The Garden of Forking Paths
Encyclopedia
"The Garden of Forking Paths" (original Spanish title: ) is a 1941 short story
by Argentine
writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges
. It is the title story in the collection El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (1941), which was republished in its entirety in Ficciones
(Fictions) in 1944. It was the first of Borges's works to be translated into English when it appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
in August 1948.
According to Noah Wardrip-Fruin
and Nick Montfort
, "The concept Borges described in 'The Garden of Forking Paths'—in several layers of the story, but most directly in the combination book and maze of Ts'ui Pên—is that of a novel that can be read in multiple ways, a hypertext
novel. Borges described this in 1941, prior to the invention (or at least the public disclosure) of the electromagnetic digital computer. Not only did he arguably invent the hypertext novel—Borges went on to describe a theory of the universe based upon the structure of such a novel." Borges's vision of "forking paths" has been cited as inspiration by numerous new media
scholars, in particular within the field of hypertext fiction.
professor of English named Dr. Yu Tsun who is living in the United Kingdom
during World War I
. Tsun is a spy for the German Empire
. He has also realized that the MI5
agent pursuing him, Captain Richard Madden, has entered the apartment of his handler Viktor Runeberg and has either captured or killed him. Dr. 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 his German handlers before he is captured. He at last hits upon a desperate plan in order to achieve this.
Dr. Tsun explains that his spying has never been for the sake of Imperial Germany, which he considers "a barbarous country." Rather, he says, he did it because he wanted to prove to his racist masters that an Asia
n is intelligent enough to obtain the information needed to save their soldiers' lives. Tsun suspects that Capt. Madden, an Irishman
in the employ of the British Empire
, might be similarly motivated.
Taking his few possessions, Tsun boards a train to the village of Ashgrove. Narrowly avoiding the pursuing Capt. Madden at the train station, he goes to the house of Dr. Stephen Albert, an eminent Sinologist. As he walks up the road to Dr. Albert's house, Tsun reflects on his great ancestor, Ts'ui Pên, a learnèd and famous man who renounced his job as governor of Yunnan
in order to undertake two tasks: to write a vast and intricate novel, and to construct an equally vast and intricate labyrinth
, one "in which all men would lose their way." Ts'ui Pên was murdered before completing his novel, however, and what he did write was a "contradictory jumble of irresolute drafts" that made no sense to subsequent readers; nor was the labyrinth ever found.
Dr. Tsun arrives at the house of Dr. Albert, who is deeply excited to have met a descendant of Ts'ui Pên. Dr. Albert reveals that he has himself been engaged in a longtime study of Ts'ui Pên's novel. Albert explains excitedly that at one stroke he has solved both mysteries—the chaotic and jumbled nature of Ts'ui Pên's unfinished book and the mystery of his lost labyrinth. Albert's solution is that they are one and the same: the book is the labyrinth.
Basing his work on the strange legend that Ts'ui Pên had intended to construct an infinite labyrinth, as well as a cryptic letter from Ts'ui Pên himself stating, "I leave to several futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths". Dr. Albert realized that the "garden of forking paths" was the novel, and that the forking took place in time, not in space. As compared to most fictions, where the character chooses one alternative at each decision point and thereby eliminates all the others, Ts'ui Pên's novel attempted to describe a world where all possible outcomes of an event occur simultaneously, each one itself leading to further proliferations of possibilities. Albert further explains that these constantly diverging paths do sometimes converge again, though as the result of a different chain of causes; for example, he says, in one possible time-line Dr. Tsun has come to his house as an enemy, in another as a friend.
Though trembling with gratitude at Albert's revelation and in awe of his ancestor's literary genius, Tsun glances up the path to see Capt. Madden approaching the house. He asks Albert to see Ts'ui Pên's letter again. Dr. Albert turns to retrieve it, Tsun draws a revolver
, and murders him in cold blood.
