Have I mentioned I'm really into
Serial Experiments Lain? Well. I finally watched
Serial Experiments Lain for the first time in September and I'm really into
Serial Experiments Lain. (You can be too! The good people at Funimation have put the
the whole series up on YouTube.) Doubtless it was a contributor to my
late preoccupation with Dr. Marshall "Electricity Makes Possible An Amplification Of Human Consciousness On A World Scale" McLuhan.
I recently persuaded my roommate to run through the show with me, so we've been watching an episode every other night or so. From what I can tell, he seems to be into it. (He's
not very emotive, so you have to watch and listen to him carefully.) For my part, I'm relieved that
Lain holds up to a second viewing. It's definitely less bewildering and wrenching than it was the first time through, but I've been having a good time twigging all the stuff I initially missed because I couldn't have known to look for it. (The show doesn't really begin cluing you in on what's actually happening until episode nine or maybe ten out of thirteen).
There's other stuff I've noticed too, and that isn't necessarily related to
Lain's abstruse plot or its psycho-theological-technobabblical-existentialist textures. Take Lain Iwakura's inscrutable tech enthusiast father. My having a somewhat better idea of his relationship to Lain brought a modicum of clarity to his early exchanges with her, which are mostly one-sided speeches about computers and connectivity:
You're in junior high now. Your friends are leaving you in the dust, right? I keep telling you that you should use a better machine.
You know, Lain, in this world, whether it's here in the real world or in the Wired, people connect to each other, and that's how societies function.
Even a girl like you can make friends right off the bat, Lain. There's nothing to be afraid of. I wonder why your mother can't understand that...?
You can't keep using that children's Navi forever. For communication you need a powerful system that will mature alongside your relationships with people. Understand, Lain?
