A great writer
Sir: Whenever I read reminiscences of someone familiar to me, I think: 'you must have known someone else.' That same thought has obviously come to Michael Ivens on reading my account of a meeting with Jorge Luis Borges. Most impressions and even most judgments are suBjective.
However, there are also objettive facts. Borges may, indeed, be deaf, as Michael Ivens states in his letter (22 September); but when I visited him he was certainly not so deaf that he was unable to speak on the telephone, hear Alicia Jurado, who was seated far away from him, or carry on conversations with the various people who entered the room during our interview.
Some people, like Borges, though able to hear, are reluctant to listen; some people, like Mr Ivens, though able to see, are reluctant to read. Your readers and perhaps Mr Ivens? may be interested in a pendant to my article. After my meeting with Borges, I lectured to a highly elegant and intelligent group of sixth-form girls, who afterwards asked me if they might interview me for their school magazine. The most elegant and intelligent of them all then put the question: 'What is the most exciting thing that has happened to you in Argentina?' I should guess that she expected me to confess to some love-affair; but I replied: 'A meeting with Borges'. She then became vehement: 'Borges! Why Borges? You are all so excited about Borges but here in Argentina he is nothing!' The other girls all nodded in agreement. I heard and saw many shocking things ir South America but few things shocked me more. I should add that I met many older Argentines who did not share this opinion; but I also met many who felt that Borges was now both unduly self-absorbed and out of touch. To be these two things does not, of course, preclude greatness; and, in fact, I regard Borges as a great writer.
Francis King 19 Gordon Place, London W8
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