Dr. Tsun is arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death by hanging
. However, he has, "most abhorrently triumphed," as he has revealed to Berlin
the location of the artillery park. Indeed the park is bombed as Tsun goes on trial. The location of the artillery park was in Albert
. Dr. Tsun had realized that the only way to convey that information was to murder a person of that name, so that the news of the murder would appear in British newspapers connected with his name.
and hypertext
projects. Borges conceives of "a labyrinth that folds back upon itself in infinite regression", asking the reader to "become aware of all the possible choices we might make." The elaborate hypertext is much like the book which Borges suggests to be the labyrinth, ("Every one imagined two works; to no one did it occur that the book and the maze were one and the same thing...the confusion of the novel suggested to me that it was the maze") in a sense of how the site offers different approaches to how you may interpret the information provided, yet you're not trapped in the dilemma of choosing one and eliminating others; you may choose to unfold all possibilities. You "create, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork" (Wardrip-Fruin, 33). Although the story appeared before the advent of modern computers, Borges seems to have invented the hypertext narrative structure. Wardrip-Fruin and Montfort write: "Our use of computers is ... based on the visions of those who like Borges—pronouncing [The Garden of Forking Paths] from the growing dark of his blindness—saw those courses that future artists, scientists and hackers might take."
Other stories by Borges that express the idea of infinite texts include "The Library of Babel
" and "The Book of Sand
".
In 1987 Stuart Moulthrop
created a hypertextual version of the "The Garden of Forking Paths". This name was given to relate the Gulf War setting of his novel and Borges: Victory Garden. This work would never be published but is highly discussed in academic literature.
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
. It is the title story in the collection El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (1941), which was republished in its entirety in Ficciones
Ficciones
Ficciones is the most popular anthology of short stories by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges, often considered the best introduction to his work. Ficciones should not be confused with Labyrinths, although they have much in common. Labyrinths is a separate translation of Borges' material,...
(Fictions) in 1944. It was the first of Borges's works to be translated into English when it appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
in August 1948.
According to Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Noah Wardrip-Fruin is Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is an advisor for the Expressive Intelligence Studio. He is an alumnus of the Literary Arts MFA program and Special Graduate Study PhD program at Brown University...
and Nick Montfort
Nick Montfort
Nick Montfort is an associate professor of digital media at MIT in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. He is also a poet, computer scientist, and author of interactive fiction. Montfort has collaborated on the blog Grand Text Auto, the sticker novel Implementation, and the contemporary...
, "The concept Borges described in 'The Garden of Forking Paths'—in several layers of the story, but most directly in the combination book and maze of Ts'ui Pên—is that of a novel that can be read in multiple ways, a hypertext
Hypertext fiction
Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links which provides a new context for non-linearity in "literature" and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to the next, and in this fashion arranges a...
novel. Borges described this in 1941, prior to the invention (or at least the public disclosure) of the electromagnetic digital computer. Not only did he arguably invent the hypertext novel—Borges went on to describe a theory of the universe based upon the structure of such a novel." Borges's vision of "forking paths" has been cited as inspiration by numerous new media
New media
New media is a broad term in media studies that emerged in the latter part of the 20th century. For example, new media holds out a possibility of on-demand access to content any time, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community...
scholars, in particular within the field of hypertext fiction.
Plot summary
The story takes the form of a signed statement by a ChineseChinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
professor of English named Dr. Yu Tsun who is living in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Tsun is a spy for the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. He has also realized that the MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
agent pursuing him, Captain Richard Madden, has entered the apartment of his handler Viktor Runeberg and has either captured or killed him. Dr. 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 his German handlers before he is captured. He at last hits upon a desperate plan in order to achieve this.
Dr. Tsun explains that his spying has never been for the sake of Imperial Germany, which he considers "a barbarous country." Rather, he says, he did it because he wanted to prove to his racist masters that an Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n is intelligent enough to obtain the information needed to save their soldiers' lives. Tsun suspects that Capt. Madden, an Irishman
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
in the employ of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, might be similarly motivated.
