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The Garden of Forking Paths
'Summer was drawing to a close, and I realized that the book was monstrous.'
Fantastical tales of mazes, puzzles, lost labyrinths and bookish mysteries, from the unique imagination of a literary magician.
Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
Fantastical tales of mazes, puzzles, lost labyrinths and bookish mysteries, from the unique imagination of a literary magician.
Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1941
149 people are currently reading
6,688 people want to read
About the author
Jorge Luis Borges
1,868听books13.6k听followersJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator regarded as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known works, Ficciones (transl.鈥塅ictions) and El Aleph (transl.鈥塗he Aleph), published in the 1940s, are collections of short stories exploring motifs such as dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives, mirrors, fictional writers and mythology. Borges's works have contributed to philosophical literature and the fantasy genre, and have had a major influence on the magic realist movement in 20th century Latin American literature.
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Coll猫ge de Gen猫ve. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."
Born in Buenos Aires, Borges later moved with his family to Switzerland in 1914, where he studied at the Coll猫ge de Gen猫ve. The family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and essays in surrealist literary journals. He also worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires. He became completely blind by the age of 55. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination. By the 1960s, his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages.
In 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor Prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett. In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize. His international reputation was consolidated in the 1960s, aided by the growing number of English translations, the Latin American Boom, and by the success of Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. He dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J.M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American novelists."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 532 reviews
October 23, 2024
I鈥檓 a spy鈥� In the garden of bifurcating paths鈥�
No, I鈥檓 a reader and the collection of seven magnificent stories is The Garden of the Branching Paths鈥�
Do we live in the gnostic world known as Tl枚n, Uqbar, Orbitus Tertius?
And The Lottery of Babylon is absolute鈥� Existence there is a pure chance鈥� And Babylon itself is nothing more than one unending game of chance鈥� It鈥檚 enough to roll a die鈥�
And in The Garden of the Branching Paths there is indeed a spy鈥�
Life is the garden of forking paths and we are always obliged to choose.
No, I鈥檓 a reader and the collection of seven magnificent stories is The Garden of the Branching Paths鈥�
Do we live in the gnostic world known as Tl枚n, Uqbar, Orbitus Tertius?
鈥淐opulation and mirrors are abominable.鈥� The text of the encyclop忙dia ran, 鈥淭o one of these Gnostics, the visible world was an illusion or, more precisely, a sophism. Mirrors and fatherhood are abominable because they reproduce and multiply the planet.鈥�
And The Lottery of Babylon is absolute鈥� Existence there is a pure chance鈥� And Babylon itself is nothing more than one unending game of chance鈥� It鈥檚 enough to roll a die鈥�
Like all men in Babylon, I have been a proconsul; like all, a slave. I have known absolute power, public disgrace, and imprisonment. Behold, my right forefinger is missing. Behold, beneath this rent in my cloak my flesh bears a red tattoo. It is a beth, the second letter of our alphabet. On nights when the moon is full, this symbol grants me sway over men whose sign is a gimel but, at the same time, it makes me subject to those marked with an aleph.
And in The Garden of the Branching Paths there is indeed a spy鈥�
I thought of a labyrinth of labyrinths, of a meandering, ever-growing labyrinth that would encompass the past and future and would somehow take in the heavenly bodies. Absorbed in these imaginings, I forgot my predicament as a hunted man. For untold moments, I felt I was a detached observer of the world. The living, twilit fields, the moon, the remains of the evening were playing on me; as was the easy slope of the road, which removed any chance of tiring. The evening was intimate, infinite.
Life is the garden of forking paths and we are always obliged to choose.
June 13, 2023
Read with the Short Story Club
As I sat in front of my computer to write a review of this story I realized I do not remember anything, 0, of the plot. I remember it said something to me when I read it but that is all. I guess I will have to re-read it before adding any rating. Borges, what are you doing to me. it seems your words still go over my head.
As I sat in front of my computer to write a review of this story I realized I do not remember anything, 0, of the plot. I remember it said something to me when I read it but that is all. I guess I will have to re-read it before adding any rating. Borges, what are you doing to me. it seems your words still go over my head.
January 10, 2021
丿賵賳 兀賷 賲亘丕賱睾丞
鬲毓丿 賴匕賴 丕賱賯氐丞 丕賱賯氐賷乇丞 兀丨丿 丕賱兀毓賲丕賱 丕賱鬲賷 夭賱夭賱鬲 賰賷丕賳賷
賵兀孬賲賱鬲賳賷 賲賳 丕賱賲鬲毓丞
賱賵 兀賳 亘賵乇禺賷爻 賱賲 賷賰鬲亘 爻賵丕賴丕 賱賰賮鬲賴
賵賰賮鬲賳丕 噩賲賷毓丕 賱賳毓賱賲 賰賲 賴賵 毓馗賷賲 賵賲鬲賮乇丿 賵賱賷爻 賱賴 賲孬賷賱
***
廿賳賴丕 賲鬲丕賴丞 噩丿賷丿丞 賲賳 賲鬲丕賴丕鬲 亘賵乇禺賷爻
兀賵 賯丿 賷丨爻賳 亘賳丕 丕賱賯賵賱 兀賳賴丕 氐賵乇丞 噩丿賷丿丞 賱賲鬲丕賴丞 亘賵乇禺賷爻 丕賱賰賵賳賷丞
丿賵丕卅乇 鬲丨賷胤 亘丿賵丕卅乇
賳鬲賵賴 賳丨賳 丕賱賯乇丕亍 丿丕禺賱賴丕 賲毓 賲丨丕賵賱丕鬲賳丕 丕賰鬲卮丕賮 丕賱賲毓賳賶
***
賷賲賰賳賳丕 兀賳 賳賯賵賱 兀賳 丕賱賯氐丞 毓賳 噩丕爻賵爻 賱賱兀賱賲丕賳 賮賷 丕賱丨乇亘 丕賱毓丕賱賲賷丞 丕賱兀賵賱賶 賯亘賱 兀賳 賷賴乇亘
賷丨丕賵賱 廿禺亘丕乇 賲賳 賷毓賲賱 賱丨爻丕亘賴賲 亘丕賱丕爻賲 丕賱爻乇賷 賱賱賲丿賷賳丞 丕賱鬲賷 賷鬲毓賷賳 毓賱賷賴賲 丕賱賴噩賵賲 毓賱賷賴丕 賵賯氐賮賴丕
賴匕賴 丕賱賮賰乇丞 丕賱毓亘孬賷丞 丕賱鬲賷 鬲丿賵乇 丨賵賱賴丕 丕賱賯氐丞 賵胤乇賷賯丞 賲毓丕賱噩鬲賴丕
鬲禺亘乇賳丕 亘胤乇賷賯丞 亘賵乇禺賷爻賷丞 氐乇賮丞 兀賳 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺 賯丿 賱丕 賷賰賵賳 爻賵賶 賲噩乇丿 賵賴賲
***
賯氐氐 亘賵乇禺賷爻 賱丕 鬲賯乇兀 賲乇丞 賵丕丨丿丞 賵賱丕 鬲鬲賵賯毓 兀賳 鬲賮賴賲賴丕 賲賳 賯乇丕亍丞 賵丕丨丿丞
賵賴匕丕 賲丕 賷爻亘亘 賱賷 賰賱 賴匕賴 丕賱廿孬丕乇丞 亘丕賱兀爻丕爻
丕賱睾賲賵囟 .. 丕賱毓丕賱賲 丕賱噩丿賷丿 丕賱匕賷 賷禺賱賯賴 亘賵乇禺賷爻 賲賳 鬲囟丕賮乇 賲毓丕乇賮賴 賵卮睾賮賴 賵兀賮賰丕乇賴 丕賱鬲賷 賱賷爻 賰賲孬賱賴丕 卮賷亍
氐丕丨亘 丕賱亘賳丕亍 丕賱兀賰孬乇 睾乇丕亘丞 賱賱賯氐丞 丕賱賯氐賷乇丞 賮賷 丕賱鬲丕乇賷禺
...
賷賲賰賳賰賲 賯乇丕卅鬲賴丕 賲鬲乇噩賲丞 亘丕賱毓乇亘賷丞
October 30, 2020
El Jard铆n De Los Senderos Que se Bifurcan = The Garden of Forking Paths, Jorge Luis Borges
The Garden of Forking Paths is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges.
As the story begins, Doctor Tsun has realized that an MI5 agent called Captain Richard Madden is pursuing him, has entered the apartment of his handler Viktor Runeberg, and has either captured or killed him. Doctor Tsun is certain that his own arrest is next. He has just discovered the location of a new British artillery park and wishes to convey that knowledge to Berlin before he is captured. He at last hits upon a plan to achieve this. ...
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 爻丕賱 1391賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 亘丕睾 诏匕乇诏丕賴鈥屬囏й� 賴夭丕乇倬蹖趩: 诏夭蹖丿賴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 卮丕賲賱: 芦丕賱賮禄貙 芦賵蹖乇丕賳賴 賴丕蹖 賲丿賵乇禄貙 芦賲乇诏 賵 倬乇诏丕乇禄貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 禺賵乇禺賴 賱賵卅蹖爻 亘賵乇禺爻貨 賲鬲乇噩賲 丕丨賲丿 賲蹖乇毓賱丕蹖蹖貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳卮乇 乇囟丕貙 1369貨 丿乇 404氐貨 趩丕倬 丿蹖诏乇 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 噩賵蹖丕貙 趩丕倬 爻賵賲 1395貨 丿乇 393氐貨 卮丕亘讴 9789642895809貨 趩丕倬 趩賴丕乇賲 1397貨 賲賵囟賵毓: 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴 丕夭 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丌乇跇丕賳鬲蹖賳蹖 - 爻丿賴 20賲
賴卮丿丕乇: 丕诏乇 讴鬲丕亘 乇丕 禺賵丿 賲蹖禺賵丕賴蹖丿 亘禺賵丕賳蹖丿 丕夭 禺賵丕賳卮 乇蹖賵蹖賵 禺賵丿丿丕乇蹖 讴賳蹖丿貨
丿乇 芦亘丕睾 诏匕乇诏丕賴賴丕蹖 賴夭丕乇鈥屬聚屭喡� 亘丕 卮蹖賵賴鈥� 蹖 賳诏丕乇卮蹖 芦亘賵乇禺爻蹖禄 乇賵亘乇賵 賴爻鬲蹖賲貨 蹖毓賳蹖 賳诏丕卮鬲賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й屰� 讴丕乇丕诏丕賴蹖貙 賵 亘賴 賳賵毓蹖 賮乇蹖亘 丿丕丿賳 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇貨 丿乇 丕亘鬲丿丕蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳貙 亘丕 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄貙 讴賴 乇丕賵蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕爻鬲貙 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 丌卮賳丕 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲丕賲賵乇蹖 賲禺賮蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 賴賵蹖鬲卮 賱賵 乇賮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 丕賵 丕讴賳賵賳 倬蹖 亘乇丿賴貙 讴賴 讴丕倬蹖鬲丕賳 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄貙 賴賲讴丕乇卮 乇丕 讴賴 噩丕爻賵爻 丿蹖诏乇蹖 亘乇丕蹖 丕乇鬲卮 芦丌賱賲丕賳禄 亘賵丿賴貨 丿爻鬲诏蹖乇 讴乇丿賴貙 賵 蹖丕 卮丕蹖丿 賴賲 讴卮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 丕讴賳賵賳 趩蹖夭蹖 讴賴 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 乇丕 丿乇诏蹖乇 禺賵丿 讴乇丿賴貙 丕蹖賳爻鬲 讴賴 亘丕蹖丿 亘丕 讴賲鬲乇蹖賳 丕賲讴丕賳丕鬲貙 賵 夭賲丕賳 賲丨丿賵丿蹖 讴賴 丿乇 丕禺鬲蹖丕乇 丿丕乇丿貙 賲丕賲賵乇蹖鬲卮 乇丕 亘賴 倬丕蹖丕賳 亘乇爻丕賳丿貨 乇賵卮賳 丕爻鬲 讴賴 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 亘丕蹖丿 賮乇丕乇 讴賳丿貙 丕賲丕 亘丕蹖丿 讴丕乇卮 乇丕 賴賲 亘賴 倬丕蹖丕賳 亘乇爻丕賳丿貨 丕賵 亘丕蹖丿 乇丿 賵 賲讴丕賳 倬賳賴丕賳 鬲爻賱蹖丨丕鬲 芦丕賳诏賱蹖爻禄 乇丕貙 亘賴 乇卅蹖爻卮 丿乇 芦亘乇賱蹖賳禄 诏夭丕乇卮 丿賴丿貨 丌賳趩賴 丿乇 噩蹖亘 丿丕乇丿 乇丕 禺丕賱蹖 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 丿賮鬲乇趩賴 鬲賱賮賳蹖 乇丕 趩讴 讴乇丿賴貙 賵 丿乇 丌賳 卮賲丕乇賴 鬲賱賮賳蹖 倬蹖丿丕 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 丿乇 丿賴 丿賯蹖賯賴貙 賳賯卮賴 丕蹖 丿乇 匕賴賳卮 胤乇丕丨蹖 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 丕賵 蹖讴 丕爻賱丨賴貙 賵 鬲賳賴丕 蹖讴 賮卮賳诏 丿乇 噩蹖亘卮 丿丕乇丿 (讴賴 丕蹖賳噩丕 賮讴乇 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗃屬� 丕夭 丌賳 亘乇丕蹖 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄 丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 禺賵丕賴丿 讴乇丿)貨
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丿乇 噩丕蹖蹖 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 倬爻 丕夭 丕蹖賳讴賴 賳賯卮賴鈥� 蹖 乇爻丕賳丿賳 倬蹖丕賲 乇丕 丿乇 匕賴賳卮 賲蹖趩蹖賳丿貙 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲蹖鈥屭堐屫�: 芦賲賳 丕蹖賳讴丕乇 乇丕 丕賳噩丕賲 丿丕丿賲貙 趩賵賳 丨爻 賲蹖鈥屭┴必呚� 乇卅蹖爻 亘賴 賳賵毓蹖 丕夭 倬蹖卮蹖賳賴 蹖 賳跇丕丿蹖 丕賲 賴乇丕爻 丿丕乇丿貨 賲蹖鈥屫堌ж池� 亘賴 丕賵 孬丕亘鬲 讴賳賲貙 讴賴 蹖讴 夭乇丿倬賵爻鬲 賴賲 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 丕乇鬲卮卮 乇丕 賳噩丕鬲 丿賴丿.禄貨 亘丕 讴卮鬲賳 丿讴鬲乇貙 倬乇爻卮賴丕蹖蹖 丿乇 匕賴賳 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 丕蹖噩丕丿 賲蹖卮賵丿貨 讴卮鬲賳 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄貙 趩賴 讴賲讴蹖 亘賴 乇爻丕賳丿賳 倬蹖丕賲 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮丿責 趩賴 亘乇 爻乇 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲蹖丌蹖丿責 倬丕爻禺 丿乇 倬丕乇丕诏乇丕賮 倬丕蹖丕賳蹖 賲卮禺氐 賲蹖卮賵丿貨 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄貙 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 乇丕 丿爻鬲诏蹖乇 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 亘賴 夭賳丿丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫з嗀ж藏� 賵 丌賳噩丕 賲賳鬲馗乇 丨讴賲 丕毓丿丕賲卮 賲蹖賲丕賳丿貨 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 亘丕 賵噩賵丿 丿爻鬲诏蹖乇 卮丿賳卮貙 亘賴 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 賲蹖诏賵蹖丿貙 讴賴 賲丕賲賵乇蹖鬲卮 亘丕 倬蹖乇賵夭蹖 亘賴 倬丕蹖丕賳 乇爻蹖丿賴 丕爻鬲貨 丕爻賲 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 賵 讴卮鬲賴 卮丿賳卮 丕蹖賳 賲爻丕賱賴 乇丕 乇賵卮賳 賲蹖讴賳丿貨 乇卅蹖爻 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 乇賵夭賳丕賲賴 賴丕蹖 亘蹖賳 丕賱賲賱賱蹖 乇丕 丿乇 丿賮鬲乇 讴丕乇卮 賲蹖禺賵丕賳丿貨 丿乇 乇賵夭賳丕賲賴 诏夭丕乇卮蹖 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 讴賴 禺亘乇 丕夭 亘賴 賯鬲賱 乇爻蹖丿賳 卮禺氐蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 丿讴鬲乇 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄貙 鬲賵爻胤 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 噩丕爻賵爻丕賳 丕賵 賲蹖丿賴丿.貨 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 賳丕賲 卮賴乇蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 丕賳亘丕乇賴丕 賵 賲禺賮蹖诏丕賴 鬲爻賱蹖丨丕鬲 丿乇 丌賳 丕爻鬲貨 芦丌賱賲丕賳禄賴丕 卮賴乇 乇丕 亘賲亘丕乇丕賳 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 賵 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲鬲賵噩賴 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 讴賴 倬蹖丕賲卮 丕乇爻丕賱 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 08/08/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
The Garden of Forking Paths is a 1941 short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges.
