Monkey novel



In English, there are 26 letters (to which one might add a handful of punctuation marks, capital letters etc.). But for now, let's restrict ourselves to 26 as a basis for making various calculations: 
  • the maximum number of one-letter words = 26
  • the maximum number of  two-letter words = 26x26
  • the maximum number of  emails one hundred letters long = 100 to the power of 26
  • the maximum number of  books assuming 200,000 words averaging five letters per word) = 26 to the power of a million
Consider the story about the monkeys and the typewriters (click here if you don't know it). The permutations that a bunch of simians could create are mostly going to consist of gibberish. They wouldn't make sense. They deserve to be tossed into the wastepaper basket. 

Nevertheless, just as for our hologram gallery, the set of 26 to the power of 1,000,000 permutations would include every book or piece of text ever written (by every author, not just William Shakespeare). They'd tell every story ever told, every history, every narrative in every alternate universe. Everything that anyone could live, imagine or dream.