Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a short story by the 20th century Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story was first published (in Spanish) in the Argentine journal Sur, May 1940. The "postscript" dated 1947 is intended to be anachronistic, set seven years in the future. The first English-language translation of the story was published in 1961.

Related Topics:
Short story - 20th century - Argentine - Jorge Luis Borges - Spanish - Sur - 1940 - 1947 - Anachronistic - English-language - 1961

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In the story, an encyclopedia article about a mysterious country called Uqbar is the first indication of Orbis Tertius, a massive conspiracy of intellectuals to imagine (and thereby create) a world: Tlön. Relatively long for Borges (approximately 5600 words), the story is a work of speculative fiction with certain characteristics of magical realism. One of the major themes of "Tlön, Uqbar..." is that ideas ultimately manifest themselves in the physical world and the story is generally viewed as a parabolic discussion of Berkeleian idealism — and to some degree as a protest against totalitarianism.

Related Topics:
Uqbar - Speculative fiction - Magical realism - Parabolic discussion - Berkeleian - Idealism - Totalitarianism

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"Tlön, Uqbar..." has the structure of a detective fiction set in a world going mad. Although the story is quite short, it makes allusions to many leading intellectual figures both in Argentina and in the world at large, and takes up a number of themes more typical of a novel of ideas. Most of the ideas engaged are in the areas of language, epistemology, and literary criticism.

Related Topics:
Detective fiction - Language - Epistemology - Literary criticism

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