Best story in this contest, my Chilean friend. If it were up to me, this would be the winner, hands down. I especially appreciate the inclusion of Backdoor SoHo and its art scene (who even remembers "AWCY?" ? I do).

Looking forward to reading more of your stuff.

Both your idea of turning the tables on the main character, and this difference behind nihilism as trend rather than a train of thought versus absurdism is really what I was trying to get at in the end: Often people say that it takes way less effort to be mean than to be nice, and I think the basis of this logic can be applied here. A person struggles against the universe for meaning, and in searching for meaning, they also set themselves to the ideal of this meaning, such that when this ideal is confronted, they don't believe in it. No matter how many times our MC would be confronted with a meaning in art, they wouldn't budge because they *really* see it for what it is. The last person, however, brings no meaning to the equation: Literally no meaning to it, or one so outside of what the MC expects, yet so close to their ideal, that they can't help but question it. And in doing so, they've already taken the bait.

In the end, art can't have absolutely no point, because that would defeat the point the MC has been trying to make, and because they want to be at the top again, because they want to regain their ground, they throw themselves into the pit. They become the butterfly.

Funnily enough, originally, the name of the artwork (And thus the title) would have been 'A Honeypot full of Butterflies' which is a good name, but 'the Samsa Generator' just has a nicer feel to it, idk. Anyhow, yeah, you nailed the 'what's going on' I had in mind when writing this piece! It made me so happy that you'd hit the nail so damn well~

But echoing everyone else: this is really good. An interesting exploration of the various kinds of meaning people try to impose on art, through the eyes of an avowed pessimist. The characters' voices are very distinct and strong, each one giving off a different vibe that suits what they think and believe art to be. The text color is a nice touch as well to add some visual variety — and our narrator's voice is just as strong, if not more. We really get into their head — on a certain level, their arguments make sense from the POV of someone coming to a place they don't buy into, hoping to see somethign that does convince them. Your dialogue in this is stellar and philosophical without being too navel-gazey, and flows smooth despite the richness of it in certain points. Really great showing, well done.

Also, about the PS, it was deliberate, actually: I guide my writing a lot on 'flow', which basically means 'what looks right to me at any given point of time', which sometimes leads to weird, wrong, and clunky sentences but oh well. I'll think about changing it, but honestly, as you're the first to point that out, I kinda wanna leave it as is lol (Edit: I have edited one of the 'cute the chases' because I didn't realize I did it twice and I feel like this subtle change really helps with the pace of the piece, and also with the way the main character expresses themselves)

Also, thanks for the read and the comment! I appreciate it a lot~

sounds like something Descartes would say if he’d been born a thousand years before, and also in China.”

Hahhahahaha

Dude this is so good. The whole story is good. Everything is stated so simply, but it also has depth to it. The way you trick us into empathizing with the speaker is great, until we're confronted with how they act and when they come up against a stronger force in the butterfly man. The way we only learn the names of the people we talk to from the next person, they don't bother to introduce ourselves to us and we only learn the name when someone is talking bad about them. The greater implications of presenting a piece like this to a community of artists. Plus the characters were all very distinct from each other, definitely benefitted by the philosophical conversations held here. A hearty +1 from me

My interpretation comes mainly from the final line of the butterfly dude, and how they'd 'found a way to have one prick less visit this gallery'. It reminds me of the difference between Nihilism and Absurdism. The protagonist is so set on the idea that they are above art, and that it's all just some sort of game, or meaningless experiment sucking the life out of everyone (hence the parasite metaphor.) But, they only preach this to the reader not because of genuine belief, but because of their need to be superior to all the other 'wrong' interpretations of Art. (Which, in my experience, tends to describe the majority of genuine Nihilists; they're often people with superiority complexes who haven't thought about anything all that much.)

However, the butterfly dude is genuine in his embrace of this meaninglessness, and this embrace cuts through any facade of pretending to know what art is about. He tempts the other artists with the guarantee of 'art in its purest form' or 'the end of uncertainty' because he knows they can't help but try and define what art is. They all inevitably give in, of course, and the only person who benefits is him, because he understands the complete absurdity of it all, and what's more, he relishes that meaninglessness, especially in watching others scramble to define something which cannot be defined.

I also really enjoyed how lowkey badass you made the butterfly dude lmao. I've only read 3 contest entries and I'm gonna have to be really impressed for anything to top this one. Fantastic work.

So, a bit of trivia: Each character here represents an 'archetype' from the SCP-wiki, because that's where me inspiration came from. The first man represents MC&D: 'art as nothing but profit; a means to an end.' The second person represents the Meat Circus, a Russian-GoI: 'art as humanity, or rather, humanity as art: Art that can be modelled like clay, and pushed to its extremes. Life is art, and art is life'. The third person represents AWCY's old philosophy: 'Suffering and shock as art, because only pain generates the right emotions.' Fourth person is more nihilistic, more like AWCY's later interpretations (Maybe even GAW's?): 'Art is pretentiousness and it's fallacy, and it's also a reflection of the artist's mind. Nothing more, nothing less'. Finally, the main character is…

Well, I dunno. What do they mean to you?

Thanks to Crow-Cat and NotAnOligarch for their invaluable crit, LAN 2D for the amazing picture (Which is good to use: proof is here), and Rounderhouse cuz goddamn did the picture pick was good.