An Unnatural History: Borges, Tlön, and the Myth of Self

Abstract

This article applies the concept of unnatural history, which I have adapted from Walter Benjamin’s concept of natural history, as defined in the essay "Der Erzähler" ("The Storyteller"), to a consideration of J. L. Borges’s short fiction "Tlön, Uqbar, OrbisTertius." In particular, it is my contention that "Tlön, Uqbar, OrbisTertius" dramatizes the way in which the idea of self can become mythological in the face of a totalizing fiction. I argue, along with Djelal Kadir, that "Tlön, Uqbar, OrbisTertius" can be taken as a "cautionary tale" intended for the reader. It is in this regard that the idea of "unnatural history" proves especially useful. Although it is not a phrase that appears in Benjamin’s writing, "unnatural history" nonetheless epitomizes Benjamin’s idea of the perspectival shift that takes place when death, a common denominator of human experience, disappears from the scene. "Tlön, Uqbar, OrbisTertius," I argue, likewise dramatizes this perspectival shift, not only exploring the way in which texts are disseminated, but also the way in which texts are read in death’s absence. It is at this point, I contend, that Tlön’s history becomes "unnatural" in the Benjaminian sense and that the notion of self becomes mythological.