As the story begins, Doctor Tsun has realized that an MI5 agent called Captain Richard Madden is pursuing him, has entered the apartment of his handler Viktor Runeberg, and has either captured or killed him. Doctor Tsun is certain that his own arrest is next. He has just discovered the location of a new British artillery park and wishes to convey that knowledge to Berlin before he is captured. He at last hits upon a plan to achieve this. ...
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 爻丕賱 1391賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 亘丕睾 诏匕乇诏丕賴鈥屬囏й� 賴夭丕乇倬蹖趩: 诏夭蹖丿賴 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 卮丕賲賱: 芦丕賱賮禄貙 芦賵蹖乇丕賳賴 賴丕蹖 賲丿賵乇禄貙 芦賲乇诏 賵 倬乇诏丕乇禄貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 禺賵乇禺賴 賱賵卅蹖爻 亘賵乇禺爻貨 賲鬲乇噩賲 丕丨賲丿 賲蹖乇毓賱丕蹖蹖貨 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 賳卮乇 乇囟丕貙 1369貨 丿乇 404氐貨 趩丕倬 丿蹖诏乇 鬲賴乇丕賳貙 噩賵蹖丕貙 趩丕倬 爻賵賲 1395貨 丿乇 393氐貨 卮丕亘讴 9789642895809貨 趩丕倬 趩賴丕乇賲 1397貨 賲賵囟賵毓: 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴 丕夭 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丌乇跇丕賳鬲蹖賳蹖 - 爻丿賴 20賲
賴卮丿丕乇: 丕诏乇 讴鬲丕亘 乇丕 禺賵丿 賲蹖禺賵丕賴蹖丿 亘禺賵丕賳蹖丿 丕夭 禺賵丕賳卮 乇蹖賵蹖賵 禺賵丿丿丕乇蹖 讴賳蹖丿貨
丿乇 芦亘丕睾 诏匕乇诏丕賴賴丕蹖 賴夭丕乇鈥屬聚屭喡� 亘丕 卮蹖賵賴鈥� 蹖 賳诏丕乇卮蹖 芦亘賵乇禺爻蹖禄 乇賵亘乇賵 賴爻鬲蹖賲貨 蹖毓賳蹖 賳诏丕卮鬲賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й屰� 讴丕乇丕诏丕賴蹖貙 賵 亘賴 賳賵毓蹖 賮乇蹖亘 丿丕丿賳 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇貨 丿乇 丕亘鬲丿丕蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳貙 亘丕 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄貙 讴賴 乇丕賵蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕爻鬲貙 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 丌卮賳丕 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲丕賲賵乇蹖 賲禺賮蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 賴賵蹖鬲卮 賱賵 乇賮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 丕賵 丕讴賳賵賳 倬蹖 亘乇丿賴貙 讴賴 讴丕倬蹖鬲丕賳 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄貙 賴賲讴丕乇卮 乇丕 讴賴 噩丕爻賵爻 丿蹖诏乇蹖 亘乇丕蹖 丕乇鬲卮 芦丌賱賲丕賳禄 亘賵丿賴貨 丿爻鬲诏蹖乇 讴乇丿賴貙 賵 蹖丕 卮丕蹖丿 賴賲 讴卮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 丕讴賳賵賳 趩蹖夭蹖 讴賴 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 乇丕 丿乇诏蹖乇 禺賵丿 讴乇丿賴貙 丕蹖賳爻鬲 讴賴 亘丕蹖丿 亘丕 讴賲鬲乇蹖賳 丕賲讴丕賳丕鬲貙 賵 夭賲丕賳 賲丨丿賵丿蹖 讴賴 丿乇 丕禺鬲蹖丕乇 丿丕乇丿貙 賲丕賲賵乇蹖鬲卮 乇丕 亘賴 倬丕蹖丕賳 亘乇爻丕賳丿貨 乇賵卮賳 丕爻鬲 讴賴 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 亘丕蹖丿 賮乇丕乇 讴賳丿貙 丕賲丕 亘丕蹖丿 讴丕乇卮 乇丕 賴賲 亘賴 倬丕蹖丕賳 亘乇爻丕賳丿貨 丕賵 亘丕蹖丿 乇丿 賵 賲讴丕賳 倬賳賴丕賳 鬲爻賱蹖丨丕鬲 芦丕賳诏賱蹖爻禄 乇丕貙 亘賴 乇卅蹖爻卮 丿乇 芦亘乇賱蹖賳禄 诏夭丕乇卮 丿賴丿貨 丌賳趩賴 丿乇 噩蹖亘 丿丕乇丿 乇丕 禺丕賱蹖 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 丿賮鬲乇趩賴 鬲賱賮賳蹖 乇丕 趩讴 讴乇丿賴貙 賵 丿乇 丌賳 卮賲丕乇賴 鬲賱賮賳蹖 倬蹖丿丕 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗀� 丿乇 丿賴 丿賯蹖賯賴貙 賳賯卮賴 丕蹖 丿乇 匕賴賳卮 胤乇丕丨蹖 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 丕賵 蹖讴 丕爻賱丨賴貙 賵 鬲賳賴丕 蹖讴 賮卮賳诏 丿乇 噩蹖亘卮 丿丕乇丿 (讴賴 丕蹖賳噩丕 賮讴乇 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗃屬� 丕夭 丌賳 亘乇丕蹖 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄 丕爻鬲賮丕丿賴 禺賵丕賴丿 讴乇丿)貨
丕丿丕賲賴鈥� 蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 亘丕 蹖讴 鬲毓賯蹖亘 賵 诏乇蹖夭貙 乇賮鬲賳 亘賴 丕蹖爻鬲诏丕賴 賯胤丕乇貙 賵 乇賵蹖丕乇賵蹖蹖 亘丕 賮乇丿蹖 賳丕卮賳丕爻 賴賲乇丕賴 丕爻鬲貨 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賲丿鬲 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賮讴乇爻鬲 讴賴 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲蹖鈥屫堌з囏� 趩蹖讴丕乇 讴賳丿貙 賵 趩诏賵賳賴 賲蹖鈥屫堌з囏� 倬蹖丕賲 乇丕 亘賴 芦丌賱賲丕賳禄 亘乇爻丕賳丿貨 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 亘丕 丿讴鬲乇 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄貙 乇丕亘胤賴 丕蹖 丿賵爻鬲丕賳賴 亘乇賯乇丕乇 賲蹖讴賳丿貨 丿讴鬲乇 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 趩蹖夭賴丕蹖蹖 丿乇 亘丕乇賴鈥� 蹖 噩丿 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲蹖诏賵蹖丿貨 丿乇 丕蹖賳 亘禺卮 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳貙 亘賴 賳馗乇 賲蹖乇爻丿 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄貙 丕夭 賲丕賲賵乇蹖鬲 禺賵蹖卮 睾丕賮賱 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲貙 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄貨 賲讴丕賱賲賴 賵 氐丨亘鬲 胤賵賱丕賳蹖 亘丕 丿讴鬲乇 芦丕爻鬲賮丕賳 丌賱亘乇鬲禄 丿丕乇丿貨 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 賴賲丕賳 卮禺氐蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 丕爻賲卮 乇丕 丿乇 丿賮鬲乇趩賴 蹖 鬲賱賮賳 丿蹖丿賴 亘賵丿貨 丿讴鬲乇 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 蹖讴 趩蹖賳 卮賳丕爻 賲毓乇賵賮 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 乇賵蹖 乇賲丕賳蹖 丕夭 噩丿 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄貙 賲胤丕賱毓丕鬲 跇乇賮蹖 丿丕卮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 诏賮鬲诏賵蹖 丌賳鈥屫� 丨丕賱鬲蹖 賮賱爻賮蹖 亘賴 禺賵丿 賲蹖鈥屭屫必� 賵 丕蹖賳噩丕 亘丕 賴爻鬲賴鈥� 蹖 丕氐賱蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳貙 乇賵亘乇賵 賲蹖卮賵蹖賲貨 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 胤乇丨蹖 夭蹖乇讴丕賳賴 丿丕乇丿貙 賵 丿乇 丕蹖賳 亘禺卮貙 讴賲蹖 丨爻 賳诏乇丕賳蹖 亘賴 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 賲賳鬲賯賱 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 趩賵賳 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 蹖讴 趩卮賲卮 亘賴 爻丕毓鬲 丕爻鬲貙 賵 賲乇鬲亘 夭賲丕賳 乇丕 讴賳鬲乇賱 賵 趩讴 賲蹖讴賳丿貨 亘賴 賳馗乇 賯乇丕乇 丕爻鬲貙 乇禺丿丕丿 賳丕亘丕賵乇丕賳賴 丕蹖 乇禺 亘丿賴丿貨 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄 賴賳賵夭 亘賴 丿賳亘丕賱 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 丕爻鬲貙 賵 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賴賲 賲蹖亘丕蹖爻鬲 倬蹖丕賲卮 乇丕 丕乇爻丕賱 讴賳丿貨 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄 丿乇 亘丕睾 馗丕賴乇 賲蹖卮賵丿貨 丿乇 丨乇讴鬲蹖 賳丕亘丕賵乇丕賳賴貙 讴賴 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 乇丕 睾丕賮賱诏蹖乇 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 亘丕 鬲賳賴丕 賮卮賳诏蹖 讴賴 丿丕乇丿貙 亘賴 丿讴鬲乇 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 卮賱蹖讴 賲蹖讴賳丿貨 丿讴鬲乇 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 讴卮鬲賴 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 賵 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄 賴賲 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 乇丕 丿爻鬲诏蹖乇 賲蹖讴賳丿貨 趩蹖夭蹖讴賴 卮丕蹖丿 毓噩蹖亘 亘丕卮丿貙 丕蹖賳爻鬲 讴賴 趩乇丕 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄貙 丌賳賯丿乇 亘乇丕蹖 乇爻丕賳丿賳 倬蹖丕賲 亘賴 乇卅蹖爻 芦丌賱賲丕賳蹖禄 禺賵蹖卮貙 丕氐乇丕乇 丿丕乇丿貨
丿乇 噩丕蹖蹖 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 倬爻 丕夭 丕蹖賳讴賴 賳賯卮賴鈥� 蹖 乇爻丕賳丿賳 倬蹖丕賲 乇丕 丿乇 匕賴賳卮 賲蹖趩蹖賳丿貙 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲蹖鈥屭堐屫�: 芦賲賳 丕蹖賳讴丕乇 乇丕 丕賳噩丕賲 丿丕丿賲貙 趩賵賳 丨爻 賲蹖鈥屭┴必呚� 乇卅蹖爻 亘賴 賳賵毓蹖 丕夭 倬蹖卮蹖賳賴 蹖 賳跇丕丿蹖 丕賲 賴乇丕爻 丿丕乇丿貨 賲蹖鈥屫堌ж池� 亘賴 丕賵 孬丕亘鬲 讴賳賲貙 讴賴 蹖讴 夭乇丿倬賵爻鬲 賴賲 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 丕乇鬲卮卮 乇丕 賳噩丕鬲 丿賴丿.禄貨 亘丕 讴卮鬲賳 丿讴鬲乇貙 倬乇爻卮賴丕蹖蹖 丿乇 匕賴賳 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 丕蹖噩丕丿 賲蹖卮賵丿貨 讴卮鬲賳 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄貙 趩賴 讴賲讴蹖 亘賴 乇爻丕賳丿賳 倬蹖丕賲 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮丿責 趩賴 亘乇 爻乇 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲蹖丌蹖丿責 倬丕爻禺 丿乇 倬丕乇丕诏乇丕賮 倬丕蹖丕賳蹖 賲卮禺氐 賲蹖卮賵丿貨 芦乇蹖趩丕乇丿 賲丿賳禄貙 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 乇丕 丿爻鬲诏蹖乇 賲蹖讴賳丿貙 亘賴 夭賳丿丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫з嗀ж藏� 賵 丌賳噩丕 賲賳鬲馗乇 丨讴賲 丕毓丿丕賲卮 賲蹖賲丕賳丿貨 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 亘丕 賵噩賵丿 丿爻鬲诏蹖乇 卮丿賳卮貙 亘賴 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇 賲蹖诏賵蹖丿貙 讴賴 賲丕賲賵乇蹖鬲卮 亘丕 倬蹖乇賵夭蹖 亘賴 倬丕蹖丕賳 乇爻蹖丿賴 丕爻鬲貨 丕爻賲 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 賵 讴卮鬲賴 卮丿賳卮 丕蹖賳 賲爻丕賱賴 乇丕 乇賵卮賳 賲蹖讴賳丿貨 乇卅蹖爻 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 乇賵夭賳丕賲賴 賴丕蹖 亘蹖賳 丕賱賲賱賱蹖 乇丕 丿乇 丿賮鬲乇 讴丕乇卮 賲蹖禺賵丕賳丿貨 丿乇 乇賵夭賳丕賲賴 诏夭丕乇卮蹖 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 讴賴 禺亘乇 丕夭 亘賴 賯鬲賱 乇爻蹖丿賳 卮禺氐蹖 亘賴 賳丕賲 丿讴鬲乇 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄貙 鬲賵爻胤 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 噩丕爻賵爻丕賳 丕賵 賲蹖丿賴丿.貨 芦丌賱亘乇鬲禄 賳丕賲 卮賴乇蹖 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 丕賳亘丕乇賴丕 賵 賲禺賮蹖诏丕賴 鬲爻賱蹖丨丕鬲 丿乇 丌賳 丕爻鬲貨 芦丌賱賲丕賳禄賴丕 卮賴乇 乇丕 亘賲亘丕乇丕賳 賲蹖鈥屭┵嗁嗀� 賵 芦蹖賵 爻賵賳禄 賲鬲賵噩賴 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 讴賴 倬蹖丕賲卮 丕乇爻丕賱 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 08/08/1399賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
January 11, 2023
鈥�He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times. This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time.鈥�
This is one of Borges鈥� most famous stories, because it explores ideas later labelled as many-worlds that became a staple of sci-fi: every choice is a fork in the path, with different timelines emanating from each - like one of those choose-your-own-adventure books that were popular in the 1970s.
The central story of Ts'ui P锚n's "Garden of the Forking Paths" is typical of Borges in its themes and telling, but the framing story of international spies in WW1 is rather less so. On the other hand, that means the story has Borgesian layers and versions, raising doubts about what is real and true: it purports to be an article that refers to a note in a textbook that refers to a document that is the central story.
That document, allegedly missing the first two pages, is by Dr Yu Tsun. He was spying for the Germans, and desperate to send a crucial message before it was too late. He does so by thinking out of the box.
鈥�I thought of a labyrinth of labyrinths, of one sinuous spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future and in some way involve the stars.鈥�
Image: Part of 鈥淓mperor鈥檚 Labyrinth鈥� wallpaper design ()
Race
There鈥檚 a race against time (it鈥檚 a spy story!), but at a deeper level, it鈥檚 a story about time.
There鈥檚 also an unexpected angle of racism: Yu Tsun describes himself as cowardly, knows the chief 鈥渇ears鈥� his race, and thus his motive is 鈥�to prove to him that a yellow man could save his armies鈥�
Persist
鈥�A labyrinth of symbols鈥� An invisible labyrinth of time.鈥�
If you find it hard to figure out on first encounter, fear not: all is explained in the penultimate sentence: . Along the way, there鈥檚 the revelation that 鈥淭he Garden of Forking Paths鈥� is .
Then reread it to fully admire the breadth and depth of the story.
Image: Part of 鈥淓mperor鈥檚 Labyrinth鈥� wallpaper design ()
Quotes
鈥� 鈥淓verything happens to a man precisely, precisely now... Only in the present do things happen.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭he telephone book listed the name of the only person capable of transmitting the message.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭he author of an atrocious undertaking ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it, ought to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.鈥� [the power of positive thinking]
鈥� 鈥淭he solitary road. It went downhill, slowly. It was of elemental earth; overhead the branches were tangled; the low, full moon seemed to accompany me.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淎 high-pitched, almost syllabic music approached and receded in the shifting of the wind, dimmed by leaves and distance.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淚 leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths.鈥�
See also
鈥� This review is of a single story. It鈥檚 also the title of one of Borges鈥� collections, which I reviewed, HERE.
鈥� I鈥檝e reviewed Borges Collected Fictions and all the stories therein, linked from this review, HERE.
鈥� For insight into the playfulness and erudition of Borges in person, read Jay Parini鈥檚 delightful memoir of his two-week Scottish roadtrip with an elderly Borges, Borges and Me, which I reviewed, HERE.
