The Book of Sand is a collection of short stories by Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges. While always dealing with local realities, Borges work embodies the universal conceptions that metaphysically preoccupy the mind of man: time, destiny, and the absurdity of the human condition. We see in this collection of short stories that the life experience is like a journey through a complex maze to Borges. We pass through this labyrinth of existence, seeking an understanding of the meaning of human existence in vain. In the face of the meaningless absurdity of man’s condition, only art can triumph over the chaos it represents. Art crystallizes the experience for us, by giving the chaos order, validity, and shape. We shall explore this theme as we analyze the various stories collected in The Book of Sand, particularly the elements of myth, fantasy, and magic involved in Borges’ style.
The Book of Sand opens with a story entitled The Other. The Other depicts the narrator coming face-to-face with a much younger version of himself on a park bench. The two have share a dialogue which is particularly trivial, though it does reveal some of Borges’ political positions, like “Russia is taking over the planet; America, hobbled by the superstition of democracy, can’t make up its mind to be an empire” (Borges 413). While these views look dated in retrospect, this fits in nicely if not intentionally with the device of having an older self having a dialogue with the younger self. We see the dream imagery pervasive throughout The Book of Sand, and we also get a sense of the worldview expressed by Borges, one wherein discovering the meaning of life is a futile journey “’My dream,’ I told him, ‘has already lasted for seventy years. And besides—when one wakes up, the person one meets is always oneself. That is what’s happening to us now, except that we are two. Wouldn’t you like to know something about my past, whi...