heart havok
17-04-01, 09:06 AM
i personally found the site "thought experiments lain" definitely full of the most well researched theories of Serial Experiments Lain so i decided to create threads discussing Lawrence Eng's wonderfull descriptions on different topics. i would add my opinions, but there's not much for me to add seeing as he himself has pin-pointed my own personal theories on the series to almost perfection. where i disagree i will make note, and i will add additional opinions as time goes on.
Originally written by Lawrence Eng (http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lain.htm)
Think Bule Count One Tow
Iwakura Yasuo's password sequence.
Interpretation:
This appears to be a play on the words "Think Blue, Count Two," the title of a short story by science fiction author Cordwainer Smith (real name: Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, Jr.) "Think Blue, Count Two" is part of Smith's series: The Instrumentality Of Mankind (this term also features prominently in Gainax's Neon Genesis Evangelion). In "Think Blue, Count Two", a girl named Veesey (the main character) uses the "password" to save the day. Iwakura Yasuo may have intentionally used misspelled words in his password to prevent it from being cracked by a brute-force dictionary search.
Iwakura Yasuo
An actor pretending to be Lain's father.
Interpretation:
Possibly working for Eiri Masami. He seems pretty good with computers, but Lain turns out to be better (of course ^_^). Possibly meant to guide Lain along until she started finding out about herself, at which point Eiri Masami appeared to her. Appears at the end of the series as a father figure, further reinforcing the image of Lain as a Jesus figure in the presence of her Father=God. If this Father/God is real or a product of Lain's imagination is unclear. Perhaps the Father/God sequence is the final manifestation of Lain's fantasy that she has a real father, a normal Real World existence, and is not alone.
I can think of several possibilities regarding the identity of the "father" at the end of the series:
1. He is really Iwakura Yasuo, Lain's father. (Judging from the change in demeanor, I have a hard time believing that the "father" who appears at the end is the same father from earlier in the series)
2. He is the Christian God. (If you take the Lain/Jesus metaphor seriously, this is not an unreasonable guess. However, there is no real evidence anywhere else in the series that would indicate that the "father" is a Christian God or the God of any other specific religion, so to label him as Christian, Buddhist, etc. would be premature)
3. He is some sort of non-human higher intelligence. (This is an intriguing possibility, especially considering the hints we are given throughout the series regarding the existence of an alien intelligence at work. If there is an alien higher intelligence, we're confronted with the question: Was this intelligence responsible (either directly or indirectly) for creating Lain?
Another possibility is that this higher intelligence had nothing to do with creating Lain, but is simply some extraterrestrial/extradimensional being that has contacted the newly awakened/self-aware Lain. This is reminiscent of the scenario in William Gibson's cyberpunk novels, where the merged and fully conscious Wintermute/Neuromancer AI comes in contact with another similiar intelligence in the Centauri system)
4. He is product of Lain's imagination. (This is the theory I tend to believe, that Lain temporarily created her "father" at the end, but I'm willing to entertain the other theories, especially number 3)
Madeleines
"Lain, I will prepare good tea next time...and a madeleine. Certainly. They would taste good."--(quoted from Shindo's translated script, layer:13 "EGO").
Interpretation:
Near the end of the series, the entity that appears as Lain's "father" says this to Lain. Madeleines are a kind of French cake. Marcel Proust, the famous French author, used the madeleine soaked in tea as a metaphor for memory, often hidden but involuntarily triggered by objects. At the beginning of Swann's Way, the experience of eating a madeleine triggers Proust's memory, which he then recounts for the rest of the book.
Homunculus
Eiri Masami calls Lain a "homunculus by artificial ribosome"--(quoted from Shindo's translated script, layer:10 "LOVE").
Interpretation:
"a miniature adult that in the theory of preformation is held to inhabit the germ cell and to produce a mature individual merely by an increase in size."--(quoted from Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online).
Eiri Masami calls Lain a homunculus to suggest to her that he created her. In ancient alchemy, a homunculus is an artificial human created by the alchemist using only his own sperm. The creation of a homunculus is considered a great alchemical secret, but the "secret" method of creating a homunculus might be a cover-up of the true secret. The actual secret may be that it's impossible to create a human with only sperm, and the egg of a female is also necessary (not a fantastic notion nowadays, but reproductive science has not always been so well-informed). Thus, the female role in reproduction was deemphasized (which would be the cover-up) as would be befitting the times, and the actual secret of alchemy was that a male and female is necessary to produce a human.
