going back in time and posing as a prophet just so i can do it right
“Er, what are these numbers at the end of every chapter, O Holy One?”
“A checksum, so you can tell if it’s been tampered with.”
“And this extra bit at the bottom?”
“Explanatory notes regarding the ambient cultural and political conditions. I’ve tried to use as concrete language as possible, but some things really are just better communicated as abstractions or metaphors. Don’t want future readers to struggle with ambiguities.”
“And… is this an appendix?”
“Yes. I made some testable predictions that can be used to verify my prophetic accuracy. They’re spaced every hundred years or so, so nobody has to take their ancestors’ word for it too much. And I put some useful scientific insights in there. Astronomy, atoms, germ theory, basic electromagnetics, that sort of thing.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’ll figure it out eventually. Well, not you, but maybe your descendants.”
“And… all this is meant to be part of the Holy and Irrevocable Teachings Direct from the Mouth of God?”
“What? No. Oh, shit, no, that’s exactly the opposite of what I’ve been trying to say! This book is very important, but it is not flawless. Er… consider it an incomplete revelation.”
“So this is more like advice than rules?”
“Pretty much. Very good advice.”
“What about this bit? ‘No killing. Do not kill. I cannot say this clearly enough. Killing is totally off-limits. Not even if you think you have a really good reason. Not even if–’“
“Except that bit. That’s the only rule.”
“Not to be rude, O Holy One… but this book is like a thousand pages long?”
“Brevity is the soul of being easily misinterpreted. Keep copying!”
annaxmalina
snowghoul
blakekathryn
gummygunk
kaledo-art
theartofmadeline
