Macedonio Fernández facts for kids
Macedonio Fernández (born June 1, 1874 – died February 10, 1952) was an Argentine writer, humorist, and thinker. He wrote many different kinds of things, including novels, short stories, poems, and newspaper articles. He was a very important guide and friend to the famous writer Jorge Luis Borges and other new, experimental Argentine authors. Letters they wrote to each other over seventeen years were published in 2000.
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Life of Macedonio Fernández
Macedonio, often called by his first name only, was born in 1874. His father was a farmer and military officer, also named Macedonio Fernández. His mother was Rosa del Mazo Aguilar Ramos.
In 1887, he started studying at the Colegio Nacional Central in Argentina. While he was a university student in 1891–1892, he wrote essays for a newspaper called El Progreso. These essays were later collected in a book. Macedonio was very interested in psychology and the ideas of the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, just like his close friend Jorge Guillermo Borges, who was the father of Jorge Luis Borges.
In 1897, Macedonio became a lawyer after finishing his studies at the University of Buenos Aires. During this time, he wrote for La Montaña, a newspaper. He was also a friend of Juan B. Justo, a doctor, journalist, and politician. In 1898, he started working as a lawyer. The next year, in 1899, he married Elena de Obieta. They had four children together.
Macedonio published some poems in a magazine called Martín Fierro in 1904. This was a different magazine from a more famous one with the same name that came out later. In 1910, he became a public prosecutor in a court in Posadas, a job he held for several years. A public prosecutor is a lawyer who works for the government to bring legal cases against people accused of crimes.
A sad event happened in 1920 when his wife, Elena, passed away. After this, Macedonio stopped working as a lawyer. His children were then cared for by their grandparents and aunts. In 1921, the Borges family returned from Europe. Macedonio reconnected with his old friend, Jorge Guillermo Borges, and also became good friends with young Jorge Luis Borges, who was a new poet at the time.
Macedonio published two books in the late 1920s: No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos in 1928, and Papeles de Recienvenido in 1929. Later, in 1938, he published "Novela de la Eterna" y la Niña del dolor, which was an early version of his most famous work, Museo de la Novela de la Eterna. This book was finally published after he died in 1967. He also published Una novela que comienza in Chile in 1941.
In 1947, Macedonio moved to live with his son Adolfo de Obieta. He stayed there for the rest of his life. He passed away on February 10, 1952.
Macedonio and Jorge Luis Borges
Macedonio Fernández was a very important mentor and influence for Jorge Luis Borges, one of Argentina's most famous writers. However, their relationship was more complicated than it seemed. Later in his life, Borges often said that Macedonio was an early influence. He even joked that he copied Macedonio "to the point of plagiarism" when he was young.
At the same time, Borges sometimes suggested that Macedonio wasn't a great writer himself. This made many people think of Macedonio as more of a local philosopher, like Socrates, who was important to Argentine culture.
Recent studies show that Macedonio's ideas had a much deeper and longer-lasting impact on Borges than Borges ever admitted. It seems Borges even tried to hide this influence. Many of the main ideas in Borges's stories actually came directly from Macedonio.
These shared ideas include:
- Questioning if space and time are truly continuous.
- Confusing dreams with being awake.
- Thinking about how memory can be unreliable and how forgetting can be important.
- Believing that a person's identity might not be fixed or even exist.
- The idea that new stories are often just new versions or translations of older ones.
- Questioning the roles of the author, reader, editor, and person who comments on a text.
Their shared ideas also appeared in their stories. For example, both explored the idea of a secret, fictional world that starts to affect the real world. Borges did this in his story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius". Macedonio had a similar idea in his plan to turn the city of Buenos Aires into a novel, which was part of his Museo de la Novela de la Eterna.
Both writers were inspired by philosophers like Arthur Schopenhauer and Henri Bergson. But it's clear that Macedonio and Borges developed many of their unique and lasting ideas together, through conversations in the 1920s. Macedonio even appears in Borges's story "Dialogue about a Dialogue", where they talk about whether the soul lives forever.
The Beginning of Their Friendship
Their close friendship really began in 1921. This was when Borges returned to Buenos Aires with his family after living in Switzerland and traveling in Europe. Borges's father, Jorge Guillermo Borges Haslam, had been a close friend of Macedonio. They even went to law school together.
After law school, Macedonio, the elder Borges, and another friend, Julio Molina y Vedia, planned to start a utopian community. This community would be based on anarchist ideas. It seems this plan didn't go further than a visit they made around 1897 to a family plantation near the Bolivian border. Before 1921, Macedonio got married, started his law practice, and raised his family.
When Macedonio's wife, Elena de Obieta, died suddenly in 1920, his life changed. He closed his law practice and changed his home. Around the same time, he renewed his friendship with the now-adult Jorge Luis Borges. Macedonio then began a new life as a unique writer and philosopher.
Macedonio's Influence on the Avant-Garde
Borges and other young writers of the generación martinfierrista looked up to Macedonio. He was seen as a leader for the new, experimental art movement in Buenos Aires. He also offered a different view from Leopoldo Lugones, who led an older style of writing.
Macedonio contributed to the literary gatherings of the ultraísta movement and the related "Florida" group of writers. Borges often joined Macedonio's informal meetings, called tertulias. These took place in Buenos Aires bars and cafés, and sometimes at a friend's ranch outside the city. Borges also helped Macedonio with his funny campaigns to become president of Argentina in 1921 and 1927. These real-life events may have inspired a similar fictional campaign in Macedonio's book Museo. Borges also encouraged Macedonio to publish one of his two books printed during his lifetime, No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos, in 1926.
Changes in Their Relationship
Their relationship seems to have changed around 1927 or 1928. Letters show there was a disagreement between them. This was also around the time Borges decided to move away from the avant-garde style. He announced the end of Argentine ultraísmo, which led to the closure of its main magazine, Martín Fierro. These two events might be connected.
From 1927 onwards, Borges started writing and publishing his famous short stories. He also worked hard to distance himself from his earlier writings and ideas. Some experts suggest that Borges began to see many of his early works, and the ideas behind them, as potentially harmful. This was especially true if they were used by people with strong nationalist views. Many of Borges's later stories, where Macedonio's influence is still clear, seem to warn against some of the ideas Macedonio represented. These ideas included extreme relativism (the idea that truth is not fixed), and the belief that thoughts and imagination are more important than real life.
Works
- No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos (1928)
- Una novela que comienza (1941)
- Poemas (1953)
- Papeles de Recienvenido. Continuación de la nada (1944)
- Museo de la novela de la eterna (1967) ISBN: 84-376-1379-5
- No toda es vigilia la de los ojos abiertos y otros escritos (1967)
- Cuadernos de todo y nada (1972)
- Manera de una psique sin cuerpo (1973) ISBN: 84-7223-542-4
- Obras completas (1974-1995) ISBN: 950-05-0584-3
- Relato : cuentos, poemas y misceláneas (1987)
- Poesías completas (1991) ISBN: 84-7522-265-X
- Todo y nada (1995)
- Textos selectos (1999) ISBN: 950-05-1181-9
- Macedonio : memorias errantes (1999) ISBN: 978-98797654-0-1
In English translation
- Macedonio : selected writings in translation edited by Jo Anne Engelbert (1984) ISBN: 978-9995878801.
- The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel) translated by Margaret Schwartz (2010) published by Open Letter Books
Correspondence
- Epistolario (1976).
- Correspondencia, 1922-1939 : crónica de una amistad with Jorge Luis Borges (2000) ISBN: 950-05-1258-0
See also
In Spanish: Macedonio Fernández para niños
