Google pays tribute to Jorge Luis Borges on his 112th Birthday
24 August, 2011If you’re making a search today on Google you may find yourself looking at an image of an old man standing in front of a fantasy backdrop (pictured above). That old man is Jorge Luis Borges and today would have been his 112th birthday, hence Google’s decision to base their logo on the Argentine author and the magical world he wove.
Jorge Luís Borges was one of the most important ‘pens’ of Hispanic letters and one of the greats amongst the greatest in the history of the last century’s literature, a man whose work survived himself, declared by so many other greats as their master, their model, and their example.
Borges was born on August 24th 1899 in Buenos Aires and passed away at the age of 86 due to liver cancer in Geneva on June 14th 1986. His most famous books are Ficciones(1944) and The Aleph (1949), both collections of short stories that mix the magical with reality, playing out fantasy as if they were modern-day myths, or playing with fact until it sounded more like a dream. This blurring of the lines between fact and fiction was one of the main reasons that people loved his books so much.
You can read more about Jorge Luis Borges in our article A Small Iridescent Sphere of Brilliance: Describing Jorge Luis Borges.
Follow Sounds and Colours: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Mixcloud / Soundcloud / Bandcamp
Subscribe to the Sounds and Colours Newsletter for regular updates, news and competitions bringing the best of Latin American culture direct to your Inbox.