Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius [short story]

When I've heard others speak (or write) about Borges I have noticed a certain reverence, and perhaps a sort of addiction, like nothing else will do. In any case, it was a sensation that I felt I might not be able to drum up, that Borges would be too advanced for me.

Well, he is advanced.

BUT I LOVED IT.

What an intelligent weird short story chocked full of fascinating metaphoric, linguistic, philosophical and mathematical concepts. The story mixes the real with the fictional, certainly purposefully, and creates a world that makes you wonder about our own world, our perceptions, and our inherent weirdness, increasing our curiosity about the planet Tlön AND Earth.

Oddly, by the end, I wished I could literally read Orbis Tertius.

A short story show more masterpiece. show less

O conto favorito do meu conto favorito do meu mundo favorito; abri em uma página aleatória só pra sentir o gostinho:

"Nos hábitos literários [de Tlön] também é todo-poderosa a ideia de um sujeito único. É raro que os livros estejam assinados. Não existe o conceito de plágio: estabeleceu-se que todas as obras são obra de um único autor, que é intemporal e anônimo. A crítica tem o costume de inventar autores: escolhe duas obras distintas — o Tao Te King e as Mil e uma noites, digamos —, atribui-as a um mesmo escritor e depois determina com probidade a psicologia desse interessante homme de lettres…"

Não digo muito, basta o chapear de camadas do pequeno parágrafo: se acho que é uma piscadela do Borges pra nós, show more acabo por cair nos mesmos (ou bem próximo dos) hábitos literários da querida e enigmática Tlön; que não é nada mais que fruto da literatura e imaginação dos eruditos de Uqbar; Uqbar que é fruto de.... e go on show less

At work, I have a book called "Building the Uqbar Dinghy." It had never occurred to me, although I was aware of this Borges story's existence, that before the publication of this boatbuilding book, there was no such thing as an Uqbar dinghy. Now there is - presumably. Of course, that's exactly what the author was getting at when he titled the book (Borges is credited).

"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a wonderful musing on the relationships between ideas, the written word, and reality. The narrator tells the reader of discovering a seemingly unique article slipped into a single copy of an encyclopedia, detailing (but vaguely) the profile of a country called Uqbar. As it turns out, Uqbar may not exist (or, may not have existed?) in our show more world, but may exist in a parallel world called Tlön. Tlön may be wholly the invention of a secret group of intellectuals who have conspired to create a hidden imaginary history - but their fabulist inventions seem to be sneakily creeping their way into our existence.

The story is aesthetically appealing to any lover of fantasy worlds - and any bibliophile. It's delightfully multi-layered, with truth and fiction inextricably tangled. And it's beautifully written.

Read due to its nomination for the 1941 Retro-Hugos. This one gets my vote. show less

At work, I have a book called "Building the Uqbar Dinghy." It had never occurred to me, although I was aware of this Borges story's existence, that before the publication of this boatbuilding book, there was no such thing as an Uqbar dinghy. Now there is - presumably. Of course, that's exactly what the author was getting at when he titled the book (Borges is credited).

"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a wonderful musing on the relationships between ideas, the written word, and reality. The narrator tells the reader of discovering a seemingly unique article slipped into a single copy of an encyclopedia, detailing (but vaguely) the profile of a country called Uqbar. As it turns out, Uqbar may not exist (or, may not have existed?) in our show more world, but may exist in a parallel world called Tlön. Tlön may be wholly the invention of a secret group of intellectuals who have conspired to create a hidden imaginary history - but their fabulist inventions seem to be sneakily creeping their way into our existence.

The story is aesthetically appealing to any lover of fantasy worlds - and any bibliophile. It's delightfully multi-layered, with truth and fiction inextricably tangled. And it's beautifully written.

Read due to its nomination for the 1941 Retro-Hugos. This one gets my vote. show less

Here are my top ten reasons you will enjoy this most inventive and ingenious tale:

1. Fabulist gone wild: This Jorge Luis Borges tale, especially the first few pages, reads like a cross between Philip K. Dick and a bibliophile on acid. There are enough references, many real, many fabricated, to keep a team of researchers burning the midnight oil. My advice: Have fun reading. I sense an author with initials JLB playing literary, metaphysical and many other types of games with his tongue deep in his cheek.

