CONVERSATIONS WITH JORGE LUIS BORGES

Young (Brandeis, 1968) Mr. Burgin adds to a successful series by presenting taped interviews with the great Argentinian author and poet. Not an easy task since Borges is a quicksilver genius finding a way, or many ways, in the ""living labyrinth"" of world literature. He is repelled by tags, by mechanical performance (""I feel as if I were a kind of high fidelity, a kind of gadget. . . producing stories about mistaken identity, about mazes, about tigers, about mirrors, about people being somebody else. . .""). Issuing from his hatred of reflections and photographs is Borges' insistence on what rings true from Melville's whale to Dostoevsky's characters. Accused and admired for his ""tricks"" (cleverness he slyly disdains) Borges enjoys a riddle and discourses on one of his favorite themes--reality that ceases to exist as such, when ""told about,"" and the ""teller that becomes the told."" The conversations unfold illuminations, reminiscences, political and personal miscellany but all reinforce the writer's independence of critical catalogues: ""I meant nothing whatever, I meant the tale itself."" A stimulating and useful companion to Borges' published works.