Short story club
I reread this as one of the stories in The Art of the Short Story, by Dana Gioia, from which I'm aiming to read one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 2 May 2022.
You can read this story .
You can join the group here.
This is one of Borges鈥� most famous stories, because it explores ideas later labelled as many-worlds that became a staple of sci-fi: every choice is a fork in the path, with different timelines emanating from each - like one of those choose-your-own-adventure books that were popular in the 1970s.
The central story of Ts'ui P锚n's "Garden of the Forking Paths" is typical of Borges in its themes and telling, but the framing story of international spies in WW1 is rather less so. On the other hand, that means the story has Borgesian layers and versions, raising doubts about what is real and true: it purports to be an article that refers to a note in a textbook that refers to a document that is the central story.
That document, allegedly missing the first two pages, is by Dr Yu Tsun. He was spying for the Germans, and desperate to send a crucial message before it was too late. He does so by thinking out of the box.
鈥�I thought of a labyrinth of labyrinths, of one sinuous spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future and in some way involve the stars.鈥�
Image: Part of 鈥淓mperor鈥檚 Labyrinth鈥� wallpaper design ()
Race
There鈥檚 a race against time (it鈥檚 a spy story!), but at a deeper level, it鈥檚 a story about time.
There鈥檚 also an unexpected angle of racism: Yu Tsun describes himself as cowardly, knows the chief 鈥渇ears鈥� his race, and thus his motive is 鈥�to prove to him that a yellow man could save his armies鈥�
Persist
鈥�A labyrinth of symbols鈥� An invisible labyrinth of time.鈥�
If you find it hard to figure out on first encounter, fear not: all is explained in the penultimate sentence: . Along the way, there鈥檚 the revelation that 鈥淭he Garden of Forking Paths鈥� is .
Then reread it to fully admire the breadth and depth of the story.
Image: Part of 鈥淓mperor鈥檚 Labyrinth鈥� wallpaper design ()
Quotes
鈥� 鈥淓verything happens to a man precisely, precisely now... Only in the present do things happen.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭he telephone book listed the name of the only person capable of transmitting the message.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭he author of an atrocious undertaking ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it, ought to impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.鈥� [the power of positive thinking]
鈥� 鈥淭he solitary road. It went downhill, slowly. It was of elemental earth; overhead the branches were tangled; the low, full moon seemed to accompany me.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淎 high-pitched, almost syllabic music approached and receded in the shifting of the wind, dimmed by leaves and distance.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淚 leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths.鈥�
See also
鈥� This review is of a single story. It鈥檚 also the title of one of Borges鈥� collections, which I reviewed, HERE.
鈥� I鈥檝e reviewed Borges Collected Fictions and all the stories therein, linked from this review, HERE.
鈥� For insight into the playfulness and erudition of Borges in person, read Jay Parini鈥檚 delightful memoir of his two-week Scottish roadtrip with an elderly Borges, Borges and Me, which I reviewed, HERE.
Short story club
I reread this as one of the stories in The Art of the Short Story, by Dana Gioia, from which I'm aiming to read one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 2 May 2022.
You can read this story .
You can join the group here.
March 14, 2020
Defeating Time
I recently rebuked Robert Coover for considering hypertext a modern literary invention (/review/show...). Electronic technology may have given the genre a name but the idea and practice of hypertext has been around quite a while. I gave the example of the Bible as just such a text. And in his The Garden of the Forking Paths, Borges provides the conceptual rationale for hypertext 80 years ago. He also identifies its primary function: defeating time.
Like all hypertext, The Garden of Forking Paths is appropriately biblical. It has a beginning but presumes some sort of prior sentient existence; so really starts in medias res. And like the Bible, the story is about 鈥淎听labyrinth of symbols,鈥� whose interpretation is not given by the text. The book of Genesis has time as the first creation (the primordial separation of light and darkness). So quite understandably, Borges makes his 鈥淎n invisible labyrinth of time.鈥� And the labyrinth is, of course, a book.
The clear anticipation of the Multiverse, in which quantum effects continuously create alternative worlds is obvious:
Sequentiality, therefore, takes on a new meaning. No longer does it imply merely 鈥榦ne thing after another.鈥� In Borges鈥檚 Garden, it means 鈥榚verything after everything else,鈥� which is circular. On the one hand, there is no beginning since eventually all recurs. On the other, any point in the cycle can be considered a beginning, a place at which to jump on the carousel of existence: 鈥�... each is a point of departure for other branchings off. Now and again, the paths of this labyrinth converge.鈥�
So the story in the story is 鈥渁 vast riddle, or parable, about time.鈥� Among other things, this conception resolves the paradox of eternity. If time is linear, it must have a beginning, and therefore by definition excludes eternity. The circularity of time in the Garden is authentic eternity, containing everything that could possibly happen within any slice of it. Good and evil are relativised not just to each other but to existence itself. They are both there and not there.
Thus the 鈥渦nceasing remorse and weariness,鈥� of the protagonist who feels intense pride as well as regret in his accomplishment. Not unlike Yahweh who decided that perhaps all was not that good in his creation just before initiating his exterminating Flood.
I recently rebuked Robert Coover for considering hypertext a modern literary invention (/review/show...). Electronic technology may have given the genre a name but the idea and practice of hypertext has been around quite a while. I gave the example of the Bible as just such a text. And in his The Garden of the Forking Paths, Borges provides the conceptual rationale for hypertext 80 years ago. He also identifies its primary function: defeating time.
Like all hypertext, The Garden of Forking Paths is appropriately biblical. It has a beginning but presumes some sort of prior sentient existence; so really starts in medias res. And like the Bible, the story is about 鈥淎听labyrinth of symbols,鈥� whose interpretation is not given by the text. The book of Genesis has time as the first creation (the primordial separation of light and darkness). So quite understandably, Borges makes his 鈥淎n invisible labyrinth of time.鈥� And the labyrinth is, of course, a book.
The clear anticipation of the Multiverse, in which quantum effects continuously create alternative worlds is obvious:
鈥淚n all works of fiction, each time the writer is confronted with choices, he opts for one and discards the rest. In the inextricable Ts鈥檜i P锚n, he opts鈥攁t one and the same time鈥攆or all the alternatives. By so doing, he creates several futures, several times over, and in turn these proliferate and branch off.鈥�
Sequentiality, therefore, takes on a new meaning. No longer does it imply merely 鈥榦ne thing after another.鈥� In Borges鈥檚 Garden, it means 鈥榚verything after everything else,鈥� which is circular. On the one hand, there is no beginning since eventually all recurs. On the other, any point in the cycle can be considered a beginning, a place at which to jump on the carousel of existence: 鈥�... each is a point of departure for other branchings off. Now and again, the paths of this labyrinth converge.鈥�
So the story in the story is 鈥渁 vast riddle, or parable, about time.鈥� Among other things, this conception resolves the paradox of eternity. If time is linear, it must have a beginning, and therefore by definition excludes eternity. The circularity of time in the Garden is authentic eternity, containing everything that could possibly happen within any slice of it. Good and evil are relativised not just to each other but to existence itself. They are both there and not there.
Thus the 鈥渦nceasing remorse and weariness,鈥� of the protagonist who feels intense pride as well as regret in his accomplishment. Not unlike Yahweh who decided that perhaps all was not that good in his creation just before initiating his exterminating Flood.
Read
July 1, 2021
Nearly all the many commentaries I've read on The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges focus on the nature of time as a main theme or THE main theme.
Why do I not encounter more reflections on the nature of space? After all, a labyrinth serves as a pervasive, key image in the tale - and a labyrinth is, above all else, constructed in space. Thus, the story's narrator recollects a common procedure for discovering the central point in certain labyrinths is to "always turn to the left."
Imagine standing atop a hill and looking down at an extraordinarily complex garden labyrinth. Your task is to enter the labyrinth on the near side and exit on the far side. You were never that good at puzzles and you can easily imagine yourself wandering in the labyrinth for hours, maybe days before chancing upon the proper exit.
However, if you were given accurate, easy to follow directions such as "always turn to the left," an impossible quagmire immediately becomes an enjoyable short walk. The idea of time doesn't even occur to you, you can walk slowly or quickly or maybe even break into a trot, since it doesn't matter - you always know which way to turn.
Perhaps this emphasis on time derives from the narrator reading the beguiling words of the ancient Ts'ui P锚n: "I leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths." And then reflecting: "Almost instantly, I understood: 'the garden of forking paths' was the chaotic novel; the phrase 'the various futures (not to all)' suggesting to me the forking of time, not in space."
The narrator muses further on Ts'ui P锚n's novel, how, unlike the usual work of fiction where a man chooses one path and therefore eliminates all others, in Ts'ui P锚n's novel, the protagonist chooses all paths simultaneously. He therefore creates "diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork."
Sounds so cool, even trumping a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' tale where various options are left to the reader on which way the plot can turn. With Ts'ui P锚n's novel, the plot turns every way all at once leading to multiple plots, in turn, turning every way at once. Methinks it must have been a thick novel, maybe even in some ways similar to the Book of Sand, a book with an infinite number of pages from another Borges tale.
I suspect we can all pinpoint certain decisions we made along our path propelling us in a particular direction (and thereby eliminating other directions). If only we made a different choice, how different our life would have been.
Ah, if only we could see, really see, into the future. Our inability to see into the future drove science fiction author Philip K. Dick bonkers. He was forever creating characters possessing the power and ability to read the future like an open book. What an advantage they had!
Much in this Borges tale hinges on conflict and war, seeing a man as an enemy or a friend, victories and total victory - in other words, seeing the world in terms of me (or us) and the other. In this way, aren't we all held in the grip of the play of maya, the veil of illusion? Seen thusly, wouldn't our liberation, our transcendence, our moksha be framed in terms of space rather than time? We could then reach a level of realization, in effect, a release, a moksha, where we express with all our heart and mind, with our very being: 'Thou art that' or in Sanskrit: 'Tat tvam asi'?
Or would this simply amount to another turn within the Garden of Forking Paths?
Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, 1899-1986
January 3, 2023
鈥�The basest of art鈥檚 temptations: the temptation to be a genius鈥� (from The Approach to Al-Mu鈥檛asm). In this collection, Borges proves that he succumbed. And I鈥檓 very glad he did.
I have the Collected Fictions (with copious translator's notes), but am splitting my review of that into its components, listed in publication order: Collected Fictions - all reviews. This is the second, published in 1941, and this is where Borges starts to blow my mind.
Some of these stories are initially rather opaque, but they鈥檙e also short and SO worthwhile: with many, I read once to get a feel for what it was about, then immediately reread it to connect with it in context.
鈥� The first time is gloriously disorienting, almost as it鈥檚 in a subtly different dialect from my own; it creates a hypnotic desire to understand.
鈥� The second time, a switch has been flipped, I have the key to the kingdom, and the ideas slot into place, whilst retaining a pleasing degree of elusiveness.
鈥淭here is no intellectual exercise that is not ultimately pointless鈥� (from Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, below). I don鈥檛 think Borges himself believed that, and these remarkable stories are a justification of such exercises.
The descriptions of individual stories below include minor spoilers; major ones are hidden with spoiler tags. If in doubt, scroll down to the Quotes section at the end.
Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius 6*
This is the longest and has its own review, here.
The Approach to Al-Mu鈥檛asm 6*
A review of a non-existent book (unless someone has since written it), that even notes the differences between the first and second editions. This piece allegedly had one of Borges鈥� friends try to order a copy from a bookshop.
The book is described as the 鈥渇irst detective novel written by a native of Bombay鈥� and is an epic, sweeping across India, with a huge cast, but an 鈥渦ncomfortable amalgam鈥� of overwrought Islamic allegorical poems and European detective fiction.
The story though, is a recursive meditation on the duality of good and evil. 鈥淭he object of the pilgrimage was itself a pilgrimage.鈥�
A law student rejects his Islamic faith and end up among the poor, where he 鈥減erceives some mitigation of the evil: a moment of tenderness, of exaltation, of silence, in one of the abominable men鈥�. He divines that the goodness must be a reflection from an external source, and sets off to find ever purer connections, via a series of connected rooms: 鈥渢he insatiable search for a soul by means of the delicate glimmerings or reflections this soul has left in others鈥�.
Each of us is like a stone cast in a lake: those nearest us are most affected, but even far away, there are ripples of who and what and how we are.
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
Every reader reads a different book. Even the same reader reads a different book on each encounter.
A self-referential exploration of the paradoxes of original composition, and the 鈥渘ew technique鈥� of deliberate anachronism and fallacious attribution鈥�. The last of those is a recurring habit of Borges himself, including in this story, which purports to be about a real writer.
This is a short essay about the great, but unfinished work, of a writer, who 鈥渄id not want to compose another Quixote鈥� but 鈥�the Quixote鈥� by combining the don and Sancho into a single character and by, in some sense, becoming Cervantes. His tactic is to 鈥渓earn Spanish, return to Catholicism, fight against the Moor and the Turk鈥� and forget everything that happened after Cervantes published.
Menard鈥檚 other writings are listed, but it鈥檚 made clear that Quixote is his only important work, 鈥減erhaps the most significant writing of our time鈥�, even though, over the course of his life, he only manages to write just over two chapters! A futile quest, perhaps, like Don Quixote鈥檚 own?
It becomes stranger as the reviewer describes Menard鈥檚 work as being 鈥渨ord for word鈥� the same as Cervantes鈥�, but also 鈥渕ore subtle鈥� and 鈥渁lmost infinitely richer鈥�, and yet different as well, because it 鈥渙verlooks 鈥� or banishes 鈥� local colour鈥� and many other incidents. So is it the same, or different? Is the Emperor naked or clothed?
Don Quixote is the obvious book on which to base this story: it was a favourite of JLB鈥檚, mentioned in many of his stories (including "Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote", which is in Dreamtigers). More importantly, Cervantes did something similar to this story. Part two of DQ was written after what would now be called fan-fic. In part two, DQ himself treats part one as true, criticises the unofficial sequel, and responds to the resulting pressure of fame.
颁补濒惫颈苍辞鈥檚 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler has Borgesian nods, including a writer following a similar path the Menard. See my review HERE.
Douglas Adams like this story. He wrote "You should read Jorge Luis Borges鈥檚 short story 鈥楶ierre Menard, Author of the Quixote鈥�. It鈥檚 only six pages long, and you鈥檒l be wanting to drop me a postcard to thank me for pointing it out to you." It鈥檚 in the foreword to P G Wodehouse鈥檚 and quoted again in his own (posthumous) .
The Circular Ruins 6*
A circular story about dreaming reality. Pinocchio meets Inception and The Matrix, in Plato鈥檚 cave or Wonderland?
A man arrives at a temple to 鈥渄ead, incinerated gods鈥�; it is abandoned and he came with a strange purpose. 鈥淭he goal that led him on was not impossible, though it was clearly supernatural: He wanted to dream a man鈥� to dream him completely, in painstaking detail, and impose him upon reality.鈥� I misread the final phrase, and thought reality would be imposed about the man conjured by dreams. Both ideas are relevant.
It鈥檚 a strange and difficult task: 鈥渕olding the incoherent and dizzying stuff that dreams are made of is the most difficult work a man can undertake鈥� much more difficult than weaving a rope of sand or minting coins of the faceless wind鈥�.
I鈥檝e never quite had a lucid dream, but this describes something tantalisingly like it: 鈥渋n the dreaming man鈥檚 dream, the dreamed man awoke鈥�. Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy, and the dreaming man wants the same for his 鈥渟on鈥�. He gradually accustoms him to reality, and erases his early memory because he 鈥渇eared that his son鈥� [would] somehow discover that he was a mere simulacrum鈥� the projection of another man鈥檚 dream鈥� 鈥� and what could be worse than that? Seriously, what could be worse?
The Lottery in Babylon 6*
This opens with disorienting paradoxes about the narrator who has led a life of opposites, but also 鈥渒nown that thing the Greeks knew not 鈥� uncertainty鈥�. The language and ideas were even more reminiscent of Kafka than some of the other pieces (is Qaphqa, a sacred latrine(!) where informers can leave messages, a pun?).
鈥淭he Lottery is an intensification of chance into the order of the universe鈥� chance should intervene in every 补蝉辫别肠迟.鈥�
We are all subject to the whims of fate, nature versus nurture, chaos and order, faith, justice, and chance. But in Babylon, actual lotteries are involved 鈥� to an absurd and alarming degree. Conventional ones lost their appeal, 鈥渢hey had not moral force鈥�, so unlucky draws were added to the positive wins. But gradually the people needed a more powerful hit than that. The Company that runs it becomes increasingly powerful (and secretive - the Lottery is drawn in a labyrinth) as every aspect of life, and indeed the draw, is decided by draw.
Although 鈥渢he number of drawings is infinite鈥�, an infinite amount of time is not required, but rather, 鈥渋nfinitely subdivisible time鈥�.