2. Mysterious Narrator: “From the remote depths of the corridor, the mirror spied upon us. We discovered (such a discovery is inevitable in the late hours of the night) that mirrors have something monstrous about them.” Mirrors are show more monstrous? Inevitable at night, really? Have to admit I’ve never myself had such a thought. Maybe I should correct ‘bibliophile on acid’ to ‘bibliophile stoned on cannabis’. The story is told in first person but are we entirely sure who is doing the telling?

3. Strange Uqbar: Those ancient orthodox believers from Uqbar exiled to a nearby island owned obelisks and lived in a way, as archeologists discovered “where it is not uncommon to unearth stone mirrors.” Stone mirrors? How exactly does a stone mirror work? Perhaps a mirror in a stone frame? Well, the narrator admits the document he and Bioy Casares are reading are less than clear, “Reading it over again, we discovered beneath its rigorous prose a fundamental vagueness.” Sound vaguely familiar? Like this fourteen page short story we have in our hands, perhaps?

4. Stranger Tlön: We learn Tlön isn’t a chaos or an irresponsible license of the imagination but it has its own set laws, at least provisionally. Provisionally? So, in a real sense, the license of the imagination rules out. This being the case, I’d love to travel there sometime.

5. Mind Games: For the inhabitants of Tlön, the world for them is not a concourse of objects in space; rather, it’s a series of independent acts. Wow! How cool is that? Whatever you are looking at, hearing, feeling, tasting or smelling – it is all in the mind.

6. Mooning: There are serious language games and tricks going down in Tlön and the inhabitants are entirely serious. For example, when you point to the moon, you don’t see the moon or say the word ‘moon’; you are mooning.

7. The Right Word: On Tlön, there are poems made up of one enormous word. Now that’s poetry I could get into. Does anybody have one long word poem they would care to share?

8. Timeless: On Tlön, they do not perceive the spacial exists in time. Everything is seen as merely an association of ideas. I love it – a world without watches. Sounds like the inhabitants of Tlön take their leisure seriously, since without time and watches, it would be rather difficult to adhere to a work schedule.

9. Touchy-Feely: The geometry of Tlön is made up of two different disciplines – the visual and the tactile. I always wanted to know what all those triangles and circles and lines and points felt like.

10. The Unsaid: All the many subtle references to various theories and ideas. For example, one text states that “Mirrors and fatherhood are abominable because they multiply and disseminate that universe.” This written statement compared to what the narrator says Bioy Casares remembers the text saying – “mirrors and copulation are abominable because they increase the number of men.” Sounds like the narrator might be noting a Freudian slip made by his friend. show less

Here are my top ten reasons you will enjoy this most inventive and ingenious tale:

1. Fabulist gone wild: This Jorge Luis Borges tale, especially the first few pages, reads like a cross between Philip K. Dick and a bibliophile on acid. There are enough references, many real, many fabricated, to keep a team of researchers burning the midnight oil. My advice: Have fun reading. I sense an author with initials JLB playing literary, metaphysical and many other types of games with his tongue deep in his cheek.

2. Mysterious Narrator: “From the remote depths of the corridor, the mirror spied upon us. We discovered (such a discovery is inevitable in the late hours of the night) that mirrors have something monstrous about them.” Mirrors are show more monstrous? Inevitable at night, really? Have to admit I’ve never myself had such a thought. Maybe I should correct ‘bibliophile on acid’ to ‘bibliophile stoned on cannabis’. The story is told in first person but are we entirely sure who is doing the telling?

3. Strange Uqbar: Those ancient orthodox believers from Uqbar exiled to a nearby island owned obelisks and lived in a way, as archeologists discovered “where it is not uncommon to unearth stone mirrors.” Stone mirrors? How exactly does a stone mirror work? Perhaps a mirror in a stone frame? Well, the narrator admits the document he and Bioy Casares are reading are less than clear, “Reading it over again, we discovered beneath its rigorous prose a fundamental vagueness.” Sound vaguely familiar? Like this fourteen page short story we have in our hands, perhaps?

4. Stranger Tlön: We learn Tlön isn’t a chaos or an irresponsible license of the imagination but it has its own set laws, at least provisionally. Provisionally? So, in a real sense, the license of the imagination rules out. This being the case, I’d love to travel there sometime.

