In the essay below, Rudy addresses Borges's use of two different plots in "Garden of Forking Paths" and argues that this use is "motivated by Borges' desire to upset any notion of plot under stood as simple chronological causality, as well as the conception of reality which underlies such a notion."

"Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted." - E. A. Poe ". . . Magic is not the contradiction of the law of cause and effect but its crown, or nightmare." - Borges

Michel Foucault in his magnificent preface to The Order of Things quotes a text by Borges, a taxonomy of animals, which is attributed by Borges to a certain Dr. Franz Kuhn, who in turn attributes it to "a certain Chinese encyclopedia entitled Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge. " The text reads:

Animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) suckling...