Episode 209 – At Home in the Labyrinth, with Murakami and Borges

About this episode

Phil and JF explore the themes of time and meaning in Haruki Murakami’s 'Cream' and Jorge Luis Borges’s 'The Garden of Forking Paths'.

In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Haruki Murakami’s “Cream,” from First Person Singular, alongside Jorge Luis Borges’s classic tale, “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Together, these two stories occasion a meditation on time, perplexity, and the strange possibility that meaning isn't found at the end of the maze, but discovered only in the course of wandering it. Photo by DMzlC via Wikimedia Commons. Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp page, home of Weird Studies Vol. 3 (to be released May 22, 2026). Joel Plaskett's website and Substack References Geoffrey Cornelius, “Chicane: Double-Thinking and Divination among the Witch-Doctors,” in Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium, ed. Patrick Curry (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 119– 42. Joe Leduc's Blood Oath Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths” Haruki Murakami, “Cream” Marc Augé, Non-Places Federico Campagna, Technic and Magic Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show” Nicholas of Cusa, “On the Quadrature of the Circle” Ethan Weed, “A Labyrinth of Symbols” Kids in the Hall, “Premise Beach” David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return David Lynch, Lost Highway Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Don Giovanni Weird Studies…

People in this episode

Hosts: Phil, JF

Topics covered

• Haruki Murakami
• Jorge Luis Borges
• time
• perplexity
• meaning
• labyrinth

Keywords

• First Person Singular
• The Garden of Forking Paths
• wandering
• maze

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Weird Studies Vol. 3

Books & works: At Home in the Labyrinth, Cream, First Person Singular, The Garden of Forking Paths, Weird Studies Vol., Substack References, Chicane: Double-Thinking and Divination, Divination: Perspectives for a New Millennium, The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show, On the Quadrature of the Circle

Places: Burlington, VT

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