Does the Company exist 鈥� now or in the past 鈥� and does it matter?
The Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain
Here, Borges is name-dropping philosophers and writing an amusingly catty review of life and works of a fictitious author, starting by noting the 鈥渘ecrological pieties鈥� in the very short obituary in the Times Literary Supplement. He goes on to say that his first book, The God of the Labyrinth, was good except for 鈥渟omewhat careless plotting and the hollow, frigid stiltedness of certain descriptions of the sea鈥�! Fortunately Borges was able to salvage one of Quain鈥檚 works and turn it into the far superior The Circle of Ruins (see above) 鈥� so recursion, about a circle. Neat.
The Library of Babel 6*
This has its own review, here.
The Garden of Forking Paths
This has its own review, here.
Quotes
鈥� 鈥淣o one saw him step from the boat in the unanimous night.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭he mirror hovered, shadowing us.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淚n life鈥� he was afflicted with unreality, as so many Englishmen are.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭hose close English friendships鈥� that begin by excluding confidences and soon eliminate conversation.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭he aesthetic act must contain some element of surprise, shock, astonishment.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭o speak is to commit tautologies.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淗e who is to perform a horrendous act should imagine to himself that it is already done, should impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淎 keen and vaguely syllabic song, blurred by leaves and distance, came and went on the gentle gusts of breeze.鈥�
鈥� He 鈥渄id not believe in a uniform and absolute time; he believed in an infinite series of times.鈥�
I have the Collected Fictions (with copious translator's notes), but am splitting my review of that into its components, listed in publication order: Collected Fictions - all reviews. This is the second, published in 1941, and this is where Borges starts to blow my mind.
Some of these stories are initially rather opaque, but they鈥檙e also short and SO worthwhile: with many, I read once to get a feel for what it was about, then immediately reread it to connect with it in context.
鈥� The first time is gloriously disorienting, almost as it鈥檚 in a subtly different dialect from my own; it creates a hypnotic desire to understand.
鈥� The second time, a switch has been flipped, I have the key to the kingdom, and the ideas slot into place, whilst retaining a pleasing degree of elusiveness.
鈥淭here is no intellectual exercise that is not ultimately pointless鈥� (from Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote, below). I don鈥檛 think Borges himself believed that, and these remarkable stories are a justification of such exercises.
The descriptions of individual stories below include minor spoilers; major ones are hidden with spoiler tags. If in doubt, scroll down to the Quotes section at the end.
Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius 6*
This is the longest and has its own review, here.
The Approach to Al-Mu鈥檛asm 6*
A review of a non-existent book (unless someone has since written it), that even notes the differences between the first and second editions. This piece allegedly had one of Borges鈥� friends try to order a copy from a bookshop.
The book is described as the 鈥渇irst detective novel written by a native of Bombay鈥� and is an epic, sweeping across India, with a huge cast, but an 鈥渦ncomfortable amalgam鈥� of overwrought Islamic allegorical poems and European detective fiction.
The story though, is a recursive meditation on the duality of good and evil. 鈥淭he object of the pilgrimage was itself a pilgrimage.鈥�
A law student rejects his Islamic faith and end up among the poor, where he 鈥減erceives some mitigation of the evil: a moment of tenderness, of exaltation, of silence, in one of the abominable men鈥�. He divines that the goodness must be a reflection from an external source, and sets off to find ever purer connections, via a series of connected rooms: 鈥渢he insatiable search for a soul by means of the delicate glimmerings or reflections this soul has left in others鈥�.
Each of us is like a stone cast in a lake: those nearest us are most affected, but even far away, there are ripples of who and what and how we are.
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
Every reader reads a different book. Even the same reader reads a different book on each encounter.
A self-referential exploration of the paradoxes of original composition, and the 鈥渘ew technique鈥� of deliberate anachronism and fallacious attribution鈥�. The last of those is a recurring habit of Borges himself, including in this story, which purports to be about a real writer.
This is a short essay about the great, but unfinished work, of a writer, who 鈥渄id not want to compose another Quixote鈥� but 鈥�the Quixote鈥� by combining the don and Sancho into a single character and by, in some sense, becoming Cervantes. His tactic is to 鈥渓earn Spanish, return to Catholicism, fight against the Moor and the Turk鈥� and forget everything that happened after Cervantes published.
Menard鈥檚 other writings are listed, but it鈥檚 made clear that Quixote is his only important work, 鈥減erhaps the most significant writing of our time鈥�, even though, over the course of his life, he only manages to write just over two chapters! A futile quest, perhaps, like Don Quixote鈥檚 own?
It becomes stranger as the reviewer describes Menard鈥檚 work as being 鈥渨ord for word鈥� the same as Cervantes鈥�, but also 鈥渕ore subtle鈥� and 鈥渁lmost infinitely richer鈥�, and yet different as well, because it 鈥渙verlooks 鈥� or banishes 鈥� local colour鈥� and many other incidents. So is it the same, or different? Is the Emperor naked or clothed?
Don Quixote is the obvious book on which to base this story: it was a favourite of JLB鈥檚, mentioned in many of his stories (including "Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote", which is in Dreamtigers). More importantly, Cervantes did something similar to this story. Part two of DQ was written after what would now be called fan-fic. In part two, DQ himself treats part one as true, criticises the unofficial sequel, and responds to the resulting pressure of fame.
颁补濒惫颈苍辞鈥檚 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler has Borgesian nods, including a writer following a similar path the Menard. See my review HERE.
Douglas Adams like this story. He wrote "You should read Jorge Luis Borges鈥檚 short story 鈥楶ierre Menard, Author of the Quixote鈥�. It鈥檚 only six pages long, and you鈥檒l be wanting to drop me a postcard to thank me for pointing it out to you." It鈥檚 in the foreword to P G Wodehouse鈥檚 and quoted again in his own (posthumous) .
The Circular Ruins 6*
A circular story about dreaming reality. Pinocchio meets Inception and The Matrix, in Plato鈥檚 cave or Wonderland?
A man arrives at a temple to 鈥渄ead, incinerated gods鈥�; it is abandoned and he came with a strange purpose. 鈥淭he goal that led him on was not impossible, though it was clearly supernatural: He wanted to dream a man鈥� to dream him completely, in painstaking detail, and impose him upon reality.鈥� I misread the final phrase, and thought reality would be imposed about the man conjured by dreams. Both ideas are relevant.
It鈥檚 a strange and difficult task: 鈥渕olding the incoherent and dizzying stuff that dreams are made of is the most difficult work a man can undertake鈥� much more difficult than weaving a rope of sand or minting coins of the faceless wind鈥�.
I鈥檝e never quite had a lucid dream, but this describes something tantalisingly like it: 鈥渋n the dreaming man鈥檚 dream, the dreamed man awoke鈥�. Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy, and the dreaming man wants the same for his 鈥渟on鈥�. He gradually accustoms him to reality, and erases his early memory because he 鈥渇eared that his son鈥� [would] somehow discover that he was a mere simulacrum鈥� the projection of another man鈥檚 dream鈥� 鈥� and what could be worse than that? Seriously, what could be worse?
The Lottery in Babylon 6*
This opens with disorienting paradoxes about the narrator who has led a life of opposites, but also 鈥渒nown that thing the Greeks knew not 鈥� uncertainty鈥�. The language and ideas were even more reminiscent of Kafka than some of the other pieces (is Qaphqa, a sacred latrine(!) where informers can leave messages, a pun?).
鈥淭he Lottery is an intensification of chance into the order of the universe鈥� chance should intervene in every 补蝉辫别肠迟.鈥�
We are all subject to the whims of fate, nature versus nurture, chaos and order, faith, justice, and chance. But in Babylon, actual lotteries are involved 鈥� to an absurd and alarming degree. Conventional ones lost their appeal, 鈥渢hey had not moral force鈥�, so unlucky draws were added to the positive wins. But gradually the people needed a more powerful hit than that. The Company that runs it becomes increasingly powerful (and secretive - the Lottery is drawn in a labyrinth) as every aspect of life, and indeed the draw, is decided by draw.
Although 鈥渢he number of drawings is infinite鈥�, an infinite amount of time is not required, but rather, 鈥渋nfinitely subdivisible time鈥�.
Does the Company exist 鈥� now or in the past 鈥� and does it matter?
The Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain
Here, Borges is name-dropping philosophers and writing an amusingly catty review of life and works of a fictitious author, starting by noting the 鈥渘ecrological pieties鈥� in the very short obituary in the Times Literary Supplement. He goes on to say that his first book, The God of the Labyrinth, was good except for 鈥渟omewhat careless plotting and the hollow, frigid stiltedness of certain descriptions of the sea鈥�! Fortunately Borges was able to salvage one of Quain鈥檚 works and turn it into the far superior The Circle of Ruins (see above) 鈥� so recursion, about a circle. Neat.
The Library of Babel 6*
This has its own review, here.
The Garden of Forking Paths
This has its own review, here.
Quotes
鈥� 鈥淣o one saw him step from the boat in the unanimous night.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭he mirror hovered, shadowing us.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淚n life鈥� he was afflicted with unreality, as so many Englishmen are.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭hose close English friendships鈥� that begin by excluding confidences and soon eliminate conversation.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭he aesthetic act must contain some element of surprise, shock, astonishment.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淭o speak is to commit tautologies.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淗e who is to perform a horrendous act should imagine to himself that it is already done, should impose upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past.鈥�
鈥� 鈥淎 keen and vaguely syllabic song, blurred by leaves and distance, came and went on the gentle gusts of breeze.鈥�
鈥� He 鈥渄id not believe in a uniform and absolute time; he believed in an infinite series of times.鈥�
August 12, 2023
- "丨丿賷賯丞 丕賱丿乇賵亘 丕賱賲鬲卮毓亘丞" 毓賳 噩丕爻賵爻 兀賱賲丕賳賷 (氐賷賳賷 丕賱噩賳爻賷丞) 賮賷 丕賱丨乇亘 丕賱毓丕賱賲賷丞 丕賱兀賵賱賶. 鬲亘丿兀 丕賱賯氐丞 亘賲賱丕丨賯丞 丕賱噩丕爻賵爻 "賷賵 鬲爻賵賳" 賲賳 賯亘賱 囟丕亘胤 丕賱廿爻鬲禺亘丕乇丕鬲 丕賱廿賳噩賱賷夭賷 "賲丕丿賷賳". 賷毓乇賮 丕賱噩丕爻賵爻 兀賳 "賲丕丿賷賳" 爻賷賯亘囟 毓賱賷賴 賲毓 睾乇賵亘 丕賱卮賲爻貙 賵賷丨鬲丕噩 廿賱賶 胤乇賷賯丞 賱廿毓賱丕賲 賯賷丕丿鬲賴 賮賷 兀賱賲丕賳賷丕 亘賲賵賯毓 丕賱賲丿賮毓賷丞 丕賱亘乇賷胤丕賳賷丞 賱鬲丿賲賷乇賴丕. 賮賷賯賵賲 亘丨亘賰 禺胤丞 (禺胤丞 噩亘丕賳 丨爻亘 鬲毓亘賷乇賴) 賵賷賳賮匕賴丕. 賷氐賱 廿賱賶 囟丕丨賷丞 "賮賳鬲賵賳"貙 賵賷鬲匕賰乇 毓賳丿賴丕 丕丨丿 丕噩丿丕丿賴 丕賱匕賷 丨丕賵賱 賮賷 賷賵賲 賲賳 丕賱兀賷丕賲 賰鬲丕亘丞 乇賵丕賷丞 賲毓賯丿丞貙 廿賱賶 噩丕賳亘 亘賳丕亍 賲鬲丕賴丞 囟禺賲丞貙 賵賯丿 賯購鬲賱 賯亘賱 兀賳 賷鬲賲賰賳 賲賳 匕賱賰貙 賵賱賲 賷鬲賲 丕賱毓孬賵乇 毓賱賶 丕賱賲鬲丕賴丞貙 賱賰賳 丕賱賲禺胤賵胤丞 賵氐賱鬲 丕賱賶 爻鬲賷賮賳 丕賱亘賷乇鬲 貙 賵賯丕賲 亘丿乇丕爻鬲賴丕 賵丕賰鬲卮丕賮 兀賳 丕賱乇賵丕賷丞 賴賷 丕賱賲鬲丕賴丞 匕丕鬲賴丕! 賮賷 賴匕賴 丕賱賳賯胤丞 鬲亘丿兀 毓亘賯乇賷丞 "亘賵乇禺賷爻" 丕賱廿丨鬲賲丕賱丕鬲 丕賱賱丕賲鬲賳丕賴賷丞 賮賷 丕賱兀夭賲賳丞 丕賱賲鬲毓丿丿丞 賮賷賯賵賲 亘爻乇丿 賰賱 丕賱廿賲賰丕賳賷丕鬲 丕賱賲賲賰賳丞 丕賵 丕賱賲鬲氐賵乇 丕賲賰丕賳賴丕 賵賴賰匕丕 鬲鬲賮乇毓 丕賱賯氐丞 廿賱賶 兀卮賰丕賱 賱丕 賳賴丕賷丞 賱賴丕. 丕丨丿 丕賱兀卮賰丕賱 賷馗賴乇 丕賱禺丕賳賲丞 丨賷孬 賷賯鬲賱 "賷賵 鬲爻賵賳" "丕賱亘乇鬲"貙 賵賷賯亘囟 "賲丕丿賷賳" 毓賱賷賴. 賵賲毓 廿賱賯丕亍 丕賱賯亘囟 毓賱賷賴 賵廿毓丿丕賲賴貙 鬲賯乇兀 丕賱賯賷丕丿丞 丕賱兀賱賲丕賳賷丞 賵賮丕丞 兀賱亘乇鬲 賮賷 丕賱氐丨賷賮丞貙 賵鬲丿乇賰 兀賳 丕賱賲丿賮毓賷丞 丕賱亘乇賷胤丕賳賷丞 賲賵噩賵丿丞 賮賷 賲丿賷賳丞 兀賱亘乇鬲貙 賵鬲賯賵賲 亘賯氐賮賴丕 賵賴賵 賲丕 丨丕賵賱 "賷賵 鬲爻賵賳" 丕賷氐丕賱賴 亘賰賱 匕賰丕亍.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 18, 2015
The Universal Library
If life (or a life) can be construed as a text, then the universe might be (analogous to) a library:
"The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries."
This early, 1941 collection is a mini-gallery of Borges stories that revolve around construction and interpretation, imagination and understanding, of the universe. On the way, it takes in time, space, meaning, truth, consciousness, our selves and our relationship with the universe.
Vast and Ambitious
For Borges, Man is a reader or librarian trying to read, interpret and understand the Library.
It's a vast project. Like its object (and perhaps its subject), it's infinite. Vast books can and have been dedicated to the project.
Borges makes this project his own, from a fictional point of view. However, he works under a self-imposed constraint:
"It is a laborious madness and an impoverishing one, the madness of composing vast books - setting out in five hundred pages an idea that can be perfectly related orally in five minutes. The better way to go about it is to pretend that those books already exist, and offer a summary, a commentary on them.
"A more reasonable, more inept, and more lazy man, I have chosen to write notes on imaginary books."
Levity and Brevity
The result is one of enormous brevity, yet it's no less intellectually challenging and stimulating.
Borges jokingly blames laziness, but it's actually an amazing facility to hint at in five minutes of our reading time what could take writers and philosophers 500 pages to labour through (and not communicate so clearly).
Besides, we can safely assume that Borges was familiar with some actual vast works on his subject matter, not just imaginary ones.
The Appearance of Reality
Borges doesn't need to be encyclopaedic in his approach to the universe. He just pretends to be encyclopaedic. He uses detail, citation, criticism to feign plausibility, verisimilitude, truth and comprehensiveness.
His aim is to create a fictitious world that appears to be real. He hopes his fragments will convince us that they contain the essence of the entirety.
However, the whole project remains fictional and illusory.
In one of the worlds that he creates, there is a belief that "all books are the work of a single author who is timeless and anonymous."
In a way, it seems, there is only one book, and one act of creation.
Borges the Builder
We've become accustomed to authors "world building". They strive to build a fictional world that convinces us of its veracity.
On the other hand, religions posit that God created the world, the entirety of the universe.
Borges might be a writer, but he seems to place himself somewhere between the conventional writer and God.
While God might have created the material world, Borges creates an abstract and imaginary world.
However, in the process, he self-consciously draws attention to the process and method of creation. He is a master of metafiction.
The Hermeneutics of the Library
Equally, Borges is interested in the interpretation and understanding of the universe, the Library, the book.
He works at the boundary of the imagination, philosophy and hermeneutics. Indeed, his writing suggests that philosophy is fundamentally a work of imagination and interpretation of the Library of the universe.
Writers and philosophers alike are trying to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
Once we accept this metaphor, this truth, Borges invites us to have some fun with the universe he has created.
