Why Did I Write This?

Preface II

[Ebal’s Plea, two of thirty-two]

For one, by this story I am enthralled.

Few could not be. While it is set in this galaxy, even this planet, it is in historical terms a long, long time ago, far before Caesar, Hannibal, or Alexander. Consider that ghostly Homer spun his supernatural laced tales of a time a half millennium before his days. Yet, our saga begins a century, if not three, before Achilles’ epic feats, the Battle of Troy, and Odysseus’ journey home.

Plus it is a story about writing by a people reconned as unable to do so. By that I mean unable to write in a way that you or I would find understandable without extensive scholarly training in things like hieroglyphics or cuneiform. No, this is writing that after only a short alphabet and vocabulary lesson you can read—read as if it was a news feed on whatever device from which you usually get such.

Well, I have to walk that back a bit. We would have to account for the boustrophedon track. Some ambiguities that adds to the message but without necessarily blurring its gist. This I will explain later.

Nevertheless, this story is about us actually reading the thoughts recorded by the hand of someone who lived around 3500 years ago.

But it goes beyond that. Fantastically, the thoughts related seem to detail of events and personages we know, ones believed by many the stuff of mythology—that is Moses, Joshua, and the Hebrews of the Conquest.

Yet, beyond its interesting nature there is another more compelling reason for my writing. 

It is this: A tragedy impends. Of such I needed to alert and offer aid at averting.

A fuller forecast of this danger I discuss later.

In the next post, however, I give a nutshell version.

Next post: “Why the Fuss?”