I Believe That Books Will Never Disappear

This chapter is an excerpt from a series of conversations between Robert Alifino and the blind Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges. Borges reflects on a variety of philosophical topics, starting with his childhood and his mother. He credits his "father's library" as being more influential than any school or university. He speaks of his mother, Dona Leonor, with deep affection, though he admits feeling "guilty" for not having given her the "deserved happiness" he could have.

A central theme of the interview is Borges's blindness. Instead of viewing it as a tragedy, he calls it a "way of life" and a "resource". He quotes Homer, saying "the gods wrought and spun the skein of ruin for men, that there might be a song for those yet to be born". This implies that personal misfortunes are given to an artist as "raw material" to shape their art. He notes that while the "visible world" has left him, it has been replaced by the world of books and imagination.

When discussing poetry, Borges claims it is something so intimate that it cannot be defined without "oversimplifying" it. He distinguishes between a "poem" (the series of symbols) and the "poetic act" (the experience that occurs when the reader reads it). He stresses the importance of using "precise words" to elicit emotion, using Emily Dickinson's line "This quiet dust was gentlemen and Ladies" as an example of magic created by language.

The highlight of the interview is Borges's defense of the book. He calls the book the most "astounding" invention of man. He explains that other inventions are extensions of our bodies: the telephone extends the voice, the telescope extends sight, and the sword extends the arm. However, the book is an extension of our imagination and memory. He rejects the idea that modern communications will replace books. To him, literature is a "controlled dream," and books are the "great memory of all centuries". He concludes that if books were to disappear, history itself would vanish, and man would lose his connection to the past and his very identity.