This analysis critiques Jorge Luis Borges' poem "A Reader," arguing it exemplifies the "narcissism of modesty" and "luxury of ignorance," where intellectuals feign humility and incompetence to assert intellectual superiority and seduce readers.
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In this session we are going to talk about a very important issue that has to do
with Borges and Borges' poetry and that we are going to qualify from the beginning
the narcissism of modesty of the narcissism of modesty and the luxury of ignorance of the narcissism
of modesty and the exhibition of a luxurious ignorance of an ignorance typical of luxury,
we could almost say of a glamorous ignorance even in the case of Borges's poetry. I am going
to refer here to the poem titled a reader a reader already from the title itself we We find
that the poem appeals to an unidentified reader with his own name but that it is undoubtedly an
appeal to the poet himself, it is a self-denomination, the reader is me. We will observe a
characteristic very common to all intellectuals, without exception, which is the narcissism of modesty
, that is, intellectuals always exhibit a narcissism, despite the redundancy,
consisting of delighting in the public exhibition of their modesty and the lack of validity of
their skills, and even frequently this type of narcissism approaches very
easily what we can identify as the exhibition of a luxurious ignorance the exhibition
of an incipient ignorance of an almost glamorous incompetence where it is
exhibited, well, not knowing how to use a cell phone, not knowing how to drive, not knowing how to use a telephone, things of this
type of practical type that they naturally, well They do not know how to manage because such mundane things
are far below the specific qualities of a genius of an intellectual
like them. If we look at this poem titled I insist, a reader of Borges, which is included almost
at the end of his book in praise. of the shadow a book in 1969 here we naturally observe the
combination of a poetry of experience and in almost we would say a confessional poetry a poetry
of confessional tones he already announced that the poem like all of Borges's poems is not a bad poem
that is to say Borge se He writes very well with great luminosity with great creativity with a great
sophistic surah, that is, Borges writes with a sophisticated natural mind. He is an
extraordinarily spontaneous, extraordinarily natural sophist and at that point, with
unusual skill and ability, he says absolutely nothing new. That is to say, by reading Borges we learn
absolutely nothing but that Borges requires us to have prior knowledge of sophistics.
By reading Borges we learn, above all, to check how the sophists speak and how
the sophists express themselves. This poem that we are going to read initially in one sitting and then We will
comment from the point of view of the ideas that compose it that articulate it. It is written in
verse, this poem is written in free and long verse in a verse that gives the poet great
freedom to be able to almost poetically prosify a series of references. of contents of
related terms in a completely free way whose main idea is to make it very clear that he is an
enormously modest person who takes pride
in being a reader. This is the word that is used already in the second verse. reader that
many names are not specifically specified,
the name of Virgil is dropped, the name of characters from an
unknown but suspiciously valuable Norse mythology, totally unknown but very suspiciously
valuable that gives, let's say, an aura of mystery to the heavy, knowledge that the reader
surely lacks, which in some way intimidates an unaccustomed, inexperienced reader
and places the speaker, the poet who speaks, in a position of superiority despite his modesty very
strongly displayed and despite those declarations of incipient ignorance luxuriously dressed,
I already say it is the luxury of ignorance the poem says like this a reader that others boast about the
pages they have written I am proud of the ones I have read no I will have been a philologist I will not
have inquired into the declensions the modes the laborious mutation of the letters that they
harden t the equivalence of the g and the k but throughout my years I have processed the passion of
language my nights are full of virgil to have known and to have forgotten Latin is a
possession because oblivion is one of the forms of memory a vague basement the secret other side of
the coin when in my eyes the vain appearances beloved the faces and the middle page were erased
the study of the iron language that my elders used to sing swords and solitudes and now
through seven centuries since the last one I had your voice comes to me snorri sturluson the young man before
the book imposes a precise discipline on himself and does it in pursuit of precise knowledge at my years every
undertaking is an adventure that borders on night I will not finish deciphering the ancient languages
of the north, not one I will say the eager hands in the gold of sigur the task I undertake is unlimited
and must accompany me to the end no less mysterious than the universe and that I, the apprentice,
well note in this In the end, as the apprentice compares himself with nothing less than the universe, that is to say,
it is a very daring comparison precisely to underline, I insist, the narcissism of the modesty
of the universe and I. Well, it is no small pretension to compare himself with the universe. I, the apprentice in front of
the mysterious universe, never I will be able to know the entire universe, it is not that the universe does not know or that
