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Title: Seven Nights by Jorge Luis Borges, Eliot Weinberger ISBN: 0-8112-0905-9 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: October, 1984 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Seven Remarkable Lectures Worth Seven Readings
Comment: I am fascinated by the mind, by the genius of Jorge Luis Borges. "Seven Nights" is a short collection (121 pages) of seven lectures given over seven evenings in the summer of 1977 in Buenos Aires. Borges was almost fully blind and spoke informally, without notes of course. He exercised his great memory with skill; he shifted effortlessly across literary genre, across the centuries, across languages, occasionally making unexpected connections that utterly surprised me. Each lecture can stand alone, but references to prior topics abound.
I first encountered "Seven Nights" some years ago. Having just read Dante's Inferno for the first time, I was having difficulty articulating the powerful impact that Dante's great work had made on me. In his first lecture, "The Divine Comedy", Borges provided the words.
He says, the Middle Ages "gave us, above all, the Divine Comedy, which we continue to read, and which continues to astonish us, which will last beyond our lives, far beyond our waking lives." He describes the joy of reading Dante's work as a narrative, ignoring - at least during the first reading - the extensively documented literary and historical criticism. "The Commedia is a book everyone ought to read. Not to do so is to deprive oneself of the greatest gift that literature can give us."
"Dreams are the genus; nightmares are the species. I will speak first of dreams, and then of nightmares." So begins lecture two. Borges takes us on a journey through history, literature, and poetry in search for understanding of that so common, but so unusual event, that we call dreams.
"A major event in the history of the West was the discovery of the East." And so begins lecture three on that great work that defines the mystery that is Arabia. "These tales have had a strange history. They were first told in India, then in Persia, then in Asia Minor, and finally were written down in Arabic and compiled in Cairo. They became The Book of a Thousand and One Nights."
Borges' lectures travel an elliptical orbit around his topic, sometimes approaching directly, other times looking outward, away from his stated subject. In his lecture on poetry (number five) he comments on literature in general: "A bibliography is unimportant - after all, Shakespeare knew nothing of Shakespearean criticism. Why not study the texts directly? If you like the book, fine. If you don't, don't read it. The idea of compulsory reading is absurd. Literature is rich enough to offer you some other author worthy of your attention - or one today unworthy of your attention whom you will read tomorrow."
His other lectures, "Buddhism", "The Kabbalah", and "Blindness", are equally intriguing. In once more rereading "Seven Nights" I found myself again astounded by Borges, by his seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of literature, by his capability to forge unexpected connections, and by his provocative statements. He has obviously given considerable thought to his conclusions, although Borges is anything but dogmatic. I enjoy a quote from a concluding paragraph in "Nightmares". "We may draw two conclusions, at least tonight; later we can change our minds."
Whether you are familiar with Borges or not, I highly recommend "Seven Nights". Borges is simply without peer, and I do not expect to change my mind later.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent Borges essay collection
Comment: The seven nights in question are off the cuff essays Borges delivered in Buenos Aires in the late seventies, written down by fans. He clearly did this sort of thing very well, and the regret one has at not being able to appreciate the performance at first hand is vitiated by these excellent transcriptions. Dante, the Thousand and One nights, Buddhism - all dealt with in exquisite thoughtful prose. All quotations are from memory (Borges was by now completely blind) and all conclusions paradoxical, lapidary, Borgesian. A stocking filler. Go ahead, treat yourself.
Rating: 5
Summary: Nuevas noches argentinas
Comment: Estas conferencias que Borges pronunció a lo largo de siete noches diferentes -¿o idénticas?- son una muestra acabada de su maestría verbal.
Quienes hemos leído estas deliciosas apreciaciones borgeanas volvemos a ellas cada noche que necesitamos regocijar nuestro éspiritu. (Entonces, es como comer con champagne)
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Title: Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, Andrew Hurley ISBN: 0140286802 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Everything & Nothing by Jorge Luis Borges, Donald A. Yates, James E. Ieby, John M. Fein, Eliot Winberger, James E. Irby, Jorge Borges, Eliot Weinberger ISBN: 0811214001 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $8.50 |
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Title: Selected Non-Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, Eliot Weinberger, Esther Allen ISBN: 0140290117 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 31 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Labyrinths: Selected Stories and Other Writings by Jorge Luis Borges, James E. Irby, Donald A. Yates ISBN: 0811200124 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Personal Anthology by Jorge Luis Borges, Anthony Kerrigan ISBN: 0802130771 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: November, 1983 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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