Shepherd Tantra

Chapter 1016 "The Author is Dead"

Before arriving at the Hall of Mirrors, Aiwass knew that he would definitely encounter a wild phantom demon.

After all, this place covers almost the entire realm of the Path of Beauty. It has the direct influence of a pillar god and two celestial officials, and is also connected to the thoughts and subconsciousness of all artists in the material world... It is definitely impossible to say that there is nothing weird here.

People who are engaged in art are more or less crazy.

Being too mentally normal and too stable is actually not conducive to sustained creation - this is probably what is meant by "a good article is a failure in life".

"——But having said that, these things are too weird!"

Aiwass said this as he walked forward quickly. Yassen nodded repeatedly, agreeing with him.

The first few rooms were all routes that Aiwas knew. He was so familiar with them that he even knew where there were hidden places when he was running around. If necessary, Aiwas was still confident that he could easily get rid of him, even though his movement speed was definitely not as fast as that of the thief Yassen.

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 Aiwas had never been to in his previous life, and Aiwas' "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 was burning, it was definitely not just a fire; and if people were seen sitting on a small boat, it could be that they were not a group out for an outing, but that they had just escaped from a sinking ship.

Seeing two armies fighting, it is possible that the painting is depicting the cruelty of war; but if one can recognize that the two armies actually belong to the same country, and this is a misunderstanding or rebellion that should not have happened, then the painting will be more or less mixed with irony and criticism.

——It might be better if Isabel were here.

But Aiwass's artistic accomplishment is not enough.

Although Aiwass could explain it clearly when he first met the camera spirit, that was actually the correct answer given by Janice in the future. Aiwass was actually just copying the answer. He had actually seen very few paintings, let alone analyzing their inner qualities and finding correlations.

Fortunately, this is not a "painting" at all, but a video or a game - every corner of the world in this painting can be explored. Those "NPCs" who come and go and ignore them can also be talked 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 will become 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 completely 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 some mature culture and draw nourishment from these cultures.

Just like the painting "The Candlemas Chapel Destroyed", its meaning requires understanding the Ennead Church, 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 in this way can we fully understand it. And these various "prerequisites" are the cultural foundation for the birth of this painting.

In other words, because different interpreters have their own cultural backgrounds, life experiences, races, ages, and positions, their interpretations of the same artwork are naturally and necessarily different. So who is the "absolutely correct interpreter"? The author is naturally the most qualified to be the interpreter. But the least likely person is the author - because even the author himself has changed after creating this artwork, and there are obvious differences between him and 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 that is independent of the main body.

In this process, the interpreter of beauty is the mirror!
Some mirrors are perfect, some are flawed; some are clean, some are dirty. Some are foggy, some are just polished metal, and some are even distorted funhouse mirrors. They reflect different images of the same real object... just like interpreters give different understandings to 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 although some "monsters" appeared, it was not that these "NPCs" turned into phantoms - to be precise, these spaces themselves were a kind of phantom. And those individuals were just part of this artwork. They were not individuals with independent souls, but the hands and feet, eyes and mouth of this 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 companions encountered were the guests who fought at a palace funeral.

They were originally in appearance but not in spirit, and after Aiwass and his companions stayed for a long time, they finally seemed to be unable to bear it anymore and started fighting——

It seemed that because of Aiwas and Yasen's misunderstanding, these Iris nobles and ministers suddenly started fighting at the funeral site, and even directly affected them.

Fortunately, the phantom demons at this stage were relatively easy to deal with. They were easily killed by Yassen without Aiwass and Vines having to take action.

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The second wave of phantoms turned into a fairytale-style palace. After they investigated for too long, the soldiers in playing card armor began to chase them. At this stage, Yassen's power was obviously not enough, forcing Aiwass to take action.

In the third wave, they began to appear in a manor house.

The guests were eating and drinking with their own intentions, while outside there was a storm. Before Aiwass could investigate, they suddenly turned into a group of Moon Children, overturned the table and attacked them - this was undoubtedly the subconscious influence of Venis.

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 Moon Children has been further improved compared to before. Each of them is almost as strong as the first generation Red Phase - this is naturally impossible. If they were really that strong, then Iris would have fallen long ago. However, the strongest Moon Child in Venes' memory was about this level. When she had doubts, 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 uncontrollable "wishes coming true", there are even phantoms from the outside world that sneak in out of curiosity.

The candy house that climbed up and turned into a man-eating monster, the ghost that crawled out of the dilapidated castle, the pianist who played a flesh-and-blood piano, the ancient white-robed flute player with a sword on his waist, the soprano section of a one-man choir with three heads, one man and two women, the skeleton drummer with four arms, the lizard man who focused on playing a guitar that could breathe fire, the fairy singer who was only the size of a butterfly, the perverted painter who used the sword as a pen and the human body as a canvas to create, a headless conductor, and three rock bands that looked ordinary but had a different style from those around them...

The more you run, the more people there are.

Aiwas even suspected that most of the phantom demons in the Path of Beauty had gathered here!
(End of this chapter)