Chapter 1016 "The Author is Dead"
Before arriving at the Hall of Mirrors, Aiwas knew that he would definitely encounter a wild phantom demon.
After all, this place encompasses almost the entire realm of the Path of Beauty. It's directly influenced by a Pillar God and two Celestial Officials, and it connects the thoughts and subconscious minds of all artists in the material world... It's impossible to say there aren't some uncanny elements here.
People who are engaged in art are a little crazy.
Being too mentally normal and too stable is actually not conducive to continuous creation - the saying "a good article hates failure" is probably true.
"——But having said that, these things are too weird!"
Aiwass blurted out as he walked quickly forward. Yassen nodded repeatedly, deeply convinced.
The first few rooms were all routes Aiwass knew well. He was so familiar with them that he even knew where hidden areas were while traversing the map. If necessary, even though his movement speed was definitely not as fast as that of the thief Yassen, Aiwass was still confident that he could easily shake him off.
But after running through four rooms following the related recommendations of "Viewers who viewed this painting were also viewing", he finally entered a room that Aiwass had never been to in his previous life, and Aiwass's "running speed" also became noticeably slower.
Because of the relevance of a painting, one cannot simply look at the surface, but must also analyze its inner meaning.
For example, if the Candlemas Chapel is burning, it is definitely not just a matter of "there is a fire here"; and if you see people sitting in a small boat, it is possible that they are not a group out for an outing, but that they have just escaped from a sinking ship.
When seeing two armies fighting, it is possible that the painting is depicting the brutality of war; but if one can recognize that the two armies actually belong to the same country and that this is a misunderstanding or rebellion that should not have happened, then the painting will be somewhat mixed with irony and criticism.
——Maybe it would be much better if Isabel were here.
But Aiwass's artistic accomplishment is really not enough.
Although Aiwass had been able to explain the situation clearly when he first encountered the camera spirit, that was actually the correct answer given by Janice from the future. Aiwass was actually just copying the answer. He had actually only seen a few paintings himself, let alone analyzed them and found connections.
Fortunately, this isn't a "painting," but a video or perhaps a game—every corner of the world in this painting is explorable. Even the "NPCs" who come and go, and who ignore them, can be spoken to.
In this way, even if you don’t know the meaning here, you can roughly understand the meaning and rules here.
Just one thing...
If you stay in the same space for too long, the "NPCs" inside will turn into monsters.
Because when no one is observing or appreciating a painting, it is just a painting. But if this painting is being viewed, investigated, and studied... then it becomes a collection of information whose meaning is flowing and being decompressed.
This is what is called "the author is dead." This is also the core concept of the Hall of Mirrors.
When a work is fully created, the author loses the right to interpret it. A modern work of art cannot be completely original; it must be based on some or several mature cultures and draw nourishment from them.
Take, for example, the painting "The Destruction of the Candlemas Chapel." Its significance requires an understanding of the Church of the Nine, the Candlemas, the relationship between Iris and the Theocracy, the political status of the Chapel, the existence of the Children of the Moon, and how the Iris people view the relationship between the Theocracy and the Children of the Moon... Only then can one fully grasp it. These various "prerequisites" are the cultural foundation that gave rise to this painting.
In other words, because different interpreters have different cultural backgrounds, life experiences, races, ages, and perspectives, their interpretations of the same work of art are naturally and inevitably different. So who is the "absolutely correct interpreter"?
The author is naturally the most qualified person to be the author. However, the least likely person to be the author is the author—because even the author himself has changed after creating this artwork, and has become significantly different from before the creation. Just like a person cannot step into the same river twice.
Likewise, it cannot belong to anyone. So from another perspective, it can belong to everyone.
Therefore, all art interpreters are actually reconstructing the work with their own life, culture, knowledge, perception, emotion, and interest, creating a new copy independent of the main body.
In this process, the interpreter of beauty is the mirror!
Some mirrors are perfect, others imperfect; some are clean, others filthy. Some are foggy, others are simply polished metal, and some are even distorted funhouse mirrors. They all reflect the same real object in different ways… just as interpreters offer different understandings of the same work of art.
When any "outsider" who does not belong to this painting stays in this space for too long, distortion will begin to occur.
But while some "monsters" appear, it's not these "NPCs" who have transformed into phantoms—more accurately, the space itself is a phantom. And those individuals within it are merely part of the artwork. They aren't individuals with independent souls, but rather the hands and feet, eyes and mouth of the painting.
Now "this painting" has changed its expression to look at you, and thus a fantasy monster named "Art Spirit" was born.
——The first phantom demons that Aiwass and his group encountered were the guests who fought at the palace funeral.
They were superficially united but spiritually at odds with each other, and after Aiwass and the others stayed for a long time, they finally seemed to lose their patience and started fighting.
Apparently, due to Aiwass and Yasen's misunderstanding, these Iris nobles and ministers suddenly started fighting at the funeral, even directly affecting them.
Fortunately, the phantom demons at this stage were relatively easy to deal with. Even without Aiwass or Vines making a move, they were easily dispatched by Yassen.
The second wave of phantom demons transformed into a fairytale-style palace. After they had investigated for too long, the soldiers in playing card armor began to pursue them. By this stage, Yassen's power was clearly insufficient, forcing Aiwass to take action.
In the third wave, they began to appear in a manor house.
The guests were feasting and drinking, each with their own agenda, while a storm raged outside. Before Aiwass could investigate, they suddenly transformed into a group of Moon Children, overturned the tables, and attacked them—undoubtedly due to Venis's subconscious influence.
Just when she thought things would turn out that way, that's exactly what happened.
May all your wishes come true!
The strength of these Moonchildren has been further enhanced compared to before, each one almost as powerful as the original Red Phase—which is naturally impossible. If they were truly that powerful, Iris would have fallen long ago. However, the strongest Moonchildren in Venes's memory were roughly this level. When she began to doubt them, they gained power from the Hall of Mirrors and manifested.
——Starting from the fourth wave, the situation began to become bizarre.
In addition to the artwork itself being transformed into a phantom due to this uncontrolled "wishes coming true", there are even phantoms from the outside world that sneak in out of curiosity.
A candy house that climbed up and transformed into a man-eating monster; a ghost that emerged from a dilapidated castle; a pianist playing a flesh-and-blood piano; a white-robed flute player in ancient style with a sword at his waist; a solo choir with three heads, one man and two women; a skeleton drummer with four arms; a lizard man concentrating on playing a guitar that breathes fire; a fairy singer the size of a butterfly; a perverted painter who uses a sword as a brush and his body as canvas; a headless conductor; and three seemingly ordinary rock bands whose styles are different from those of the people around them...
The more you run, the more people you see.
Aiwas even suspected that most of the phantom demons in the Path of Beauty had gathered here!
(End of this chapter)
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