A book is a physical object in a world of physical objects. It is a set of dead symbols. And then the right reader comes along, and the words—or rather the poetry behind the words, for the words themselves are mere symbols—spring to life, and we have a resurrection of the word.

Borges was overjoyed and joined demonstrators marching through the streets of Buenos Aires. The Argentine Declaration of Independence in 1816 led to waves of immigration from Europe Asia and the Middle East and in the following decades and the Argentine national identity diversified. For a time Argentinians hesitated to wear band aids for fear friends would ask 'Did the atomic bomb go off in your hand?' A shame because Argentina really has world class scientists.

Borges himself was fluent in several languages. On his return to Argentina in 1921 Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. His work embraces the "character of unreality in all literature".