Old-time musicians

"Follow the official map and go to the irregular curved boundaries. After going deeper, you will enter some areas that are difficult to understand. Some have clearly visible weird boundaries, while others are not obvious."

Although Fan Ning was confused by Viadlin's questions, he still combined some of the information Joan told him with his own analysis.

"Existing communication methods have all failed. People who visit have a confused understanding of their own experiences. Most of the people who can return are those who retreated before the onset of extreme sleepiness."

"This shows that the limit of safe exploration of the abnormal zone is 72-96 hours. If you continue to exceed this time without sleep, your mental and physical conditions will not be enough to maintain the ability to explore no man's land and deal with various unknown and complex situations."

Human beings need sleep, and 'dreaming' is even the only natural way for wise people to restore inspiration and nourish their spiritual bodies. The latter may be able to last longer, but if it exceeds 120 hours, the mental state may become a semi-collapse state.

This time also needs to consider the room for exploration and travel. Even if you have the invisible power that can come in handy, and use transportation and carry as much fuel as possible, the depth you can go into may be very shallow.

"It is said that the abnormal area is spreading?" Fan Ning finally tried to confirm.

Viadlin responded affirmatively: "This phenomenon may have started in a period that has not yet been covered by historical records. Judging from the side effects of the documents of the 3rd Sturungarian Dynasty, people's activity areas at that time It’s only on half of the sphere. Now, more than a thousand years have passed, and the scope of the abnormal area has spread a lot.”

In this world where mysticism is popular, there has been no shortage of outstanding astrologers from ancient times to the present. Ancient scholars have long understood that the place where they live is not a "round sky and a square place", but perhaps due to the existence of abnormal areas, they use language in their language. There is no habit similar to the "Earth Narrative" in the world and culture.

——People do not tend to name the earth under their feet as "a certain star or sphere". For example, in the Hoffmann language, there is no subdivided meaning similar to the English earth and world. They just use the word "world" to refer to it generally. From an intuitive perspective, residence is more likely to mean "a combination of several continents and oceans".

Viadlin grasped the marble guardrail high up in the church with both hands and looked at the crowds of heads and jumping lights below: "The most direct influence is the ubiquitous "doomsday narrative" with many versions in various historical periods. Those who know Organizations have always quietly influenced the course of society, whether it is the intimidation of secret organizations or the promotion of ideas by the Zhengshen Church and official schools, they are all very knowledgeable in interpreting them in their own way.”

"Logically understood, this cause is simple and direct: people's living residence is there, which is unique, not infinite, and cannot be transferred. Since the abnormal area is spreading, the world will be completely covered from a certain day on. In the aberration zone.”

"Of course there is another subtle point here. Judging from the length of one generation, the average spread of the abnormal area is not much compared to the vast world -"

"On the one hand, people have enough time to use their imaginations, and 'doomsday theory' will not lead to excessive social disorder. On the other hand, for those in power or extraordinary organizations in various periods of history, it is not so much a 'reality' 'The problem is rather an 'academic' problem, an 'ideological' problem or a 'concept' problem."

Fan Ning nodded in understanding when he heard this: "Compared to war, famine and power struggles, compared to the temptation of invisible forces, or the approaching threat of aging, it does seem less urgent, but it is related to the mystery of high status. It is something that every official extraordinary organization needs to face up to, and those in power in each period may pay more attention to it, because they all imagined that their dynasties would be in power for eternity.”

"So, is there a cause? A source of a trait, a cause of its origin, or a cause of its diffusion?"

"Discussion group." Viadlin spoke out the phrase one by one, syllable by syllable, and then stretched out his hand to slowly touch the guardrail. "Its full name is: Discussion Group for Investigation into the Causes of the Proliferation of Abnormal Areas and Related Matters."

Hearing the full name, Fan Ning's eyes narrowed as he looked at the lights below the church.

