A brief talk with Erik Lonnrot - troublesome - an imaginary interview with a fictional character created by Jorge Luis Borges - Latin America: Private Eyes & Time Travelers - Interview

Ilan Stavans

[This mini-interview took place in Amsterdam.]

IS: Emir Rodriguez Monegal, the Uruguayan critic who taught at Yale, excluded "Death and the Compass" from Jorge Luis Borges: A Reader, an anthology he edited alongside Alastair Reid.

EL: It's unclear why. He does talk at length about it in his awful 1978 literary biography.

Amelia Simpson claims that in the story, "Borges creates a vision of the universe as a limitless set of domains, no one of which represents an absolute system of logic and order. The detective's faith in his system of logic, one Borges closely associates with the classic detective model, is undermined when the limits of the system are expanded." Donald Yates, who loves the story, states that repeated readings of it will not exhaust its melancholy beauty and fascination. And John T. Irwin almost devoted an entire book, The Mystery to a Solution, to decipher the tale...

I didn't grasp your question. You promised not to waste my time in silly literary analysis.

Did Borges ever talk to you about Spinoza? About metrical and geometrical figures as maps of the universe? About infinite progression and regression? About representation of self-consciousness? About the hidden-object mystery?

He didn't ... Once again, I'd like to change the subject.

Please do.

I'm aware of an act of plagiarism of yours, "Otro milagro secreto," part of your 1991 volume of essays Prontuario.

Indeed.

And?

I took Borges's "The Secret Miracle," which seems to me spotless until the very last line, and simply fixed the mess. No small enterprise, I know. The tale can be read as a psychological study of a dying soul and as a piece of fantastic literature. Knowing Borges's contempt for Ortega y Gasset's psychological novel, I am convinced he devised Jaromir Hladik as a character capable of achieving a miraculous relationship with God. Then, in the final line, Borges spoils the plot. A miracle is a fracture of Nature, never a mental hallucination. Taking some liberties, I decided to amend the text. I'm quite satisfied with the outcome. To be honest, today I'm contemplating a volume of "appropriated" stories, a collection of tales written by others and amended by me. You see, Latin America cares little for copyright laws. My own work has been reprinted numerous times without permission. Nothing is done to stop what is commonly known as la pirateria. Why then not take advantage of such ethical chaos to create? ... You're silent, Mr. Lonnrot. Is this what you want to talk about?

We might return to "Death and the Compass."

Fine.

I'm aware of your attempt to revive me.

Indeed. I hope to write a novel about the mysterious death of a Belgian actor, one in which tulips will be the central motif. I have tentatively titled it El actor y los tulipanes. It will be based on a true series of events surrounding the staging of a Rainer Werner Fassbinder play. And you shall be called on to perform detective duties.

That is, if I...

You don't have much choice, Mr. Lonnrot. Literary characters, as you well know, are but marionettes.

I'm dead.

Not dead, but dying. Or perhaps you're just a mirage. Aren't we all?

Red Scharlach "moved back a few steps. Then, very carefully, he fired at me."

Not before uttering, "The next time I kill you, I promise you a labyrinth consisting of a single line which is invisible and unceasing ..."

"... A Greek labyrinth which is a single straight line. Along that line so many philosophers have lost themselves that a mere detective might do so, too."

So you asked him: "When in some other incarnation you hunt me, Scharlach, pretend to commit (or do commit) a crime at A, then a second crime at B, eight kilometers from A, then a third crime at C, four kilometers from A and B, halfway between the two, Wait for me afterwards at D, two kilometers from A and C, again halfway between both. Kill me at D, as you are now going to kill me at Triste-le-Roy."

You bring back old memories.

My plot shall again intertwine Jewish symbols.

I have never been involved in one otherwise.

You're aware that your actions in "Death and the Compass" initiated a long tradition in Latin American letters, much like Poe's August Dupin did in terms of deductive logic.

It isn't my role to be aware or discuss such intellectual echoes. Mr. Stavans, it seems to me as if you really wanted to interview Borges himself, but he died too soon.

He isn't dead either ... Have you read Borges's work?

Yes. I find it boring and repetitive. "Death and the Compass" has a mechanical, lifeless plot. Borges might have succeeded as a detective writer, but he was a failure as a human being. Nowhere in his oeuvre can he convey an emotion with strength. His characters are flat, cartoonist, vehicles for philosophical reflections and allegorical truths. Borges, I have no doubt, did much damage to literature.

Perhaps.

Scharlach was indeed evil, but no human is only evil. In that sense, Borges was the most annoyingly predictable of litterateurs.

Did he ever try to use you in another tale?

Once or twice he contemplated a sequel to "Death and the Compass." But fortunately, he understood right away that such a task ought to be left to even less original writers like you, Mr. Stavans.

COPYRIGHT 1994 Fairleigh Dickinson University
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