I was told in a Borges class at the Catholic University in Chile that in 1973 Borges was on the short-list for the Nobel, but then he gave a speech in Santiago where he said "I prefer the clear light of the sword to the darkness of dynamite", which was understood to be an endorsement of Pinochet's coup. The Academy then elected to give the prize to someone else.

araucaniad:

I was told in a Borges class at the Catholic University in Chile that in 1973 Borges was on the short-list for the Nobel, but then he gave a speech in Santiago where he said "I prefer the clear light of the sword to the darkness of dynamite", which was understood to be an endorsement of Pinochet's coup. The Academy then elected to give the prize to someone else.

Which just goes to show you, it's a political award, not a literary award. Frauds, and the frauds who love them.

But you can't really think of an award that doesn't respond to all kinds of politics, can you?

IMHO the nobel prize suffered more than Borges for this snub.

araucaniad:

which was understood to be an endorsement of Pinochet's coup.

did Borges ever publicly endorse Pinochet? from the little I know about him I realize how foolish is to grab one of his snippets and assume you know what he was really talking about.