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Jorge Luis Borges

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Author

The Resume

    (August 24, 1899-June 14, 1986)
    Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina
    Short story writer/essayist/poet/literary critic
    Wrote 'A Universal History of Infamy (1935), 'Poemas 1922-1943' (1943), 'Fictions' (1944), 'The Aleph and Other Stories' (1949), 'Dreamtigers' (1960), 'The Book of Imaginary Beings' (1967), 'In Praise of Darkness' (1969), 'Dr. Brodie's Report' (1970), 'The Gold of the Tigers: Selected Later Poems' (1972) and 'Atlas' (1984)

Why he might be annoying:

    He disliked much of his early poetry and attempted to buy all known copies to destroy them.
    Except during a three-year marriage (1967-70), he lived with his mother until she died at age 99.
    Since he never learned Braille, when his eyesight faded, his mother became his personal secretary.
    A few months before his death, he married his assistant, Maria Kodoma, leading to years of legal wrangling over the disposition of his estate.
    He wrote, 'There is no intellectual exercise that is not ultimately pointless.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    When Juan Peron came to power, he was fired from his job as assistant librarian after signing a pro-democracy petition.
    He commented, 'Dictatorships foster oppression, dictatorships foster servitude, dictatorships foster cruelty. More abominable is the fact that they foster idiocy.'
    He lost his eyesight due to hereditary retinal detachment.
    He wrote, 'I found America the friendliest, most forgiving and most generous nation I had ever visited.'
    His honors ranged from the French Legion of Honour to an Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America.
    Several critics note that his 'Library of Babel' containing every possible text, whether true, false or incoherent, makes a great metaphor for the internet.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 24 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 29 Votes: 65.52% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 13 Votes: 38.46% Annoying