Jorge Luis Borges lecture, "The Metaphor": Life as a dream

From "The Metaphor" (Lecture 2)
Life as a dream (e e cummings)

Jorge Luis Borges lecture, "The Metaphor": Sleep as death

Here is the next of these very short (1-3 min) audio excerpts from two of the six Norton Lectures Jorge Luis Borges delivered at Harvard in 1967 and 1968, recently discovered in the Harvard University Archives.

From "The Metaphor" (Lecture 2)
Sleep as death (Robert Frost)

Jorge Luis Borges Lectures

Jorge Luis Borges (above, in photo by Diane Arbus) (1899-1986) said: "The central fact of my life has been the existence of words and the possibility of weaving those words into poetry." Here is the first of very short (1-3 min) audio excerpts from two of the six Norton Lectures he delivered at Harvard in 1967 and 1968, only lately discovered in the Harvard University Archives. They are fabulous! I will publish them one by one over the next week or so. From "The Metaphor" (Lecture 2): Life as a dream (Chaun Tzu)

The Land of Counterpane

by Robert Louis Stevenson

When I was sick and lay a-bed, 

I had two pillows at my head, 

And all my toys beside me lay 

To keep me happy all the day. 

And sometimes for an hour or so 

I watched my leaden soldiers go, 

With different uniforms and drills, 

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills; 

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets 

All up and down among the sheets; 

Or brought my trees and houses out, 

And planted cities all about. 

I was the giant great and still 

That sits upon the pillow-hill, 

And sees before him, dale and plain, 

The pleasant land of counterpane.

which train?

When you visit New York, how do you know which subway to get to where the fastest? Usually you'd ask a New Yorker. Now, apparently, you should ask Google. But there are other tricks and tips Google won't tell you... Like where to head on the platform and which side of the subway car to stand. For that you need a New Yorker or a helpful article like this one: The New York Times.

deal yourself a novel

Nabokov liked to write in his car, apparently. (In case you don't believe me, here he is in his car, writing.) He wrote in pencil on 3-by-5-inch index cards (he never worked with a typewriter). Then, as he put it, he would “deal himself a novel.” How cool is that? It makes it sound like such fun. Plus, it's a brilliant way for New Yorkers to use the hours spent sitting in our parked cars waiting for street cleaning. Excuse me goobye but I have to rush out and get some index cards immediately and sit in my car.

Dry-Retriever

he simply just can't bear to be wet...

get me my coffee

desperate doll spotted in Virginia early this morning. (looks to me like a rough night.)