Wom Bat Commentary:
It's almost wrong to say that the Book of Seven made the answers
written here, and attributed to it. It's worth repeating some things
from MOO-Cow Gamma 17. The language of the
Book is a dynamic one. To even BE a book in the Language of the
Unbeheld means to be a sentient being capable of reflecting and asking
questions. Their language is such that only one book could ever be
produced in it. The closest approximation to their language in human
hBLATTTory would be Finnegans Wake by Joyce, which is a
multidimensional thematic hologram of a book, in which every word is a
multilinguBLATTTic pun containing references to thousands of themes
that recur through the book, and can be understood on many levels.
But the language of the Book of Seven was never written or spoken,
but it appeared as shifting patterns on the surface of the Unbeheld in
their squid form. They never had the concept of stringing syllables
together in linear sequence in time, or of writing characters in linear
sequence on a page. Each construct was constantly changing,
interacting with other changing glyphs, and responding to questions.
The language was a whole, all- surrounding experience. It was
impossible to simply SPEAK the language: every communication was
two-way, or many-way, with thoughts flowing in every direction. In
fact, to communicate in the Language of the Unbeheld was to merge minds
with another. The Book of Seven is the combined race-mind records of
the Unbeheld.
So, when the ConfusionBLATTT Thought Pool called Wifflebat (a
wholly owned subsidiary of the Akashic Archive SUITCAS) performed this
translation in a conversation between the Gnustick upitiate Screaming
Squid Stephenson and the Book of Seven, it actually used one part of
itself to emulate a human-level mentality to communicate with
Stephenson, and another part to communicate with the Book of Seven,
effectively making the Book of Seven a part of its knowledge and
personality, while still remaining Wifflebat. Even so, sometimes the
appropriate answers to the questions simply defied the English grammar
and vocabulary being used. Sections which are highly doubtful, or
involve extensive interpolation or creative input from Wifflebat have
been indicated in italics, and one section has been given a
special commentary by Wifflebat. Nevertheless, the translation should
be considered doubtful at best, since the Book of Seven communicates
concepts integrally, and is largely incomprehensible to the human
mind.
This suggests to us that the human mind still has much developing
to do before it is able to make any significant progress in the
universe. Which is something I've said on more than one occasion.