I believe books will never disappear

One Mark Questions

1. Which according to Borges is his first literary reading?
Ans - Grimm's Fairy tales

2. According to Borges, in which language did he read ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’?

Ans - In English Version

3. Where according to Borges was he educated more than high school or the university?
Ans – In his Father’s Library.

4. Who according to Borges was an extraordinary person?

Ans- Borges Mother

5. Whom does Borges look upon as an intelligent and gracious woman?

Ans- Borges Mother

6. What according to Borges is blindness to him?

A way of life that is not entirely unhappy

7. Borges says one must think that whatever happens to him or her is a
a. resource. b. misfortune. c. embarrassment.
Ans- a) Resource

7. Name the book of Homer mentioned by Borges in his interview.

Ans- The Odyssey

8. ‘All that is near becomes far.’ This line is from a poem by

a. Homer. b. Spengler. c. Goethe.
Ans - c. Goethe

9. What did Borges fill his house with when the visible world moved away from his eyes?
Ans- Books

10. Which library according to Borges may have been the one he dreamed of?
Ans- Library of Alexandria

11. What exactly did Borges visualize about the library in his dream?
Ans – Burning of a great Library.
 12. Name the book which according to Borges has remarkable comments on books.
Ans – Decline of the west.

13. Who, according to Borges, has predated his attempt to write a history of the book?
Ans Splenger

15. Who according to Borges quotes that every book worth being re-read has been written by the
spirit?
Ans - Bernard Shaw

16. What according to Borges is magical, mysterious and unexplainable?

Ans – Poetry

17. Whose line in a poem does Borges remember always?

Ans – Emily Dickenson

18. Since when according to Borges do metaphors exist?

Ans – From the beginning of time.

19. Mention any one of the essential metaphors which according to Borges are found in all
literatures.
Ans – Time and a river, life and dreams, death and sleep, stars and eyes, flowers and women.

20. What according to Borges will never disappear?

Ans – Books

21. Which according to Borges is the most astounding invention of man?

Ans – The Book

22. Borges says that the telescope and the microscope are the extensions of our
a) voice b) sight c) arms.
Ans – b) Sight

23. Which of the inventions of man is the extension of our voice according to Borges?
Ans – The telephone

24. According to Borges which of the inventions of man is the extension of our imagination and
memory?
Ans- Book
25. What according to Borges is a controlled dream?
Ans - Literature
26. According to Borges our past is nothing but a sequence of ______ .
a) dreams b) memories c) experiences
Ans - a) dreams
27. When according to Borges would history disappear?

Ans – If books disappear, surely history would disappear.

4 Mark Questions

1. What does Borges tell us about his mother in particular and all mothers in general?
Ans -
Borges said that his mother was an extraordinary person who showed him a great compassion in
his life. Then he confesses in a regretful tone that he could not make his mother happy because
he himself was not a happy man. He further confesses that he should have shown a better
understanding of his mother. This experience can be generalized because what Borges says is
true of all children. It is not surprising to know, when their mothers die, most children express
that they had taken their mother for granted while they were alive like they do with the moon or
the sun or the seasons and are guilty that they had abused their mothers

2. How does Borges look upon his blindness?

Ans –
Borges briefs that he had accepted it as a way of life, and was not wholly unhappy. He had
accepted it as a ‘Resource’. He thinks that all situations, things had been given to us for a
purpose and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including
humiliations, misfortunes have to be taken as raw material to shape art. He says that even though
he is blind, it is his duty to accept it and enjoy things pretending that he is not blind. Even though
he is blind he still bought books and filled his house with them

