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I read this story last week and I was not expecting the end. Even just the spy story was fun. So Borges is an alien that came to Earth to mess with our brains. Ok.
A superb analysis and discussion of one of the finest short stories I’ve ever read (‘short’ being an ironic classification, given the self-aware, cyclical nature of its narrative 😆)! Just one thing I’d like to add on the topic of intertextuality in the piece. On the train, Dr Tsun sees a youth who is fervently engaged in a copy of Tacitus’ Annals. With the pace of the narrative, which reflects the thrilling plot of the spy chase, it’s easy to overlook the importance of this reference. But it is SO deep: Firstly, it probes the story’s suggestion of history being a summative collection of stories written by individual humans ‘ad infinitum’ (in other words, the arbitrary distinction between fiction and non-fiction), as Tacitus’ writing is famously based on historical figures but features literary license that makes his accounts difficult to be labelled as ‘non-fiction’. Secondly, within the Annals, a well known story is that of Germanicus and Piso; the former, a general whose death was one of the most controversial in Roman history. Many speculated that he was assassinated (likely by poison), following his renunciation of allegiance to his legate, Piso. Why is this relevant? Tsun’s account opens with heavy speculation, as he is lead to believe that some ill fate has befallen his fellow spy, Hans Runeberg, after Madden picks up his phone. Much like in Tacitus’ account of Germanicus’ ‘death’, we’ll never truly know what fate befell Runeberg (only our minds may conjure it, but a very similar process is undertaken by our narrator as he recounts the story in the first place). This second point very much weaves into the first.
I agree with all your points. But I'm not sure why you guys are still puzzled at the end, because you seem to have figured everything out. To me it's pretty clear. As you point out, the sequence of events is very unlikely... but possible... hence in a multiverse of all possibilities, it will still happen. He finds a name in the phone book... it happens to be a Sinologist who studied his ancestor.... very unlikely but in an infinite of all possibilities it will happen. His reaction to his imminent arrest is to convince the germans that Chinese spies are useful... it's a bizarre reaction, however it is still "possible". Even the sending of the message by killing someone named Albert... I thought that was bizarre and would never work (bomb a city named Albert because a guy named Albert was killed?)... again, that's the point, it would most likely not work, but if it's possible, it will happen. So Jorges presents a sequence of events that's extremely unlikely but possible... and with a character in the story revealing the nature of reality (the Albert character). Think of all the coincidences in Star Wars (droids finding their way to Luke... Luke meeting his sister Leia etc. Luke's father being vader... all a bit too contrived... but in a multiverse it's one of the possibilities). As far as if the guy has free will, if he's stuck on this path despite seeing the reality of things... who knows... that's just the same as all of us.
From an erstwhile (or 'failed') sinologist: I was delighted to see this 假作真時真亦假, 無為有處有還無 @6:43. That passage is a very old 'friend' of mine, last seen circa 1980. (For others who might want to look it up, it occurs about 2/5 of the way into Chapter 1 of the novel 紅樓夢.) You guys went WAY beyond the call of duty to make that reference, complete with the Chinese characters -- and the 'real' ones to boot, not the hideous simplified ones. What a treat! However, getting back to the main point, for a perfect overview of the Borges story, I think the Comment by @otakurocklee nails it. His comment takes only a few seconds to peruse (vs the 21 minutes of the video itself).
IS HE BEING CHEEKY?!? 🤣 I considered trying Borges in Spanish, when I was studying the language. This gives me the feeling...I wouldn't have made it very far 😅
Ha! This is great - the book I’ve been reading today is Dark Matter by Blake Crouch which is a sci fi thriller that is about superposition through the multiverse and you exist in different versions of the world and what free will means. Pretty fascinating coincidence. I’ll see what you guys think after a couple more of his stories are under your belts. Might be an author I might enjoy. *might*
"They invented the compos for this story" Krypto can nail it with the opening jokes sometimes haha This story broke me. I stopped reading Borges for a while after this one. The interpretation at 11:40 is really interesting. I like that. 😎
I'll give Borges credit for the complexity and layers to the plot, but otherwise I wasn't a fan of this one. I felt like Borges wanted his audience to be blown away by the whole forking path aspect, but it's really just basic entry level multiverse/daughter universe theory. It's similar to "The Matrix" in that so many stoners thought the film to be profound and "deep", yet it was just a decent sci-fi film about simulation theory. Best I can do is a 6/10 for this one.
Yeah, I felt that way about Matrix. If I may offer the consideration that this story predated the science. It might get some points for not being the copy cat in my book
The greatness about the Matrix isn't about the simulation idea... that's an extremely old idea in fiction. Ideas are cheap. I mean the Matrix came out in 1999... nobody thought the simulation idea was in any way original at this point. I'd already seen it tons of times on tv shows and movies. That's not what people liked about it. It's the combination of different styles, aesthetics... And the execution of it... putting it altogether in a kung-fu/superhero movie. I'm sure tons of people wanted to do that, but never achieved it because the task seemed monumental. Star Wars is similar... there isn't a single original idea in Star Wars, but that's not the point. It's the execution of it. Nobody had been able to put those ideas on screen with a decent budget/visual effects before that. We had 2001 in 68... and a bunch of cheap pulpy attempts at scifi.
