Jorge Luis Borges
The Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges was a very brilliant man and it is shown through his works of literature, whether they be poems, short stories, or essays. Borges was such a distinguished author that some people borrowed themes from his works. ... The ways Borges influenced these authors had to do with his use of humor, themes, oxymoron, metaphors, stylistic traits, and adjectives. Borges was also known to be a critic on films, and some songwriters were influenced by his works. Jorge Luis Borges was born on August 24,1899 in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Despite not attending school until the age of nine, Borges was an intelligent young child. ... In his later childhood Borges turned to encyclopedias and dictionaries for learning and began to invent his conceptual puns and developed mature prose (Woodall 14). By this time in his life Borges had moved to a small city called Palermo. ... Palermo influenced some of Borges’ earliest works, being dangerous and socially misbegotten. Borges was taught philosophy by his father on a chessboard and his mother traveled around the world with him. ... Borges had few friends when he was growing up. ... Borges was always expected to be a writer by his father even though he was losing his sight at such a young age. ... In his young adult life Borges learned how to speak Latin, French, and German in high school. During this time Borges lived in Europe and would live there for 7 years before returning back to Buenos Aires. In 1923, Borges printed his first collection of poems in a 64 page book. ... This launched Borges’ career. ... With all this success came hard times though, by 1937 Borges’ father was completely dependant on his mother after becoming totally blind, and he ended up dying later (“A. ... Borges did not have a strong relationship with his father and it was seen almost as a relationship or a professor and his pupil (Woscoboinik 29). Borges himself also suffered an injury, he had hit his head in his house and became ill with septicemia and was on the verge of death for a month. ... By this time Borges had been elected President of the Sociedad Argentina de Ecritores and a few years later was appointed Director of the National Library, and was named professorship of English and American Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. In 1975 Borges took another big hit in his life when his mother died at the age of 99. ... Borges was nationally recognized but had never won the noble prize. ... One author that Borges influenced through his writings was John Barth. ... This book was a collection of short stories and they explicitly bore the influence of Borges. The title itself seems like an attempt to produce the type of fiction Borges wrote on. Barth’s main influence from Borges came from his essay, “The Literature of Exhaustion”. ... Barth goes on to criticize people and authors, then later gives tribute to Borges, calling him an “old master” of twentieth-century fiction. Even in his recent autobiography Barth included somewhat of a thanks to Borges on his gestation for Lost in the Funhouse (“A. ... Another author influenced by Borges was Mark Z. ... The book was based on a book by Zampano, who is like a thinly veiled Borges. Zampano was blind, wrote lonely poetry, and loved old languages, thus making him almost like a clone of Borges.