The Garden of Forking Paths

by Jorge Luis Borges

In this short fiction, Borges presents the idea of an infinite narative and with it invents the hypertext. The main focus becomes the labyrinth book of Ts'ui Pen who spent 13 years creating his view of the universe of forking paths. Borges has a poetic voice for his philosophical ideas like "centuries of centuries and only in the present do things happen; countless men in the air, on the face of the earth and the sea, and all that really is happening is happening to me." The main character goes through the adventure of his life, trying to kill before he himself is killed. Only at the end do we find out the obsurd reason why he went about finding this Stephen Albert. Not only did he kill Albert just for his name, but he also killed his newly found connection to his ancestor's amazing labyrinth. Did the 'protagonist' Yu Tsun sit through these ideas of the universe as a way of reconsidering his choice in murder? And yet in the end, Tsun chooses to use this story as a distraction to kill Albert, by asking to see the letter again and shooting Albert when his back is turned. Is this Borges' way of speaking a truly interesting topic and yet saying these infinite paths matter not? That even if you exist in the other world, watch your back in this one, cause this is the life you're living through.