Literary Lattice

i still find it wierd how easy it is to prove to people that something is true merely by using the words "it is written". Quotations and references are so supposedly solid, that nothing else gets taken into consideration. It is the standard human idea to accept that if something has been written down, that makes it real.

I wonder how many people there are writing blogs and on forums just so that their views can be set into this literary lattice. Power is man's greatest vice. Information is the easiest way to achieve it.

Two examples of the beauty of the literary lattice being used are relatively easy to follow and understand. The first example is that of the history of the Griqua. Most South Africans will recognise the name from the rugby team. Ask anyone where the name came from, they will answer something along the lines of "Ya, hey, isn't the Griquas some tribe or land or something?" and the answer is that yes, the griquas were a tribe that existed in the southern tip of Africa; a tribe that never existed.

When dutch settlers arrived in our fair country, they made excursions out into the interior, and encountered few indigenous tribes. the british soon arrived and a few wars broke out but that is not the point. A group of settlers, be they Anthropologists or merely people with wagons and bad logic, came across some of the indigenous tribes who possessed some goats. They asked these tribes where they had acquired they goats, wondering if the creatures had been domesticated or brought in. The reply was "the Brikhoin" traded the goats to them. The next mission was to find these "Brikhoin" who supposedly lived over the hill and far away. In an excursion towards this land of far away, they encountered another tribe, also possessing goats, who said that they too had encountered "The Brikhoin", but in another direction. The explorers then travelled towards this new location, and soon found another tribe who also knew of these elusive Brikhoin. After soon giving up their search, they went off and recorded the line " the indigenous tribes get their goats from the Brikhoin. If they had let any of these tribes read what they had written, they would have recieved strange looks and would have been told to not repeat themselves.

Brikhoin means people who trade goats.

And so the idea of an elusive tribe of nomads who sold goats by the herd was born. The record was then adapted into common understanding by the dutch, the word was changed to "Briqua" and soon we arrive at the term "Griqua", an illusive yet strong tri9be that could probably demolish the entire southern tip of africa due to the power they had gained by selling goats.

All the tribes had meant was that they had bought the goats from other people who had them. anyone else practically, not a single tribe.

And so we have a team of testosterone oozing thugs who parade across a green battlefiled, chasing a strangely shaped ball, beating, kicking and hurling it relentlessly, and showing no conern for their own similarly named organs.

the other example of a literary latttice is in the Bible. often it is mentioned by one of those who stand for God that "Is it not written" or "It is written" and this somehow or other placates the masses. Being a devout christian myself, i know that i tread the grounds of heresy here, but hey, considering the Author of the book referred to, the literary lattice here is fully justified. Just maybe not fully understood...

If Jesus himself can use the words " it is written that..." against the Little Horn when he is alone in the desert and send the Beast off in a fit of rage, then hey, maybe it isn't just us pitiful mortals that are affected by type. Words and letters eem to have more significance than most will understand.

Isn't it wierd when something that was originally used to work out accounting, record the stars and originated with mainly mathematical purpose has become such a powerful and influential tool? Look everywhere around you, see the billboards and screens that shove words in your face all the time. Read the paper, check your sms's, believe everything that is written.

Remember "is it not written so, then it must be true..."