Borges Short Stories

I found both of the short stories written by Borges to be quite interesting. The Form of the Sword was more suitable to my tastes, as it was straightforward and interesting while the Garden of Forking Paths was almost entirely philosophical. I did enjoy the Garden of Forking Paths it's just the storyline may have been clearer if the first two pages of the short story had been included. I love the quote from The Form of the Sword where he says " What one man does is something done, in some measure, by all men. For that reason a disobedience committed in a garden contaminates the human race; for that reason it is not unjust that the crucifixion of a single Jew suffices to save it. Perhaps Schopenhauer is right: I am all others, any man is all men, Shakespeare is in some way the wretched John Vincent Moon." This was pretty deep. The actions of any one human being makes a statement about the human race as a whole. A murderer makes it known that humans have the capacity to kill; a benevolent soul demonstrates that people have the capacity for compassion. The Biblical allusions to Adam and Eve and Jesus Christ, are interesting to think about; from a Biblical perspective, God certainly views human beings individually, but there is plenty of evidence in the Bible for God looking at the human race as a whole as well. Oftentimes, judgement would fall on the entire nation of Israel just from one person's sin. This could be a result of God seeing the nation of Israel as one body; for example, when Achan sinned and caused Israel to lose in battle, God said that "Israel" has sinned, not just one individual. That's just food for thought. For the Garden of Forking Paths, I think the conception of time as multiple realities is really interesting, and it's a pretty cool idea that television has really run away with. The only issue is that there certainly is a nihilistic effect that comes from this idea. If any action taken is reversed in another reality, do any actions have meaning? Also, I thought this Asian guy was gonna commit suicide and then he just shoots the philosophical monk ancestor dude! Why? The main character is mentally unstable.