Google doodle celebrates Jorge Luis Borges’ 112th birthday
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Writer Jorge Luis Borges is being celebrated by Google on Wednesday with an illustrated logo on the 112th anniversary of his birth as the search page’s Google doodle. Borges was born Aug. 24, 1899, in Argentina and died at age 86 in Geneva.
Borges was most famous for his short fiction, which was clever, surreal and fantastical. ‘His fables are written from a height of intelligence less rare in philosophy and physics than in fiction,’ John Updike wrote. ‘He is, at least for anyone whose taste runs to puzzles or pure speculation, delightfully entertaining.’’
Three books by Borges were first published in English in 1962: ‘Ficciones,’ ‘The Aleph and Other Stories’ and ‘’Labyrinths.’ His other works include ‘’In Praise of Darkness,’ ‘A Universal History of Infamy’ and ‘The Book of Imaginary Beings.’
‘’To me, reading has been a way of living,’’ he once said. ‘’I think the only possible fate for me was a literary life. I can’t think of myself in a bookless world. I need books. They mean everything to me.’’
Google’s illustration includes a maze, forking paths, trompe l’oeil inversions, reflections and a library, all elements and suggestions of his work. Borges, who used a cane, stands looking out at the scene -- which is a vista of the imagination; by the late 1950s, Borges was blind.
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-- Carolyn Kellogg
