The reader first encounters intertextuality when Borges compares the relationship between the works of Liddell Hart’s World War One stories and the one he writes for the protagonist of his story, Tsun. This paper addresses Borges’ random forms of intertextuality, as well as incorporating two forms of labyrinths, causing the reader to become caught in one’s own maze of trying to untangle the hidden meanings behind Borges’s story.īorges uses the form of intertextuality to bring in other texts throughout his own short story, by showing the relationships between the two. They learn of their connection when Tsun meets Albert for the mere reason of killing him, to inform the Germans. Tsun’s ancestor is also the man Steven Albert has been studying. To complete both mazes, he must kill Steven Albert who is connected to Tsun in more ways than one. While on this mission, Tsun encounters his past and is thrown into another labyrinth, his ancestor’s work. He has to inform the whereabouts of the British artillery to the Germans, before getting caught.

Throughout the story, the reader is able to figure out that Tsun is in a labyrinth, while in a race to complete his mission. The protagonist of the story is a man named Tsun, a Chinese, English Professor who is a spy for the German army. He writes with a misleading technique that includes several mazes, missing pages and literary devices. In a way, the whole concept of 'Pan's Labyrinth' owes something to Borges, since labyrinths are such an essential image - not just to 'Garden' but all his writing - that one of the most popular English translations of his work is called 'Labyrinths.“The Garden of Forking Paths” is a short story written by Jorge Luis Borges. The French author Andre Maurois has said, 'Borges has read everything, and especially what no one reads anymore.' 'Garden' alone combines spy thrillers, WWI historian Liddell Hart, Plato, Newton, Roman chronicles, and Classical Chinese novels. Meanwhile, the Book of Sand is a literally infinite text that seems to grow new pages every time the narrator tries to turn back to the beginning or ending.Ĭonsidered the father of magical realism, Borges' approach was much like del Toro's. In 'Garden,' the seemingly inconsistent book is actually a 'labyrinth' that shows the results of every possible decision by its characters.

For instance, in 'Cabinet of Curiosities,' he reveals the origin of the Book of Crossroads, which starts blank and writes itself based on Ofelia's choices: 'The Book of Sand' and 'The Garden of Forking Paths,' two stories by the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges that explore the idea of an infinite book.

The borges labyrinth