I've been doing some on-and-off reading of a collection of short fiction stories by Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentine writer who wrote this particular compilation of fictions from the mid forties to the early eighties. Today, during project real, I happened to stumble upon a very short tale (about two pages long) called "The Mirror of Ink". It's about a sorcerer who is in the captivity of a cruel governor of Sudan, Yakub the Afflicted, and attempts to let the governor spare his life by showing him magic tricks. The sorcerer shows the governor an elaborate display in which he pours a pool of ink into the hand of the Afflicted one, and gives him the ability to see anything he wishes reflected in the "mirror of ink" (title! yes! i know!). First, the governor asks to see a wild horse. however, after he witnesses the creature's beauty, he wants to see the whole world and all the wonders of it. This is where i began to connect this story to the giver. remember when jonas experiences his first memory of sledding? he wants to see so much more...but he doesn't know what he's getting himself into. hm.
anyway. back to the story. eager to please his cruel master, the sorcerer shows him all the wonders of the world:
"Thus day by day did he make demands upon my skill, and thus day by day did i show him the appearances of this world. That dead man who i abominate held within his hand all that dead men have seen and all that living men see: the cities, climes, and kingdoms into which this world is divided, the hidden treasures of its center, the ships that sail its seas, its instruments of war and music and surgery, its graceful women, its fixed stars and planets, the colors taken up by the infidel to paint his abominable images...he beheld these things impossible to describe, such as streets illuminated by gaslight and such as the whale that dies when it hears man's voice. Once he commanded me to show him the city men call Europe. I showed him the grandest of its streets and i believe that it was in that rushing flood of men, all dressed in black and many wearing spectacles, that he saw for the first time the Masked One..."
(by the way, the "Masked One" refers to a short story that appears earlier in the book, called "Hakim, the Masked Dyer of Merv". the story is about a veiled man who claims he is a prophet, and that viewing his face will make anyone blind because he was so radiant. he gains many followers and worshippers, but at the end of the story, the people who never believed him to be a saint force him to remove his mask and discover him to be a hideous creature, face mutilated with leprosy. they kill him. he is possibly, according to my theories, a symbol for several things, including vanity, fraud, false hopes...among other things.)
Ok, is anyone seeing a connection to Lois Lowry's The Giver? i am. the cruel governor is very much like jonas - curious, ignorant and oblivious, eager to learn yet not understanding the consequences. the sorcerer is similar to the giver - he has no choice but to satisfy the "receiver" by giving him all the memories possible - even if they're painful.
Which brings me to the second part of the Borges tale - when the governor asks to see images like death - and worse - it turns out that what's keeping the afflicted one constantly gazing into the mirror of ink (title! again!) is his desire to have the masked man that has been constantly appearing in the incantations revealed, then killed. The sorcerer pleads and begs the governor to change his mind, because viewing the masked one's face is a sin, and there would surely be no good to come out of it...yet the afflicted one insists, and the sorcerer has no choice but to oblige.
When the governor finally views the image of the unmasked man, he is shocked and horrified to find that the veiled man possesses the same face as he, the governor. He is hypnotized to the mirror, addicted to its fantastic images, yet now he wishes he could back away and take his eyes off. but he can't. when the sword is finally raised to the masked man's neck, as the governor had wished, and he is killed, the governor collapses, dead as well.
Why does this remind me of the giver so much? there are clearly some HUGE connections in these two texts. i happen to find it fascinating that Borges's tale is told from the giver's point of view as opposed to the receiver's. although jonas does not die at the end of the story due to the memories, he does suffer some severe consequences, and also almost faces death. this short story has given me a whole new perspective on Lois Lowry's book. i find these connections amazing, and slightly disturbing, but fascinating nonetheless. cool.
if you have been tempted to read the entire story of "the mirror of ink", you should. it's a beautifully written piece that is well worth the time taken to read it.
