Of all man’s instruments, the most wondrous, no doubt, is the book. The other instruments are extensions of his body. The microscope, the telescope, are extensions of his sight; the telephone is the extension of his voice; then we have the plow and the sword, extensions of the arm. But the book is something else altogether: the book is an extension of memory and imagination.

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".