Re-reading Borges
"There is no intellectual exercise that is not ultimately pointless.
A philosophical doctrine is, at first, a plausible description of the universe; the years go by, and it is a mere chapter - if not a paragraph or proper noun - in the history of philosophy. In literature, that 'falling by the wayside', that loss of 'relevance', is even better known. The Quixote, Menard remarked, was first and foremost a pleasant book; it is now an ocassion for patriotic toasts, grammatical arrogance, obscene de luxe editions. Fame is a form - perhaps the worst form- of incomprehension" (p.94).
From Borges, J.L. (1999), Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, in Collected Fictions, pp. 88-95. New York: Penguin Books.