Take the epigram that opens Baudrillard's monograph Simulacra and Simulation. It reads,
The simulacrum is never what hides truth—it is truth that hides the fact that there is none. The simulacrum is true. —EcclesiastesIf you know the Bible as well as I do (and I know it quite well, thank you very much), you can perceive immediately that his epigram is in fact not found in Ecclesiastes or anywhere else in Scripture. Baudrillard invented this epigram and wrote it in such a way that it behaves as a simulacrum. To most people who have scant biblical reading, this epigram would pass as a true biblical passage.
In the same way, Borges has written a short story that is a simulacrum. The story simulates an excerpt that may be found in a Spanish 17th century manuscript or book. It claims to be written by Suárez Miranda, and the title claims to be Viajes de varones prudentes ("Travels of Prudent Gentlemen"). The excerpt claims to be from book four, chapter XLV (chp. 45), and it claims to be published in Lérida, a Catalan speaking part of Spain, in the year 1658. But if one searches for this excerpt through the archives and libraries, one finds no such book.
Borges is not practicing literary forgery, though he is certainly playing games with his readers: he is simulating 17th century Spanish texts.
This is not the first time Borges plays this game. In his stories he frequently alludes to fictional books by imaginary authors, The First Encylopedia of Tlön, A General History of Labyrinths, and The Secret Mirror among others. And neither is he the first to play this game: Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift wrote treatises under the pseudonym Martinus Scriblerus.
But Borges is the first, perhaps, to play with simulation seriously.