you exist to begin with the universe does not know the matter of the content of the
general ontological matter it cannot of those details well let's go in parts let's go in parts the poem begins with a
real challenge with a genuine challenge towards others towards others than others but never
your reader of my poems because what the poet Borges aims above all is to capture the benevolence
and sympathy of the reader in some way what all sophists do as they ride above
all like borges above all as a russian above all is to seek the specific individual complicity of the
reader in such a way that what these types of authors always do, like this fans bay for example,
is to establish with the reader a recognition of trust so great that borges tells the
reader you and I are the same you and I feel the same you and I are part of the same team
compared to others the world is a pack of scoundrels and intractable people but you
and I understand each other you and I understand each other perfectly say you reader you are part of
me and my team of my readers you are part of the group of intelligent people who understand
what I write to others in such a way that borges always makes sure whenever he writes
he makes sure to include the reader in the team of the which Borges is a part of and that means
great satisfaction for the reader because probably without a doubt when someone reads a book what
they are looking for is to identify with those values that they consider to be found in the author
and the author usually fakes very well the attribution of those values to the reader in such a way that
this reader's empathy is gained even though he or she then openly despises him or her. Others of us are characterized
by placing ourselves in the absolutely opposite perspective. I don't give a damn about those
who, with the intention of identifying with me, read me or follow me or listen to me because
they don't. I have no interest in identifying Borges with anyone and Borges is interested in seducing
the reader enormously even though he may later despise him constantly. My position is rather
the opposite. I have no interest in resembling anyone and I value exclusively those
people who, through their works, have credited a merit not to strangers that others say
borges boast about the pages that I have written that others yours reader not because you and I reader
are proud of the ones we have read you have to be reader proud of reading nor
to me and I proud of that you read me in front of others who boast about the pages they have
written, I don't, I will never boast about the pages I have written, I boast, I am proud, I am
satisfied with the ones I have read, like you, Borges knows that he is addressing people. to whom these types
of statements are extraordinarily pleasant because what a naive person sees when faced with this
statement before these two free verses is that others boast about the pages that
the vain have written the pretentious the reader despises vanity so he identifies with
someone who curiously feels proud of what he has read, as I will say, the reader will say, this is
like me, I am like Borges, Borges is like I, he is to that identity that from the first moment this
communication strategist this strategist of sophistry puts on the table something that very
few very few authors achieve at any given time borges and he achieves it he managed to
seduce the reader sophist is the one who convinces with false arguments borges
He is a tremendously conceited man, tremendously vain, tremendously narcissistic and of course he
boasts about the pages he has written as he does not get off late but he pretends otherwise precisely
to capture the emotional benevolence, the empathy, more emotional than intellectual, more sensitive than
intelligible, of his possible readers. I will have been a philologist, this is true, it has not been true, neither
are most of those who have the title, they are professors of philology in any case, but
they are not philologists, sometimes they are not even professors of philology because they claim to have a degree in
philology. and then they give classes on photography or film or any other type of things that
have as much to do with philology as I do with an onion, we are going nowhere. I will not have been
a philologist, I will not have inquired into the declensions, the modes, the laborious mutation of the letters
historical grammar historical phonology historical phonetics the one that hardens
between the equivalence of lage and lacquer but throughout my years I have professed the
content of that adversative but throughout my years I have professed the passion of language
and I don't care about your passions but also in addition to the passion of language you will have
processed other passions you will have processed the passion of sex you will have processed the passion
of intelligence you will have processed the passion of politics or philosophy or which is that
you have only processed the passion of language, now it turns out that passion is philology,
the philology that you have not processed
only with passion is taught absolutely nothing and absolutely nothing
is learned. In addition, here an absolutely galloping error is affirmed and that is that the dichotomy between feeling and
thought that is a completely false dichotomy, it is not possible to feel without thinking and it is not
possible to think without feeling in such a way that anyone who wields a feeling
against a thought does not know what he is talking about because if we do not think what we feel,
it is impossible for us to know what we are feeling because if we do not think what we feel