In a world otherwise preoccupied with the pursuit of order, sense and truth, he introduces play and games that involve hoaxes, fraud, fallacy, artifice, illusion, unreality, illogic, mirrors, mazes, labyrinths.
A World Deciphered by Detectives
This places the curious reader in the role of a detective who must sift through the evidence in order to determine the meaning of life:
"Tl枚n may well be a labyrinth, but it is a labyrinth forged by men, a labyrinth destined to be deciphered by men."
This decipherment is not as easy as it sounds. There is no certainty that any path taken will lead to the truth.
Like one of Borges' narrators, we all work at "the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopaedia."
For all the detail that the encyclopaedia might contain, the mirror reminds us that the universe (like our minds) is infinite, recurring and self-reflexive.
Making Sense of Books
Because a book is a mere fragment of the universe, there should be no reason to believe that the truth can be found in a book, either easily or at all. One of the narrators refers to "the vain and superstitious habit of trying to find sense in books, equating such a quest with attempting to find meaning in dreams or in the chaotic lines of the palm of one's hand..."
Nevertheless, Borges implies that a book, (precisely) because it contains a fragment of the universe, can also reflect its entirety or, at least, its infinity:
"I had wondered how a book could be infinite. The only way I could surmise was that it be a cyclical, or circular, volume, a volume whose last page would be identical to the first, so that one might go on indefinitely."
The Chaotic Library
Still, insofar as the books Borges writes about contain aspects of the universe, they reflect the chaos of the universe as a whole. Perhaps a book is like a mirror held up to the universe, even if it is refracted through author and reader.
This focus on chaos is part of the significance of the last story, "The Garden of Forking Paths". The paths lead to "several futures" (though not necessarily all).
We are accustomed to believing that a choice of paths represents a spatial decision (e.g., which direction to head down).
However, "the garden of forking paths was the chaotic novel; the phrase 'several futures (not all)' suggested to me the image of a forking in time, rather than in space."
Erik Desmazi猫res - "Library of Babel, Hall of Planets"
The Labyrinth of Time
The mysteries of the universe are equally and inevitably mysteries about time and the nature of time:
"All things happen to oneself, and happen precisely, precisely now. Century follows century, yet events occur only in the present."
Hermeneutically, the Library, the universe is a "labyrinth of symbols. An invisible labyrinth of time."
There is much in the stories about rival philosophies of time:
"[One school of philosophy] denies the existence of time; it argues that the present is undefined and indefinite, the future has no reality except as present hope, and the past has no reality except as present recollection...
"[Another school asserts that] all time has already passed, so that our life is but a crepuscular memory, or crepuscular reflection, doubtlessly distorted and mutilated, of an irrecoverable process."
We aren't asked to choose between these alternatives. Borges lets us explore many forked paths:
"The Garden of Forking Paths is a huge riddle, or parable, whose subject is time."
In the Borgesian world, our imagination can experience what it might be like if any one of these theories of time was true.
Five Minutes of Vastness
Ironically, Borges gifts us an experience of the vastness of infinity, of the labyrinth of time, in stories that rarely take more than five minutes to read. For Borges, this is the true pleasure of the imagination: to derive infinite pleasure from something infinitesimal.
Still, this world is capable of being simultaneously vast, illusory and mischievous.
Borge jokingly warns that some won't be able to get their heads around his Library:
"Since not everybody is capable of experiencing [the pleasure of the imagination,] many will have to content themselves with simulacra."
Even if we can get into the Borgesian world, we might find, like one of the narrators, that our historical grip on reality is illusory:
"With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he realised that he, too, was but appearance, that another man was dreaming him."
If only we could be certain that we are the dreamer, not the dream!
But is this just the ego vainly trying to master an infinite universe of which it has no real comprehension and over which it has no real power?
For Borges, as well as us, the questions have vast and entertaining implications.
ADDED EXTRAS:
鈥淢erely a Man of Letters鈥� - An Interview with Jorge Luis Borges by Denis Dutton, Michael Palencia-Roth and Lawrence I. Berkove
Podcast:
"Dutton: Why don鈥檛 you tell us about some of the philosophers who have influenced your work, in whom you鈥檝e been the most interested?"
...
"Borges: ...I have no personal system of philosophy. I never attempt to do that. I am merely a man of letters. In the same way, for example that 鈥� well, of course, I shouldn鈥檛 perhaps choose this as an example 鈥� in the same way that Dante used theology for the purpose of poetry, or Milton used theology for the purposes of his poetry, why shouldn鈥檛 I use philosophy, especially idealistic philosophy 鈥� philosophy to which I was attracted 鈥� for the purposes of writing a tale, of writing a story? I suppose that is allowable, no?
Dutton: You share one thing certainly with philosophers, and that is a fascination with perplexity, with paradox.
Borges: Oh yes, of course 鈥� well I suppose philosophy springs from our perplexity. If you鈥檝e read what I may be allowed to call 鈥渕y works鈥� 鈥� if you鈥檝e read my sketches, whatever they are 鈥� you鈥檇 find that there is a very obvious symbol of perplexity to be found all the time, and that is the maze. I find that a very obvious symbol of perplexity. A maze and amazement go together, no? A symbol of amazement would be the maze.
Dutton: But philosophers seem not content ever to merely be confronted with perplexity, they want answers, systems.
Borges: Well, they鈥檙e right.
Dutton: They鈥檙e right?
Borges: Well, perhaps no systems are attainable, but the search for a system is very interesting.
Palencia-Roth: Would you call your work a search for a system?
Borges: No, I wouldn鈥檛 be as ambitious as all that. I would call it, well, not science fiction, but rather the fiction of philosophy, or the fiction of dreams. And also, I鈥檓 greatly interested in solipsism, which is only an extreme form of idealism. It is strange, though, that all the people who write on solipsism write about it in order to refute it. I haven鈥檛 seen a single book in favor of solipsism. I know what you would want to say: since there is only one dreamer, why do you write a book? But if there is only one dreamer, why could you not dream about writing a book?"
SOUNDTRACK:
Valeria Munarriz - "Alguien le dice al Tango (Jorge Luis Borges/Astor Piazzola )"
Susana "La Tana" Rinaldi - "El Tango" (Borges)
Astor Piazzolla - "El hombre de la esquina rosada" (Borges)
A. Perini (Ensemble Resonanz, Beat Furrer) - "Exploraci贸n de la biblioteca de Babel"
Internal Fusion - "La biblioth猫que de Babel"
Krystenism - "The Library of Babel"
Catedra Salda帽a - "La biblioteca de Babel" (Proyectual II)
Causa Sui - "Garden of Forking Paths"
Causa Sui - "Garden of Forking Paths (Live at Roskilde 2012)"
Causa sui denotes something which is generated within itself. This concept was central to the works of Baruch Spinoza, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Ernest Becker, where it relates to the purpose that objects can assign to themselves. In Freud and Becker's case, the concept was often used as an immortality vessel, where something could create meaning or continue to create meaning beyond its own life.
If life (or a life) can be construed as a text, then the universe might be (analogous to) a library:
"The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite, perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries."
This early, 1941 collection is a mini-gallery of Borges stories that revolve around construction and interpretation, imagination and understanding, of the universe. On the way, it takes in time, space, meaning, truth, consciousness, our selves and our relationship with the universe.
Vast and Ambitious
For Borges, Man is a reader or librarian trying to read, interpret and understand the Library.
It's a vast project. Like its object (and perhaps its subject), it's infinite. Vast books can and have been dedicated to the project.
Borges makes this project his own, from a fictional point of view. However, he works under a self-imposed constraint:
"It is a laborious madness and an impoverishing one, the madness of composing vast books - setting out in five hundred pages an idea that can be perfectly related orally in five minutes. The better way to go about it is to pretend that those books already exist, and offer a summary, a commentary on them.
"A more reasonable, more inept, and more lazy man, I have chosen to write notes on imaginary books."
Levity and Brevity
The result is one of enormous brevity, yet it's no less intellectually challenging and stimulating.
Borges jokingly blames laziness, but it's actually an amazing facility to hint at in five minutes of our reading time what could take writers and philosophers 500 pages to labour through (and not communicate so clearly).
Besides, we can safely assume that Borges was familiar with some actual vast works on his subject matter, not just imaginary ones.
The Appearance of Reality
Borges doesn't need to be encyclopaedic in his approach to the universe. He just pretends to be encyclopaedic. He uses detail, citation, criticism to feign plausibility, verisimilitude, truth and comprehensiveness.
His aim is to create a fictitious world that appears to be real. He hopes his fragments will convince us that they contain the essence of the entirety.
However, the whole project remains fictional and illusory.
In one of the worlds that he creates, there is a belief that "all books are the work of a single author who is timeless and anonymous."
In a way, it seems, there is only one book, and one act of creation.
Borges the Builder
We've become accustomed to authors "world building". They strive to build a fictional world that convinces us of its veracity.
On the other hand, religions posit that God created the world, the entirety of the universe.
Borges might be a writer, but he seems to place himself somewhere between the conventional writer and God.
While God might have created the material world, Borges creates an abstract and imaginary world.
However, in the process, he self-consciously draws attention to the process and method of creation. He is a master of metafiction.
The Hermeneutics of the Library
Equally, Borges is interested in the interpretation and understanding of the universe, the Library, the book.
He works at the boundary of the imagination, philosophy and hermeneutics. Indeed, his writing suggests that philosophy is fundamentally a work of imagination and interpretation of the Library of the universe.
Writers and philosophers alike are trying to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
Once we accept this metaphor, this truth, Borges invites us to have some fun with the universe he has created.
In a world otherwise preoccupied with the pursuit of order, sense and truth, he introduces play and games that involve hoaxes, fraud, fallacy, artifice, illusion, unreality, illogic, mirrors, mazes, labyrinths.
A World Deciphered by Detectives
This places the curious reader in the role of a detective who must sift through the evidence in order to determine the meaning of life:
"Tl枚n may well be a labyrinth, but it is a labyrinth forged by men, a labyrinth destined to be deciphered by men."
This decipherment is not as easy as it sounds. There is no certainty that any path taken will lead to the truth.
Like one of Borges' narrators, we all work at "the conjunction of a mirror and an encyclopaedia."
For all the detail that the encyclopaedia might contain, the mirror reminds us that the universe (like our minds) is infinite, recurring and self-reflexive.
Making Sense of Books
Because a book is a mere fragment of the universe, there should be no reason to believe that the truth can be found in a book, either easily or at all. One of the narrators refers to "the vain and superstitious habit of trying to find sense in books, equating such a quest with attempting to find meaning in dreams or in the chaotic lines of the palm of one's hand..."
Nevertheless, Borges implies that a book, (precisely) because it contains a fragment of the universe, can also reflect its entirety or, at least, its infinity:
"I had wondered how a book could be infinite. The only way I could surmise was that it be a cyclical, or circular, volume, a volume whose last page would be identical to the first, so that one might go on indefinitely."
The Chaotic Library
Still, insofar as the books Borges writes about contain aspects of the universe, they reflect the chaos of the universe as a whole. Perhaps a book is like a mirror held up to the universe, even if it is refracted through author and reader.
This focus on chaos is part of the significance of the last story, "The Garden of Forking Paths". The paths lead to "several futures" (though not necessarily all).
We are accustomed to believing that a choice of paths represents a spatial decision (e.g., which direction to head down).
However, "the garden of forking paths was the chaotic novel; the phrase 'several futures (not all)' suggested to me the image of a forking in time, rather than in space."
Erik Desmazi猫res - "Library of Babel, Hall of Planets"
The Labyrinth of Time
The mysteries of the universe are equally and inevitably mysteries about time and the nature of time:
"All things happen to oneself, and happen precisely, precisely now. Century follows century, yet events occur only in the present."
Hermeneutically, the Library, the universe is a "labyrinth of symbols. An invisible labyrinth of time."
There is much in the stories about rival philosophies of time:
"[One school of philosophy] denies the existence of time; it argues that the present is undefined and indefinite, the future has no reality except as present hope, and the past has no reality except as present recollection...
"[Another school asserts that] all time has already passed, so that our life is but a crepuscular memory, or crepuscular reflection, doubtlessly distorted and mutilated, of an irrecoverable process."
We aren't asked to choose between these alternatives. Borges lets us explore many forked paths:
"The Garden of Forking Paths is a huge riddle, or parable, whose subject is time."
In the Borgesian world, our imagination can experience what it might be like if any one of these theories of time was true.
Five Minutes of Vastness
Ironically, Borges gifts us an experience of the vastness of infinity, of the labyrinth of time, in stories that rarely take more than five minutes to read. For Borges, this is the true pleasure of the imagination: to derive infinite pleasure from something infinitesimal.
Still, this world is capable of being simultaneously vast, illusory and mischievous.
Borge jokingly warns that some won't be able to get their heads around his Library:
"Since not everybody is capable of experiencing [the pleasure of the imagination,] many will have to content themselves with simulacra."
Even if we can get into the Borgesian world, we might find, like one of the narrators, that our historical grip on reality is illusory:
"With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he realised that he, too, was but appearance, that another man was dreaming him."
If only we could be certain that we are the dreamer, not the dream!
But is this just the ego vainly trying to master an infinite universe of which it has no real comprehension and over which it has no real power?
For Borges, as well as us, the questions have vast and entertaining implications.
ADDED EXTRAS:
鈥淢erely a Man of Letters鈥� - An Interview with Jorge Luis Borges by Denis Dutton, Michael Palencia-Roth and Lawrence I. Berkove
Podcast:
"Dutton: Why don鈥檛 you tell us about some of the philosophers who have influenced your work, in whom you鈥檝e been the most interested?"
...
"Borges: ...I have no personal system of philosophy. I never attempt to do that. I am merely a man of letters. In the same way, for example that 鈥� well, of course, I shouldn鈥檛 perhaps choose this as an example 鈥� in the same way that Dante used theology for the purpose of poetry, or Milton used theology for the purposes of his poetry, why shouldn鈥檛 I use philosophy, especially idealistic philosophy 鈥� philosophy to which I was attracted 鈥� for the purposes of writing a tale, of writing a story? I suppose that is allowable, no?
Dutton: You share one thing certainly with philosophers, and that is a fascination with perplexity, with paradox.
Borges: Oh yes, of course 鈥� well I suppose philosophy springs from our perplexity. If you鈥檝e read what I may be allowed to call 鈥渕y works鈥� 鈥� if you鈥檝e read my sketches, whatever they are 鈥� you鈥檇 find that there is a very obvious symbol of perplexity to be found all the time, and that is the maze. I find that a very obvious symbol of perplexity. A maze and amazement go together, no? A symbol of amazement would be the maze.
Dutton: But philosophers seem not content ever to merely be confronted with perplexity, they want answers, systems.
Borges: Well, they鈥檙e right.
Dutton: They鈥檙e right?
Borges: Well, perhaps no systems are attainable, but the search for a system is very interesting.
Palencia-Roth: Would you call your work a search for a system?
Borges: No, I wouldn鈥檛 be as ambitious as all that. I would call it, well, not science fiction, but rather the fiction of philosophy, or the fiction of dreams. And also, I鈥檓 greatly interested in solipsism, which is only an extreme form of idealism. It is strange, though, that all the people who write on solipsism write about it in order to refute it. I haven鈥檛 seen a single book in favor of solipsism. I know what you would want to say: since there is only one dreamer, why do you write a book? But if there is only one dreamer, why could you not dream about writing a book?"
SOUNDTRACK:
Valeria Munarriz - "Alguien le dice al Tango (Jorge Luis Borges/Astor Piazzola )"
Susana "La Tana" Rinaldi - "El Tango" (Borges)
Astor Piazzolla - "El hombre de la esquina rosada" (Borges)
A. Perini (Ensemble Resonanz, Beat Furrer) - "Exploraci贸n de la biblioteca de Babel"
Internal Fusion - "La biblioth猫que de Babel"
Krystenism - "The Library of Babel"
Catedra Salda帽a - "La biblioteca de Babel" (Proyectual II)
Causa Sui - "Garden of Forking Paths"
Causa Sui - "Garden of Forking Paths (Live at Roskilde 2012)"
Causa sui denotes something which is generated within itself. This concept was central to the works of Baruch Spinoza, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Ernest Becker, where it relates to the purpose that objects can assign to themselves. In Freud and Becker's case, the concept was often used as an immortality vessel, where something could create meaning or continue to create meaning beyond its own life.
August 27, 2017
Written in 1941, The Garden of Forking Paths is a fascinating short story set during the first world war. The story introduces a Chinese spy living in England and working for Germany during the war, 1916. His cover has just been blown and he is on the run with sensitive information.
He travels to meet one person who might be able to deliver this information to Germany.
And at this point, everything changes... to a hard science fiction thesis! (Think: Multiverse)
I enjoyed this story immensely, mainly because I had no idea what was going on and when I finally pieced together the story, I was quite blown away. Also, Jorge's writing style reminded me of recent works of Ted Chiang, a personal favorite.
