The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges. Short summary

5 seconds

The talentless writer, planning to describe in verse every scrap of the planet, calls the source of his inspiration Aleph, something that contains the entire universe.

1 minute

Beatrice Viterbo dies in February 1929. Every birthday of his beloved, Juan Borges visits her father and cousin. Cousin Carlos Daneri is in the writing business. On his late sister’s next birthday, he reads to a guest a passage from his poem, commenting in detail on each stanza.

Daneri intends to describe the entire planet in formless verse. He asks Borges to bother the famous literary man Lafinourg to write a preface to his ahinée. Carlos assures him that in the basement of his house is Aleph, the point at which the entire universe converges. It supposedly helps him write.

Borges goes down into the dark basement and sees a glowing ball with millions of events contained within it. He does not confess to what he sees because he dislikes Carlos. A couple of years later, Daneri wins the National Prize for Literature for his ridiculous writing. Borges heard about the Cairo Mosque, in one of whose columns the universe is hidden. You can’t see it, but you can hear it by putting your ear to the pillar.