The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges - Short Story Summary, Analysis, Review

Welcome to the CodeX Cantina where our mission is to get more people talking about books! One of the most complex stories we've ever read: The Garden of Forking Paths by Jorge Luis Borges was mind-blowing! Let's talk about the usages of metafiction in this post-modernist work. The complications of blurred lines and hyper-accelerated scenes only help to confuse and disorient the reader in a good way. Our version was translated by Helen Temple and Ruthven Todd.

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Books or Stories Mentioned in this Video:

Channels Mentioned in this Video:
@Everyone Who Reads it Must Converse
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#JorgeLuisBorges
#TheGardenofForkingPaths

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
0:00 Introductions
0:44 Themes, Publication + Author
2:16 Plot Summary
4:36 Analysis
19:39 Wrap Up and Ratings

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Artist: Valence
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[knittingbooksetc.]

I read this story last week and I was not expecting the end. Even just the spy story was fun.

So Borges is an alien that came to Earth to mess with our brains. Ok.

[jazzman]

A superb analysis and discussion of one of the finest short stories I’ve ever read (‘short’ being an ironic classification, given the self-aware, cyclical nature of its narrative 😆)!

Just one thing I’d like to add on the topic of intertextuality in the piece. On the train, Dr Tsun sees a youth who is fervently engaged in a copy of Tacitus’ Annals. With the pace of the narrative, which reflects the thrilling plot of the spy chase, it’s easy to overlook the importance of this reference. But it is SO deep:

Firstly, it probes the story’s suggestion of history being a summative collection of stories written by individual humans ‘ad infinitum’ (in other words, the arbitrary distinction between fiction and non-fiction), as Tacitus’ writing is famously based on historical figures but features literary license that makes his accounts difficult to be labelled as ‘non-fiction’.

Secondly, within the Annals, a well known story is that of Germanicus and Piso; the former, a general whose death was one of the most controversial in Roman history. Many speculated that he was assassinated (likely by poison), following his renunciation of allegiance to his legate, Piso. Why is this relevant? Tsun’s account opens with heavy speculation, as he is lead to believe that some ill fate has befallen his fellow spy, Hans Runeberg, after Madden picks up his phone. Much like in Tacitus’ account of Germanicus’ ‘death’, we’ll never truly know what fate befell Runeberg (only our minds may conjure it, but a very similar process is undertaken by our narrator as he recounts the story in the first place). This second point very much weaves into the first.

[jamesstout]

Great story! It's mind-boggling the ways one can talk about it!

[angelacraw]

Many thanks for your insightful thoughts.

[Uncleanus]

"uploaded 6 hours ago" I finished this story a few minutes ago and didn't feel like I understood it. Lucky for me this channel exists.

[Johanna_reads]

Wow! I might have to challenge myself to read those 10 pages! Sounds interesting. Great video!

[otakurocklee]

I agree with all your points. But I'm not sure why you guys are still puzzled at the end, because you seem to have figured everything out. To me it's pretty clear. As you point out, the sequence of events is very unlikely... but possible... hence in a multiverse of all possibilities, it will still happen. He finds a name in the phone book... it happens to be a Sinologist who studied his ancestor.... very unlikely but in an infinite of all possibilities it will happen. His reaction to his imminent arrest is to convince the germans that Chinese spies are useful... it's a bizarre reaction, however it is still "possible". Even the sending of the message by killing someone named Albert... I thought that was bizarre and would never work (bomb a city named Albert because a guy named Albert was killed?)... again, that's the point, it would most likely not work, but if it's possible, it will happen. So Jorges presents a sequence of events that's extremely unlikely but possible... and with a character in the story revealing the nature of reality (the Albert character).

Think of all the coincidences in Star Wars (droids finding their way to Luke... Luke meeting his sister Leia etc. Luke's father being vader... all a bit too contrived... but in a multiverse it's one of the possibilities).

As far as if the guy has free will, if he's stuck on this path despite seeing the reality of things... who knows... that's just the same as all of us.

[TheNerdyNarrative]

Ha! This is great - the book I’ve been reading today is Dark Matter by Blake Crouch which is a sci fi thriller that is about superposition through the multiverse and you exist in different versions of the world and what free will means. Pretty fascinating coincidence. I’ll see what you guys think after a couple more of his stories are under your belts. Might be an author I might enjoy. *might*

[ChristyLuisDostoevskyinSpace]

IS HE BEING CHEEKY?!? 🤣

I considered trying Borges in Spanish, when I was studying the language. This gives me the feeling...I wouldn't have made it very far 😅

[Verschlungen]

From an erstwhile (or 'failed') sinologist: I was delighted to see this
假作真時真亦假, 無為有處有還無 @6:43.
That passage is a very old 'friend' of mine, last seen circa 1980. (For others who might want to look it up, it occurs about 2/5 of the way into Chapter 1 of the novel 紅樓夢.)
You guys went WAY beyond the call of duty to make that reference, complete with the Chinese characters -- and the 'real' ones to boot, not the hideous simplified ones. What a treat!

However, getting back to the main point, for a perfect overview of the Borges story, I think the Comment by @otakurocklee nails it. His comment takes only a few seconds to peruse (vs the 21 minutes of the video itself).

[attention]

"They invented the compos for this story" Krypto can nail it with the opening jokes sometimes haha This story broke me. I stopped reading Borges for a while after this one. The interpretation at 11:40 is really interesting. I like that. 😎

[SourTheSquid]

I was looking for the new ultrakill trailer where am i

[Starscreamlive]

I'll give Borges credit for the complexity and layers to the plot, but otherwise I wasn't a fan of this one. I felt like Borges wanted his audience to be blown away by the whole forking path aspect, but it's really just basic entry level multiverse/daughter universe theory. It's similar to "The Matrix" in that so many stoners thought the film to be profound and "deep", yet it was just a decent sci-fi film about simulation theory. Best I can do is a 6/10 for this one.

[EveryoneWhoReadsitMustConverse]

Yess!! Borges breaks Krypto's brain!! Great video yall, a must read for sure