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.