Taking his few possessions, Tsun boards a train to the village of Ashgrove. Narrowly avoiding the pursuing Capt. Madden at the train station, he goes to the house of Dr. Stephen Albert, an eminent Sinologist. As he walks up the road to Dr. Albert's house, Tsun reflects on his great ancestor, Ts'ui Pên, a learnèd and famous man who renounced his job as governor of Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
in order to undertake two tasks: to write a vast and intricate novel, and to construct an equally vast and intricate labyrinth
Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos...
, one "in which all men would lose their way." Ts'ui Pên was murdered before completing his novel, however, and what he did write was a "contradictory jumble of irresolute drafts" that made no sense to subsequent readers; nor was the labyrinth ever found.
Dr. Tsun arrives at the house of Dr. Albert, who is deeply excited to have met a descendant of Ts'ui Pên. Dr. Albert reveals that he has himself been engaged in a longtime study of Ts'ui Pên's novel. Albert explains excitedly that at one stroke he has solved both mysteries—the chaotic and jumbled nature of Ts'ui Pên's unfinished book and the mystery of his lost labyrinth. Albert's solution is that they are one and the same: the book is the labyrinth.
Basing his work on the strange legend that Ts'ui Pên had intended to construct an infinite labyrinth, as well as a cryptic letter from Ts'ui Pên himself stating, "I leave to several futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths". Dr. Albert realized that the "garden of forking paths" was the novel, and that the forking took place in time, not in space. As compared to most fictions, where the character chooses one alternative at each decision point and thereby eliminates all the others, Ts'ui Pên's novel attempted to describe a world where all possible outcomes of an event occur simultaneously, each one itself leading to further proliferations of possibilities. Albert further explains that these constantly diverging paths do sometimes converge again, though as the result of a different chain of causes; for example, he says, in one possible time-line Dr. Tsun has come to his house as an enemy, in another as a friend.
Though trembling with gratitude at Albert's revelation and in awe of his ancestor's literary genius, Tsun glances up the path to see Capt. Madden approaching the house. He asks Albert to see Ts'ui Pên's letter again. Dr. Albert turns to retrieve it, Tsun draws a revolver
Revolver
A revolver is a repeating firearm that has a cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. The first revolver ever made was built by Elisha Collier in 1818. The percussion cap revolver was invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This weapon became known as the Colt Paterson...
, and murders him in cold blood.
Dr. Tsun is arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. However, he has, "most abhorrently triumphed," as he has revealed to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
the location of the artillery park. Indeed the park is bombed as Tsun goes on trial. The location of the artillery park was in Albert
Albert, Somme
Albert is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.It is located about halfway between Amiens and Bapaume.-History:Albert was founded as a Roman outpost called Encre, in about 54 BC...
. Dr. Tsun had realized that the only way to convey that information was to murder a person of that name, so that the news of the murder would appear in British newspapers connected with his name.
Borges and hypertext
Beyond its façade as a spy narrative, "The Garden of Forking Paths" has similarities to today's digital mediaDigital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...
and hypertext
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
projects. Borges conceives of "a labyrinth that folds back upon itself in infinite regression", asking the reader to "become aware of all the possible choices we might make." The elaborate hypertext is much like the book which Borges suggests to be the labyrinth, ("Every one imagined two works; to no one did it occur that the book and the maze were one and the same thing...the confusion of the novel suggested to me that it was the maze") in a sense of how the site offers different approaches to how you may interpret the information provided, yet you're not trapped in the dilemma of choosing one and eliminating others; you may choose to unfold all possibilities. You "create, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork" (Wardrip-Fruin, 33). Although the story appeared before the advent of modern computers, Borges seems to have invented the hypertext narrative structure. Wardrip-Fruin and Montfort write: "Our use of computers is ... based on the visions of those who like Borges—pronouncing [The Garden of Forking Paths] from the growing dark of his blindness—saw those courses that future artists, scientists and hackers might take."
Other stories by Borges that express the idea of infinite texts include "The Library of Babel
The Library of Babel
"The Library of Babel" is a short story by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges , conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format....
