The Garden of the Forking Paths: A Labyrinth of Time and Reality
Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentinian writer whose works often played with the limits of time and space, of fantasy and reality, thus creating alternate and parallel universes in which all outcomes transpire. This method of writing — where lines we assumed were definite are blurred and are, in fact, indefinite — is attributed to the magical realism movement cultivated by Latin American writers. This movement inspired the sci-fi genre of literature.
I’ve read another work by Borges in another English class, A Fauna of Mirror, an excerpt from his book “The Book of Imaginary Beings.” Within this excerpt, Borges details the struggle between what is real and what is fantasy, a literary characteristic associated with modern literature as we discussed in class. JL Borges’ entry, A Fauna of Mirrors, explores the concept of an alternate world that exists behind all mirrors, inhabited by a wide amount of unknown and strange creatures. “In those days the world of mirrors and the world of men were not, as they are now, cut off from each other. Both kingdoms, the specular and the human, lived in harmony; you could come and go through mirrors.”
In “The Garden of Forking Paths,” Borges plays with the line between real and fantasy as he explores the possibility of a novel with infinite endings, a novel that accounts for all moments in time, past-present-future, as well as accounting for all possible outcomes. In other words, whenever the characters come to a point at which more than one outcome is possible, both outcomes occur. This causes the narrative to branch out into multiple alternate universes.
In the beginning, I already question the narrator’s testimony as to whether it is ‘reality’ because firstly, it’s missing the first two pages and secondly, personal narrative is often tainted by perspective, making it in its own way a subjective, alternate reality. The story itself is its own labyrinth of time and history as it takes what is ‘real,’ WWII, and adds the mystical element of the Garden of Forking Paths. It is also an even larger labyrinth as the plot takes many strange, unexpected turns, leaving the reader following behind aimlessly, albeit dizzy and confused.
As the story progresses, we see that the narrator is faced with many different labyrinths. The first labyrinth he faces is resenting spying for the oppressive Germans but also wanting to impress them by showing them “the yellow man can save their army.” Another labyrinth is the literal one Yu Tsun encounters as he is traveling to Stephen Albert’s house as he must continue bearing left. When Yu Tsun finally gets to Albert’s house, Albert tells him about the book of Yu Tsun’s ancestor, a book which seemed to be a confusion of time but was actually a riddle where time was the answer. During this conversation, Albert himself expands on the idea of alternate realities as he explains in one reality, he could be dead and in another, he could be Yu Tsun’s enemy.
The idea of many different realities existing in time is EXTREMELY unnerving to me because it means that at this moment, I could be doing something completely different, somewhere else in the world, even looking different, and yet these several ‘me’s’ have no knowledge of the other ‘me’s’. Instead, they go about their day living in what they think is the one and only actual reality when really, they are all actual realities. It’s so creepy! It questions everything we’ve come to know and accept as truth; that time is definite and chronological, and that once we make a decision, the option of another outcome ceases to exist.
I found a quote from Borges that perfectly sums up the way he views time – it’s something we have some authority over, and yet it is something completely beyond our control. The fact that time could encompass both those things — or rather that we could relate to time in two such opposing ways simultaneously — is so ‘Borgean’ in its essence: “Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire.”
4 responses so far
I totally agree! It is very unnerving to think what we ourselves could be doing right now in the many different realities that may exist. It is scary because it forces us to think that everything we known of or believe in may not actually be as it seems.
I loved the story that Stephen Albert tells Yu Tsun about time being the answer. His point had me in amazed because I had never thought of it like that but realized how true it was. “To omit a word always, to resort to inept metaphors and obvious periphrases, is perhaps the most emphatic way of stressing it.”
As Rena mentions how Albert himself expands on the idea of alternate realities, saying how “in one reality, he could be dead and in another, he could be Yu Tsun’s enemy.” Its so ironic how thats really what ends up happening. It could be seen as foreshadowing. Although he is referring how this is in an alternative reality, it could show how sometimes these realities overlap.
As I was reading “The Garden of Forking Paths”, I was struck by two main themes: the issue of equality towards knowledge, as well as what time is.
On the first hand, the equality of men towards knowledge was described when Yu Tsun talks about how he once had an hour long conversation with an Englishman who reminded Yu Tsun of Goethe (this is already an allusion to the parallel times that are to be discussed further in the novel). Yu Tsun says that even though he is a spy for Germany, he couldn’t care less for this “barbarous country” when he was chatting to the English man, and thought that the latter was Goethe himself. What I understood from that was that humans are the same, it was a kind of humanist approach to the novel, where politics were critiqued.
On the other hand, I was fascinated by the approach Borges has towards time. Which leads to one asking about what time are we living in? Is there a parallel world where things are not as messed up as the world we live in? How is it possible, if it is possible, to attain this parallel world?
This superposition of parallel times reminded me of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and the Buddhist philosophy that we have several lives. This in turn reminded me of Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKRxDP–e-Y
One thing that I really love about “The Garden of Forking Paths” is the way the style of Borges’ writing simulates the deviating and converging paths of the labyrinth. What I mean by this is: the story itself takes forking paths, splitting off into apparent detours. By the end of the story, these branches in the narrative, like the labyrinth, come back together in such a way that it seems to have been planned all along.
The character Yu Tsun puts an end to his “wandering thoughts” in order to get down to the serious task of figuring out how to escape from Richard Madden. As the story unfolds, those “wandering thoughts” – his ponderings on the nature of time for example – have a far more vital role in the story than I first thought. It’s like that the story merely appears to wander. As it turns out, every word is part of a larger plan. That moment at the end, where Borges ties up all the loose ends signified to me that every single detail in this story was intentional. Although you could argue that it’s fate – or Borges’ genius!
At first I was also unsure about whether the orator of this story was portraying the reality of things, but then the labyrinth threw me off. To me this story was a labyrinth as well as tale, just like that of Ts’ui Pen. Borge may have given us a deeper understanding into this story by revealing the mystery behind this work.
I completely agree with about the unease that the idea of alternate realities cause. It is extremely discomforting to me to think that there may be another version of myself who is either living in a great alternate reality, or on the opposite end a horrible one.
When thinking of alternate universes I constantly think about Sci-fi movies, but the quote you provided gave me great insight into how Borge viewed and thought of time– that quote alone forced me to reread the story!