Paste function and backslash

Dear useRs,

calls and results below:

paste("\ \n")

[1] " \n"
*but*

paste("\ \N")

[1] " N"
Question: Is that by design? If so, how can I obtain simple LaTeX-type:
[1] "\N"

version

platform       i386-pc-linux-gnu
arch           i386
os             linux-gnu
system         i386, linux-gnu
status
major          2
minor          4.0
year           2006
month          10
day            03
svn rev        39566
language       R
version.string R version 2.4.0 (2006-10-03)

Szymon Wlazlowski