In 1941, Jorge Luis Borges published “The Garden of Forking Paths,” a short story in which a spy travels to the home of an English scholar. There they discuss an odd book by the spy’s great-grandfather, Ts’ui Pên. Rather than follow a single plot, the book aims to explore countless storylines. “In all fictional works, each time a man is confronted with several alternatives he chooses one and eliminates the others,” the scholar says. “In the fiction of the almost inextricable Ts’ui Pên he chooses—simultaneously—all of them. He creates, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork.”
Borges devoted most of his story to explaining the complicated idea that many different realities can coexist in a mazelike web of timelines. “This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time,” the scholar goes on. “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.” The story invites the reader to imagine what else, other than the world we know, might be possible. But the spy ultimately wonders whether, if everything that can happen does happen, any choice is really worth making.
Denne historien er fra November 07, 2022-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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Denne historien er fra November 07, 2022-utgaven av The New Yorker.
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YULE RULES
“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.”
COLLISION COURSE
In Devika Rege’ first novel, India enters a troubling new era.
NEW CHAPTER
Is the twentieth-century novel a genre unto itself?
STUCK ON YOU
Pain and pleasure at a tattoo convention.
HEAVY SNOW HAN KANG
Kyungha-ya. That was the entirety of Inseon’s message: my name.
REPRISE
Reckoning with Donald Trump's return to power.
WHAT'S YOUR PARENTING-FAILURE STYLE?
Whether you’re horrifying your teen with nauseating sex-ed analogies or watching TikToks while your toddler eats a bagel from the subway floor, face it: you’re flailing in the vast chasm of your child’s relentless needs.
COLOR INSTINCT
Jadé Fadojutimi, a British painter, sees the world through a prism.
THE FAMILY PLAN
The pro-life movement’ new playbook.
President for Sale - A survey of today's political ads.
On a mid-October Sunday not long ago sun high, wind cool-I was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a book festival, and I took a stroll. There were few people on the streets-like the population of a lot of capital cities, Harrisburg's swells on weekdays with lawyers and lobbyists and legislative staffers, and dwindles on the weekends. But, on the façades of small businesses and in the doorways of private homes, I could see evidence of political activity. Across from the sparkling Susquehanna River, there was a row of Democratic lawn signs: Malcolm Kenyatta for auditor general, Bob Casey for U.S. Senate, and, most important, in white letters atop a periwinkle not unlike that of the sky, Kamala Harris for President.