Recommended.
------------------------------
By the way, do you want to know how I found this short story?
It all started with the movie Coherence (2013)
For those who haven't seen the movie, it's about a group of friends who experience the break down of reality barriers as they get together for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.
After I finished watching this rather trippy story, I came to Wikipedia to read about the movie and ended up on "See also" section which featured links to three quantum mechanics theories and ONE short story written in 1941.
That's how I found this story!
January 5, 2023
5鈽�
鈥淚n all fiction, when a man is faced with alternatives he chooses one at the expense of the others. In the almost unfathomable Ts'ui Pen, he chooses - simultaneously - all of them. He thus creates various futures, various times which start others that will in their turn branch out and bifurcate in other times.鈥�
What a confusing but intriguing story. It鈥檚 the story of a spy in WW2 who wants to send a warning of enemy plans, and seems to choose an unusual way to do it.
Meanwhile, we follow him and his discussion of good and evil and men and time and the future and the past. There seem to be layers, sliding over or under or alongside each other, so I was never entirely certain what the 鈥榯ruth鈥� was. I think certain things were intended to be 鈥榯rue鈥�.
鈥淚 thought that a man might be an enemy of other men, of the differing moments of other men, but never an enemy of a country: not of fireflies, words, gardens, streams, or the West wind. Meditating thus I arrived at a high, rusty iron gate.鈥�
I left the last sentence there to show that he is thinking as he is walking. In fact, he is on his way to a strange place in the country. He has no idea what to expect.
鈥淏ut from the end of the avenue, from the main house, a lantern approached; a lantern which alternately, from moment to moment, was crisscrossed or put out by the trunks of the trees; a paper lantern shaped like a drum and colored like the moon.鈥�
There is discussion about an ancient relative of his, of labyrinths, of puzzles, and of how one should approach making choices. It is reminiscent of choose-your-own-adventure stories and also of a favourite of mine, 's . In her book, the story is told and retold several times. This doesn't work quite that way.
Interestingly, the website from which I downloaded my edition is a gaming website.
If you go to the home page, you鈥檒l see what I mean. (I know, it鈥檚 not a 鈥榮ecure鈥� website, but I risked it.)
I can see why it might have been selected by them 鈥� it seems perfect for gamers or anyone who enjoys puzzling things out. I can鈥檛 say I have figured it out, but I liked the conclusion I came to.
Another good story from the 欧宝娱乐 Short Story Club Group. If you join, you鈥檒l find links to all the stories being discussed.
[Incidentally, my review of Life After Life ]
鈥淚n all fiction, when a man is faced with alternatives he chooses one at the expense of the others. In the almost unfathomable Ts'ui Pen, he chooses - simultaneously - all of them. He thus creates various futures, various times which start others that will in their turn branch out and bifurcate in other times.鈥�
What a confusing but intriguing story. It鈥檚 the story of a spy in WW2 who wants to send a warning of enemy plans, and seems to choose an unusual way to do it.
Meanwhile, we follow him and his discussion of good and evil and men and time and the future and the past. There seem to be layers, sliding over or under or alongside each other, so I was never entirely certain what the 鈥榯ruth鈥� was. I think certain things were intended to be 鈥榯rue鈥�.
鈥淚 thought that a man might be an enemy of other men, of the differing moments of other men, but never an enemy of a country: not of fireflies, words, gardens, streams, or the West wind. Meditating thus I arrived at a high, rusty iron gate.鈥�
I left the last sentence there to show that he is thinking as he is walking. In fact, he is on his way to a strange place in the country. He has no idea what to expect.
鈥淏ut from the end of the avenue, from the main house, a lantern approached; a lantern which alternately, from moment to moment, was crisscrossed or put out by the trunks of the trees; a paper lantern shaped like a drum and colored like the moon.鈥�
There is discussion about an ancient relative of his, of labyrinths, of puzzles, and of how one should approach making choices. It is reminiscent of choose-your-own-adventure stories and also of a favourite of mine, 's . In her book, the story is told and retold several times. This doesn't work quite that way.
Interestingly, the website from which I downloaded my edition is a gaming website.
If you go to the home page, you鈥檒l see what I mean. (I know, it鈥檚 not a 鈥榮ecure鈥� website, but I risked it.)
I can see why it might have been selected by them 鈥� it seems perfect for gamers or anyone who enjoys puzzling things out. I can鈥檛 say I have figured it out, but I liked the conclusion I came to.
Another good story from the 欧宝娱乐 Short Story Club Group. If you join, you鈥檒l find links to all the stories being discussed.
[Incidentally, my review of Life After Life ]
August 16, 2024
Jorge Luis Borges' "The Garden of Forking Paths," written in the 1940s, anticipates many ideas now central to modern multiverse theories, as seen in contemporary works like Blake Crouch's "Dark Matter." Borges' story, published decades before the term "multiverse" gained prominence in science fiction and theoretical physics, explores the idea of multiple, branching realities鈥攁 concept that has since become foundational to discussions of parallel universes and alternate realities.
While contemporary stories often delve into the scientific and ethical implications of parallel worlds, Borges' narrative stands out for its philosophical depth. He employs the concept of forking paths not merely as a plot device but as a profound meditation on the nature of time, choice, and existence itself.
While contemporary stories often delve into the scientific and ethical implications of parallel worlds, Borges' narrative stands out for its philosophical depth. He employs the concept of forking paths not merely as a plot device but as a profound meditation on the nature of time, choice, and existence itself.
January 31, 2023
It just happened that we were reading this story by Borges in the Short Story Group as I was watching my nephew play the video game 鈥淥dyssey鈥�, part of the Assassin鈥檚 Creed series. My nephew had chosen to play through the character Kassandra, instead of Alexios. At first I was interested to see whether this Kassandra had inherited from the classical Cassandra her gift and curse 鈥� capable of foretelling but not of being believed. But I soon realized that this characteristic was not incorporated in the game. What I noticed instead was that the action stops at some points and gives a choice to the player: shall she trust and follow the messenger or shall she not? Shall she go and rescue the prisoner first or attack the tower foremost? and so on. It made me wonder what the 鈥榙ecision tree鈥� was like. How many nodes were there, and what was the number of possible combinations with the resulting number of narratives. Numberless? I also thought that once a given path was chosen, it was unavoidable that one would think of going back to explore alternatives 鈥� the 鈥榳hat if?鈥�
It seems that Borges must have thought of a similar scheme when he wrote this story. The accidents of time in a narrative; the simultaneity of choices; the circular nature of memory; the constriction of fixed chronologies; the master key to solving labyrinths; the fabrication of fiction. The accumulation of data and of knowledge鈥�. All this makes for a very mysterious garden.
August 24, 2018
Side note: today (August 24) is Borges' aniversary and here is a great article on his vision of Time:
----
I learned about this story in Paul Halpern鈥檚 book . The author mentioned it when explaining Feynman鈥檚 theory 鈥榮um over histories鈥� about the multiple paths taken by particles interaction at quantum level.
I don鈥檛 think science was in Borges mind when written this short SF story, but it has a deeply philosophical side as well. One can find lots of meanings reading it. Brilliant.
Can be found here:
----
I learned about this story in Paul Halpern鈥檚 book . The author mentioned it when explaining Feynman鈥檚 theory 鈥榮um over histories鈥� about the multiple paths taken by particles interaction at quantum level.
I don鈥檛 think science was in Borges mind when written this short SF story, but it has a deeply philosophical side as well. One can find lots of meanings reading it. Brilliant.
Can be found here:
January 2, 2023
"The Garden of Forking Paths" is an imaginative work with many layers. In an opening frame, an unnamed narrator refers to a confessional statement made by Dr Yu Tsun, a spy for the Germans during World War I. Dr Yu needs to deliver a secret message to the Germans about a British artillery site, but his supervisor is either captured or dead. He devises an unusual way of communicating his important message.
He travels to the home of Dr Stephen Albert, a Sinologist who has been studying the labyrinthine book, "The Garden of Forking Paths." This "story within the main story" is a philosophical book about time as a labyrinth. It's not until the end of the work that we find out the connection between the visit to Dr Albert and Dr Yu's work in espionage.
Borges seems to enjoy playing around with his readers' minds. It's difficult to tell if this is mainly a philosophical work or mainly an espionage story, and it really doesn't matter since it's such an interesting piece of writing.
"He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent, and parallel times. This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. We do not exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist, and not I; in others I, and not you; in others, both of us."
He travels to the home of Dr Stephen Albert, a Sinologist who has been studying the labyrinthine book, "The Garden of Forking Paths." This "story within the main story" is a philosophical book about time as a labyrinth. It's not until the end of the work that we find out the connection between the visit to Dr Albert and Dr Yu's work in espionage.
Borges seems to enjoy playing around with his readers' minds. It's difficult to tell if this is mainly a philosophical work or mainly an espionage story, and it really doesn't matter since it's such an interesting piece of writing.
"He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent, and parallel times. This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. We do not exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist, and not I; in others I, and not you; in others, both of us."
January 5, 2023
I kept asking myself how a book could be infinite. I could not imagine any other than a cyclic volume, circular. A volume whose last page would be the same as the first and so have the possibility of continuing indefinitely.
It was exciting to join a group here devoted to short stories. And perhaps timely as well. January is the time we press ourselves to expand and possibly grow in some vaguely constructive manner. This story while very familiar (and often opaque) almost serves as an anathema to our hopeful custom. Borges understood the interstices even if peevishly he only offers a sidelong view before slamming the door. I appreciate the pursuit, the cubist rationalization and the nearly whispered consideration of the protean, the potentially parallel. Hopefull I can find a time sequence today where I can situate this in relation to and perhaps the Jon in that sequence will be inspired to leave an account of the reconciliation?
It was exciting to join a group here devoted to short stories. And perhaps timely as well. January is the time we press ourselves to expand and possibly grow in some vaguely constructive manner. This story while very familiar (and often opaque) almost serves as an anathema to our hopeful custom. Borges understood the interstices even if peevishly he only offers a sidelong view before slamming the door. I appreciate the pursuit, the cubist rationalization and the nearly whispered consideration of the protean, the potentially parallel. Hopefull I can find a time sequence today where I can situate this in relation to and perhaps the Jon in that sequence will be inspired to leave an account of the reconciliation?
Read
January 15, 2025All these wonderful, little stories about imaginary worlds, exploring enormous philosophical concepts - the universe, reality, time, destiny, chance, free will and the endless number of scenarios, - are meant to be read and re-read because every little detail and every word written by Borges, a magician, has a deep meaning.
I especially liked the metaphor of the infinite library containing every possible book/knowledge depicting the universe in 'The Library of Babel'. Borges is very convincing creating the image of the overwhelming vastness which implies on the futility of searching for answers.
'For every rational line or forthright statement there are leagues of senseless cacophony, verbal nonsense, and incoherency.'
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'The certitude that some shelf in some hexagon held precious books and that these precious books were inaccessible seemed almost intolerable.'
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'The Library is unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, he would find after centuries that the same volumes are repeated in the same disorder.'
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'The Library will endure; illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.'
I especially liked the metaphor of the infinite library containing every possible book/knowledge depicting the universe in 'The Library of Babel'. Borges is very convincing creating the image of the overwhelming vastness which implies on the futility of searching for answers.
'For every rational line or forthright statement there are leagues of senseless cacophony, verbal nonsense, and incoherency.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
'The certitude that some shelf in some hexagon held precious books and that these precious books were inaccessible seemed almost intolerable.'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
'The Library is unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, he would find after centuries that the same volumes are repeated in the same disorder.'
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
'The Library will endure; illuminated, solitary, infinite, perfectly motionless, equipped with precious volumes, useless, incorruptible, secret.'
Read
January 2, 202310/10
Where is Stephen Hawking when you need him? Given the complexity of it all, which I can't begin to explain, I'm sure he's here somewhere, perhaps looking over my shoulder.
Where is Stephen Hawking when you need him? Given the complexity of it all, which I can't begin to explain, I'm sure he's here somewhere, perhaps looking over my shoulder.
December 8, 2018
Ingenious! it's a riddle, a parable, and a philosophical story all rolled into one, that requires to be read more than once. Beautifully written by Borges who really sucks you into his world, and, like always, there is a deeper meaning to things than one first thinks, and themes of time and the infinite are ever present. Dazzling stuff!
January 6, 2023
Cool story. Fun to read.
March 10, 2019
Borges鈥� stories are so dense 鈥� it took me several hours to read this tiny volume (54 pages); I鈥檇 usually read a novella twice the length in half the time. This collection is a perfect introduction to the work of a writer who can seem 锟糹ntimidating to the uninitiated. It has given me the confidence to read more Borges, and that seems to me exactly what these small Penguin Modern collections should do.
I鈥檝e said this before, but there鈥檚 a special thrill to reading a famous writer鈥檚 work and immediately understanding how they've informed the work of other authors I love 鈥� that feeling of a missing puzzle piece clicking into place. From this small selection of stories, I can already see clear influences on some of my favourite books by Nina Allan and Joshua Cohen.
I鈥檝e tried to read 'The Garden of Forking Paths' (1941) in the past and found it impenetrable (ironic, I know). This time I persisted, and although it took me a while (relatively speaking) to have any idea what was going on, by the end I saw its beauty and genius.
'The Book of Sand' (1975) was my favourite, and also the most accessible. (I wonder if that has anything to do with when it was translated 鈥� presumably much later than the others given its comparably late original publication date? It's not clear from the information at the beginning of the book.) A fascinating concept and a perfect ending.
'The Circular Ruins' (1941) is a cosmic, dreamlike fantasy, evoking its settings (the jungle and the world of one's mind) with a claustrophobic accuracy.
'On Exactitude in Science' (1946) is a paragraph only, framed as an extract; I would have taken it for an epigraph if not for the table of contents. A perfect example of a passage you have to read a few times to fully grasp its imagery.
'Death and the Compass' (1942) is a labyrinthine murder mystery. Not the sort of plot I expected to find here, and all the more pleasing for that.
| | |
I鈥檝e said this before, but there鈥檚 a special thrill to reading a famous writer鈥檚 work and immediately understanding how they've informed the work of other authors I love 鈥� that feeling of a missing puzzle piece clicking into place. From this small selection of stories, I can already see clear influences on some of my favourite books by Nina Allan and Joshua Cohen.
I鈥檝e tried to read 'The Garden of Forking Paths' (1941) in the past and found it impenetrable (ironic, I know). This time I persisted, and although it took me a while (relatively speaking) to have any idea what was going on, by the end I saw its beauty and genius.
'The Book of Sand' (1975) was my favourite, and also the most accessible. (I wonder if that has anything to do with when it was translated 鈥� presumably much later than the others given its comparably late original publication date? It's not clear from the information at the beginning of the book.) A fascinating concept and a perfect ending.
'The Circular Ruins' (1941) is a cosmic, dreamlike fantasy, evoking its settings (the jungle and the world of one's mind) with a claustrophobic accuracy.
'On Exactitude in Science' (1946) is a paragraph only, framed as an extract; I would have taken it for an epigraph if not for the table of contents. A perfect example of a passage you have to read a few times to fully grasp its imagery.
'Death and the Compass' (1942) is a labyrinthine murder mystery. Not the sort of plot I expected to find here, and all the more pleasing for that.
| | |
November 23, 2019
丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴丿蹖賴 蹖 乇賵夭 鬲賵賱丿賲 亘賵丿.卮乇賵毓卮 趩賳丿丕賳 亘丕 賲蹖賱 卮禺氐蹖賲 賳亘賵丿 趩賵賳 賮讴乇 賲蹖讴乇丿賲 禺賵賳丿賳 丿賵 賲噩賲賵毓賴 蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕夭 亘賵乇禺爻 讴丕賮蹖賴 賵賱蹖 亘蹖 丕賳丿丕夭賴 禺賵卮丨丕賱賲 讴賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 乇丕 禺賵賳丿賲 賵 丕賱丕賳 亘賴 賴賲賴 賲蹖诏賲 讴賴 丕夭 亘賵乇禺爻 賴乇 趩賴 賯丿乇 賴賲 亘禺賵賳蹖賲 讴賲賴.
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕蹖 亘賵乇禺爻 卮乇賵毓 噩匕丕亘蹖 丿丕乇賳丿.卮乇賵毓蹖 乇賲丕賳 诏賵賳賴 讴賴 賲賳 賴賲蹖卮賴 賵賯鬲蹖 卮乇賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕卮 乇賵 賲蹖禺賵賳賲 丨爻 賲蹖讴賳賲 讴賴 亘賵乇禺爻 丕诏乇 乇賲丕賳 賲蹖賳賵卮鬲 趩賴 卮丕賴讴丕乇蹖 賲蹖卮丿 賵賱蹖 禺賵丿 亘賵乇禺爻 丕夭 賳賵卮鬲賳 乇賲丕賳 亘蹖夭丕乇 亘賵丿賴 賴賲蹖卮賴.