"Since the victory of the Steam Revolution two hundred years ago and the birth of the new industrialized empire of Tiorain, the first generation leader of the Special Patrol Office, an extraordinary organization that entered the historical stage, pushed various official extraordinary organizations to form a discussion group. Its first The first principle is that it is not used to coordinate all conflicts, but is only used to discuss and coordinate matters related to the abnormal area. "

"An official knowledgeable person, as long as he is not crazy, will not think that the spread of abnormal areas is a good thing. However, this principle is still too idealistic. Affairs in the mysterious field must involve substantial interests, not to mention the influence of each organization on the spread of abnormal areas. The understanding will be different, and the interpretation of the doomsday or the method of coping will also be different. Judging from the past so many years, the discussion group has only played the role of 'temporarily preventing conflicts from completely intensifying' in terms of interest coordination. "

"But there are two modifiers to the full name of the discussion group." Fan Ning said, "As for the former's cause investigation function, I guess that with so many leaders of extraordinary organizations gathered together, there must be some valuable discovery, right?"

"So, sometimes we think that the strongest among humans can talk about difficult mysteries, but when we calm down and think about it, higher mysteries are still unreachable illusions." Viadlin shook his head and smiled.

"In the more than a hundred years since the formation of the discussion group, the senior leaders of various extraordinary organizations have been endlessly exploring the areas of organizational disorder, because there are not only fascinating mysteries there, but also many ancient ruins that have been dormant. The latter means that Dust-covered secret histories, ritual vessels or hidden documents.”

"In the end, it can be said that nothing was gained. Apart from the loss of a large number of personnel - the official knowledgeable people who led the team and the violators or criminals who 'repented for their crimes', the only ones left behind were those who had been building at the border. forward posts or repair strongholds that were later engulfed by the abnormal zone.”

"But about half a century ago, the progress of the investigation took a turn. The Special Patrol Office notified the major extraordinary organizations of the latest research conclusions of their leader Poglič."

"This is a conclusion that sounds incredible and even absurd at first. But after the Special Patrol Office put the irrefutable facts in front of everyone, everyone found that they had to admit that it might really be correct. ”

"Incredible? Ridiculous?" Fan Ning couldn't help but feel strong curiosity, "What is the conclusion?"

Viadlin held his hands tightly on the handrail: "Since its establishment, the discussion group has been secretly dispatching knowledgeable people from all over the world and secular military forces from various countries to monitor the spread of the abnormal zone, including the real-time location of the spreading border. The update includes the new total area data and local area data that are spread every year. Although it is difficult to coordinate the interests of various extraordinary organizations, the degree of cooperation among everyone is still relatively high. "

"Then they found that during those periods when human artistic development was in a state of prosperity, the abnormal area spread relatively less, and conversely, it spread over a larger area."

"What kind of ridiculous connection is this!?" Fan Ning's eyes widened.

"The 'absurdity' you described is indeed correct." Judging from Viadlin's demeanor, he still has disbelief on his expression. "This conclusion cannot be demonstrated theoretically, and the phenomenon cannot be found." But when the Special Patrol Office listed the monitoring data, everyone found that the two were indeed related, without exception. "

"From the establishment of the discussion group to the conclusion made by the Special Inspection Office, it almost covers the period of authentic art, so the statistical data is relatively complete. The 'development and prosperity of human art' mentioned here is a general term, it is 'individual' The concept of integration with 'total'——"

"'Individual' categories include: the year of the release of an important symphony or an important painting by an art master, the time of a historically significant art exhibition, concert, or record release, the time of the birth of a new genre or style , a landmark year of breakthrough in art theory, etc.”

"The 'overall' category includes, for example: the number of concerts in a certain country throughout the year, the performance activity of major symphony orchestras, the activity of exhibitions of major painting schools, art professionals or young people with lower levels than masters The new number of artists entering the public eye, the market recognition or annual output value of the cultural and art industry, etc.”

"By counting, summarizing and comprehensively calculating these dimensions, we can use years as units to roughly evaluate the prosperity of human art development every year, and then compare it with the monitoring data of the spread of abnormal areas, and we will get this result. An incredible conclusion.”

