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Welcome to The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia (New York, 1917)

This wiki is a recreation of The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia (New York, 1917), as described in Section I of Borges' short story Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius ("TUOT").

How is this cyclopaedia different from other ones?

Various wikis touching upon the subject already exist:

English Wikipedia: At ~7000 words (including notes), this article manages to run longer than the short-story itself.

Spanish Wikipedia: Our cyclopaedia concerns only the English translation(s) of TUOT.

Literawiki: A ~150 word summary of the short-story.

Creepypasta: A recreation of the de Giovanni translation, without the all-important section dividers. The Anglo-American Cyclopaedia does not condone the piracy of an original text (even though the cyclopaedia is itself pirated) - unless such a text has been re-written using the system of Pierre Menard.

does not condone the piracy of an original text (even though the cyclopaedia is itself pirated) - unless such a text has been re-written using the system of Pierre Menard. Allthetropes : Contains a helpful, but non-comprehensive, listing of the tropes contained within the story.

This wiki-cyclopaedia is only concerned with Section I of the English translation of the short-story. In versions that are undivided, this would be the first ~1000 words ending with the line, "Naturally he found not the slightest mention of Uqbar."

Why Section I (and only Section I)?

It can easily be argued that the concept of a wiki does not sufficiently transform the aim and nature of the source, that creating a wiki-cyclopaedia of such a story is more akin to conducting an unauthorized translation, or transcribing hypertext from one medium to another. The works of Borges are still under copyright, and this copyright is enforced. So, to have safe harbor under Fair Use, we will restrain ourselves to Section I, which contains only ~1000 of the story's ~6000 words. Entries in this this wiki should make limited use of direct quotes from this section (and no use at all from other parts of the story).

What to make of this wiki?

The ideal reader/contributor would only have ever read Section I of TUOT (and no more). It is not necessary to have read any more.

Since this may prove to be an irreversible constraint for many, the next-best alternative would be to put away the story for four or five years until most of the text has been forgotten. At the very beginning of the story, Borges notes that about five years had passed between the discovery of the rogue cyclopaedia in the Buenos Aires home of Bioy Casares, and when he wrote the story. So four or five years should suffice.

Who can contribute?

A few pages on this wiki (such as this home page) are locked. Most other pages can be edited my anyone who has properly forgotten the other sections of TUOT, or never read them in the first place.

Are there any rules?