丕丿丕賲賴 蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕 鬲賵丕賲 賲蹖卮賳 亘丕 丕鬲賮丕賯丕鬲蹖 丕爻乇丕乇 丌賲蹖夭 賵 诏丕賴丕 毓乇賮丕賳蹖 讴賴 丕蹖賳 賯丿乇 亘丿蹖賴蹖 亘蹖丕賳 賲蹖卮賳 讴賴 噩丕蹖 卮讴 賵 鬲乇丿蹖丿 亘丕賯蹖 賳賲蹖賲賵賳賴 賵 賳丕禺賵丿丕诏丕賴 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 亘丕賵乇 賲蹖讴賳賴 讴賴 趩賳蹖賳 丿賳蹖丕蹖 丕爻乇丕乇 丌賲蹖夭蹖 賴賲 賵噩賵丿 丿丕乇賴 賵 倬丕蹖丕賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕卮 讴賴 賴賲蹖卮賴 蹖讴 丨爻 鬲毓噩亘 毓賲蹖賯 鬲賵丕賲 亘丕 丌乇丕賲卮蹖 亘蹖 爻丕亘賯賴 賵 賲鬲賳丕賯囟 亘賴 賴賲乇丕賴 丿丕乇賴.亘賵乇禺爻 丕爻鬲丕丿 讴賱賲賴 丕爻鬲.丕爻鬲丕丿 丕爻鬲毓丕乇賴.賵 亘丕 丕胤賲蹖賳丕賳 讴丕賲賱 賲蹖诏賲 讴賴 丕夭 賳馗乇賲 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴賵鬲丕賴賴 賵 亘蹖賳 賴賲賴 蹖 賲噩賲賵毓賴 蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴蹖 讴賴 禺賵賳丿賲 賳賵卮鬲賴 賴丕蹖 亘賵乇禺爻 丿賳蹖丕蹖 丿蹖诏賴 丕蹖賴 賵 鬲賲丕賲 丕賳鬲馗丕乇丕鬲 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 乇賵 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴賵鬲丕賴 亘乇丌賵乇丿賴 賲蹖讴賳賴.
亘賵乇禺爻 诏丕賴丕 賳爻亘鬲 亘賴 趩蹖夭賴丕蹖蹖 讴賴 卮賳蹖丿賴 蹖丕 丿蹖丿賴 賵 趩賴 亘爻丕 丕爻乇丕乇 鬲丕乇蹖禺蹖 丕蹖 讴賴 讴卮賮 賲蹖讴賳賴 丕丨爻丕爻 賲爻卅賵賱蹖鬲 賲蹖讴賳賴 賵 丕賵賳賴丕 乇賵 賲蹖賳賵蹖爻賴 讴賴 賲賲讴賳賴 诏丕賴蹖 賵丕爻賴 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 丕胤賱丕毓丕鬲 噩丕賱亘蹖 賳亘丕卮賳.
丕诏乇 讴鬲丕亘禺丕賳賴 蹖 亘丕亘賱 乇賵 禺賵賳丿蹖丿 亘賴鬲賵賳 亘賴 卮丿鬲 鬲賵氐蹖賴 賲蹖讴賳賲 讴賴 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴 乇賵 賴賲 亘禺賵賳蹖丿.丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕卮 賵丕賯毓丕 夭蹖亘丕鬲乇 丕夭 讴鬲丕亘禺丕賳賴 蹖 亘丕亘賱 丕賳丿.
丕夭 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴 丕夭 賳馗乇 賲賳 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕卮 夭禺賲 卮賲卮蹖乇貙丕賱賮貙丕賳噩蹖賱 亘賴 乇賵丕蹖鬲 賲乇賯爻貙賲囟賲賵賳 禺丕卅賳 賵 賯賴乇賲丕賳貙亘丕睾 诏匕乇诏丕賴賴丕蹖 賴夭丕乇 倬蹖趩 賵 噩賳賵亘 賴爻鬲賳丿.
亘禺卮 丿賵賲 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 丕卮毓丕乇 亘賵乇禺爻賴 讴賴 禺賵賳丿卮賵賳 禺丕賱蹖 丕夭 賱胤賮 賳蹖爻鬲.
賵 亘禺卮 爻賵賲 丕鬲賵亘蹖賵诏乇丕賮蹖 亘賵乇禺爻賴 讴賴 賵丕賯毓丕 禺賵賳丿賳卮 賲賳 乇賵 丿乇 亘賴鬲 賮乇賵 亘乇丿 賵 賵丕賯毓丕 亘丕賵乇卮 亘乇丕賲 爻禺鬲賴 讴賴 卮禺氐蹖 亘鬲賵賳賴 丕蹖賳 賴賲賴 亘蹖 丨丿 賵 賲乇夭 亘丿賵賳賴 賵 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賮賵賯 賵丕賱丕蹖蹖 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮賴.亘毓囟蹖 噩丕賴丕 丨爻 賲蹖讴乇丿賲 亘賵乇禺爻 蹖讴 丕亘乇 丕賳爻丕賳賴...
丕夭 乇賵夭賴丕蹖蹖 賲蹖诏賴 讴賴 鬲賵 讴鬲丕亘禺賵賳賴 丕蹖 讴丕乇 賲蹖讴乇丿賴 賵 讴丕乇賲賳丿丕蹖 丕賵賳 讴鬲丕亘禺賵賳賴 賵賯鬲蹖 丿丕卅乇賴 丕賱賲毓丕乇賮蹖 乇賵 賲蹖亘蹖賳賳 讴賴 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 丕卮 亘賵乇禺爻 亘賵丿賴 亘賴卮 賲蹖诏賳 讴賴 毓噩蹖亘賴 讴賴 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 蹖 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴賲 賳丕賲 鬲賵卅賴.亘毓丿 丕夭 亘蹖讴丕乇 卮丿賳 亘賴卮 倬蹖卮賳賴丕丿 賲蹖卮賴 讴賴 鬲賵蹖 讴丕賱噩 丌夭丕丿 賲胤丕賱毓丕鬲 毓丕賱蹖 丿乇亘丕乇賴 蹖 賲賵囟賵毓丕鬲 賲禺鬲賱賮 丕丿亘蹖 爻禺賳乇丕賳蹖 讴賳賴.
亘毓丿 丕夭 丕賵賳 賴賲 讴乇爻蹖 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 亘賴卮 倬蹖卮賳賴丕丿 賲蹖卮賴 賵 丕爻鬲丕丿蹖 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 乇賵 亘賴 賲毓賳丕蹖 賵丕賯毓蹖 讴賱賲賴 丕丿丕 賲蹖讴賳賴.
丿乇 賲蹖丕賳爻丕賱蹖 賳丕亘蹖賳丕 賲蹖卮賴 賵 鬲賵 夭賳丿诏蹖賳丕賲賴 丕卮 賳賵卮鬲賴 讴賴 :丿乇 卮毓乇賲 丕夭 胤毓賳 亘丕 卮讴賵賴 禺丿丕賵賳丿 爻禺賳 賲蹖诏賵蹖賲 讴賴 賴卮鬲 氐丿 賴夭丕乇 噩賱丿 讴鬲丕亘 賵 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖 乇丕 賴賲夭賲丕賳 亘賴 賲賳 毓胤丕 賲蹖讴賳丿.
噩賲賱丕鬲 倬丕蹖丕賳蹖 夭賳丿诏蹖賳丕賲賴 禺蹖賱蹖 夭蹖亘丕 亘賵丿賳 賵 丕蹖賳噩丕 賲蹖賳賵蹖爻賲卮賵賳:
賲蹖鬲賵丕賳賲 亘诏賵蹖賲 讴賴 卮賵乇 噩賵丕賳蹖 丕讴賳賵賳 丕夭 賵賯鬲蹖 讴賴 賲乇丿 噩賵丕賳蹖 亘賵丿賴 丕賲 亘賴 賲賳 賳夭丿蹖讴鬲乇 丕爻鬲.丿蹖诏乇 卮丕丿蹖 乇丕 趩蹖夭蹖 丿爻鬲 賳蹖丕賮鬲賳蹖 賳賲蹖丿丕賳賲.夭賲丕賳蹖 禺蹖賱蹖 倬蹖卮鬲乇賴丕 丌賳 乇丕 趩賳蹖賳 賲蹖倬賳丿丕卮鬲賲.丕讴賳賵賳 賲蹖丿丕賳賲 讴賴 卮丕丿蹖 賲蹖鬲賵丕賳丿 賴乇 賱丨馗賴 乇禺 丿賴丿 丕賲丕 賴乇诏夭 賳亘丕蹖丿 亘賴 丿賳亘丕賱 丌賳 乇賮鬲.卮讴爻鬲 蹖丕 卮賴乇鬲 趩蹖夭賴丕蹖蹖 讴丕賲賱丕 賳丕賲乇亘賵胤 丕賳丿 賵 賴乇诏夭 禺賵丿賲 乇丕 賳诏乇丕賳 丌賳賴丕 賳賲蹖讴賳賲.丌賳趩賴 丕賲乇賵夭賴 賲蹖噩賵蹖賲 丌乇丕賲卮 丕爻鬲.賱匕鬲 丕賳丿蹖卮蹖丿賳 賵 賱匕鬲 丿賵爻鬲蹖 賵 賴乇趩賳丿 丕蹖賳 卮丕蹖丿 禺蹖賱蹖 亘賱賳丿 倬乇賵丕夭丕賳賴 亘丕卮丿貨丕丨爻丕爻 丿賵爻鬲 丿丕卮鬲賳 賵 丿賵爻鬲 丿丕卮鬲賴 卮丿賳.
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕蹖 亘賵乇禺爻 卮乇賵毓 噩匕丕亘蹖 丿丕乇賳丿.卮乇賵毓蹖 乇賲丕賳 诏賵賳賴 讴賴 賲賳 賴賲蹖卮賴 賵賯鬲蹖 卮乇賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕卮 乇賵 賲蹖禺賵賳賲 丨爻 賲蹖讴賳賲 讴賴 亘賵乇禺爻 丕诏乇 乇賲丕賳 賲蹖賳賵卮鬲 趩賴 卮丕賴讴丕乇蹖 賲蹖卮丿 賵賱蹖 禺賵丿 亘賵乇禺爻 丕夭 賳賵卮鬲賳 乇賲丕賳 亘蹖夭丕乇 亘賵丿賴 賴賲蹖卮賴.
丕丿丕賲賴 蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕 鬲賵丕賲 賲蹖卮賳 亘丕 丕鬲賮丕賯丕鬲蹖 丕爻乇丕乇 丌賲蹖夭 賵 诏丕賴丕 毓乇賮丕賳蹖 讴賴 丕蹖賳 賯丿乇 亘丿蹖賴蹖 亘蹖丕賳 賲蹖卮賳 讴賴 噩丕蹖 卮讴 賵 鬲乇丿蹖丿 亘丕賯蹖 賳賲蹖賲賵賳賴 賵 賳丕禺賵丿丕诏丕賴 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 亘丕賵乇 賲蹖讴賳賴 讴賴 趩賳蹖賳 丿賳蹖丕蹖 丕爻乇丕乇 丌賲蹖夭蹖 賴賲 賵噩賵丿 丿丕乇賴 賵 倬丕蹖丕賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕卮 讴賴 賴賲蹖卮賴 蹖讴 丨爻 鬲毓噩亘 毓賲蹖賯 鬲賵丕賲 亘丕 丌乇丕賲卮蹖 亘蹖 爻丕亘賯賴 賵 賲鬲賳丕賯囟 亘賴 賴賲乇丕賴 丿丕乇賴.亘賵乇禺爻 丕爻鬲丕丿 讴賱賲賴 丕爻鬲.丕爻鬲丕丿 丕爻鬲毓丕乇賴.賵 亘丕 丕胤賲蹖賳丕賳 讴丕賲賱 賲蹖诏賲 讴賴 丕夭 賳馗乇賲 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴賵鬲丕賴賴 賵 亘蹖賳 賴賲賴 蹖 賲噩賲賵毓賴 蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕蹖 讴賵鬲丕賴蹖 讴賴 禺賵賳丿賲 賳賵卮鬲賴 賴丕蹖 亘賵乇禺爻 丿賳蹖丕蹖 丿蹖诏賴 丕蹖賴 賵 鬲賲丕賲 丕賳鬲馗丕乇丕鬲 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 乇賵 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 讴賵鬲丕賴 亘乇丌賵乇丿賴 賲蹖讴賳賴.
亘賵乇禺爻 诏丕賴丕 賳爻亘鬲 亘賴 趩蹖夭賴丕蹖蹖 讴賴 卮賳蹖丿賴 蹖丕 丿蹖丿賴 賵 趩賴 亘爻丕 丕爻乇丕乇 鬲丕乇蹖禺蹖 丕蹖 讴賴 讴卮賮 賲蹖讴賳賴 丕丨爻丕爻 賲爻卅賵賱蹖鬲 賲蹖讴賳賴 賵 丕賵賳賴丕 乇賵 賲蹖賳賵蹖爻賴 讴賴 賲賲讴賳賴 诏丕賴蹖 賵丕爻賴 禺賵丕賳賳丿賴 丕胤賱丕毓丕鬲 噩丕賱亘蹖 賳亘丕卮賳.
丕诏乇 讴鬲丕亘禺丕賳賴 蹖 亘丕亘賱 乇賵 禺賵賳丿蹖丿 亘賴鬲賵賳 亘賴 卮丿鬲 鬲賵氐蹖賴 賲蹖讴賳賲 讴賴 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴 乇賵 賴賲 亘禺賵賳蹖丿.丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕卮 賵丕賯毓丕 夭蹖亘丕鬲乇 丕夭 讴鬲丕亘禺丕賳賴 蹖 亘丕亘賱 丕賳丿.
丕夭 丕蹖賳 賲噩賲賵毓賴 丕夭 賳馗乇 賲賳 亘賴鬲乇蹖賳 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕卮 夭禺賲 卮賲卮蹖乇貙丕賱賮貙丕賳噩蹖賱 亘賴 乇賵丕蹖鬲 賲乇賯爻貙賲囟賲賵賳 禺丕卅賳 賵 賯賴乇賲丕賳貙亘丕睾 诏匕乇诏丕賴賴丕蹖 賴夭丕乇 倬蹖趩 賵 噩賳賵亘 賴爻鬲賳丿.
亘禺卮 丿賵賲 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 丕卮毓丕乇 亘賵乇禺爻賴 讴賴 禺賵賳丿卮賵賳 禺丕賱蹖 丕夭 賱胤賮 賳蹖爻鬲.
賵 亘禺卮 爻賵賲 丕鬲賵亘蹖賵诏乇丕賮蹖 亘賵乇禺爻賴 讴賴 賵丕賯毓丕 禺賵賳丿賳卮 賲賳 乇賵 丿乇 亘賴鬲 賮乇賵 亘乇丿 賵 賵丕賯毓丕 亘丕賵乇卮 亘乇丕賲 爻禺鬲賴 讴賴 卮禺氐蹖 亘鬲賵賳賴 丕蹖賳 賴賲賴 亘蹖 丨丿 賵 賲乇夭 亘丿賵賳賴 賵 卮禺氐蹖鬲 賮賵賯 賵丕賱丕蹖蹖 丿丕卮鬲賴 亘丕卮賴.亘毓囟蹖 噩丕賴丕 丨爻 賲蹖讴乇丿賲 亘賵乇禺爻 蹖讴 丕亘乇 丕賳爻丕賳賴...
丕夭 乇賵夭賴丕蹖蹖 賲蹖诏賴 讴賴 鬲賵 讴鬲丕亘禺賵賳賴 丕蹖 讴丕乇 賲蹖讴乇丿賴 賵 讴丕乇賲賳丿丕蹖 丕賵賳 讴鬲丕亘禺賵賳賴 賵賯鬲蹖 丿丕卅乇賴 丕賱賲毓丕乇賮蹖 乇賵 賲蹖亘蹖賳賳 讴賴 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 丕卮 亘賵乇禺爻 亘賵丿賴 亘賴卮 賲蹖诏賳 讴賴 毓噩蹖亘賴 讴賴 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 蹖 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴賲 賳丕賲 鬲賵卅賴.亘毓丿 丕夭 亘蹖讴丕乇 卮丿賳 亘賴卮 倬蹖卮賳賴丕丿 賲蹖卮賴 讴賴 鬲賵蹖 讴丕賱噩 丌夭丕丿 賲胤丕賱毓丕鬲 毓丕賱蹖 丿乇亘丕乇賴 蹖 賲賵囟賵毓丕鬲 賲禺鬲賱賮 丕丿亘蹖 爻禺賳乇丕賳蹖 讴賳賴.