"For example, someone deliberately chose an example with a small perspective but a large weight: Maestro Gilles and his Ninth Symphony."

"The work was first performed in 858 of the New Calendar. In that year, the spread area of ​​the abnormal area fell to the bottom within 50 years, and remained at a low and slow climbing trend for several consecutive years until the master's death in 863. The diffusion area suddenly rebounded and began to fluctuate under the combined influence of other factors, but then there were two low-value years, namely 873 and 877——"

"Because the former was the first 10th anniversary of the master's death, there was a craze around the world to perform the Ninth Symphony in memory of the master, which produced a number of outstanding conductors and gave birth to more than a dozen scenes worthy of being recorded in history. The latter may have nothing to do with Gilles, but the symphonic poem "Awakening" by the romantic master Rolfing and the piano music and painting collection "Steam and Speed" by Master Svelinck are two landmark works here at the same time. Performed in one year”

Hearing this, Fan Ning suddenly recalled the discovery that caught his attention at the beginning of time travel.

Artists in this world seem to have a higher social status than in previous lives.

After Fan Ning first glimpsed the mystery, he believed that the reason was that the core of the knowing person was "hidden knowledge" and "inspiration", and the artist directly accounted for one.

Looking at it now, is this just the superficial reason?

The high status of artists in this world and the prosperity of the world's cultural and art industries are probably related to the more intentional promotion and promotion of major extraordinary organizations and powerful people.

Especially compare two important nodes on the mysterious side and the artistic side:

The time when the discussion group was established is roughly equal to the time when the steam revolution was completed and when orthodoxy began.

The discussion group discovered this phenomenon at a time roughly equal to the end of orthodoxy and the beginning of the more prosperous Romanticism.

"Under such irrefutable objective facts, extraordinary organizations began to face up to this problem." Viadlin said.

"We conducted a deconstructive analysis of the concept of 'art career prosperity' and found that it can be roughly divided into two categories: artists, and artistic works - such as the birth, fame and death of artists; such as the emergence, dissemination and repercussions of artistic works. ”

"Therefore, in order to make a more reasonable value evaluation of artists and guide the prosperity of human art, it is crucial to find a guiding theory."

"The discussion group followed this clue and found that ancient scholars had actually reflected this kind of thinking in some hidden classics. They absorbed these theories, combined with the needs of mysticism and artistic practice, and defined the concept of 'ge'. "

"'Ge' refers to the sum of the degree to which an artist or work of art has been recognized and remembered by the world over the course of history."

"Based on this definition, we can deduce several important characteristics of 'lattice'."

"First of all, since 'lattice' is the sum of cognition and remembrance, it can still exist after a person's death. Both artists and works of art have 'lattice'. Generally speaking, the latter is attached to the former, but both have Relative independence - there may be unpopular works in the catalog of masters, and some artists who are in the second or third tier of art history may have one or two masterpieces that are famous enough to rival the masters. "

"Secondly, although the evaluation of 'character' is subjective, it is a kind of 'collective subjectivity'. The discussion group or inspection team does not have the power to decide whether a person's 'character' is high or low. What can be determined is the 'long history' Everyone who knows and remembers him', take the topic discussion just now as an example. Rather than saying that we are 'evaluating' your 'character', it is better to say that we are 'measuring' your 'character' based on experience. "

"Finally, the 'pattern' changes all the time, and is sometimes unpredictable, but there is also a fatalistic element. After the artist's death, his catalog of works has been finalized. These works may remain unknown for a long time, but they will be published a hundred years later. When the world discovers value, it may become popular in the market today, but be gradually forgotten in ten or twenty years.”

Viadlin's tone became meaningful at this moment.

"It seems that there is uncertainty about how the world will recognize your 'character'. A diligent and pure artist, or a pioneer of avant-garde ideas, may not have as good a level of 'character' as those in the market throughout his life. Someone who has gained a wide following”

"But if time is extended, history will always give a fair evaluation to the sleeper."