The Garden of Forking Paths. A British attack on the Serre-Montauban line had to be postponed because of torrential rains.

We get to read an incomplete document (dictated by Dr. Yu Tsun, a former professor of English), which might shed some light on the situation. He called Runebergs apartment, but his Axis buddy has been brought down by Richard Madden. Tsun realizes that the same fate awaits him, goes upstairs and locks himself in his room. The fact that his death might be just around the corner doesnt imbalance him as much as one might think. A day without premonitions and symbols the day of his death. Everything happens in the present. Everything happens to ME. Upon envisioning Maddens face, the doctor felt a strong surge of terror and hatred. But that passed when he openly mocked him. Now he yearns for the noose. Next, he spots a random bird and imagines it transforming into an armada of bomber planes. Thats because he knows of a new Allied artillery park but is unable to pass this message on to his superiors. In his pockets, among other things, he finds a letter which he resolves to destroy immediately (but doesnt) do it is his subconscious working against him or is it mere forgetfulness? He has a gun too, and so hes able to come up with a clever little plan to deliver the message. Hes not motivated by patriotism, he just wants to prove to the Chief that a yellow man is capable of saving his armies. The Chief seems to fear (hate?) Asians, possibly because of some ancestral nonsense. The mere sight of Madden is Able to scare the good doctor out of his wits. Nevertheless, the train departs with Tsun in one of the carts. Hes able to find strength in his cowardice, as he was able to give Madden the slip and irritate the heck out of him. The man who can help him is in Ashgrove, and so he gets off at that station. A man whos an author of an atrocious undertaking should envision it as something already accomplished, imposing upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past. Two boys give him directions always turn left. Just as if you were trying to get to the center of a labyrinth. No one found his grandpas labyrinth, though getting lost accidentally while trying to get lost on purpose? A labyrinth of labyrinths not limited by physical restrictions, encompassing a whole world within itself. He gets lost in thought, becomes an abstract observer. A man can be an enemy of another man, but not of a country (nature). He reaches a household and hears Chinese music playing. A tall man in white robes greets him and asks if he wants to see The Garden of Forking Paths. The garden of his ancestor. Then he takes him to a weird library containing some very unusual titles. The guys name is Stephen Albert the person Tsun has been looking for. He was a missionary and aspired to become a Sinologist (the study of Chinese topics). His grandfather locked himself up for thirteen years and all he could come up with was a bunch of chaotic manuscripts that contradicted one another. So much for writing ones opus magnum. Or maybe there is more to it than meets the eye? A Buddhist monk insisted upon publishing them and the deceased guy s family cursed him for it ever since. As for his labyrinth its a desk. Or maybe its within the desk? A labyrinth of symbols. So the maze and the book were the same thing? So the labyrinth is both unrestricted by the physical realm and infinite a limitless number of interpretations. I leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths. A work can go on in circles, it can reference the same point over and over, it can be written by various members of the family/different people the ways in which a book could be considered infinite. In fiction, when a man is chosen with various alternatives, he chooses one and discards the others. In the Labyrinth however, the protagonist chooses all of them simultaneously. He creates diverse futures and timelines and they also have a tendency to split and differentiate. In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only prohibited word? Chess thats why he never mentioned the concept of time in the novel. An incomplete but (but not false) image of the universe as Ts'ui Pn perceived it. So, yeah parallel timelines and all that jazz. Newton, eat your heart out. Tsun thanks him for enlightening him. In one version, I am your enemy. But I am your friend. And then he shoots him in order to get the Chiefs attention through a newspaper article - so that the Germans can bomb the correct city. He gets arrested by Madden and is sentenced to the gallows. Was spite also his motivation? Or just an overwhelming sense of duty to the Chief? Did Albert summon Madden somehow? Seems unlikely, but that line about being his enemy. So either Tsun lost track of time or Madden got there early. To quote Edward Nigma: It just raises too many questions.