we cannot even know that we are having feelings, that is, the very fact of speaking
feelings requires that there be a simultaneous prior thought by virtue of which we are
qualifying. of feeling what we are feeling what we are experiencing
because if we do not know if we do not have a cognitive capacity an intelligible capacity
we cannot interpret the sensitive nor categorize as sensitive what is part of
the feelings I mean to pose as an adversative in passion the feeling, the
sensible versus the intelligible, the environments, the categorical, the rational, is a complete and
absolute fallacy, that is, in the world there is no division between the sensible and the intelligible, it is something that
is constantly conjugated and constantly related. Let's see, it can be done. love
without any type of feelings without any type of sensitivity you can make love probably probably
without feeling any type of pleasure and there are people who professionally dedicate themselves to doing
that and you can recite the multiplication table with a strong passion and with a strong emotion
and this is the case of children when they have to present their knowledge of mathematics and
they have to present it by reciting, for example, the multiplication table, knowing that what they are
doing is an exhibition of knowledge that places them above those of
their other children's classmates who do not know how to recite or expound or sing or count or relate the
multiplication table, I mean that we can have a lot of passion when we do a
specific investigation of any kind and we can live certain moments of our existence
without experiencing any kind of of passion and no type of emotion where we would assume that
a very high level of passion is required to carry out what any of us can
Thinking at this moment, I want to say that this dichotomy between the sensible and the intelligible
is completely false because neither he nor the scientist is insensitive nor
the artist is reflective. That is an absolutely false dichotomy frequently put forward by
a lot of people who he has nothing to say he has absolutely nothing to say and in those
contexts in which he has absolutely nothing to say he appeals to the feeling as if
that were the meeting point, the meeting place or the time and space of the appointment
in the We all see each other, but there is no one who experiences feelings and these
feelings are not simultaneously preceded by two or followed by a series of
thoughts. The feeling and the thought are absolutely inseparable, that is, you cannot,
you cannot replace the intelligible of language with the sensitivity of language trying
to be proud of what you read because if you don't understand what you read you can't feel what you read
is so evident that it seems surprising that someone could eat such
nonsense such nonsense but throughout my years and here he even appeals to experience
throughout my years I have professed the passion for language and what happens if a small child who
is not as old as Borges professes the passion for language the passion for language of the
small child is worth less no You can have a passion for mathematics You cannot have a passion for
chemistry You cannot have a passion for tungsten, for example, for benzene or for pool, I am going for
polyurethane, for example, maybe you cannot have a passion for polyurethane fixatives that the passion
because of language is that language is more valuable, the truth is that sodium than potassium, for example,
or what laury, for example,
is that this type of contrast is by virtue of which, of course, yes, God created the world
by playing the lyre, the world is Better than yes, I do believe it playing the trombone like a Gustavo signaler.
Well, of course, these types of metaphorical uses of terms mean absolutely nothing.
I have professed a lot of passion for language. What the hell do I care about the passion that you have
processed ? by the language as if you have processed a sentence a passion for the brick for the
color ultraviolet true or for Everest that is that that is totally irrelevant in totally
irrelevant now that you want to expose it as a merit of yours that you are proud of you must
have a great passion for tungsten, for polyurethane or for the summit of Everest seems to me
as respectable as the one who wants to have it for the mathematical table for the number 3 1416 or for the
squaring of the circle is a speech act that is as valuable as the reader whom you want
to make an accomplice of your nothingness wants to grant you, we continue, my nights are full of virgil,
this is a verse that he has reproduced on other occasions, specifically in a poem dedicated to the
praise of the German language that we have previously commented on, well for To say that my
nights are full of Virgil is a hardship. I have already said it in other moments, my nights will be
full of anything but not Virgil. That is very clear to me, that is very clear to me because
I do not go to bed alone to read. then fill a night with Virgil in the Aeneid it does not enter
my bed in my bed it enters it does not enter other types of experiences but it is then not the Aeneid now
of course if your nights are full of Virgil then worse for you male because the night was not made
exclusively to read Virgil because what a sad life if in your nights only Virgil fits
there everyone then be very careful with this type of statements or declarations because
more than being prestigious literary competitions they are expressive of
sexual deficiencies of sexual deficiencies or emotional deficiencies and we return to what we did before.
