Analysing "The Garden of Forking Paths"

"The Garden of Forking Paths" - an analysis

At a superficial level, the story is a case of espionage fiction or spy story, in the context of World War I. 

The narrative starts with what looks like a document of history. An English military officer, in his work of history, speaks of a delayed attack by the British divisions. The reason is adverse weather.

Then we are introduced to a disposition (statement given before law) by Dr. Yu Tsun. This speaks of a different reason for the delayed attack. Thus, the story becomes a case of alternate history.

The statement by Yu Tsun is a fragment. The first two pages are missing. This challenges the view that history has to be in a sequence. You can start your reading from anywhere, and that helps to get new meanings. This is one instance of hypertext fiction.

Yu Tsun is a German spy. He is now caught by the British, and awaits his death. But he has a secret: The name of the exact location of the new British artillery park on the River Ancre. The actions described in the story (narrated as recollections) are his attempts to convey this news to his Chief in Germany.

Then something strange happens… Yu Tsun browses through the telephone book; He locates the name of a person who can convey this message. He lived at a place less than a half hour's train ride away.

Yu Tsun had murdered someone, we understand. A Chinese man who works as a German spy, Yu Tsun has no love for Germany. His act of murder was partially to prove to his Chief that a Chinese man could save the German armies.

Yu Tsun gets into a train, pursued by Capt. Madden, who misses him. And he gets down at Ashgrove. Some boys on the platform ask him if he is going to Dr. Stephen Albert's house. This note is surprising. There may be a chance that Dr. Albert is one person who has many visitors in the otherwise quiet village. The boys give him directions: "The house is a long way from here, but you won't get lost if you take this road to the left and at every crossroads turn again to your left."

At Stephen Albert’s house, the conversation is around the two works by Yu Tsun’s ancestor, Tsui Pen: a book, and a labyrinth. Albert, a Sinologist, had studied in depth the efforts of Tsun, and has realised that the two works are one and the same: it is a novel, “The Garden of Forking Paths”. It offers possibilities of multiple readings, and moves around the theme of time. Albert shows Yu Tsun a statement in one of the manuscripts: “I leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths”. And, continues Albert: “Almost instantly, I understood: 'the garden of forking paths' was the chaotic novel; the phrase 'the various futures (not to all)' suggested to me the forking in time, not in space. A broad rereading of the work confirmed the theory. In all fictional works, each time a man is confronted with several alternatives, he chooses one and eliminates the others; in the fiction of Ts'ui Pên, he chooses-- simultaneously--all of them. He creates, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork.”

The discussion goes on, till Yu Tsun sees Captain Stephen Madden approaching the Yu Tsun diverts Stephen’s attention, and without causing any alarm, he shoots him dead. 

Madden arrests Tsun. Yu Tsun is now awaiting his death, and the document (dispensation) is prepared while he is imprisoned. But his mission is accomplished: in the English newspaper which carried the details of the murder of the Sinologist Stephen Albert, there is also information that Germany had bombed the city of Albert. This means that Stephen’s murder has communicated Yu Tsun’s message to the Chief: the name of the person and the name of the city with the secret cache of weapons are the same: “Albert”.

Metafiction: The self conscious effort of the writer to explain or comment on the art or process of writing through his fictional work.

A statement in “GFP”: In all fictional works, each time a man is confronted with several alternatives, he chooses one and eliminates the others; in the fiction of Ts'ui Pên, he chooses-- simultaneously--all of them. He creates, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork. Here, then, is the explanation of the novel's contradictions.

Theme of Infinite Interpretation:

A statement in “GFP”: Fang, let us say, has a secret; a stranger calls at his door; Fang resolves to kill him. Naturally, there are several possible outcomes: Fang can kill the intruder, the intruder can kill Fang, they both can escape, they both can die, and so forth. In the work of Ts'ui Pên, all possible outcomes occur; each one is the point of departure for other forkings. Sometimes, the paths of this labyrinth converge: for example, you arrive at this house, but in one of the possible pasts you are my enemy, in another, my friend.

Time as a Theme:

From the story: (conversation between Albert and Yu Tsun:)

"In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only prohibited word?"

I thought a moment and replied, "The word chess."

"Precisely," said Albert. "The Garden of Forking Paths is an enormous riddle, or parable, whose theme is time; this recondite cause prohibits its mention. To omit a word always, to resort to inept metaphors and obvious periphrases, is perhaps the most emphatic way of stressing it….”

I have translated the entire work: it is clear to me that not once does he employ the word 'time.'…

In contrast to Newton and Schopenhauer, your ancestor did not believe in a uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times. This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. We do not exist in the majority of these times; in some you exist, and not I; in others I, and not you; in others, both of us. In the present one, which a favorable fate has granted me, you have arrived at my house; in another, while crossing the garden, you found me dead; in still another, I utter these same words, but I am a mistake, a ghost."…

"Time forks perpetually toward innumerable futures. In one of them I am your enemy."

Related to this, read the statement in Tsui Pen’s letter, which Albert shows Yu Tsun: I leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths.

Significance of the Study:

Borges and this story find reference in one of the essays in Module 1. The reference to “Arabian Nights”, a work we are already introduced to, has relevance in the study. His writings are experiments in narration and plot development. The story we need to study involves many elements that we are yet to see in other works of fiction prescribed for our study: post modernism, metafiction and magical realism are a few to name.

Points to Ponder:

Theme of infinite/ multiple interpretation

Forking in time, and not in space

Postmodern techniques: Intertextuality, Self-reflexivity, Metafiction, Fragmentation, Hypertext