Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
open-in-new
<p>"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a <a href="/facts/Short_story/KU6X7XWI">short story</a> by the 20th-century <a href="/facts/Argentina/aFSA5bAk">Argentine</a> writer <a href="/facts/Jorge_Luis_Borges/UgfVLqdk">Jorge Luis Borges</a>. The story was first published in the Argentine journal <i><a href="/facts/Sur_(magazine)/yaYB1VAU">Sur</a></i>, May <a href="/facts/1940_in_literature/gEksPJbK">1940</a>. The "postscript" dated 1947 is intended to be <a href="/facts/Anachronism/vjnKorAb">anachronistic</a>, set seven years in the future. The first <a href="/facts/English_language/tpkxGt7b">English-language</a> translation of the story, by James E. Irby, was published in <a href="/facts/1961_in_literature/DxkhHDcR">1961</a> in New World Writing N° 18. In 1962 it was included in <a href="/facts/Labyrinths_(short_story_collection)/AsbW9xzG"><i>Labyrinths</i> (short story collection)</a> (New Directions), the first collection of Borges' works published in English. </p><p>Told in a first-person narrative, the story focuses on the author's discovery of the mysterious and possibly fictional country of Uqbar and its legend of Tlön, a mythical world whose inhabitants believe a form of <a href="/facts/Subjective_idealism/6DqvjICC">subjective idealism</a>, denying the reality of objects and <a href="/facts/Nouns/SsnDNfkX">nouns</a>, as well as <i>Orbis Tertius</i>, the secret organization that created both fictional locations. Relatively long for Borges (approximately 5,600 words), the story is a work of <a href="/facts/Speculative_fiction/j9dUbo0d">speculative fiction</a>. </p><p>The story alludes 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 <a href="/facts/Novel_of_ideas/QrLJ2jxC">novel of ideas</a>. Most of the ideas engaged are in the areas of <a href="/facts/Metaphysics/fSFt6SHe">metaphysics</a>, <a href="/facts/Language/IRcTok2q">language</a>, <a href="/facts/Epistemology/NsDwpcYH">epistemology</a>, and <a href="/facts/Literary_criticism/sj0LQGdF">literary criticism</a>. </p>