---

NORTON - A fountain pen collector has written about being surrounded by books. Given this, you might expect Wheaton professor Bill Goldbloom Bloch to teach in the English department.

Wrong.

The author of the new "The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges' Library of Babel" teaches math.

The book, his first, explores the math within one piece of literature, a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, though.

"Borges played with the notion that a library might consist of books containing all possible combinations of letters," Bloch said in a recent story on Wheaton's Web site. "What would it be like, to be surrounded by books, many of which were mainly nonsense?"

When he's not writing or teaching, Bloch enjoys collecting fountain pens.

"I had a high mark of around 20 or so, but then I sold a number that weren't being used," he said.

"Now, it's down to 12, some of which are inherited from various members of my family."

This interview was conducted by e-mail.

SUN CHRONICLE: So, how do you get a 193-page book out of a seven-page short story?

BILL BLOCH: One page at a time?

Seriously, I started off with the intent to write a short paper on the combinatorial mathematics in Borges' short story, "The Library of Babel," for students and professors who specialized in Latin American literature.

I was lucky to be awarded a grant to go to Argentina, where Borges grew up, to immerse myself in his environs. While there, along with drinking coffee and tea in cafes he frequented, I thought seriously about other aspects of the story. For example, I was given the opportunity to look over books from his personal library, so I was able to make some guesses about his background and interests in math and science.

I was surprised to find that the more I thought and wrote, the more I had to say! Also, many pages of the book are in service to my goal of explaining clearly high-level math ideas to a non-technical audience. SC: You've read Borges' original books. Did you glean any insights that ultimately shaped your book?

BLOCH: I am not a literary scholar who is able to interpret manuscript changes in a meaningful way. Even if I was, though, Borges was renowned for the fact that his first draft was his last draft. The owner of the original manuscript of "The Library of Babel" was kind enough to let me include images of the first and last pages: If you look at them, you'll see almost no scratch-outs or corrections.

When I looked at Borges' personal library, I discovered that he wrote little notes to himself on the back page about topics and sentences that were noteworthy to him. Based on those, I was able to speculate as to the extent of his mathematical education.

SC: How might your book affect the teaching of math? The teaching of literature?

BLOCH: My book could be used as a supplement for teaching a math course aimed at humanists. A creative professor could easily add problems based on the material, and I would hope that would enable a humanities student to realize that mathematics is so much more than arithmetic and calculus.

For the teaching of literature, which in some sense is why I wrote the book, I hope that humanists would see that a mathematical perspective could dramatically enhance and enlarge their own interpretations of certain kinds of writings.

SC: The library is central to your book and Borges' story. I'm curious, what's your favorite library, and why?

BLOCH: I'm going to answer a slightly different question than you asked. I have five favorite libraries (really, probably a dozen). The first is the one at Wheaton, because it's only about 30 yards from my office. The second is the Argentine National Library, where Borges served as national librarian. It's an architecturally amazing building built with input from Borges to make it magical and labyrinthine. The third is the Boston Public Library, because it's an amazing resource. The fourth is the British National Library, as it is packed with so many unique holdings, many of which they display. Finally, the Library of Congress is a national treasure that all citizens should visit when they go to Washington, D.C.

SC: Are you reading anything that you'd recommend?

BLOCH: I'm reading Daniel Dennett's "Darwin's Dangerous Idea," which brilliantly explains the scope of the ideas surrounding natural selection. Dennett philosophically defends the ideas from prominent critics (including other philosophers and scientists), and tries to create a theory that helps to explain how culture can evolve. Really, though, one of the reasons I was interested in reading it is that Dennett uses "The Library of Babel" as a metaphor to explain some of his ideas. It's very well written, and needs to be read in small doses to allow time for the ideas to sink in.

SC: Speaking of writing, I see that your interests also include fountain pens. Do you collect them? What makes the perfect fountain pen?

BLOCH: Much to the chagrin of my wife, I collect fountain pens. The perfect fountain pen's body is made of layers of lacquer coating a brass core, and it should be just the right size, just the right weight and just the right balance. The nib should be smooth and broad, and ink should flow out of it like a creek flowing through an alpine meadow.