《De rerum natura》 Prologue I For some reason I keep buying books. It`s a compulsive thing. Two hundred and fifty two books that hasn¡ät been read. I live in a one bedroom apartment, the dormitory and the living room are not small. The living it`s clean and neat, even smells good. My room smells at old paper, sweat, and instant noodles. There are some books out of my room (The hardcovers ones that are of the same collections and that has colors that match), but almost everything it`s inside the room: in the desk, in the closet, in the floor. My first acquisition: Twelve wanderer stories, wrote by G.W. Duke. (I was eleven years old) My last acquisition arrived this afternoon: The book of sand, wrote by Noe Nagar, translated by E Renzi. I inherited the last from a friend, Professor Lawry. I meet him in college, he was already old at that time ¡ªseventy something I think¡ª. We knew each other becausein those years I used to go to all the classes, and workshops, and everything that has something to do with literature, and one day I went to his class. He was talking about the romantics: Alfred De Musset, Victor Hugo, Balzac, Pomb... Was a funny day, an old guy reading poems in from of fifty students ¡ªeverybody checking their phones¡ª. He needed help with the computer. I ended helping him, and when the class ended we talk a little. He was a quirky guy: small, skinny with a cockeye and very funny. He was also homosexual, but I learned that a year later when Melissa told me. I was surprised, I always notice that he was very kind, I mean almost too much, but he never try anything. Anyway, one time he told me that he find this book, a treasure he said. He bought it at the "Rend¨®n Bookshop" at downtown. It was called The book of sand, it was a novel ¡ªhe said novelbut he really didn¡ät knew what it was, he only knew it was fiction¡ª. ¡°It¡äs seems the kind of book that it¡äs described in Tl?n,Uqbar,Orbis Tertius, it is the encyclopedia of one cosmos, a book that has inside many books ¡ªall the books¡ª, it`s a bible, it`s a grimoire, it`s a monstrous thing¡± he said that time with a serious overdramatic face just to let out a laugh two seconds later.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. The old Lawry died last week, he didn''t leave much: a few books that he wrote, an apartment and a restaurant that he bought and left to his nephews. That and a collection of books that he gave to the university and a few friends. This afternoon the book came to my door, I have not read it yet. II II 27, October. Thatday I confirm that I don¡¯t care about anything. I called her when I was in the cafe, I was smoking, and it was around 17:00 h. She felt bad, she felt guilty. She wants to continue with her boyfriend and want us to be just friends again. Fuckthat, I thought.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡ªIt`s ok, I said, but it`s better that we stop seeing each other, I`m have no interest in going out with you only ?as a friend¡ª. That was the last time that Melissa and I talked about us. After the phone call, I finish my coffee, lit another cigarette and wrote something in my notebook: ¡°You can say that I¡äm pretty depressed, I mean nothing touch me, nothing move me, nothing matter. I was ?ina karate tournament two days ago, my team won, we are national champions in kumite. I really don¡¯t careabout wining or losing.¡± It has been more than five years. The book of Lawry made me browse in my old notebooks. There have not been many changes since then, I live in another city, I¡äm not training anymore. I keep writing and I work in newspaper: culture section. I wrote the movies and books reviews, and about the cultural events, and also I made some articles that I call miscellaneous. This week I think I going to write about Lawrytreasure:The book of sand.Apparently unique in his kind. III III I begin to write the article, this is what I have till now. ---------------________________________ The unbelievable world of the doubtful Nagar. (Draft) By August Bird. Italo Calvino in his lecture about multiplicity talks about the contemporary novel as an encyclopedia, as a method of knowledge, and above all as a network of connections between the events, the people, and the things of the world. This is a holistic vision of literature, is the belief that a book can cover all the reality, and is an apology to the aspiration to contain the universe in paper in words. Within the examples that he gives are found the next authors: Carlo Emilio Gadda: who sees the world as a system of systems, as a tangled skein of yarn where the simultaneous presence of the most disparate element converge to determine every event. Robert Musil: for whom the knowledge is the awareness of the incompatibilities of two opposite polarities. One of this he calls exactitude or pure spirit while the other he calls soul or irrationality. Marcel Proust: the network that links all things is composed of points in space-time occupied in succession by everyone, which brings about an infinite multiplication of space and time. The world expand until it can no longer be grasped, and the knowledge it¡äs attained by suffering this intangibility.