亘毓丿 丕夭 丕賵賳 賴賲 讴乇爻蹖 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 亘賴卮 倬蹖卮賳賴丕丿 賲蹖卮賴 賵 丕爻鬲丕丿蹖 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 乇賵 亘賴 賲毓賳丕蹖 賵丕賯毓蹖 讴賱賲賴 丕丿丕 賲蹖讴賳賴.
丿乇 賲蹖丕賳爻丕賱蹖 賳丕亘蹖賳丕 賲蹖卮賴 賵 鬲賵 夭賳丿诏蹖賳丕賲賴 丕卮 賳賵卮鬲賴 讴賴 :丿乇 卮毓乇賲 丕夭 胤毓賳 亘丕 卮讴賵賴 禺丿丕賵賳丿 爻禺賳 賲蹖诏賵蹖賲 讴賴 賴卮鬲 氐丿 賴夭丕乇 噩賱丿 讴鬲丕亘 賵 鬲丕乇蹖讴蹖 乇丕 賴賲夭賲丕賳 亘賴 賲賳 毓胤丕 賲蹖讴賳丿.
噩賲賱丕鬲 倬丕蹖丕賳蹖 夭賳丿诏蹖賳丕賲賴 禺蹖賱蹖 夭蹖亘丕 亘賵丿賳 賵 丕蹖賳噩丕 賲蹖賳賵蹖爻賲卮賵賳:
賲蹖鬲賵丕賳賲 亘诏賵蹖賲 讴賴 卮賵乇 噩賵丕賳蹖 丕讴賳賵賳 丕夭 賵賯鬲蹖 讴賴 賲乇丿 噩賵丕賳蹖 亘賵丿賴 丕賲 亘賴 賲賳 賳夭丿蹖讴鬲乇 丕爻鬲.丿蹖诏乇 卮丕丿蹖 乇丕 趩蹖夭蹖 丿爻鬲 賳蹖丕賮鬲賳蹖 賳賲蹖丿丕賳賲.夭賲丕賳蹖 禺蹖賱蹖 倬蹖卮鬲乇賴丕 丌賳 乇丕 趩賳蹖賳 賲蹖倬賳丿丕卮鬲賲.丕讴賳賵賳 賲蹖丿丕賳賲 讴賴 卮丕丿蹖 賲蹖鬲賵丕賳丿 賴乇 賱丨馗賴 乇禺 丿賴丿 丕賲丕 賴乇诏夭 賳亘丕蹖丿 亘賴 丿賳亘丕賱 丌賳 乇賮鬲.卮讴爻鬲 蹖丕 卮賴乇鬲 趩蹖夭賴丕蹖蹖 讴丕賲賱丕 賳丕賲乇亘賵胤 丕賳丿 賵 賴乇诏夭 禺賵丿賲 乇丕 賳诏乇丕賳 丌賳賴丕 賳賲蹖讴賳賲.丌賳趩賴 丕賲乇賵夭賴 賲蹖噩賵蹖賲 丌乇丕賲卮 丕爻鬲.賱匕鬲 丕賳丿蹖卮蹖丿賳 賵 賱匕鬲 丿賵爻鬲蹖 賵 賴乇趩賳丿 丕蹖賳 卮丕蹖丿 禺蹖賱蹖 亘賱賳丿 倬乇賵丕夭丕賳賴 亘丕卮丿貨丕丨爻丕爻 丿賵爻鬲 丿丕卮鬲賳 賵 丿賵爻鬲 丿丕卮鬲賴 卮丿賳.
Shelved as 'unable-to-finish'
December 22, 2023My brain is currently unable to process Borges.
January 29, 2023
賯氐賴鈥屬囏й� 亘賵乇禺爻 亘賴 卮睾丕賱 賳蹖賲鈥屫簇� 诏卮賳诏蹖 賲蹖鈥屬囏�. 卮睾丕賱 賲賳賲. 鬲噩乇亘賴鈥屫й� 賱匕蹖匕 亘丕 倬乇爻賴 亘蹖賳 丿乇禺鬲鈥屬囏й� 賲購乇丿賴 賵 卮賳蹖丿賳 亘蹖鈥屬堎傎佡団€屰� 丌賵丕賴丕蹖 诏購賲卮丿賴贁 鬲丕乇蹖禺 丿乇 倬爻鈥屫操呟屬嗁団€屰� 賴乇 賯氐賴.
January 4, 2023
The story I read was translated by Donald Yates.
This brilliantly written classic is like none other I have yet read. It is somewhat of a riddle. The author seems to be offering us a philosophical explanation of 鈥渢ime鈥�, being truly what happens in the 鈥渘ow鈥� or present, with both the past and the future taking place in one鈥檚 mind, with the result that they are all at the same time, convergent, divergent, and parallel. It is a fascinating and entirely believable hypothesis. However in providing this explanation the story reads like a mystery where the narrator is a Chinese man who is a German spy during WW1, who needs to relay a message to the Germans.
Time being like a labyrinth with 鈥渇orking paths鈥� depending on when (past, present or future), and what choice is made at each moment. Much like a spy skulking through a city, making choices and turns so as not to be followed. Despite the atmosphere of war, soldiers, death, the story is light and at times humorous. Clues are proposed and yet nothing is clear until the very end, the punchline, like a riddle. You can almost hear the author laughing as he discloses the final scene, having enjoyed the build up leading the reader through the labyrinth on a bit of a goose chase.
Brilliantly imaginative! Did the author provide an expos茅 on the philosophy of time, illustrated by a spy mystery, or was it a spy story, solved by the particular timing of events. Well done!
This brilliantly written classic is like none other I have yet read. It is somewhat of a riddle. The author seems to be offering us a philosophical explanation of 鈥渢ime鈥�, being truly what happens in the 鈥渘ow鈥� or present, with both the past and the future taking place in one鈥檚 mind, with the result that they are all at the same time, convergent, divergent, and parallel. It is a fascinating and entirely believable hypothesis. However in providing this explanation the story reads like a mystery where the narrator is a Chinese man who is a German spy during WW1, who needs to relay a message to the Germans.
Time being like a labyrinth with 鈥渇orking paths鈥� depending on when (past, present or future), and what choice is made at each moment. Much like a spy skulking through a city, making choices and turns so as not to be followed. Despite the atmosphere of war, soldiers, death, the story is light and at times humorous. Clues are proposed and yet nothing is clear until the very end, the punchline, like a riddle. You can almost hear the author laughing as he discloses the final scene, having enjoyed the build up leading the reader through the labyrinth on a bit of a goose chase.
Brilliantly imaginative! Did the author provide an expos茅 on the philosophy of time, illustrated by a spy mystery, or was it a spy story, solved by the particular timing of events. Well done!
May 31, 2020
85th book of 2020.
These were all brilliant- philosophical, labyrinthine stories. I've had some sentences, some fragments from each of the stories prevail upon me, so I will blur the lines between the 5 stories within this, leaving no distinction from which each comes - so my review, in itself, becomes another labyrinth. As ever, Borges' actual words (or anyone else who is not me) will be italicised.
It seems recently that more and more, this wonderful line of Frost's is becoming more applicable:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
The garden's metaphor for "time" itself - This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke offor were unaware of one another centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. And we may lay in temples and hallucinate, we may imagine our selves, not 'ourselves' but many of our 'self', in different bodies, walking different roads, for we are sorry we cannot travel both. To see where the winding path leads, from that forking path. Soon enough we realise that the forking paths are infinite, there are infinite possibilities, a book with no beginning or end, a book you could thumb through forever and make no progress. One can make no progress through time except forward. Even when life makes little sense, and murders begin to happen, and if one kills the right man, then maybe the correct city will be bombed, maybe a book can be buried (but not forgotten) and maybe in the end - you realise you never existed anyway. Maybe you'll realise this with relief, with humiliation, with terror...
These were all brilliant- philosophical, labyrinthine stories. I've had some sentences, some fragments from each of the stories prevail upon me, so I will blur the lines between the 5 stories within this, leaving no distinction from which each comes - so my review, in itself, becomes another labyrinth. As ever, Borges' actual words (or anyone else who is not me) will be italicised.
It seems recently that more and more, this wonderful line of Frost's is becoming more applicable:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
The garden's metaphor for "time" itself - This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke offor were unaware of one another centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. And we may lay in temples and hallucinate, we may imagine our selves, not 'ourselves' but many of our 'self', in different bodies, walking different roads, for we are sorry we cannot travel both. To see where the winding path leads, from that forking path. Soon enough we realise that the forking paths are infinite, there are infinite possibilities, a book with no beginning or end, a book you could thumb through forever and make no progress. One can make no progress through time except forward. Even when life makes little sense, and murders begin to happen, and if one kills the right man, then maybe the correct city will be bombed, maybe a book can be buried (but not forgotten) and maybe in the end - you realise you never existed anyway. Maybe you'll realise this with relief, with humiliation, with terror...
June 13, 2016
Review to come sometime in the near future when I finally get enough time to myself to write reviews for everything I've read recently. I got very strong vibes from the concept, which is always a good thing, and it also put me in mind of the superb Doctor Who episode called - both of these, of course, came into being long after this short story was published, which makes it all the more impressive for still being so intriguing despite all the spins various media have done on its base premise.
I toyed with writing my review for El jard铆n de senderos que se bifurcan in Spanish, but I'm just not confident/familiar enough with all the intricacies of the language to do it.
Alg煤n d铆a, mis amigos.
Alg煤n d铆a.
(Read it .)
I toyed with writing my review for El jard铆n de senderos que se bifurcan in Spanish, but I'm just not confident/familiar enough with all the intricacies of the language to do it.
Alg煤n d铆a, mis amigos.
Alg煤n d铆a.
(Read it .)
January 24, 2020
亘賴 賳馗乇賲 亘賵乇禺爻 禺賵賳丿賳 丕夭 倬乇賵爻鬲 禺賵賳丿賳 賴賲 爻禺鬲 鬲乇賴貙 丨丿丕賯賱 亘乇丕蹖 賲賳 丕蹖賳胤賵乇賴.
丕夭 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賳爻亘鬲 亘賴 讴鬲丕亘禺丕賳賴 亘丕亘賱 亘蹖卮鬲乇 賱匕鬲 亘乇丿賲 賵 丕賳诏丕乇 鬲賵賳爻鬲賲 禺蹖賱蹖 亘蹖卮鬲乇 丕夭 賯亘賱 亘丕 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕蹖 亘賵乇禺爻 丕乇鬲亘丕胤 亘乇賯乇丕乇 讴賳賲 賲禺氐賵氐丕 讴賴 亘賴 賳馗乇賲 鬲乇噩賲賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴賲 禺蹖賱蹖 亘賴鬲乇 亘賵丿. 賵 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 夭蹖丕丿蹖 亘賵丿 鬲賵 讴鬲丕亘 讴賴 賵丕賯毓丕 丕毓噩丕亘 丕賳诏蹖夭 亘賵丿 賵 亘乇 禺賱丕賮 鬲噩乇亘賴 賯亘賱蹖賲 賮囟丕 爻丕夭蹖 讴賴 亘賵乇禺爻 丕賳噩丕賲 賲蹖丿賴 乇賵 賵丕賯毓丕 鬲賵賳爻鬲賲 丿乇讴 賵 鬲氐賵乇 讴賳賲 賲禺氐賵氐丕 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賵蹖乇丕賳賴 賴丕蹖 賲丿賵乇 讴賴 鬲丕 賲乇夭 丕卮讴 乇蹖禺鬲賳 賴賲 賲賳 乇賵 倬蹖卮 亘乇丿 賵賱蹖 丿乇 毓賵囟 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕蹖蹖 賴賲 亘賵丿賳 讴賴 丕夭 賴賲賵賳 倬丕乇丕诏乇丕賮 丕賵賱 賳賲蹖賮賴賲蹖丿賲 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕夭 趩賴 賯乇丕乇賴 賵 丕夭 爻乇 賲賱丕賱 丨鬲蹖 亘毓囟蹖 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕乇賵 賴賲 賳蹖賲賴 賵賱 讴乇丿賲.
丕丨鬲賲丕賱丕 鬲丕 賲丿鬲 夭蹖丕丿蹖 爻賲鬲 亘賵乇禺爻 賳禺賵丕賴賲 乇賮鬲 賵 丕噩丕夭賴 賲蹖丿賲 夭賲丕賳 賲賳 乇賵 亘賴 丿乇讴卮 賳夭丿蹖讴 鬲乇 讴賳賴.
丕夭 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賳爻亘鬲 亘賴 讴鬲丕亘禺丕賳賴 亘丕亘賱 亘蹖卮鬲乇 賱匕鬲 亘乇丿賲 賵 丕賳诏丕乇 鬲賵賳爻鬲賲 禺蹖賱蹖 亘蹖卮鬲乇 丕夭 賯亘賱 亘丕 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕蹖 亘賵乇禺爻 丕乇鬲亘丕胤 亘乇賯乇丕乇 讴賳賲 賲禺氐賵氐丕 讴賴 亘賴 賳馗乇賲 鬲乇噩賲賴 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 賴賲 禺蹖賱蹖 亘賴鬲乇 亘賵丿. 賵 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 夭蹖丕丿蹖 亘賵丿 鬲賵 讴鬲丕亘 讴賴 賵丕賯毓丕 丕毓噩丕亘 丕賳诏蹖夭 亘賵丿 賵 亘乇 禺賱丕賮 鬲噩乇亘賴 賯亘賱蹖賲 賮囟丕 爻丕夭蹖 讴賴 亘賵乇禺爻 丕賳噩丕賲 賲蹖丿賴 乇賵 賵丕賯毓丕 鬲賵賳爻鬲賲 丿乇讴 賵 鬲氐賵乇 讴賳賲 賲禺氐賵氐丕 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賵蹖乇丕賳賴 賴丕蹖 賲丿賵乇 讴賴 鬲丕 賲乇夭 丕卮讴 乇蹖禺鬲賳 賴賲 賲賳 乇賵 倬蹖卮 亘乇丿 賵賱蹖 丿乇 毓賵囟 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕蹖蹖 賴賲 亘賵丿賳 讴賴 丕夭 賴賲賵賳 倬丕乇丕诏乇丕賮 丕賵賱 賳賲蹖賮賴賲蹖丿賲 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕夭 趩賴 賯乇丕乇賴 賵 丕夭 爻乇 賲賱丕賱 丨鬲蹖 亘毓囟蹖 丕夭 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴丕乇賵 賴賲 賳蹖賲賴 賵賱 讴乇丿賲.
丕丨鬲賲丕賱丕 鬲丕 賲丿鬲 夭蹖丕丿蹖 爻賲鬲 亘賵乇禺爻 賳禺賵丕賴賲 乇賮鬲 賵 丕噩丕夭賴 賲蹖丿賲 夭賲丕賳 賲賳 乇賵 亘賴 丿乇讴卮 賳夭丿蹖讴 鬲乇 讴賳賴.
September 25, 2018
I do not think I had ever read any of Argentinian author Borges' work before picking up the forty-sixth Penguin Modern,听The Garden of Forking Paths. 听I was not entirely sure, from other reviews which I have seen of various pieces of Borges' work, whether this would be for me. 听Collected here are several 'fantastical tales of mazes, puzzles, lost labyrinths and bookish mysteries, from the unique imagination of a literary magician', and all were first published during the 1940s. 听They have been variously translated by Donald A. Yates, Andrew Hurley, and James E. Irby.
The stories in this collection are the title story, alongside 'The Book of Sand', 'The Circular Ruins', 'On Exactitude in Science', and 'Death and the Compass'. 听All are very short, and 'On Exactitude in Science' covers just a single page. 听There are some interesting ideas at play throughout, and I found the collection strange and unusual. 听I could never quite guess where the stories were going to end up.
Whilst I found听The Garden of Forking Paths听interesting enough to read, and enjoyed some of the quite beguiling descriptions in its pages, it has not sparked an interest within me to pick up any more of Borges' work. 听I can see why other readers would really enjoy this collection, but it was not really my style. 听The tales were a little obscure for my particular taste at times, and I found that they sometimes ended a little abruptly.
The stories in this collection are the title story, alongside 'The Book of Sand', 'The Circular Ruins', 'On Exactitude in Science', and 'Death and the Compass'. 听All are very short, and 'On Exactitude in Science' covers just a single page. 听There are some interesting ideas at play throughout, and I found the collection strange and unusual. 听I could never quite guess where the stories were going to end up.
Whilst I found听The Garden of Forking Paths听interesting enough to read, and enjoyed some of the quite beguiling descriptions in its pages, it has not sparked an interest within me to pick up any more of Borges' work. 听I can see why other readers would really enjoy this collection, but it was not really my style. 听The tales were a little obscure for my particular taste at times, and I found that they sometimes ended a little abruptly.
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