3. How according to Borges does a book go beyond its author’s intention?

Ans –
According to Borges, in every book there is a need for something more and always something in
store, which is always mysterious and supernatural. A book can be full of errors; we can reject its
author’s opinions; disagree with him or her, but the book always retains something sacred,
something mortal and something magical which brings happiness. Thus, the book goes beyond
the author’s intention.
 4. What are Borges’s views on poetry and poem?
Ans –
Borges believes that poetry is something so intimate and so essential that it cannot be defined
without oversimplifying it. Then he says that poetry is not the poem and opines that a poem may
be nothing more than a series of symbols. Borges voices out that poetry is the aesthetic act that
takes place when the poet writes it and when the reader reads it. He believes that poetry is a
magical, mysterious and unexplainable although not an incomprehensible event. He believes that
one should feel the poetic event upon reading it otherwise the poet should be deemed to have
failed

5. To what extent is finding the precise words important in the art of poetry according to
Borges?

Ans - Borges feels that poetry needs to use language precisely. He shares his opinion that only
precise words extract the emotion. In order to prove his point, he quotes a line from Emily
Dickinson, ‘This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies’. He debates that though the idea is
ordinary or unauthentic the poet is referring to a place which had been visited by men and
women in ‘summer’. These people are now dead and the dust she refers to is the dust of death.
Instead of saying ‘This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies’ if the poet had used ‘men and
women’, the poem would have failed as poetry. It would have sounded unimportant.

6. What are Borges’s views on metaphors

Ans –
Pointing out his views about ‘poetry’, Borges calls poetry as the aesthetic act. He shares
his thought that the poetic act takes place when the poet writes it and when the reader
reads it. At this point, Alifano says that finding the perfect words is very important in the
art of poetry because it is these perfect words that elicit the emotion. Such precise words
exist naturally in the form of metaphors. According to Borges, true metaphors have been
in existence from the beginning of time. Then he goes onto say that all the existing
metaphors can be grouped under five or six essential metaphors, like time and a river, life
and dreams, death and sleep, stars and eyes, and flowers and women. But it is the poet
who has to discover metaphors though they may already exist.

7. Why according to Borges will books never disappear?

Ans –
Borges strongly believes that books are the extension of our imagination and memory, so they do
not disappear in spite of modern modes of communication. Books also give happiness and
enjoyment to the reader so they never disappear. It’s the perspective which matters at the end of
the day. The life and knowledge bestowed will not go in vain.

6 Mark Questions
1. One’s experience is one’s resource. How does Borges expound his views on this?
Ans –
Answering a question about his blindness, Borges says that whatever happens to us in life should
be considered a resource and a boon, because he believes that all things have been given to us for
a purpose and an artist must feel this more intensely and from within. He believes that all that
happens to us, including humiliations, misfortunes, and embarrassments are given to us as raw
material, as clay, so that we say shape our art. He says that humiliation, misfortune and discord
are given to us so that we may transform them, so that we may make from the miserable
circumstance of our life to eternal works that would aspire others.

2. Poetry is unexplainable. Discuss in the light of Borges’s interview.

Ans –
Borges believes that poetry are those which shares an intimate and so important parts in our life
that it cannot be defined without extraordinarily. Then he says that poetry is not the poem and
voices out that a poem may be nothing more than a series of symbols. Borges further states that
poetry is the aesthetic act that takes place when the poet writes it and when the reader reads it.
He believes that poetry is a magical, mysterious and unexplainable although not a favorable
scenario. He believes that one should feel the poetic recitation upon reading it otherwise the poet
should be considered to have failed

3. The function of books is irreplaceable. Explain with reference to ‘I Believe that Books will
Never Disappear’.
Ans - According to Borges, in every book there is a need for something more and always
something in store, which is always mysterious and supernatural. A book can be full of errors,
we can neglect its author’s opinions, disagree with him or her, but the book always retains
something unique, sacred, something mortal and something magical which brings happiness.
Thus, the book goes beyond the author’s intention, books preserve the great memory of all
centuries and their function is irreplaceable.

I believe that books will never disappear. It is impossible that it will happen. Among the many
inventions of man, the book, without a doubt, is the most astounding: all the others are
extensions of our bodies. The telephone, for example, is the extension of our voice; the telescope
and the microscope are extensions of our sight; the sword and the plough are extensions of our
arms. Only the book is an extension of our imagination and memory.