Janie Cherestal

I found Borges' "Garden of Forking Paths" to be one his more engaging short stories, for it described a man who, while being pursued, is faced with a series of choices that have profound effects on later events in his life. After following a complex maze, he meets Dr. Stephen Albert, who tells him about his distant ancestors. Although he is thankful for this information, the narrator kills the doctor in order to communicate the name of the city that he was trying to send to those he had been working for. I felt that this story had a surprising and entertaining ending, and I liked imagery Borges created by comparing the complex maze to that of endless possibilities and where each choice can lead you.

Kristy Medina

Jorge Luis Borges' Gardening of Forking Paths is probably one of my favorite Borges' short stories next to Et Cetera. It yet again talks about the break down of a labyrinth but this story actually talks about the labyrinth and the different ways one can think of a labyrinth. This is probably why I liked it so much because instead of thinkning about how these characters see the labyrinth, like in House of Leaves the reader is told more or less how the labyrinth looks like. In the previous story, the Library of Babel, we were given some detail on what the laybrinth looks like. Here, in Garden of Forking Paths, the different possibilities are actually discussed. Ts'ui Pen says that the Garden is an incomplete imagine of the universe. Albert thinks the Garden is a "huge riddle." Nevertheless, the conclusion is that it is a complex, infinite set. It was still interesting to hear about different interpertations instead of just an infinite staircase filled with blackness. I'm ambivalent to the ending- I usually like clear endings where I know what happens but I also like the idea of having the reader think about what happens in the story because it's more interactive. Still, one of my favorites. I really like Borges (for the most part).