Borges Review – “The Last Interview”

Jorge Luis Borges: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

Interview by Gloria López Lecube
Translation by Kit Maude
Melville House, 2013

“If you see me as a saint right now, I have no problem with being a saint.”
—Jorge Luis Borges, interview with Gloria López Lecube, 1985

In 1985 Borges gave his last formal interview, a conversation with radio personality Gloria López Lecube recorded for Argentina’s La Isla FM. Translated for the first time into English in 2013, the interview was published by Melville House as part of their “Last Interview” series. Because the La Isla interview is fairly short, Melville House added two previously-published interviews to create a more substantial book.

The first of these is “Origins of Mythology.” An extended excerpt from Richard Burgin’s Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges, this interview comprises a full three-quarters of The Last Interview. While its prominence may surprise some readers, it was an excellent decision—Burgin’s interview is essential, and the original has long been out of print. Although The Last Interview does not reprint all of Conversations, it includes Borges’ introduction and Burgin’s charming prologue.

Conversations has an interesting history. From 1967-1968, Borges delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard. During this time, Richard Burgin requested to interview Borges for the purpose of writing a book. Although he would eventually become a successful novelist and academic, at the time Burgin was a twenty-year old undergraduate from Brandeis University. Borges agreed, and invited the young man to his apartment on Concord Avenue. Conducted over several sessions—with Burgin’s girlfriend sometimes fixing drinks from Borges’ own kitchen—the interview was published the following year.

“Origins of Mythology” unfolds like an extended conversation, a companionable ramble across a broad range of topics. While Borges is always a fascinating conversationalist, a good interview requires a skilled interviewer, and the young undergrad performs flawlessly. Burgin keeps the conversation flowing with the skill of a professional, knowing precisely when to linger, when to probe for elaboration, and when to change subjects. He is enthusiastic and respectful, but never hesitates to push back against Borges’ occasional evasions. Despite his considerable erudition, Burgin remains modest and unpretentious. The reader can sense the two men warming up to each other as the sessions continue, and by the time they make their farewells, they part as friends. As Borges remarks in his introduction: “Two men who can speak together can enrich and broaden themselves indefinitely… Richard Burgin has helped me to know myself.”

Borges’ famous politeness is evident throughout the interview, and he still seems surprised to be receiving so much attention in the United States. He frequently asks Burgin for his own opinions about subjects, and often ends his statements with friendly “no?”, an almost conspiratorial invitation to agree—“I should say the West was invented by New Englanders, no?” Borges discusses his own writing enthusiastically, eager to promote recent work and offering pointed critiques of past “failures.” He offers numerous insights into his creative process, and explains how books like Personal Anthology and Dreamtigers came into being. Occasionally one glimpses a flash of pride, usually couched in a rhetorical question—“One of the best stories I ever wrote, eh?”

Other writers are discussed at length, with Robert Browning, Joseph Conrad, and Henry James singled out for praise, and Herman Melville, Franz Kafka and James Joyce treated more critically. He claims ignorance of Wallace Stevens, and dismisses H.P. Lovecraft as “bogus.” (Within a few years of this interview, Borges would be dedicating a pastiche to Lovecraft in The Book of Sand. Borges’ love/hate relationship with Lovecraft is even more ironic today, as modern criticism has remarked on the numerous parallels between the two writers.) Borges speaks freely about personal issues, treating his blindness with sublime indifference and commiserating with Burgin over their shared problem of insomnia. Borges also expresses some candid views on feminism, cockfights, and warfare that might surprise some contemporary readers!

The second interview is “Borges and I,” originally published in Wooster’s literary magazine Artful Dodge as “A Conversation with Jorge Luis Borges.” A discussion about poetry, the interview was conducted by Daniel Bourne, Stephen Cape, and Charles Silver. Less in command of their subject than Richard Burgin, they spend much of the interview eliciting Borges’ reactions to passages of modern poetry and asking Big Questions—“How would you describe a twentieth-century mythology for writers?”

The Artful Dodge interview may not offer tremendous insights into Borges, but it’s enjoyable, and certainly worth reading. Nevertheless, its inclusion in The Last Interview is curious, as the interview has been freely available for years—indeed, The Garden of Forking Paths used to host it, and it’s still online at the Artful Dodge archives. Additionally, Melville House presents the interview with its original errors and typos intact—the prologue gives the wrong dates for Borges’ Formentor Prix International and the publication of Labyrinths, and maintains the incorrect punctuation for Kipling’s poem, “In the Neolithic Age.”

Of course, the main event is “The Last Interview.” Conducted by Gloria López Lecube for La Isla Radio in Argentina, the interview has been previously unavailable in English. Despite being the raison d’être for the book, this interview occupies only thirty pages, and explores considerably less academic terrain than the previous interviews. What makes it fascinating, however, is not Borges; but Gloria López Lecube herself.

A young radio journalist on friendly terms with Borges, López Lecube treats her subject not as a revered intellectual, but as a famous Argentine celebrity. Her chatty questions are surprisingly personal, refreshingly irreverent, and sometimes shockingly direct—“Borges, how do you imagine your own death?” Or regarding his blindness: “But doesn’t it make you angry? Doesn’t being blind make you feel impotent?” She spends much of her time discussing Borges’ blindness, his physical appearance, the responsibilities of his maids, and his relationship with María Kodama. It’s not even clear that López Lecube has actually read any of Borges’ works! Literature is discussed only as something Borges is famous for “doing,” and never as a subject in itself. Any time Borges names a writer or begins reciting verses, López Lecube immediately relates it to something personal—“If we were in your library right now, what poem would you like me to read to you?”

Whether one finds López Lecube’s questions superficial, disrespectful, or merely direct, it’s impossible to deny that Borges seems amused by the interview. There’s something playful, almost flirty about the exchange, such as her point-blank question, “Do you lie, Borges?” Whenever López Lecube discusses his celebrity, Borges changes the topic, engaging in a bit of mischievous subversion himself:

López Lecube: How does it feel? When I walk down the street with you, it causes more fuss than with Miguel Ángel Solá!
Borges: Who’s Miguel Ángel Solá? Now, Émile Zola, I know that name…
López Lecube: Miguel Ángel Solá is an actor… With you, people stand back, amazed, it’s an expression of…
Borges: Well, if I were with Émile Zola that would be because he’s dead; it would be an amazing sight.

At one point, Borges brings up the recent death of his pet cat:

López Lecube: The cat died? When did it die?
Borges: About a month ago, I think. I think it was twelve and that’s old for a cat.
López Lecube: And do you miss it?
Borges: Yes, sometimes, and sometimes not. I look for it and then remember that it’s died.
López Lecube: So I should get you a little cat?

I burst out laughing at her response, which is something that rarely happens in a Borges interview!

For collectors who already own Burgin’s Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges and have access to the Artful Dodge interview, The Last Interview offers little new or essential. However, for the majority of readers who do not possess Burgin’s out-of-print book, The Last Interview is a wonderful addition to your library, a prolonged look inside Borges’ remarkable mind followed by an eccentric but fond farewell.

Additional Information

Amazon.com
You may purchase The Last Interview at Amazon.

Melville House Page
The publisher’s Web site features a page devoted to The Last Interview.

Author: Allen B. Ruch
Last Modified: 28 August 2019
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