The Book of Sand (Borges)

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 havi

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rences. We see there is a magical realism in that we are not sure of what the terrifying secret of Red House’s new owner is, but we are given plenty of clues that something on such a frightening level exists there. As Daniel Iberra begins to explain his experience to the narrator, he interrupts himself at the very point of revealing what he might have seen “’About a hundred yards from the house, I saw something. My pinto spooked, and if I hadn’t talked her down and turned down along that alleyway, I might not be telling the story. What I saw was…’ He shook his head. Then, angrily, he cursed” (Borges 440). Mariani, the carpenter, also gives us an indication that something is wrong when he tells the narrator that something about “Sr. Preetorius was ‘not quite right,’ if I knew what he meant—he tapped his forehead with his finer. Then, regretting he’d gone so far, he would say no more” (Borges 440). Yet, the narrator believes that there cannot be such an enigma in reality, only through time. He keeps telling himself that “time—that infinite web of yesterday, today, the future, forever, never—is the only true enigma” (Borges 441). Once again, we see Borges’ preoccupation with time and the inability of the human being to g
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3520
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)