Here there are people who contrast the sensitive with the intelligible in the same way that
there are also people who contrast the hidden with the intellectual, the reader's pose with
other types of activities because of course the poem is title a reader not a stallion
of course a stallion would never say my nights are full of virgil
and the great copulator would really not say my nights are full of virgil that is
impossible but this man goes from modest to modest narcissist well then my nights
are full of virgil male well worse for you because in any case virgil must be in
the days or he can be wherever you want but these types of statements are far from being
brilliant, what they are recounting is another series of quite enormous deficiencies, quite
enormous, having known and having forgotten Latin is a possession because forgetting is one
of the forms of memory, its vague basement again establishing the contrasts, forgetting,
the other hidden side of the currency are contrasts that are relatively easy to establish and that
very easily reach the reception of an audience attentive to them and willing
to identify with the author. One of the characteristics that the reader of literary works has
is that he would always like to know the author personally. author of the books
he reads and then of course when he personally knows the author of the books he reads, in some cases it
is no longer possible because we cannot know Cervantes, for example, and thus Spears, fortunately
, it turns out that this error would arise because there is no nothing in common is like when people feel
disappointed after meeting a person to interact with them but what do you expect from
people but what do you expect from human beings who solve problems who solve life
my nights are full of human beings could say any prostitute,
everyone will know what fills their nights, of course mine are not full of virgil,
it is one of the forms of memory, their vague basement, the secret other side of the coin, well, when
the vain appearances dear to me were erased from my eyes. Note this, the vain appearances,
darlings, my eyes were erased, can naturally refer materially to the blindness
to the visual limitation that Borges has, when my eyes were erased, my eyes were
erased, but note this, the vain appearances, darlings, as is a man who wants the vain
the vain the useless what is of no use is that desire to mortgage one's life for appearances van harsh
wanted to say to someone who at this point at this point seems to give up touching appearances
with his hand to give way to disappointment as I would say Don Quixote but what he wants are
vain appearances, that is to say, to let himself be deceived by the environment, once again he seeks the common experience
with the reader, the vain appearances wanted, what the
common and ordinary human being is a victim of is that blindness materially experienced by borges which in this case amounts to
a broader interpretation projected even metaphysically the vain appearances wanted the
faces and the page the people and the books the faces and the page are the human beings and the
books mediates the study of the language of iron in the language It's hard, wow, as if philology
were not the hardest thing that language has, it's not like this one is not a philologist, but he had the passion for
language and what the passion for language consists of. Let's see what the passion for language is. The
passion for language consists of to do what one wants with what one has read, that is to say,
the study of the language of iron to the language of epic, the language of mythology, the language of
war, the language basically of mythology, which is what Borges finds most He liked the Aeneid
Virgil mediates the study of the language of iron and now it is very funny what my
elders used to sing this one that descends from the paw of the Cis descends from the Pelayo king so
no my elders and what are your elders Jorge Luís what are they Your elders, here we are all descended from
the patriarchs of the founders of the city of Rome, we are all relatives of Achilleus or Aeneas,
my elders, wow, what modesty it was to consider oneself a descendant of the founders
of the iron language that my elders used to sing swords and solitudes, that is, he seems
descended from the founding heroes of the world and this and this is the narcissism of modesty and
the luxury of ignorance of course I don't know philology I don't know philology but I have felt the passion of
language already but it is that of passion man you don't live from passion you don't live from faking it and
you live from faking it but from living it exclusively it doesn't mean passion is more profitable if you fake it
I know if it is expected that if it is experimented it is more economically profitable if it is pretended than if
it is experimented for a sophist of course the sophist has to interpret the passion keep
in mind that when someone plays the piano for example when someone plays a musical instrument he
interprets a musical instrument, the passion it feels is equal to zero, the passion is felt by the
audience but not by the performer, not by the musician who is performing, who is doing his job, who
is converting mathematics into a sound, in short, what does a musician do?
