"The Book of Sand"
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Jorge luis Borges, in the short story "The Book of Sand," explores the mystery of reality and of books, and of the potential evil of supernatural power. The book of the title is an hallucinatory work which is pure mystery, and, as it turns out, pure evil. The language of the book is unknown to the mysterious seller and to the buyer who narrates the story. The pagination is illogical and ever changing. The book has no beginning or end. One aspect of the story which suggests a meaning to all these mysteries is the "gloom" which "emanated" from the seller of the book and which, the narrator says, now emanates from him as well. One might say that the nature of a book is to be found in the effect it has on the people who look into it, who take it to heart. This gloom is the result not only of the sand-like quality of the book, but also because of the unearthly and inhuman power which the book transmits to any person who looks into it. The book, in short, is demonic. The suggestion of the story is that there are certain aspects of life which are not only beyond human comprehension, but if human beings seek to own or understand such aspects, they will pay dearly. The narrator would likely have laughed at the possibility of a book having such power--before he experienced the book himself. He is an intellectual, a sarcastic man who likely sees himself as better than others because of his mind and his detached attitude to life. He has a number of valuable Bibles, but he views them a
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y for the book's mysterious power as the narrator is now. However, having fallen into the gloom of evil the book brings, he simply wants to get rid of it at a price the new owner feels is fair, which he does. The narrator believes he has outsmarted the seller, just as the seller thought that he had outsmarted the previous owner who had been illiterate. The narrator offers the seller his pension check and a valuable Bible. As the narrator says,
It amazed me that he did not haggle. Only later was I to realize that he had entered my house with his mind made up to sell the book. Without counting the money, he put it away (84).
The seller, of course, is trying to escape the gloom the book has brought him, but perhaps he will be as haunted by guilt about selling the book to the narrator as he was haunted by guilt thinking that he had cheated the earlier illiterate owner of the book.
Again, this gloom is the price the human being pays who seeks to know more than it is meant that human beings should know. The book is evil because it promises those who look into it that they will be able to know more than other men, that they will be able to taste some sort of mysterious power denied to others, that they will be able to own that kno
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Western Eastern, Adam Eve, Book Sand, God's Adam, , evil book, Writ Bombay, book narrator, Garden Eden, monstrous book, book evil, gloom evil book, mysterious power, devious greedy, pass book, book brings, language book, haunted guilt,
Approximate Word count = 1797
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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