Carl-Commonplace

Here is my Commonplace book. From here you might find suggestive correspondences from any or all of the following nodes: [[Jorges Borges "The Garden of Forking Paths" in Wardrip-Fruin, Noah, and Nick Montfort, eds. The New Media Reader. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.->Borges]]

Themes emerging in Borges include proto [[cyberpunk]] or where "cyber" denotes networks its already right-on. Cyberpunk already re-mediates [[noir]], a genre emerging in American cinema at same time as Borges' publication. That "the book and the maze are one" -- this writing machine is something of a hacked book. There is a process of re-mediation, of translating one form into another. Here in 1941, a networked book. An operating manual for Bush's Memex? Or, at least [[CYOA]] fare moving forward. Echoes of Atemporality and notions more at home in contemporary network culture! [[index]]

//"I thought of a labyrinth of labyrinths, of one sinuous spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future and in some way involve the stars."// the internet boasted as the 'network of networks' and its shadow forms include the "labyrinth of all labyrinths," an atemporal mess to be navigated or not, node to node, link to link, a constellation like that of stars. [[index]]

This picturesque scene is reminiscent of a cyberpunk yarn, with points of interest, from the vantage of now, aimed at the railroad platform as an earlier instantiation of [[network culture]]. The boys offer their advice, identities obscured from view, paid for their services while the narrator shows hesitation of more nefarious schemes

//" I lingered, naturally, on the sentence: I leave to the various futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths. Almost instantly, I understood: ‘the garden of forking paths’ was the chaotic novel; the phrase ‘the various futures (not to all)’ suggested to me the forking in time, not in space. A broad rereading of the work confirmed the theory. In all fictional works, each time a man is confronted with several alternatives, he chooses one and eliminates the others; in the fiction of Ts’ui Pên, he chooses— simultaneously—all of them. He creates, in this way, diverse futures, diverse times which themselves also proliferate and fork. Here, then, is the explanation of the novel’s contradictions."// Perhaps obviously now, the blueprint of hypertext fiction. Also of atemporality a decidedly newer concept of space-time collapse in cultural usage.

//"A lamp enlightened [[the platform but the faces of the boys were in shadow->cyberpunk]] One questioned me, “Are you going to Dr. Stephen Albert’s house?” Without waiting for my answer, another said, “The house is a long way from here, but you won’t get lost if you take this road to the left and at every crossroads turn again to your left.” I tossed them a coin (my last), descended a few stone steps and started down the solitary road. It went downhill, slowly. It was of elemental earth; overhead the branches were tangled; the low, full moon seemed to accompany me."// [[index]]

Interesting to note that this short story was written at same time as "Film Noir" genre in American cinema. Later, French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard made his homage to noir, also a proto cyberpunk yarn, Alphaville. [[index]]

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