Episode 32: Orbis Tertius: Borges on Magic, Conspiracy and Idealism

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2018

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jorge Luis Borges's story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a metaphysical detective story, an armchair conspiracy thriller, and a masterpiece of weird fiction. In this tale penned by a true literary magician, Phil and JF see an opportunity to talk about magic, hyperstition, non-linear time, and the power of metaphysics to reshape the world. When Phil questions his co-host's animus against idealist doctrines, the discussion turns to dreams, cybernetics, and information theory, before reaching common ground with the dumbfound appreciation of radical mystery. Jorge Luis Borges, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" in Ficciones Weird Studies, Episode 29, "On Lovecraft" George Berkley, A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) John Crowley, the Aegypt tetralogy Quentin Meillassoux, After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency Sir Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia - Urn Burial Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) William James, A Pluralistic Universe Karl Schroeder, "Degrees of Freedom" Weird Studies, Episode 26, "Living in a Glass Age" Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution Dogen, Genjokoan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Specter Vision Radio.
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an art and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martell.
0:21.8	For more episodes and to support the podcast, go I always do.
0:53.9	I always listen to the episodes as they come out.
0:56.5	Just to find out what it was we were really saying.
0:59.3	But one of the things I said in that episode was that I kind of like the writer who's sort of like Larry Holmes, just shooting out this effortlessly perfect and endlessly very jab, just like this elegant precision.
1:10.4	To me, Borchaz is that guy.
1:12.4	Yeah.
1:12.9	It's so clean.
1:14.9	It's not terribly demonstrative, but it just fucking owns.
1:18.6	Yeah.
1:19.0	Yes, especially this story, Flon Ukbar, Orbis, Tertius, which is, I don't know,
1:25.0	there's something about this story.
1:27.2	Every time I read it, I get something new from it.
1:29.8	One of the major motifs of the story is mirrors, right?
1:33.6	He keeps bringing up mirrors, and the story mirrors.
1:37.1	The narratives mirror one another.
1:39.2	But the story itself is a kind of mirror.
1:41.6	Like, it just seems like every time I've read it,
1:43.4	I've learned something about myself or about the world. Oh, interesting. The state of the world or something.
1:48.3	It's a very potent piece of writing. It doesn't read like fiction at all. It really does read
1:53.9	like a kind of almost like a treatise of some sort. This is something I love about
	...

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