Chapter 1677

"What exactly is madness?"

Schiller stood up from the sofa and walked to the screen, scanning the circle with those distracted gray pupils, and it seemed as if he hadn't seen anything. And those people within his gaze immediately found something different. This time, the morbid one who appeared didn't look so calm and mysterious, but seemed to be full of a passion that ordinary people couldn't understand.

He stood in the center of the room like a great orator and asked everyone questions. He seemed to be looking forward to the answer, but seemed to be looking forward to interpreting the answers given by others. A strong desire to comment and tell made him look like an artist exploring his inner self, and also like a hunter chasing answers outward.

"Pathologically speaking, all the madness people feel is because there is a problem with the way their brains work."

Bruce gave an answer first, but everyone knew that this extremely rational view must be followed by a turning point. Sure enough, "but" appeared like a hound chasing a rabbit, in a way that people couldn't see clearly.

"But the most meaningful part of the research on madness is never how this morbid brain works after a problem occurs, but how it actually goes wrong. This involves a series of complex sociology, psychology, and psychiatry problems, which can be called a comprehensive discipline."

"And if any researcher does not focus on this process, but brushes over it, or this process is compressed into a very short time, and is accomplished in one move by a mysterious existence that doesn't need much explanation at all, then we say this is moving further and further away from madness."

Schiller nodded gently, but he didn't comment immediately, but turned his head to look at Pamela again. Pamela showed an attitude of I agree with him, but I still have my own point of view to say. She sorted out the language slightly and then said.

"The moment of madness is like a dividing line. The world before and after that is completely different for human individuals. And the part we call art is not what is after this dividing line, but the first half of a madman's life as a normal person that created the madness."

"Suffering cannot shape strength, but tragedy must produce art. The part we need to taste carefully is the part of human tragedy reflected in the human race that is lost in form and quality in the human social structure, lost in meaning and emotion in the process of interpersonal communication, and lost in heart and morality in the process of self-experience."

"If the accumulated fruits of human civilization are like high towers above the ground, interpreting how our rational logic creates miracles, then the madness caused by these tragedies is like the abyss below the ground. It explains how our chaos creates art. Except for some exaggerated sophists, anyone must admit that this is a part of beauty in human thought."

Bruce turned to look at Pamela. He knew that Pamela hardly understood Schiller's palace of thinking, but she still used a precise and astonishing metaphor to describe everything about Schiller's thinking. This was simply an inspiration carefully cast by God, a treasure gifted with madness, and no rational analysis could replace it.

"But usually, this group of gods, I mean, the group I know, the gods in our universe who can bring madness to people, we usually call them existences in the depths of the stars. They just exist. Humans go crazy because they observe and listen to them, but it's just because humans cannot understand their existence. They are more like a natural disaster, just the way of expression is not directly visible."

Strange said so, but he was not trying to excuse the gods. He just wanted to take this opportunity to understand why this was, and what significance this madness, which most of them could not experience or understand, had.

"I understand what you mean." Constantine nodded and said, "They just exist. Humans go crazy when they try to understand them. This madness is not imposed by them, so whose sin is this?"

"Is it?" Schiller asked, "That child, the girl who attacked Harley, went crazy because she communicated with the existence in the depths of the stars? What about the previous one?"

"I'm not entirely sure." Strange replied, "The connection with the Demon God is more like a fatalism. It's hard to say whether the believer found the Demon God or the Demon God chose the believer, so this kind of accident often occurs—the two sides are incompatible, and because the Demon God is too powerful, it is always humans who get hurt."

"But we can't turn all children into flowers in a greenhouse because of this, letting them not come into contact with powerful existences in the universe. That is just a slow death for humans. Someone must stand up."

"Do you think these crazy attacks in the school are just the consequences of failed communication with the Demon God?"

Strange was silent, because he could clearly hear that the Schiller exuding a dangerous atmosphere in front of him had a different view, and he actually couldn't be completely sure whether this was just an accident.

"This brings us back to what madness is. Let's take our thinking away from philosophy and symbolism and just talk about practical things. When a mental patient who has fallen into madness attacks others, is there a clear tendency in the choice of victims?"

Everyone present frowned. This was a question they had to think about. Constantine hesitated and said, "I heard that many mental patients attack others because they see hallucinations, and in the hallucinations, others become monsters."

"Is the way he sees hallucinations regular? Is it destined to see that kind of terrible hallucination on people who are weaker than him and unable to resist after he attacks?"

