Let me just say that I really enjoyed Borges’ “The Garden of Forking Paths;” it is one of the best stories I have read for awhile. What is most fascinating to me is the idea of the story contained within a story, continuing to an almost infinite degree. The short story itself begins with the statement “an attack against the Serre-Montauban line by thirteen British divisions… had to be postponed until the morning of the 29th.” That story, seemingly tediously boring, when investigated yields the thrilling story of Dr. Yu Tsun, English Professor and German spy. Almost flushed out of his cover, he has to kill a Dr. Stephen Albert to convey a secret message to his handler. Within that story is the philosophic story of Ts’ui Pen and his infinite labyrinth. Yet the stories within stories can serve as metaphors, especially the ancient labyrinthine book serving as a metaphor for Borges’ convoluted, circular, and labyrinthine view of time. There is a beautiful continuity to the different parts of the short story that can simultaneously interact on many levels. Different themes in the story, such as gardens, death, war, and even the colors black and yellow also act in a coherent manner in the different stories within the other stories.
I understand that this story relates to hypertext and new media from its non-linear structure and the idea of vast amounts of information contained within other information, in this case a story. I can almost imagine clicking on the sentence about the attack being postponed and finding a link to the story of Dr. Tsun. Then from there, when he mentions his ancestor, clicking on Ts’ui Pen and finding a link to the story of the infinite labyrinth.
I wonder if it actually inspired any writers or engineers in the fields of technology or new media, but it is a great story nonetheless. It also contains many of the principles that many of our readings have talked about.
So what is the true significance of the garden of forking paths? Besides the title being a great metaphor for time (it took me a while to get that but I felt great when I did) is the garden of forking paths, or the story itself, a model? I feel like Borges intention when writing the short story had more to do with conveying his views on time and reality than the ways in which a story or information can be constructed. Either way he pioneers a non-linear story structure. Will new media or information structures ever reach the intricacy of the organization of Borges story and the way the different stories interact? I don’t know, but certainly like to find some that do.