Philip Klass & Jorge Luis Borges

Philip Klass & Jorge Luis Borges:

Philip Klass died February 7, 2010, at age 89. He was perhaps better known to the SF world as noted science fiction writer “William Tenn,” active mostly in the Fifties. He lived in Pittsburgh and was an important and beloved member of the local SF club, Parsec.

Each year Parsec hosts a regional SF con known as Confluence. At Confluence 18 in 2006 I was on a panel with Phil Klass. The panel was supposed to discuss some pseudo profundity by near-blind Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges. I can no longer remember any specifics about the Borges hoo-haw. It had been suggested as a panel topic by Phil, who was enamored of Borges because Borges came to lecture at Penn State when Klass taught writing there.

Phil was asked to speak first, to explain why he chose the Borges Deep Thought as a panel topic. Once the spotlight is turned on most writers and college professors, they linger in it (I know, as I’m both). Phil was no exception, even though retired from both writing and teaching. Once launched upon his topic, Phil proceeded to lecture on Borges for most of the hour reserved for the panel. As with the panel topic itself, I can no longer remember what Phil said about the ostensible Borges profundity.

However, I do remember the story Phil told about Borges: The near-blind Borges made a dramatic entrance into the packed Penn State lecture hall where he was to speak. He entered from the rear and proceeded down the center aisle toward the front. All eyes turned toward him. His hand was on the shoulder of a cute co-ed, who led him slowly and carefully to the front, cautioning him about this wire here and that piece of paper there on the floor. This took some time, and all the while Borges, his head up, peered intently this way and that into infinity, his blind eyes seeing more than mere mortals can see with their paltry 20-20 vision.

Then, seated at the table in front, Borges began to speak. Someone in the back of the room stood up with a camera to snap a shot. Borges saw him and fell into a picturesque pose for the camera. And every subsequent time a camera was aimed at him, Borges again fell into a similar picturesque pose.

“It was clear that his blindness was a fake,” Phil said. “Borges wasn’t blind at all. It was just a good show.”