Bukowski and Borges

"Not only to myself or before the mirror of at the hour of my death, which I hope will be long in coming, but in the presence of my children and my wife, and in the face of the peaceful life I'm building, I must acknowledge: (1) That under Stalin I wouldn't have wasted my youth in the gulag or ended up with a bullet in tne back of my head; (2) That in the McCarthy era I wouldn't have lost my job or had to pump gas at a gas station; (3) That under Hitler, however, I would have been one of those who chose the path of exile, and that under Franco I wouldn't have composed sonnets to the caudillo or the Holy Virgin like so many lifelong democrats. One thing is as true as the other. My bravery has its limits, but so does what I'm willing to swallow. Everything that begins in comedy ends as tragicomedy."

Originally posted by vandervelde
"Not only to myself or before the mirror of at the hour of my death, which I hope will be long in coming, but in the presence of my children and my wife, and in the face of the peaceful life I'm building, I must acknowledge: (1) That under Stalin I wouldn't have wasted my youth in the gulag or ended up with a bullet in tne back of my head; (2) That in th ...[text shortened]... but so does what I'm willing to swallow. Everything that begins in comedy ends as tragicomedy."

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Thats deep. Its a kind of moral relativism based on expediency but not so much that all things are acceptable. It must of been a horrendous time to live, the 30's and 40's

Gee, what drove you to put their names together?

As much as I may enjoy Bukowski when I am drunk or high, Borges is one
of the giants of literature. No comparison there.

Originally posted by sonhouse
The McCarthy era was in the 1950's, starting around 1948 I think. Pete Seeger and the Weavers folk group was blacklisted as well as a number of actors.

Here is a timeline:

http://www.shmoop.com/mccarthyism-red-scare/timeline.html

A terrible time to be in the USA and be any kind of liberal.

Originally posted by Seitse
Gee, what drove you to put their names together?

As much as I may enjoy Bukowski when I am drunk or high, Borges is one
of the giants of literature. No comparison there.

Originally posted by vandervelde
The answer lies in the novel Savage Detectives.

This quote is from that book (English translation by Natasha Wimmer).
In the novel Bolano has funny chapter of a young writer who has a girlfriend employed in post office as mail woman. He is embarrased because of her occupaiton and he eventually leaves her. This is a Bukowski related intertextutal joke.
Borges related reference is in the chapter about sword duel between writer Arturo Belano (Bolano's alter ego) and critic Inaiki Echevarme due a review that had not yet been published but Arturo only assumes it will be written. This is a reference to a Borges short story.