"They" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

by American writer

Robert A. Heinlein Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...

. It was first published in the April 1941 issue of ''

Unknown Unknown or The Unknown may refer to: Film * ''The Unknown'' (1915 comedy film), a silent boxing film * ''The Unknown'' (1915 drama film) * ''The Unknown'' (1927 film), a silent horror film starring Lon Chaney * ''The Unknown'' (1936 film), a ...

'', and can be found in Heinlein's short story collection ''

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

''. It also appears in a number of multi-author anthologies.

Plot summary

The story concerns an unnamed man who is confined to a

mental institution Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociative ...

because he is suffering from the delusion that he is one of the few "real" entities in the universe, and that the other "real" entities have created the rest of the universe in a conspiracy to deceive him. He spends much of the story engaged in verbal sparring with the psychiatrist who is caring for him, and in pondering his predicament, trying to figure out a way to prove that his belief is true. On the final page of the story, the reader discovers that his belief ''is'' true; the god-like character "the Glaroon" is behind the conspiracy. However, this revelation is kept from the protagonist.

Reception

The story has been noted as "both a paranoid and a

solipsistic Solipsism (; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known ...

fantasy", containing "the most complex discussion of those philosophical matters that have troubled einleinthroughout these early years f his career as a writer"The Heritage of Heinlein: A Critical Reading of the Fiction
by Thomas D. Clareson and Joe Sanders; p. 45; published January 23, 2014 by McFarland & Company Gary K. Wolfe describes it as a "classically paranoid vision of the world", and states that the story only qualifies as fantasy because Heinlein does not offer any explanation of "who or what the Glaroon is and what its motives are".Evaporating Genre: Strategies of Dissolution in the Postmodern Fantastic"
by Gary K. Wolfe, in ''Edging Into the Future: Science Fiction and Contemporary Cultural Transformation'', edited by Veronica Hollinger and Joan Gordon; published 2002 by

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 M ...

References

1941 short stories Short stories by Robert A. Heinlein Virtual reality in fiction Works originally published in Unknown (magazine) {{1940s-sf-story-stub

Plot summary

Reception

See also

References