An Analysis of Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis, and Tertius
1. Plot Summary:
In the first section of the story, the narrator, a fictive version of Borges himself, became aware of the mysterious existence of a country called Uqbar from which he came across in a casual conversation with Borges’s friend, Bioy Casares. Casares told Borges that the name Uqbar came from the Anglo-American Cyclopedia, which was described as a reprint of the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1902. However, the name Uqbar never came up in the Encyclopedia Britannica, or in some copies of the Anglo-American Cyclopedia. Obsessed in verifying the existence of Uqbar, Borges is particularly drawn to a statement in the encyclopedia article that says "…the literature of Uqbar… never referred to reality, but to the two imaginary regions of Mlejnas and Tlön."
In the second section of the same fiction, a person named Herbert Ashe is introduced into the story, which died and allowed Borges to inherit an eleventh volume of an encyclopedia devoted to Tlön. At this point, the story expanded beyond the life of Borges and attempted to reconstruct the entire history, culture, and even languages of that world. He discovered that Tlön is a made up country by the intellectuals who wanted to create a different country. He found that the intellectuals wrote many versions of encyclopedias of Tlön, and soon they will be revealed to the public, and in the future, the teachings of Tlön will engulf the world. By the end of the book, the world has evolved into Tlön.
2. Discussion of Tone:
The tone of the fiction, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, is both informative and curious. In Section I, Borges’s tone is very curious ever since the beginning because that was when he first came across the name Uqbar. After that, Borges and his friends tried in vain to look up on the mysterious country, and they unfortunately discovered more questions than answers. However, he still tried attempted to solve the mystery, and that ended up with him owning the eleventh volume of Tlön, which he knew
In the first section of the story, the narrator, a fictive version of Borges himself, became aware of the mysterious existence of a country called Uqbar from which he came across in a casual conversation with Borges’s friend, Bioy Casares. Casares told Borges that the name Uqbar came from the Anglo-American Cyclopedia, which was described as a reprint of the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1902. However, the name Uqbar never came up in the Encyclopedia Britannica, or in some copies of the Anglo-American Cyclopedia. Obsessed in verifying the existence of Uqbar, Borges is particularly drawn to a statement in the encyclopedia article that says "…the literature of Uqbar… never referred to reality, but to the two imaginary regions of Mlejnas and Tlön."
In the second section of the same fiction, a person named Herbert Ashe is introduced into the story, which died and allowed Borges to inherit an eleventh volume of an encyclopedia devoted to Tlön. At this point, the story expanded beyond the life of Borges and attempted to reconstruct the entire history, culture, and even languages of that world. He discovered that Tlön is a made up country by the intellectuals who wanted to create a different country. He found that the intellectuals wrote many versions of encyclopedias of Tlön, and soon they will be revealed to the public, and in the future, the teachings of Tlön will engulf the world. By the end of the book, the world has evolved into Tlön.
2. Discussion of Tone:
The tone of the fiction, Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, is both informative and curious. In Section I, Borges’s tone is very curious ever since the beginning because that was when he first came across the name Uqbar. After that, Borges and his friends tried in vain to look up on the mysterious country, and they unfortunately discovered more questions than answers. However, he still tried attempted to solve the mystery, and that ended up with him owning the eleventh volume of Tlön, which he knew