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. In Calvino lecture are also mentioned Goethe, Lichtenberg, Lucretius, Boccaccio, Novalis, Mallarme and Flaubert, all of them with the aspiration of an absolute book, one book about emptiness, about the void, about the universe, about the kosmos. They dream with the ultimate book, with The Empty Book of the World. Noe Nagar try to write this book and he called his work The Book of Sand. The edition that end in my hands it¡äs the English version translated by E Renzi in 1918, the original ¡ªaccording to Renzi¡ª was written in the legible parts in Spanish using Hebrew and Greek characters and in the most obscure parts it was in a similar language to the Voynich Manuscript. There seems to be no more copies of this book, neither translated or in the original. Also the existence of Noe Nagar it¡äs in the better case doubtful. In the brief preface of the book Renzi says that Nagar was surely Jew raised in family of rabbis, though, Nagar was not a practicing of Judaism, his beliefs were heterogeneous, he used to practice a kind of syncretic religion that ¡ªaccording to Renzi¡ª Nagar made up mixing Egyptian and Greek polytheism with Semitic monotheism and oriental values. Nagar personal god was Toth also known as Hermes Trimegisto or Mercurio. Renzi claim that The Book of Sand is Nagar compilation of the forty-two books that Hermes himself wrote and that contain everything. The book that Lawry let me has a hard leather cover with a silver engraving of a half-moon and an Egyptian bird standing on it. The pages are unnumbered, there a thousand approximately. About the content of the book I have to agree with Lawry, it¡äs fiction, there are beautiful descriptions of unbelievable deserts of red sand in which you can observe and unforgettable view when the two suns are set. There is a classification of animals and plants that cannot be anything else that magical. The only thing that seems real in that book it¡äs the human story, though, it may be more accurate to say humanoid history. In the world that Nagar describe the men are equally capable of greatness, kindness, horror and suffering that in this world. In his book Nagar does not name any man any land, there are kings, queens, servants, killers, plains, mountains, but there are not proper nouns for this. He wrote like a seer that seems to know everything but does not tell the details. IV IV Sunday afternoon, same spot, same time. I always have usual places: same caf¨¦, same bar, etc. I like to go to this places and order the usual thing. The Sunday afternoon spot is called Cafe De Jassir, I sit in the terrace, in a table where I¡äm able to observe the entire site. I always take a cappuccino and a water bottle. And the first thing that I do when I sit in the table is put my cigarettes in there, so the people who are bothered by smoke see them and do no sit close. It¡äs 16:33. I¡äve been looking all day for a story that I read yesterday in The Book of Sand but I can¡ät find it. In the story a barbaric king discovers that his brother wife it¡äs cuckolding him, later he finds out that his wife is worse. They both execute their women, and both of them disappointed of life decide to go in a ¡°road trip¡±. After days of riding their whatever ¡ªI not remember the name of the animal, is not a horse neither a camel¡ª they find a clear, a oasis, and they stop to rest. In that place they met a magical being, a sort of genie or ifrit that captures them. Them the woman of the genie releases them with the condition that they sleep with her. Afterwards already in his home the king think that if one of the most powerful creature on the land is a cuckold they have nothing to worry about, because there it`s nothing that they could do.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. I want to read that story again but I¡¯m unable to find it. It¡äs really interesting how the author shows the powerless of this men (Included the ifrit), that are supposed to be the embodiment of power but they can control their wifes. It remembers me a Napoleon, the greatest man of his time and also a cuckold. I get tired and close the book. I pass the hand and touch the engraving and say to myself ¡°Toth, supposed god of the arts of magic, inventor of writing, in charge of the judgment of dead and arbiter of godly disputes¡­ I think I like it¡± Then I realize that I have not marked the book, I take my pen and write in the first page: A. Bird. 02/Dic/2017 I close the book again and decide to go to the movies. I take the usual way, I have time to have a beer before the movie, I hope there is something good. A block before the cinema I¡äm crossing the street and on the other side I see this girl walking, beautiful, black blouse, green floral skirt, short hair. Then, I get hit by a truck.
Spoiler: Spoiler A. Birdis dead The contract with Toth goes into effect.