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Unread 02-18-2001, 09:35 AM
Len Krisak Len Krisak is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2000
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Tim, Mr. Mezey, others: just to clarify, so there's no
misunderstanding about where I'm going with this, I'm a
huge fan of Borges--reading the Collected straight through,
as I did a few months ago, was an aesthetic experience not
to be missed.

Now...has anyone seen (I think it was in a letter to the
Weekly Standard a few weeks ago) Louis Simpson's attack on
Borges for the poet's having admired a poem by someone else
on what he (Borges) thought might have been "the last bayonet charge" in European warfare? This obviously ties
in with the theme of cowardice, coming under fire, and so
forth, that led to Borges's interest in the milonga posted.
Not to put it too prettily, Simpson was scathing, suggesting
that Borges was a fool (I think that's the word he used)
because soldiers in WWI used their bayonets only to open
tins of rations and would never have engaged in an (obviously) suicidal charge of that nature. In effect, he
was calling Borges a romantic idiot.

Trust Me, a Borges Lover,

Len

Thoughts ?????
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