Michael Lampasona

The first time that I read through this story, I found it quite confusing to exactly get the stories message. After reading through the second time, it became apparent that the story was about the imaginary world of Tlon, which is located on the lands of Uqbar and Orbis Tertius.

The story begins by describing the struggle to find Uqbar, and how information regarding it was finally found in an encyclopedia. As the story progresses, the reader learns more about the imaginary world of Tlon on Uqbar, which seems almost like some sort of alternate reality. Nouns do not exist, and it seems as if everything is interconnected and idealistic. The story also states that on Tlon, concepts like time do not exist.

At the end of the story, it seems like Borges is criticising a society where everyone is plain and the same. The postscript addresses concern that the real world is turning into this totalitarian state. I think this is because during this time period World War II was taking place, and the Axis powers were totalitarian.

Kristy Medina

"Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a really interesting short story. It, similar to "Et Certa" breaks off into sections but this is very different in that it is all one cohesive story. At first I had no idea what the title meant, what it was and how it related. The second section is where we find out what each really is. First I thought of it as a relam and thenI found out they are planets. These planets are filled with chaos. There is unknown mythology. It seems like one big fantacy Jorge Luis Borges created. It was fun and interesting, almost like a childrens book, yet sophisticated because it made me think of some of the characteristics the planet Tlon had. For example, the plant doesn't have parrallel lines and language is not understandable. And briefly, it makes you think if that's even possible. The short story goes into more charaacteristics of the planet like the language to psychology to philosophy to geometry to books and literature. In the end I wondered it Borges was imagining a perfect world.

Natalya Gornopolskaya

Blog by Natalya Gornopolskaya
“Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”

This was a very unique spin on how to go about creating an entirely different country with a new religion and new theologies which ultimately become an entire new world. The story being told here is all about the fictitious world of Tlon, in the country of Uqbar, on planet Orbis Tertius. This vast universe was masterminded by a couple of crafty historians who knew how to hide their works inside various encyclopedia volumes. The secrets of this society and its history are hidden well beneath “pirated” copies of Encyclopedia Britannica and contain infinite knowledge that is sought after by many. I can’t decide whether I was more impressed with Borges, who brought out this concept of creating a new world or the new ideas represented by the “Tlon” itself. My favorite part of the new “Tlon order” was the part about materialization. Those nine gold coins that were lost were still continuous in time and even came back to the original owner. I believe Borges was trying to make the point that nothing is lost forever, it simply rematerializes someplace else. I see this as the ideal type of world, with a Utopian foundation that I would enjoy being a part of.

Julie Morvitz

I thought this short story was very confusing at first. I didn't understand where it was going and what the point was- it began with talk about Uqbar, which was written about in one encyclopedia but not another, so the narrator wasn't sure it was real. The story got less confusing as it went on, because the reader realized that Tlon was a made-up planet, with many in-depth details. Apparently on Tlon there are many philosophical schools of thought, and the idea of reality is misleading. At the end of the story the reader finds out that Tlon is definitely a made-up planet, made up for the purpose of proving that someone besides God can conceive and shape a world. The planet ends up in one encyclopedia though, and its practices continue in the real world. Its' languages and history are taught in schools, and now no one really knows if the place is real or not. I think part of the meaning of this story is that people can believe anything if others believe it too. Also, something that didn't start off real can be made real by people who believe in it, simply because they do.

Carly Cooper

This story probably has most of the aspects of a short story that is boring and difficult to read. It starts on one topic and moves quickly to other topics with hardly any indication of why it is moving from one the the other (ex. starting with Bioy and Uqbar to the planet Tlon to a story about coins, etc...). The writing in the story reminded me immediatly of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, the way it is kind of choppy and also talks about things that the reader clearly has no idea about, or the way a lot of the topics and names written about are not in english. Another reminder of If on a Winter's Night a Traveler was the fact the the encyclopida was false and the book was false and the essay was false and the information about the planet was false. It is almost as if becasue everything clearly isn't real and becuase people have made things up jsut to mess with others it isnt even worth writing about and definently is not worth reading about. Another thing I noticed was that again the story of 1001 nights is mentioned and i realized tha Jorge Luis Borges must really find meaning in this tory bdcause he mentions it in almost everything he writes. My question is, what is this story really about? what is its point/conclusion?