BORGES
113
BORGES:
Yes, and you feel the "amazement" in the word. With labyrinth
you think of Crete and you think of the Greeks. While in maze you
may think of Hampton Court,. well not very much of a labyrinth,
a kind of toy labyrinth.
INTERVIEWER:
What about "Emma Zunz?" That's a story of a living
labyrinth.
BORGES:
It's very strange, because in a story like "The Immortal" I did
my best to be magnificent, while the story "Emma Zunz" is a very
drab story, a very gray story, and even the name Emma was chosen
because I thought it particularly ugly, but not strikingly ugly, no?
And the name Zunz is a very poor name.
INTERVIEWER:
But one still feels compassion for her. I mean she is a
kind of tool of Destiny.
BORGES:
Yes, she's a tool of Destiny, but
I
think there's something
very mean about Revenge, even a just revenge, no? Something futile
about it. I dislike revenge. I think that the only possible revenge
is forgetfulness, oblivion. That's the only revenge. But, of course,
oblivion makes for forgiving, no?
INTERVIEWER:
Well, I know you don't like revenge, and I don't think
you lose your temper much either, do you?
BORGES:
I've been angry perhaps - I'm almost 70. I feel I've been angry
four or five times in my life, not more than that.
INTERVIEWER:
That's remarkable. You were angry at Peron certainly.
BORGES:
Yes. That was different.
INTERVIEWER:
Of course.
BORGES:
One day when I was speaking about Coleridge
I
remember
four students walked into my class and told me that a decision had
been taken by an assembly for a strike and they asked me to stop
my lecturing. And then I was taken aback and suddenly I found that
without knowing it I had walked from this side of the room to the
other, that I was facing those four young men, telling them that a
man may make a decision for himself but not for other people, and
that were they crazy enough to think that I would stand that kind
of nonsense. And then they stared at me because they were astounded
at my taking it in that way. Of course I realized that I was an
elderly man, half blind, and they were four hefty, four husky young
men, but I was so angry that I said to them, "Well, as there are
many ladies here, if you have anything more to say to me, let's go out
on the street and have it out."
INTERVIEWER:
You said that?
