Comment on Do you think Serial Experiments Lain is worth watching in 2023?
frosch@lemm.ee 1 year ago
With social media, the message is more relevant than ever.
It’s not an action anime, it’s basically 13-part video essay but people should challenge themselves from time to time. And especially anime fans.
identity_disc@lemmy.villa-straylight.social 1 year ago
I’m not disagreeing with you, this is simply me probing for more details.
Why do you think social media makes Lain more relevant? I thought Lain focused more on the wonder and magic of what The Internet could mean for humanity, rather than the social problems that can arise from actual internet usage. They definitely touch on someone portraying a different personality online compared to the real world (which is absolutely relevant regarding social media) but I thought that was more a function of Lain’s deteriorating mental state than a cautionary aspect of The Wired. Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve watched Lain, so I could be misremembering.
frosch@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I don’t think that Lain actually had an overarching theme. This is only my personal opinion but to me it was like a series of loosely connected musings on how the Internet might transform individuals and society.
There’s a lot of stuff there about the nature of hypertext (the references to Memex and Vanevar Bush) and the concepts of addressability and indexicality — this is the theme of connection and identification. But these also intimations of how the Internet could be used for control and surveillance…
If there’s one place where it all intersects I’d say it’s in the concept of technique as explained by Jacques Elul. Essentially, technology is not a neutral thing. It reshapes the world and society and makes us adapt to it.
I feel that’s a prescient warning about what smartphones and social media ended up doing both to individuals and society.
Just to be clear I am not saying this is **the interpretation ** of Serial Experiments Lain, just mine.
In the end people should watch it precisely because it’s so provocative and can be read in many ways.
identity_disc@lemmy.villa-straylight.social 1 year ago
Ha, thanks! You definitely remember more of Lain than I do. 😁
frosch@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I loved watching it back in high school and I saw it a couple of times after. It’s one of those pieces of art that really stays with you like Ghost in the Shell, Twin Peaks, Silent Hill 2, or The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.
I find myself just randomly thinking about something from these things often. There’s a real value to that kind of challenging and weird stuff and I think people should expose themselves to it more often.
I’d encourage people in the case of Lain to look past the slow pace and late 90s aesthetics and just let the experience wash over you. You’ll come out a bit richer.