RSSGarden of Forking Paths: Fork 3
Feb 08
Uncategorized borges, forking paths, hypertextual, letting the chips fall where they may, mushroom clouds, pathing gardens Comments Off
The Garden of Forking Paths . It puts me in mind of Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman. It is a story that does indeed require a lot of though upon reading, but if you let it wash over you, it is easier to digest.
I’ve always had an interest in theories of time. Pondered just how it is that time unfolds or circulates or bends or collides. Needless to say I haven’t got an answer. I just continue to exist in whatever reality this is.
At the end of what I would call a rather exhaustive search for information on Borges’ story, I still have only found one (working) example of the story as a hypertext narrative.
But the crown jewel of my search is this website, which explores the idea of the hypertext narrative, with focus on it’s relation to Borges (and Vannevar Bush, who did important work with analog computing, the atomic bomb, and the idea of the memex). It is even a hypertext narrative itself.
She also links to two beautiful hypertext works (as a note, there’s some adult content in both of these):
Caitlin Fisher’s These Waves of Girls
Shelly Jackson’s My Body