mathematics in sound in short, then the musician does not feel absolutely any passion
when he is playing a musical instrument, what he feels is extreme attention, an
extreme intellectual activity is what he is developing so that what he is playing and
what he has to play coincide in definitive but come on about passion, the passion is there in the
listener, in any case, the passion is there in the listener, but don't interpret it as the performer. The same thing in
a theater actor is feigning a passion, but he is not absolutely feeling it, that's another
thing. It's the movie and the rhetoric that people use to make themselves look interesting. In short,
it's the same thing as faking an orgasm. It has nothing to do with each other. One with the other,
and it goes on, gave me the study of the iron language that They used my elders to sing
swords and solitudes and now through seven centuries of seven centuries, that is, this one has
a lineage of seven centuries, that is, there is no dynasty that has a tribute of seven centuries but yes,
since the last one, you read here and we We are already situated in a completely legendary context,
completely literaturized, we have already left the operational reality and we find ourselves with a
fictitious reality and in this fictitious reality is where Borges wants, desires and likes to live,
nothing more nor less than what my elders used to sing swords and solitudes and now through
seven centuries since the last you nor your voice reaches me snorri sturluson that if he has already entered a
trance this is like a session of literary spiritualism like an oracular interpretation of
literary texts like a prophecy porsche benthum and here already We have already gotten rid of
all the poetry of experience, we have already gotten rid of all the literature and
confessional poetry and here we have already entered the mythological trough in the legendary display in the
absolutely literaturized recreation of life and now through seven centuries since the
The last time I had your voice, Norrie Sturluson comes to me, as if I say that I hear the voice of the old
bard, what William Blake would say, that is not to say, Snorri Sturluson, a fifth-rate character from
the latest Western mythology, the young man before the book imposes a precise discipline and He
does it in pursuit of precise knowledge, that is to say, this is the antithesis. I am no longer young, but I
am old. I am no longer faced with a physical book without being materially blinded by ocular problems
, since the vain cherished appearances have already been transformed into imaginations of another. nature
imposes a precise discipline I do not impose precise discipline on myself I do not conceive the study of
literature or reading as a discipline but as a passion not as if passion
were not the code of a given discipline at a given level different from that which intellectual discipline assumes,
that is to say, that the sensible imposes a discipline even though it uses a discipline that is given
at a different scale from the discipline imposed by the intelligible, that is, that the sensible
also has its own code and its own discipline. discipline marked by nature marked
by nature oh, there are human experiences that cannot occur every 5 seconds for an
hour, for example, I do not want to say that the sensible also imposes its discipline, another thing is whether one
is aware of them or not, of these disciplines well. The exercise itself will tell you,
you know that the sensitive also has its discipline, although you do not know it until you execute it,
that is, no one can run at 300 kilometers per hour using only their legs for an hour,
so of course the sensitive also imposes its discipline. when someone wields the sensitive
Let it not be believed that he is dispensing with all types of disciplines because this is
another fallacy very typical of the sophist as well, that is, contrasting the intelligible as the terrain of
repression and the sensible as the terrain of freedom, which is the main sophistry in which
All Freudian psychoanalysis inherited from completely rationalistic principles
present in Nietzsche's philosophy is based. By this I mean that if we assume that the sensible frees
us from disciplines, it is because you do not resolve that we have not experienced absolutely anything
sensible nor have we understood what it means. the discipline of the sensible that imposes norms
that are even more non-derogable than those required by the intelligible because one cannot fight against nature; no
one can go without sleep for 12 months, that is to say that the sensible imposes a
discipline that is a schedule or a rhythm of sleep for example then of course it is very curious all
this type of things to raise and exalt themselves here with the sensitive as if the sensitive were exempt
from discipline and they do it for precise knowledge knowledge can be precise it
can be imprecise knowledge does not imply precise is not an epithet of knowledge at my
years that is to say here the young man before the book disciplines at my years every company is an adventure not at your
years and those of any male it is more so when you are young everything has much more of an adventure than during
old age among other things because old age does not allow you as many adventures as
youth allows you old age does not allow you as many adventures as youth allows you another thing
is that you take them at your own risk but at my age every company is an adventure For me, two
years and anyone's years or is it that at ten years of age the whole company is not an adventure, it is
a much bigger adventure but much older and at 30 and 40 perhaps it is not just anything that
is done at that age an adventure is that at any stage of life what you do is an adventure it is
because that increase of saying it is an adventure what is done at my age as well as the age or others
not since when do you have the privilege of adventure since you have the privilege
of adventure that is a pathological conceit, really everything that is part of
human life is subject to adventure and the adventure that borders on the night adventure that borders on the
night as if youth were immortal like If people didn't die at 5 years old,
3 months after being born or even in the mother's fetus, or is it that only old people die here,
how cute is the night, how cute is the night, cute moss, everyone at any time, I don't even know If
I will still be alive when this video ends, no one knows that. Remember Unamuno's poem
on that December 31st in his book Poems It's Night in my studio I finished them and I still live
these lines and I'm still alive I won't finish deciphering the ancient languages of the north not to sink into the
eager hands of Sigurd's gold the task I undertake is limitless and must accompany me to
the end no less mysterious than the universe and that I am the apprentice is this poem ends in the greatest
and most superlative expression of narcissism of modesty and the luxury of ignorance I will not finish
deciphering the ancient languages of the north, it is that although the figures are not going to be useful for anything
other than to say it, the only thing you can do is the usefulness of knowledge.
