"The Illusionist" - A historical fiction written by Christopher Sean Batt COMING SOON: An actual "book", available in audiobook format and bound manuscript, manufactured on-demand. THE PITCH: Human commmunication first conveyed meaning literally in “hard copy” around 3200 BC. Using pictograms, the ancient Mesopotamians invented the cuneiform script in Sumer (present-day Iraq). This allowed our ancestors to agree on specific definitions and meanings by implementing a system of clay tokens. _________________________ / /| / ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ / | / █▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▄▀▀▀█ / | | █ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ █ | | | █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ | | <-- Stylized cuneiform signs | █ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀ █ | / | █▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█ | / |________________________|/ While initially used for accounting goods, their “writing” transitioned into two-dimensional pictographic signs impressed on clay tablets around 3100 BC. These pictographs represented commodities and were accompanied by numerals to indicate quantities. Business transactions and resource management were the first and vital use case for writing systems. Over time, cuneiform developed phonetic elements and became a complex system capable of expressing a wide range of human experience by about 2600-2500 BC. Alphabetical writing is believed to have been developed around 1800 BC by workers in the Sinai Peninsula to write West Semitic languages. This script, known as the Proto-Sinaitic script, emerged in the context of cultural exchanges between Semitic-speaking peoples from the Levant and Egyptian communities. It adapted some letterforms from Egyptian hieroglyphs but assigned them West Semitic sound values, representing primarily consonants (an abjad). This early alphabetic system laid the foundation for later alphabets such as the Phoenician alphabet (c. 1050 BC), which in turn influenced the Greek alphabet (8th century BC) that introduced vowel representation, and subsequently many modern alphabets including Latin. Arguably, today's most sought-after characteristic and function of the written (and read) word, is its ability to translate and enshrine relatable values and subjective experiences between Humans with diverse backgrounds, mental programming, and perspectives. It is also the most difficult function of this most important invention of a tool (technology). We must preserve and extend its use if we are to maintain and grow the survival mechanism of critical thinking, to build a healthy future for our children. This work of historical fiction is a collection of scenes meant to convey the risks and rewards of Humankind's relentless pursuit of "more"; in this case "more spirituality", for which the written word has been irrevocably used in that service. The Holy Bible of Christianity, to name only one such script, is the most famous and reproduced work of historic Human sense-memory to date. All "spiritual" works, both amateur and professionally sourced, form the tapestry of our collective quest to understand ourselves and our meaning of life and death, and perhaps beyond the veil of the unknown metaphysical construct we call the Universe. In science, prose, lyric, and narratives of all types, this drum marches us on through the process of commmmuncation with our fellow souls, reminding us that it is about the journey, never the destination. The relentless pursuit of temporary experiences of bliss, and the inevitable permanence of something "more" leads some of us on a harrowing and terrifying (but worthy) roller-coaster of self-discovery and sharing with others. We would be wise to speak more about these risks and presumed rewards, thus helping one another be prepared for this life of the seeker's path. 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