The Book of Strangers

The future world in which the protagonist lives at the beginning of the novel is rooted in technology, rationality, social and mental control, and is without spirituality or independent thinking. His own work focuses on "sound impulses in cortical communication" (12).

However, before long he is troubled by an unnamed force working on him, an irrational feeling. He is drawn by a picture left by the previous head librarian, whose disappearance was a complete mystery. He reads a paradoxical inscription on the back of the picture: "This knowledge cannot be attained by seeking it, but only those who seek it find it. Bayazid of Bistam" (14). A "yearning" emerges in his head where only blind conformity had previously existed.

The narrator does not know what it is he desires at first, but

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and who claims to be a man of God, a devout Muslim. However, it is clear that Nasir is playing an unexpected part in the narrator's spiritual advancement, a step which has not to do with the use or abuse of drugs but with transcending drugs and the belief that they are any sort of means to approach spirituality. Indeed, after smoking the drug for a number of days, the narrator come to an awakening with respect to this powerful "white hash." He has previously believed that using the drug would mean that he "could not fail to tune into the movements" (72) of the man he was searching for, the previous head librarian. However, On the fourth day, I awoke and went to prepare my morning pipe. I unwrapped the pale golden "white" hashish and stared at it. I held the pipe in my hands, but did not fill it. I put it down. I covered the hashish, wrapped it in a large envelope, and set out for Nasir's, strangely elated and eager to see him (72). What is interesting about this awakening is that for the first time the narrator has come to his own conclusion---through his experience, intuition and non-rational perception---with respect to the right path to take on his spiritual quest. He feels strangely elated because this is precisely what
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Ah God, Bayazid Bistam, Muslim Nasir, University Library, Self---truly---he Lord, Book Strangers, white hash, York Press, Ian Dallas, head librarian, spiritual awakening, narrator's spiritual, book strangers, spiritual enlightenment, event---the narrator's, previous head librarian, events crucial, crucial narrator's, crucial narrator's spiritual, hash previously, white hash previously, narrator's spiritual awakening, hash previously believed,
Approximate Word count = 1568
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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