Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Conventions Used in this Manual

For the purpose of clarity, allow me to take a moment to specify the conventions which will be observed in the following pages. What may appear to be tedious now, and I must reluctantly admit that in this case the appearance may be indistinguishable from the reality (in fact this is certain to be the case), will in fact reap unimaginable benefits to the reader in the future: the numbing prose set down here will allow a more streamlined experience in the pages to come. However, the hopeful tone of the foregoing carries with it an implicit warning: if the pages immediately following are bypassed, the entirety of the manual may seem incoherent and nonsensical. Reader, be warned.

But first, a few preliminary words on the manner in which these conventions were chosen and the substrata, so to speak, that underlie their relations to the particularities under discussion. For there is a grammar of grammars and a meta-syntax; and in order to tie together the systems, objects, and their relationships in order that (shortly!) the pace may be brisk and the meaning unambiguous,  it is imperative that every term in use be aligned as on a grid with every other term, so fixedly, so immutably, so fatally, that no false or misleading meanings can escape, every word a metaphorical space ship spiraling around a black hole, falling forever into an oblivion of unmistakable, tautological meaning. So, with all of this clarified, let us carry on to the heart of the matter.

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