"Nonsense." Strange shook his head and said, "There is no such possibility at all. If the disorder of the brain affects the visual and auditory nerves, then the visual and auditory confusion brought about by nerve abnormality is completely random. There cannot be any reliable regularity, otherwise it would not be called confusion."

The others' brows frowned deeper. Obviously, they realized a problem: why would the attackers of the campus crazy attack case attack lower-grade humans so purposefully?

"We often hear about such cases." Schiller began to pace in front of the screen, lowered his head slightly and said, "A mental patient ran onto the street, holding a sharp weapon to cut women, the elderly, or children, and was judged not guilty because of his illness."

"But usually, a responsible psychiatrist will not issue a mental diagnosis that such a person was in the onset period when committing the crime, because mental patients who have truly developed symptoms of nerve disorder cannot choose attack targets."

"The aggression they show is more out of the need for self-defense after seeing dangerous hallucinations. The vast majority of injury cases caused by mental patients are caused by sudden physical collisions in close contact with medical staff."

"No real madman can hold a sharp weapon, successfully open the door, walk down the stairs without falling, rush to the street, and carefully choose an almost unable-to-resist target to harm when he is ill. Mental illness is just an excuse for defense."

After Schiller finished speaking, he looked at Bruce. Bruce shrugged his shoulders without caring at all and said, "Just like Joker, he is the opposite of madness. His logic is rigorous, his plan is meticulous, and he has no symptoms of poor nerve performance. He is just a simple antisocial personality."

Zatanna heard the implication of their conversation. She touched her chin and said, "Indeed, if the madness caused by the existence in the depths of the stars you mentioned is the kind of mental breakdown brought about by looking directly at the invisible, then how could the attacker who rushed to the corridor still hold a wand and use magic?"

"In fact, two magic attacks were very precise. The first one aimed at the head, and the second one even had a tendency to predict the attack." Constantine commented objectively, "I don't know what level the mage apprentices in your universe are, but he counts as a good hand here. Some people can't even do it so precisely with a gun."

"This is a kind of guided, directional madness, not simple chaos and confusion." Schiller concluded, and then he looked at Strange and said, "The point that makes Harley and other Gothamites most angry is that he uses madness as a disguise for crime. He is blaspheming the art of human tragedy."

"Why does he have to use this to excuse himself?" Pamela said coldly, "Since there is a great power that can force people crazy, why not destroy what he wants to destroy generously? Or is it that he is actually afraid too?"

"Okay, let me summarize."

Constantine sighed helplessly, feeling that he was trapped in an absurd tragedy because he was the most normal human in this room. He didn't know if art could be born in this tragedy. He only felt that he was also going crazy, so he had to clear up his thinking and said.

"This mastermind behind the campus attack case, we assume he might be a powerful existence like a Demon God. He is not actually forcing these students crazy naturally because of his existence, but possibly controlling and manipulating them to pretend to be crazy to create cases."

"And you guys." Constantine scanned the people in the room and said, "You revere the tragic stories that lead to madness, and can appreciate the art born from it, thinking that the mastermind's behavior of using this to excuse his crimes is a serious blasphemy against half of human thinking achievements."

Schiller turned his head, seemingly a bit surprised at Constantine's summary ability. He just glanced at him, and Constantine's state was probably, "I want to find a crack in the ground to drill into, but even if there are ten million cracks here, I'm not sure I have a chance to drill in," so he just lay there and didn't speak.

"People born in this city of Cat Getan have more opportunities than others to receive this kind of art." Pamela said in her indifferent tone, "We are walking on this road, until one day we touch that dividing line, and then we are proud of creating this tragic art of madness for a lifetime."

Bruce said instinctively, "Calmly accept that you have become a monster shaped by the tragedy of the first half of your life. No matter whether others can understand it, we are happy to appreciate this art, just like... just like a bat."

They all understood his metaphor, and they all understood that this was the path he should have taken. This is the path every Gothamite must take. When they completely crossed that dividing line of madness, it was the tragedy of the first half of their lives that made their madness still retain artistry, still have abundant inspiration bursting out from it, and let them still have the ability to appreciate beauty.

It is precisely this ability that makes them different from other madmen, creating a sober madness that belongs exclusively to them, even genius, full of vitality, capable of representing half of human thinking achievements, and even can be said to be fascinating.

"Let's talk about Miss Harley Quinzel again." Schiller's voice echoed in the room.

And at the same time, the blizzard hovering over the Himalayas that had been on the screen finally stopped. It was a night darker than a windy and snowy night.

And the center of everyone's discussion, a girl named Harley Quinzel, left her dormitory in the pitch black.