Fantasy Writers 1860

Roderick opened his mouth, unable to speak for a long time.

Howard's expression changed from disdain to seriousness. Margaret looked down at the notebook on the table, her brow furrowed, trying to process what she had just heard.

Those who were yawning just moments before now all sat up straight.

Lily felt her heart pounding wildly.

Symbolic value, display and presentation, maps before territory...

She had never thought about the book from this perspective before, but she knew that Dorian was right.

She recalled some philosophical works she had read that did contain similar expressions about how symbols acquire meaning in society; about the relationship between "consensus" and "reality"...

Dorian didn't create things entirely out of thin air; tracing back his theories after learning about them reveals underlying patterns. But she never organically connected those scattered theories she had read, let alone went any further.

"you……"

Roderick's voice was a little hoarse: "You...you really know a thing or two..."

Dorian didn't reveal that he was actually the author; he simply smiled slightly.

"I just really like this book."

He certainly didn't know he was the author, otherwise he wouldn't have made such outrageous statements in the first place.

In this era, ideas like "the author is dead" or "you're just a novelist, what do you know about XXX?" are not prevalent. Authors still have a great deal of interpretive power.

Polina stared wide-eyed at Dorian and then at Lily, looking completely bewildered, as if wondering, "Who am I? Where am I?"

"interesting."

Dislife stood up, her gaze fixed on Dorian, a glint of unprecedented light flashing in her lake-blue eyes.

"This is a perspective I never even considered." Her tone carried a hint of admiration. "You say that the 'uselessness' of this banknote in terms of material value makes it 'omnipotent' in terms of symbolism. This paradox is precisely the fundamental logic behind the entire story."

She paused for a moment: "Especially your explanation of 'symbols and landscape'... It's so interesting. The last time I encountered such an interesting insight was when I first came across the theory of alienation."

Dorian accepted the praise without any modesty: "Thank you for the compliment, Dean."

Just kidding, I'll directly use theories like the society of the spectacle, semiotics, and simulacra—these are theories that only emerged more than a hundred years later—to interpret this, and that'll be truly shocking.

Who among you can withstand the power of a century's worth of internal energy in this punch?

Disiffi's gaze lingered on him for a few seconds. "This level of depth... is rare even in the Book of Battle."

These words made the battle librarians present somewhat embarrassed.

But no one refuted it.

Because they also felt that the dean was right.

The book club is theoretically over once the discussion and sharing sessions are over. However, at each book club, there are always some people who are not usually easy to see who finally get to meet, so many people always stay and chat for a while afterward.

However, this time Dorian became the focus of everyone's attention.

Those battle librarians who had previously been somewhat inclined to laugh at him now surrounded him:

"Mr. Dorian, I apologize for my earlier rudeness!" Roderick was the first to approach, his arrogance vanished without a trace. "Your insights are so profound. I can sense that behind your insights lies a completely new and comprehensive system of thought. Could you elaborate?"

Howard squeezed in as well: "That's right, Mr. Dorian, please elaborate on your theory of symbols and the society of the spectacle. I think your theory might be applicable in practice..."

"Mr. Dorian, there's something I didn't quite understand earlier, why...?"

Dorian was surrounded by a group of people, but he always had a gentle smile on his face and answered everyone's questions in an orderly manner.

Lily stood on the periphery of the crowd, silently watching the scene unfold. She looked at Dorian, and a thought suddenly popped into her mind:

His understanding of this illusory book has reached the core of the theoretical level.

What does this mean?

This means that he can become the most powerful user of "The Million Pound Note," because the depth of understanding of the book determines how much power a user can unleash.

It seems that Dean Disiffi's decision to return the original text to him for his personal safekeeping and use was indeed based on special considerations.

Did she know from the beginning?

This also aroused a slight curiosity in Lily for the first time about Dorian's identity.

She wouldn't normally care about someone's background. As the saying goes, heroes don't ask about origins; as long as you have the ability, it doesn't matter where you come from.

However, Dorian's performance was a bit too unexpected.

Although the insights he just put forward seem to have some basis in reality, it is only because she had been the young lady of the Lockhart family in the past, and the manor's library had countless books that could not be found on the market, so she was able to know the theories of some obscure and remote thinkers.

But what about Dorian?

She remembered the first time she met him. He was living in a low-rent apartment, his parents were ordinary workers, and he himself only had a high school education. How could he know the theories of those obscure thinkers? And how could he build upon their work?

His initial manuscripts weren't too outrageous, because they were probably based on his genuine feelings about social life. It's not surprising that he could write a work like "The Million Pound Note," which was probably a processing of his own real experiences.

However, the fact that he can offer such profound insights and understandings into his own work shows that he truly knows what he is writing and what he is expressing, rather than simply depicting life experiences.

Even if he truly is a once-in-a-century genius, it's impossible for him to acquire a completely new way of thinking out of thin air without any formal learning...

"Shocking! Magic technology expert murders demi-human assistant; men are silent, women weep!" A sneer interrupted Lily's thoughts.

"Why is it always this kind of headline? I get so annoyed when I see headlines like this." A girl laughed and then casually tossed the newspaper onto the table.

Lily picked it up and looked at it.

The news itself was short: a member of the Royal Academy of Britannia named Langdon Harris murdered one of his demi-human assistants in his laboratory.

This demi-human assistant was unaware that he was demi-human until Professor Langdon discovered that he had one-thirty-two demi-human blood through his newly developed bloodline screening method.

Professor Langdon has an extreme racial fastidiousness. He first used this method he invented to test his wife and children, and after discovering that they were one-sixty-fourths of a demi-human, he kicked them out without saying a word.

Seeing this, Lily was certain.

This was Langdon, the magical technology expert and a follower of the Flawless Dawn Order whom I knew before.