5. Mind Games: For the inhabitants of Tlön, the world for them is not a concourse of objects in space; rather, it’s a series of independent acts. Wow! How cool is that? Whatever you are looking at, hearing, feeling, tasting or smelling – it is all in the mind.

6. Mooning: There are serious language games and tricks going down in Tlön and the inhabitants are entirely serious. For example, when you point to the moon, you don’t see the moon or say the word ‘moon’; you are mooning.

7. The Right Word: On Tlön, there are poems made up of one enormous word. Now that’s poetry I could get into. Does anybody have one long word poem they would care to share?

8. Timeless: On Tlön, they do not perceive the spacial exists in time. Everything is seen as merely an association of ideas. I love it – a world without watches. Sounds like the inhabitants of Tlön take their leisure seriously, since without time and watches, it would be rather difficult to adhere to a work schedule.

9. Touchy-Feely: The geometry of Tlön is made up of two different disciplines – the visual and the tactile. I always wanted to know what all those triangles and circles and lines and points felt like.

10. The Unsaid: All the many subtle references to various theories and ideas. For example, one text states that “Mirrors and fatherhood are abominable because they multiply and disseminate that universe.” This written statement compared to what the narrator says Bioy Casares remembers the text saying – “mirrors and copulation are abominable because they increase the number of men.” Sounds like the narrator might be noting a Freudian slip made by his friend. show less

I have the Collected Fictions (with copious translator's notes), but am splitting my review of that into its components, in publication order: Collected Fictions - all reviews. This is the longest story in The Garden of Forking Paths, and deservedly so, published in 1941.

This is very post-modern, meta, or whatever such term you like, with references to Spinoza and Russell. It’s a first-person narration, mentioning real people, telling of a presumably fictitious group of people who plant clues about an imaginary world in authoritative sources (Orbis Tertius being a more comprehensive work in progress). Nowadays, con-langers or believers in Sherlock Holmes might do the same sort of thing on Wikipedia and elsewhere on the internet. show more Alternatively, conspiracy theorists would latch on to every snippet and claim the almost total lack of further evidence was proof of a sinister cover-up by malign and powerful forces.

“Mirrors and copulation are abominable, for they multiply the number of mankind.” This is paraphrased in "Hakim, The Masked Dyer of Merv", which is in the previous volume, A Universal History of Iniquity, and is the starting point here. It’s allegedly a saying from Uqbar, but investigation finds no mention of such a place – except in one (and only one) copy of an encyclopaedia, which has several pages about its geography, climate, culture and language. The fact (I use the word advisedly) they have “stone mirrors” and a “literature of fantasy” is pertinent.

“Tlon may well be a labyrinth, but it is a labyrinth forged by men, a labyrinth destined to be deciphered by men.”

Furthermore, the idea and language of Tlon has infiltrated the real world (or rather, the real world within this piece of fiction penned by Borges), so what is real now? “A fictitious past has supplanted in men’s memories that other past, of which we now know nothing certain.” Is life imitating art, and Earth becoming Tlon?

The final challenge to reality is the “postscript” dated 1947, several years AFTER it was first published.

The much later story, Brodie’s Report, in the collection of the same name, has a similar idea: a mysterious document, describing strange people, found in a book: Brodie’s Report

Time and Language

This fascinating aspect has since been echoed by many, including perhaps Alan Lightman in Einstein’s Dreams.

Tlon is a planet in Uqbar’s mythology: “the world is successive, temporal, but not spatial” and about actions, not objects, so their language is based on verbs, not nouns (examples are given). In this fictional world, in some sense, things are not directly expressible – maybe fictional, even?

Some “deny the existence of time… the present is undefined and indefinite, the future has no reality except as present hope, and the past has no reality except as present recollection” (or even false memories of the past).

Even the maths is different; “the act of counting can modify the amount, turning indefinites into definites”, and they have two types of geometry, “tactile geometry” (like ours) and the more important “visual geometry”, which “is based on the surface, not the point; it has no parallel lines… as one’s body moves through space, it modifies the shapes that surround it”.

These philosophical beliefs mean “their fiction has but a single plot, with every imaginable permutation”. show less