Jorge Luis Borges - The Garden Of Forking Paths - Yu Tsun, Richard Madden, & Stephen Albert

Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 20th century philosophical short story writer, essayist, and poet Jorge Luis Borges's story "The Garden of Forking Paths" which can be found in Collected Fictions. It focuses on the narrative of the spy or secret agent genre which provides the outer shell of the more metaphysical narrative nested within it. This story centers around a Chinese spy for the German Empire during World War, Dr Yu Tsun, who intends to communicate the location of a British artillery concentration on the Western front in France. Tsun is pursued by Capt Richard Madden, who has already caught one of Tsun's fellow agents, and who catches him at the house of the sinologist Dr. Stephen Albert, who fortuitously has translated and provides an explanation of the labyrinth and novel of Tsun's great grandfather Ts'ui Pen. It turns out that the novel, The Garden of Forking Paths, is the labyrinth. Tsun kills Albert just as Madden arrives, in order to be able to communicate his message to his German spymaster. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Borges' Collected Fictions here - https://amzn.to/3xZnwHA