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Television Snow
Mar. 10th, 2002 01:05 amDouglas Adams had a very good point in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (or was it in one of the sequels?) when he had a character say that the reason sentient beings can go on living at all is that their minds purposefully block out the fact that each being is, at least in cosmic terms, absolutely insignificant. Think about how big this Earth is, and how small it is in relation to the universe, and then how much smaller than that you are. Try to hold that concept in your mind until you feel a horrible sense of disquiet rising within you, a sense that you don't count for anything at all, that the very fact of your existence is a fluke. Now, see how fast your mind turns back to the mundane? I suppose that religion is first and foremost a way to never have to even contemplate that.
I finally got around to watching the last three episodes of "Serial Experiments Lain" the other day. All in all, I found it a pretty damn interesting series, though I may have been a tad disappointed with the ending. Not for the usual reasons (too mushy/too cliched/NO resolution) but because I had been expecting there to be one last, final twist to the story... but there wasn't.
Ah, well. Far be it from me to complain when the series as a whole is so well-executed. If you've read Neuromancer, you'll instantly recognize the feel of it; it's the kind of story that pulls you in because you immediately know that you're witnessing the deconstruction of the things you hold to be real, finite and immutable. Unlike Neuromancer, though, Lain takes time to set things up before plunging head-on into the exploration of what defines a person. But once it's all set, you're taken into the weird and wonderful world of the Wired, which seems to be a fascinating place.
One of the main preoccupations of the series is the definition of personality. Does a person truly need a body to be considered a person? If two versions of the same person exist, one in the "real" world and one in the Wired, can one be considered more valid than the other? These questions are common enough in science-fiction, and even though I'm no sci-fi expert, I don't really think Lain breaks any new ground in its speculations. It's done very well, though, and there are a couple of truly disturbing scenes in the last few episodes that had me remembering bits and pieces of Neuromancer and Akira. And that one shot of Lain sitting on the floor, wearing only a slip, with wires hanging from her like vines off a tree is pretty damn creepy. And as I mentioned, I felt a little bit cheated by the ending, but it still made me smile when I recognized the two men in black.
As far as its merits as thought-inducing anime, Lain did make me think. Oddly enough, mostly about how I should re-read Neuromancer.
I finally got around to watching the last three episodes of "Serial Experiments Lain" the other day. All in all, I found it a pretty damn interesting series, though I may have been a tad disappointed with the ending. Not for the usual reasons (too mushy/too cliched/NO resolution) but because I had been expecting there to be one last, final twist to the story... but there wasn't.
Ah, well. Far be it from me to complain when the series as a whole is so well-executed. If you've read Neuromancer, you'll instantly recognize the feel of it; it's the kind of story that pulls you in because you immediately know that you're witnessing the deconstruction of the things you hold to be real, finite and immutable. Unlike Neuromancer, though, Lain takes time to set things up before plunging head-on into the exploration of what defines a person. But once it's all set, you're taken into the weird and wonderful world of the Wired, which seems to be a fascinating place.
One of the main preoccupations of the series is the definition of personality. Does a person truly need a body to be considered a person? If two versions of the same person exist, one in the "real" world and one in the Wired, can one be considered more valid than the other? These questions are common enough in science-fiction, and even though I'm no sci-fi expert, I don't really think Lain breaks any new ground in its speculations. It's done very well, though, and there are a couple of truly disturbing scenes in the last few episodes that had me remembering bits and pieces of Neuromancer and Akira. And that one shot of Lain sitting on the floor, wearing only a slip, with wires hanging from her like vines off a tree is pretty damn creepy. And as I mentioned, I felt a little bit cheated by the ending, but it still made me smile when I recognized the two men in black.
As far as its merits as thought-inducing anime, Lain did make me think. Oddly enough, mostly about how I should re-read Neuromancer.
