How does the absence of the first two pages affect our understanding and appreciation of the rest of the story?
It gives it a sense of reality where it is very common to lose pages of a reading and this specific situation makes it acquire more credibility.
Personally, I also believe it leaves a lot of holes in the story but apparently not necessary for the understanding of what is going on. I think some pieces of information are left out on purpose, for example, we never know how he ended up doing what he did, why Albert city was important or “the one city”, we never know how he figures this out or many other things because it is trying to get our attention elsewhere and an easy way of getting rid of irrelevant information, which in the end also adds to the whole mystery of the story.
An explicit reference is made to the Thousand and One Nights, a recursively narrated work of literature. In what ways is Borges's story "The Garden of Forking Paths" recursive? What other recurring patterns are evident. (Clue: the idea of a labyrinth)
I believe the way in which he tells gets to the last story is itself explaining the last story. It is like in order for us to understand the labyrinth of time and what he meant by forking paths in relation to this, he needed to tell the story in that particular way. All that happens and all stories or “bifurcaciones” within the story tell us the same thing but with a different structure. All process the character goes through to get to the story of the labyrinth explains the labyrinth and something that never ends as it is a story within a story within a story that could possibly never end. One story explains the other and visceversa.
What exactly is the solution that Stephen Albert has discovered to the mystery concerning the project of the narrator's ancestor?
When the ancestor died, nobody found the labyrinth he said he would make and they found his literary work disconnected and unfinished. Arthur, after reading many times and analyzing it thoroughly, gets to understand the literary work in its own logic. He thinks the labyrinth was the book itself and not apart. He also explains why he thinks the book is a labyrinth because it can be read as multiple possibilities that all happen which is why when read from our logical point of view makes no sense at all. The piece the ancestor wrote never mentions the word “time” because it is saying time in many different ways and is like a riddle about time so he cannot mention it.
What precisely is the analogy that connects a labyrinth in space with a labyrinth in time? What kind of questions does Borges raise in the story about the nature of Time.
Just as a person can be in a labyrinth and have multiple choices in that same space, the same happens in time. By holding that time has many possibilities and ways and all of these are happening at once.
How does the story relate to hypertext? (find a definition of "hypertext")
Borges’ story can be related to hypertext because as you are reading it you need to look up certain words, books, names, events, etc in order for you to understand the story and what they are talking about but these same things you look up take you to a different thing you might you need to look up in order to understand that same thing. So, it could be an endless search when trying to understand the story. It also relates to what the story is about with the labyrinth and the endless searches and choices one can make.
List all the "authors" in the story, their relationship to each other, and how each contributes to the narrative. Describe how Borges blurs the traditional distinction between author, narrator, and characters.
Lidell Hart, the one who wrote the book where everything happens
Yu Tsun, main character of story, is being persecuted by Richard Madden who is in a way pushing him to making decisions quickly, that in the story’s sense, pushes him into one of the many “bifurcaciones” but all happen at the same time. Viktor Runeberg is the man Madden killed and in a way represented one of the multiple ways Yu Tsun could end up soon. Yu Tsun’s boss is an influence on every decision Yu Tsun takes. The kids in the train also influence which way he takes. Stephen Albert is there to explain what exactly is happening with Ts'ui Pên’s story.
What other questions does the text of the story prompt you to ask?
Regarding the story I wonder if, because they talked about multiple possibilities happening all at once, Yu Tsun killed Stephen Albert with no remorse at all because he knew it was just one of the multiple realities and in different ones he would live or he would not even know him. I also wonder if Stephen Albert knew what was going to happen and if he wouldn’t be killed but knew what was going to happen, if he would be okay with it because of the labyrinth or if he would panic and forget all about the labyrinth and try to save himself.
In general, I have thought about multiple things happening all at once or as time in a non linear way, where I can be living right now this moment but at the same time every other moment in my life. It made me question whether or not we actually do have a choice or if we are just set in a specific way thinking we have control over our lives when we really don’t because this reality is all we will ever know and the things we do are all we were ever intended to do because we are not in the other different possibilities. I also began to question whether all ways and choices in the end are just a structure but at the end get to the same point and ending.. Or if there is or is not even an ending at all.