" and "The Book of Sand
The Book of Sand
"The Book of Sand" is a 1975 short story by Jorge Luis Borges. It has parallels to "The Zahir", continuing the theme of self-reference and attempting to abandon the terribly infinite....
".
In 1987 Stuart Moulthrop
Stuart Moulthrop
Stuart Moulthrop is an innovator of electronic literature and hypertext fiction, both as a theoretician and as a writer. He is author of the hypertext fiction works Victory Garden , which was on the front-page of the New York Times Book Review in 1993, Reagan Library , and Hegirascope , amongst...
created a hypertextual version of the "The Garden of Forking Paths". This name was given to relate the Gulf War setting of his novel and Borges: Victory Garden. This work would never be published but is highly discussed in academic literature.
Modern Hypertext
Some modern reflexes of the Borgesian hypertext format include:- The Choose Your Own AdventureChoose Your Own AdventureChoose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based on a...
genre, which allows the reader to make decisions that affect the outcome of the story. - Hopscotch, a 1963 "hypertext novel (in codex form)" by Argentine author Julio CortázarJulio CortázarJulio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...
. - Soft CinemaSoft CinemaSoft Cinema is a collaborative new media art project headed by Lev Manovich. Manovich states that "soft cinema is a digital editor that provides an interface between human editors and a database of footage to 'perform' different edits of the footage...
by Lev ManovichLev ManovichLev Manovich is an author of new media books, professor of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego, U.S. and European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where he teaches new media art and theory, software studies, and digital humanities...
, a form of non-linear media that demonstrates flexibility within narrative forms, whereby movies are created through algorithmAlgorithmIn mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
software that determines the ordering of film fragments, and for which there is no final, intended product. - Forward AnywhereForward AnywhereForward Anywhere is a hypertext narrative created by writer Judy Malloy and scientist Cathy Marshall. They started working together in 1993 through the PAIR program at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center...
, another form of non-linear narrative by Malloy and Marshall. - JodiJodiJodi, or jodi.org, is a collective of two internet artists: Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans . Their background is in photography and video art; since the mid-1990s they started to create original artworks for the World Wide Web...
, a puzzling hypertext project which reflects upon Borges' idea of this attribute of complexity linking the novel to the labyrinth. - Superbad (website)Superbad (website)Superbad is a noted web art installation created by Ben Benjamin in 1997.It received a 1999 Webby in the "Weird" category, and was one of nine websites featured in the Whitney Museum Biennial in 2000. Superbad began as a test bed for Benjamin's web design for technology corporations ranging from E!...
by Ben Benjamin, similar concept as the work of Jodi. - Patchwork Girl (hypertext)Patchwork Girl (hypertext)Patchwork Girl is a work of electronic literature by American author Shelley Jackson. It was written in Storyspace and published by Eastgate Systems in 1995...
by Shelley Jackson is a hypertext fiction where a story is told through the use of text and images that link together in a narrative fashion. The user has to piece together the structure of the Patchwork Girl.
In Modern Culture
- In homage to the story, the TV series FlashForwardFlashforwardA flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...
made an episodeEpisodeAn episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a serial television or radio program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book. The term sometimes applies to works based on other forms of mass media as well, as in Star Wars...
entitled "The Garden of Forking Paths". In the episode, the character Dyson Frost referred to a map of the possible futures as his "Garden of Forking Paths." - Some theories in modern physics propose a similar concept: See Many-worlds interpretationMany-worlds interpretationThe many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an...
.
See also
- Gilles DeleuzeGilles DeleuzeGilles Deleuze , was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote influentially on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus , both co-written with Félix...
's use of this story to illustrate the Leibnizian concept of several impossible worldsPossible worldIn philosophy and logic, the concept of a possible world is used to express modal claims. The concept of possible worlds is common in contemporary philosophical discourse and has also been disputed.- Possibility, necessity, and contingency :...
simultaneously existing and the problem of future contingents. - Ayssar Arida's linking of "The Garden of Forking Paths" and quantum theoryQuantum mechanicsQuantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
's sum over histories concept for an event-driven urbanism project.