happiness, and philosophy gives us happiness, and that is the contemplation of a problem. Quincy said that discovering the problem is no less important than discovering a solution, and I don't know if any solutions have been discovered, but many problems have been discovered. The world continues to be more enigmatic, more interesting, more enchanting. I said a moment ago that I've dedicated my life to reading and writing. For me they are two equally pleasurable activities. When writers talk about the torture of writing, I don't understand it; for me writing is a necessity. If I were Robinson Crusoe I would write on my desert island. When I was young I thought about what I considered the heroic life of my military elders, a life that had been rich, and mine... The life of a reader, sometimes rashly, seemed to me a poor life. Now I don't believe that; the life of a reader can be as rich as any other life. Suppose Alonso Quijano had never left his library, or bookstore, as Cervantes called it, I believe that his life reading would have been as rich as when he conceived the project of turning himself into Quixote. For him the latter life was more real, for me reading about him has been one of the most vivid experiences of my life.... My memory is full of quotes in many languages, and I think that, returning to philosophy, that we are not enriched by its solutions, as these solutions are doubtful, they are arbitrary, and philosophy does enrich us by demonstrating that the world is more mysterious than we thought. That is, what philosophy offers us isn't a system. It's not like someone stated a concrete and transparent piece of knowledge, it's a series of doubts, and the study of these doubts is a pleasure. The study of philosophy can be very pleasant... So, resuming my preliminary digressions, I would say that I don't believe there is an essential difference between philosophy and poetry. found by EtCetera
Etcetera rated 6 months ago

    STUDENT: If you were a critic of your work, how would you explain certain symbols, such as labyrinths, mirrors? The answer is easy in the case of the labyrinth: it's the most evident symbol of perplexity. I feel completely lost, and the labyrinth is an obvious symbol of being lost. Now, the mirror is not so easy. It's the idea of "I," for example, what one has been, and later one will be a third person, it's an aspect of the mirror. I haven't chosen these themes, the themes chose me. I don't believe that any writer should search for themes or choose them, it's convenient that the themes look for him and find him... In the case of a story, the beginning and the end always reveal themselves to me, but not what happens between the starting point and the finish line. There are writers who say that they don't work this way, that for them the beginning is sufficient, later they look for the best ending, the best solution. I know the beginning and the end, and I have to figure out what happens between them for the story itself, and I can be wrong. So I have to start again when I realize this. One has to see what truth there is in this whole process; if not, it would be very tedious. At my age, one doesn't have contemporaries. They have died. I pass a good part of my time alone, but I don't complain about this. I am populating the time with plans for the future, a future that can conclude at any moment, of course. I have many young friends but they can't give me their time, it's natural.
via Hapax via luckige

Hapax rated 6 months ago
borges poetry & philosophy Sometime ago I said that philosophy is a fantastic branch of study. But I didn't mean anything against philosophy, on the contrary; it could be said, for example, that it was exactly the same [as poetry] maintaining that the syntax is from two distinct places, [and] that philosophy deserves a place in the order of aesthetics. If you look at theology or philosophy as fantastic literature, you'll see that they are much more ambitious than the poets. For example, what works of poetry are comparable with something as astonishing as Spinoza's god: an infinite substance endowed with infinite attributes? Every philosophy creates a world with its own special laws, and these models may or may not be fantastic, but it doesn't matter. I've entered into poetry, and also fables, that is, I'm not a novelist. I've never attempted a novel, but I've tried to write fables. I've dedicated my life to reading more than anything, and I've found that reading philosophical texts is no less pleasant than reading literary texts, and perhaps there is no essential difference between them. My father showed me his library, which seemed to me infinite, and he told me to read whatever I wanted, but that if something bored me I should put it down immediately, that is, the opposite of obligatory reading. Reading has to be a happiness, and philosophy gives us happiness, and that is the contemplation of a problem. De Quincy said that discovering the problem is no less important than discovering a solution, and I don't know if any solutions have been discovered, but many problems have been discovered. The world continues to be more enigmatic, more interesting, more enchanting. I've dedicated my life to reading and writing. For me they are two equally pleasurable activities. When writers talk about the torture of writing, I don't understand it; for me writing is a necessity. If I were Robinson Crusoe I would write on my desert island. When I was young I thought about what I considered the heroic life of my military elders, a life that had been rich, and mine... The life of a reader, sometimes rashly, seemed to me a poor life. Now I don't believe that; the life of a reader can be as rich as any other life. Suppose Alonso Quijano had never left his library, or bookstore, as Cervantes called it, I believe that his life reading would have been as rich as when he conceived the project of turning himself into Quixote. For him the latter life was more real, for me reading about him has been one of the most vivid experiences of my life. And now that I have committed the indecency of turning eighty-five, I confirm without melancholy that my memory is full of verses and full of books, and I can't see past the year 1955--I lost my reader's vision--but if I think about my past life, I think of course about friends, loves also, but I think most of all about books. My memory is full of quotes in many languages, and I think that, returning to philosophy, that we are not enriched by its solutions, as these solutions are doubtful, they are arbitrary, and philosophy does enrich us by demonstrating that the world is more mysterious than we thought. That is, what philosophy offers us isn't a system. It's not like someone stated a concrete and transparent piece of knowledge, it's a series of doubts, and the study of these doubts is a pleasure. The study of philosophy can be very pleasant... So, resuming my preliminary digressions, I would say that I don't believe there is an essential difference between philosophy and poetry. . . .

Meet luckige

luckige

Luckige discovered this site. He is a 26 year old guy from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Luckige has rated 668 sites and has 30 fans.

Browse peoples favorites

Related videos

See more videos >
This page is not affiliated with habitusmag.com.