Centuries and centuries of idealism have not failed to influence reality. In the very oldest regions of Tlön, it is not an uncommon occurrence for lost objects to be duplicated. Two people are looking for a pencil; the first one finds it and says nothing; the second finds a second pencil, no less real, but more in keeping with his expectations.

These secondary objects are called hrönir and, even though awkward in form, are a little larger than the originals. [...]

One curious fact: the hrönir of second and third degree - that is, the hrönir derived from another hrön, and the hrönir derived from the hrön of a hrön - exaggerate the flaws of the original; those of fifth degree are almost uniform; those of ninth can be confused with those of the second; and those of the eleventh degree have a purity of form which the originals do not possess. The process is a recurrent one: the hrön of the twelfth degree begins to deteriorate in quality. [...]

Things duplicate themselves in Tlön. They tend at the same time to efface themselves, to lose detail when people forget them. The classic example is that of a stone threshold which lasted as long as it was visited by a beggar, and which faded from sight on his death. Occasionally, a few birds, a horse perhaps, have saved the ruins of an amphitheater. [...]

Jorge Luis Borges

"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"

May 1940