To do with it is to tell it, to tell it, and in any case not to always subject it to
operational realities, that is, to apply it, so to speak, not to sink eager hands into the gold of Seaworld.
I will also never find or be able to make a critical edition of the original manuscript
written in Arabic. decidedly from the angel and of course but of course I can make a play
saying o cide hamete benengeli I will never be able to find the original manuscript
that you wrote and publish it in a philologically careful and annotated critical edition no
no not at all that certainly not the task that I undertake is unlimited, it is not that it is limited,
it is that it is a theatrical task, it is a theatrical task, the task that you undertake is not unlimited because you do not
even undertake it as undertaking any task, you are exhibiting theatricality in
free verse format that is to say, come to earth man, do not go up there to the mountain or to the
heavens because your nights are not full of virgil, your nights were full of misery
and to disguise them as something that will allow you to tell it, you disguise them. If you dress them as Virgil
, but come on, if you have to fill your nights with Virgil, what a fucking life and what fucking nights,
the task he undertook is unlimited nocturnal, undertake any task because you do not undertake
anything and it is not unlimited. It is theatrical. What you are doing is theater. reverse theater and it must
accompany me to the end surely because nothing else is going to occur to you that is no less mysterious than
the universe and that I, the apprentice, the universe is not that it is mysterious, the universe is a
special subject to the extent that it is It inventories and catalogs there is nothing mysterious about it, it is
simply an object of knowledge, it does not subject us to mysteries that I, the apprentice, the last word
of the poem on which everything pivots is the word that expresses modesty, modesty exhibited
narcissistically in everything we wear said and in everything we have done it has been clear
to feel is not to understand a lie to feel is a way of understanding to feel is a way
of understanding given a different scale from other ways of understanding that border on the intelligible or
that approach the intelligible but we cannot distinguishing these borders between one and the other
is to say it is the attitude of the wounded literate man of the man who feels very sensitive to
everything that has to do with literature, the sensible versus the intelligible, as if
this oracular vision, this vision of the old bardo This vision of the bat that sees beyond
what other people see, the vain appearances dear truth, will somehow
function as an instrument of seduction of other readers, so when a poorly
educated, intellectually ill-formed person reads this poem, he finds himself very comfortable is very comfortable
in the same way that one feels very comfortable and very comfortable when one reads mountain mountain
is an author who says absolutely nothing but who entertains very well because it is a rattle
in prose that rocks the cradle' rocks the bed sleeps numbs is a good anesthesia because it is the
secret of the self-help book it makes you feel good about yourself and from there we can start
saying all those types of self-help phrases with which people believe they live better when in
reality they do. self-help phrase is nothing more than the recreation of stupidity, it is the narcissism
of stupidity, self-help phrases are the narcissism of stupidity, narcissism of
personal stupidity, which is what feeds the majority of human beings, of course,
poems like This one that we have just read by Borges serves as an example to unmask the
sophists who use literature as a form of seduction and above all as a form of exhibition
of the narcissism of modesty and ignorance that only those who live in luxurious glamor are exposed to.
can allow those who have to work cannot afford to waste time with this type of
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