Parallel Realities in the Writing's of Jorge Luis Borges

Upon reading "The Garden of Forking Paths," I was very confused.  At first, I did not know how to react.  I was not quite sure what had happened to be frank.  I re-read the story to find I had a little more understanding of what I had read.  The approach to magical realism that Borges takes is quite different than that of Julio Cortazar or Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Borges seems to take a more indirect approach to his magical realism.  This was the source of my confusion when reading all of his stories.  "The Garden of Forking Paths" gave me the feeling of being a time warp.  After reading, I was not sure whether or not what I seemed to be comprehending made any sense.  After discussing in class, I did indeed understand what I had, but I did need the confirmation of Professor Benander to clarify what I had read, which I did not necessarily need with our other readings.  It is always nice to talk about stories that I read amongst a group to bounce ideas off of one another, however in this case, it was an absolute necessity.  Borges uses "The Garden of Forking Paths" as a metaphor for the paths we take in life.  There are literally millions of choices that we make in our lives, and this story suggests that in each alternate reality we have made a different decision which will lead us down another path unique to itself.  In each alternate reality that we may or may not perceive we are walking down a "forking path."  A forking path to me is a path that each of us creates that we recognize as our lives.  Whether this is choosing what we had for breakfast, or choosing who we should marry, each choice in our life can have a "butterfly effect" on the outcomes of our lives.  Borges suggests that in our alternate realities we made different choices which lead us to different outcomes.  I could not help but relate this "garden of forking paths" to the internet.  I had a hard time at first relating this sensation Borges describes to anything in our culture in the present day.  Then, when the internet was brought up in class I couldn't stop thinking about the significance that it plays in this metaphor.  The internet is nothing but a giant garden of forking paths.  There are an unlimited number of paths that you can take when navigating through cyberspace, each step you take along the way will open another new path that you maybe would have never discovered had you not taken the path you did.  And also along the same lines, we talked about the creation of hypertext, which is an internet sensation, especially on websites like Wikipedia, where words are highlighted, and when clicked lead to new websites, with different information pertaining to the new topic.  Borges is credited with starting this idea of hypertext as we discussed in class.  Hypertext can be considered an extension of "The Garden of Forking Paths" as it would be a method to choosing the things that will pave the new path you have chosen.  Hypertext is just a much more literal translation of the garden.  Suggesting that parallel realities exist, and that what happens in the reality that we are a part of can be described as a garden of forking paths is a very unique perspective.  After evaluating "The Garden of Forking Paths" and relating it to something in my life, this existence of another reality that we are not aware of does not seem so farfetched.