The Zahir

[Anonymous]

Is Jorge Luis Borges' story "The Zahir" entirely a product of his imagination or based on some other source....


The story is summarised

here as follows:

"Towards the beginning of this very short story, Borges is at a bar. Upon receiving his change, he notices that he has a coin that he had never seen before. Instead of returning it, though, the ever-curious Borges kept it, and then eventually used it to make a purchase in the future. Weeks later, on a whim, Borges decides to research the coin to discover its origins. Success eludes Borges, but the mystery of this coin with its Tiger design continue to plague Borges mind—so much in fact that he becomes distracted from all the rest of his work. In a final attempt to purge his mind and his dreams of this coin, Borges happens upon another book, which does make reference of the coin. The book speaks of a mystical coin with a Tiger design that forever imprints itself into the beholder’s mind. So dangerous is the coin, the Zahir, that its former owner had thrown it into the sea to try and rid his mind of it. Nothing would work, however, and day by day, the beholder of the coin could remember less and less, except for the burning image of the coin, until only that image remains, and all other cognition is lost."



The full text of The Zahir

 

[chris_in_LA]

Borges is great! He wrote a lot of stories that sounded like real-life occurences or anecdotes, and told in a realistic style, except the subject matter is about as fantastical as you can get.

 

[Stormkhan]

The Zahir, as you describe it, sounds like a good story! It speaks of the obsession which can overtake all reasoning, especially of a trivial or rare event.

The idea of a "strange" coin, however, is quite common. Even the sci-fi novel "Infernal Devices" by K.W.Jeter includes a coin, mistaken as a half-crown, which is a token of membership to a secret fraternity. Perhaps they are echoes of a time when coinage (or even paper money) was suspect and possession hinted at arcane knowledge!

 

[ginoide]

the zahir is a masterpiece. i was 17 when i first read it and it caused me to develop a huge borgesmania that stayed with me for years...
somewhere, maybe in the zahir itself, borges says something along the lines of <money is the most abstract of things, because it contains lots of possibilities> (obviously his wording is much better...). v. acute.
back on topic, the zahir is amazing. it can also be read in terms of love and obsession. (and yes, i remember telling a girl <you are my zahir>. brrr...)

 

[ginoide]

found the quotation:
<i reflected that there is nothing less material than money, since any coin whatsoever (...) is, strictly speaking, a repertory of possible futures. Money is abstract (...); money is the future tense. it can be an evening in the suburbs, or music by brahms; it can be maps, or chess, or coffee; it can be the words of epictetus teaching us to despise gold; it is a proteus more versatile than the one on the isle of pharos>.
beautiful, huh?

 

[rynner2]

(Thread moved to ' Fortean Culture')