Even the weird and mysterious things in the thick fog of Misu become "magical animals" rather than "indescribable" when compared with Pickman's paintings.
Pickman does not seem to be a seer. Logically speaking, his knowledge of the mysterious world cannot be more extensive than Victor's, but those paintings prove that the opposite is true.
"I don't know, but sometimes I can see... well, maybe it's not looking with my eyes. It's hard to describe. It's like... there's something superimposed on this world, or maybe it's something that's superimposed on the world.
back'."
back……
Hearing this word, Victor couldn't help but think of the "empty ghost" that ran out of the painting.
Latomond said that ghosts in the sky come from the back side of the world. Victor did not understand the meaning of this sentence at first, until he saw these paintings of Pickman today.
Compared to Victor's confusion, Li Anlong seemed very calm.
As a scholar, he did not show a strong desire for knowledge, but rather had an omniscient sophistication. This made Victor curious and doubted whether the other party knew the meaning of what Pickman said.
"I won't jump to conclusions." Rianlong responded when he found Victor looking at him.
Then Victor asked Pickman to continue.
The painter was full and gradually began to talk more. He recalled a little and immediately took out a piece of paper from his pocket and folded it into a swan. Under the sunlight, the shadow of the paper swan was reflected on the table.
.
"Two gentlemen, please look at this. What I folded out on my hand is a swan, but the projection on the table can change into various different shapes."
As he spoke, Pickman kept turning the paper swan, and the shadow kept changing.
"I wonder if you can understand?"
"What do you want to say?"
"From a real point of view, everyone can see that the paper swan folded in my hand is a paper swan, but from the perspective of the shadow on the table, can you tell what it is? From some angles, you can see that it is a swan, but
From other angles, it is just a shadow, and its true shape cannot be distinguished."
Victor stared at the shadow of the paper swan for a long time and replied: "You mean the projection of the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional plane."
"Yes, yes!" Pickman was very happy that the other party understood, "That's what I meant. Maybe the image I felt was like this."
"Hahaha!" Victor was amused, "You mean, those paintings of yours are high-dimensional projections, that's why they are so bizarre, so strange, and scary?"
"There is a possibility." Pickman said calmly.
Victor spread his hands: "But what does this have to do with the 'back' of all things? As for higher dimensions, you are not a seer, so why can you see higher-level pictures?"
Pickman was excited that someone was willing to discuss his work. He took a sip of orange juice down his throat and explained: "This is my second guess. If it's not a projection of a higher dimension, maybe it's the 'back' of everything."
!”
After saying that, he took apart the paper swan, then took out a pencil and drew on it.
He drew a rooster very quickly but with smooth lines, which highlighted Pickman's solid basic skills.
This couldn't help but remind Victor of Kino. Their sketches were on the same level, even Pickman was a step ahead.
The rooster is lifelike and its feathers are translucent.
Pickman showed the painting to the two people in front of him and asked: "Gentlemen, do you know what this is?"
"Who doesn't know a cock?" Victor replied.
Pickman put down the paper, gave Victor a thumbs up, then turned the painting over and drew an Indian lion on the back.
"Then what is this?"
"Lion?" Victor had never seen a real Indian lion in his life, but he was from the East after all and had heard about or seen photos of that animal in newspapers.
"Okay!" Pickman turned over the front and back of the white paper and showed it to the two of them. There were fixed images on each side, leaving Victor and Rianlong confused as to what he wanted to do.
"You can see that there are real animal images on both sides of this paper, because this paper is thick enough." Pickman finally explained, "Suppose this paper is very thin, or gradually becomes thinner
, then can you still recognize the rooster and the Indian lion?"
This point of view was very novel, and Victor was immediately interested. He saw Pickman lift the paper into the air, and through the light transmittance, the front and back pictures gradually merged together.
The rooster and the Indian lion are glued and overlapped with each other, forming an image that is neither a bird nor an animal.
"This is the back side of the world!" Pickman shouted. "If we superimpose a few more layers, what strange sight will we see? What if the superimposed layers themselves are weird creatures and substances?"
The paintings in the box depict things that are indeed extremely bizarre and absurd. According to Pickman's theory, it is really possible that they are substances created by the superposition of countless images.
There are indescribable monsters and scenery that defies physics and common sense.
If it is true, as he said, that there is a different space on the "backside" of the entire world, then how did Pickman see it?
In any case, Victor had never seen the things in Pickman's paintings. He once again observed the silent Ryan Mabinogion, who was too calm for a person of his age.
Finally, Li Anlong expressed his opinion.
"From an academic perspective, most of the monsters are divided into several broad categories."
"At present, we are likely to encounter those that clearly still exist, which are called 'post-mythological aliens', such as bat-winged demons, unicorns, sirens, etc... It can be seen from the category names that they should all belong to
Creatures that have survived from the mythical age. Of course, we only discuss here monsters that threaten humans or have special abilities, not the birds and beasts around us."
"Then there are uncertain ages. The academic community speculates that creatures that existed even before the mythical era are named 'remnants of the pre-epoch'. Some of them are still living on this land, and some are not sure whether they are extinct.
For example, the Saluba of the Indong Continent are remnants of the previous era, and they are still active today, but it is not certain whether the Wendigo, the devil in the legend of the Valentan people, still exists."
"Then there are those strange and weird creatures brought out from the secret place, which are called secret creatures. They are often difficult to understand. For example, the root cause of death due to 'fascination' is the wriggling protoplasm, and the earliest ghoul is said to be
It was also brought out from the secret place..."
Having said this, Li Anlong paused, began to think, and quickly continued: "But looking at your paintings, they are a bit different from the secret creatures I know. This reminds me of the last scene.
One category is 'virtual creature'."
Virtual Realm creature?
Victor frowned, and Pickman stared at Lianlong curiously.
Li Anlong explained: "The back side of all things you mentioned coincides with the virtual realm discussed in the academic world. Many scholars who understand the invisible art, or seer scholars, believe that the entire world has two sides.
Just like the dualism of the radiant light and the black prince in the homogeneous fortune card, the material world we are currently in, including even secret places, is one plane, and on the back, there is another opposite plane..."