According to some, Frankenstein's monster was a homunculus he created. So in the context of serial experiments lain, Eiri Masami is calling Lain a "monster" he created.
Iwakura Lain
The main character (^_^)
Interpretation:
Possibly a product of Protocol 7, or rather, "Awakened" by Protocol 7. Her origins are unclear, but she seems to represent the female side to balance/oppose the male. She is the Goddess (Eris?) or Her manifestation who will put the false God in his place, but it takes time for her to find out and accept who she is (and discover her powers). She also represents the Jesus figure (or Joan of Arc, perhaps?), in that she sacrifices her Real World existence for everyone else. Since Protocol 7 utilizes Earth's natural resonance, perhaps Lain represents the Global-Brain/Gaia, the pagan Goddess that is Earth itself (the biosphere, and the collective unconscious) who is/was omnipresent but was "awakened" and given a new form (teenage girl) when Eiri (the magus turned false God) connected the Wired/collective unconscious to Real World using Protocol 7. Upon his ascension to "Godhood" (circuit 7 consciousness?), perhaps Eiri discovered the newly-awakened Lain/Gaia and arranged the fake family in order to control her before she got too powerful, pretending to be her equal and to have created her, but Lain eventually discovers that Eiri is only a false God. This would explain why Lain has no apparent memory of her past with her "family" (such a past doesn't exist). On at least one level, then, serial experiments lain might be described as the story of the Goddess discovering who she is (hence, the multiple-personality Lain motif).
Originally written by Lawrence Eng (http://www.cjas.org/~leng/lain.htm)
Think Bule Count One Tow
Iwakura Yasuo's password sequence.
Interpretation:
This appears to be a play on the words "Think Blue, Count Two," the title of a short story by science fiction author Cordwainer Smith (real name: Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger, Jr.) "Think Blue, Count Two" is part of Smith's series: The Instrumentality Of Mankind (this term also features prominently in Gainax's Neon Genesis Evangelion). In "Think Blue, Count Two", a girl named Veesey (the main character) uses the "password" to save the day. Iwakura Yasuo may have intentionally used misspelled words in his password to prevent it from being cracked by a brute-force dictionary search.
Iwakura Yasuo
An actor pretending to be Lain's father.
Interpretation:
Possibly working for Eiri Masami. He seems pretty good with computers, but Lain turns out to be better (of course ^_^). Possibly meant to guide Lain along until she started finding out about herself, at which point Eiri Masami appeared to her. Appears at the end of the series as a father figure, further reinforcing the image of Lain as a Jesus figure in the presence of her Father=God. If this Father/God is real or a product of Lain's imagination is unclear. Perhaps the Father/God sequence is the final manifestation of Lain's fantasy that she has a real father, a normal Real World existence, and is not alone.
I can think of several possibilities regarding the identity of the "father" at the end of the series:
1. He is really Iwakura Yasuo, Lain's father. (Judging from the change in demeanor, I have a hard time believing that the "father" who appears at the end is the same father from earlier in the series)
2. He is the Christian God. (If you take the Lain/Jesus metaphor seriously, this is not an unreasonable guess. However, there is no real evidence anywhere else in the series that would indicate that the "father" is a Christian God or the God of any other specific religion, so to label him as Christian, Buddhist, etc. would be premature)
3. He is some sort of non-human higher intelligence. (This is an intriguing possibility, especially considering the hints we are given throughout the series regarding the existence of an alien intelligence at work. If there is an alien higher intelligence, we're confronted with the question: Was this intelligence responsible (either directly or indirectly) for creating Lain?
Another possibility is that this higher intelligence had nothing to do with creating Lain, but is simply some extraterrestrial/extradimensional being that has contacted the newly awakened/self-aware Lain. This is reminiscent of the scenario in William Gibson's cyberpunk novels, where the merged and fully conscious Wintermute/Neuromancer AI comes in contact with another similiar intelligence in the Centauri system)
4. He is product of Lain's imagination. (This is the theory I tend to believe, that Lain temporarily created her "father" at the end, but I'm willing to entertain the other theories, especially number 3)
Madeleines
"Lain, I will prepare good tea next time...and a madeleine. Certainly. They would taste good."--(quoted from Shindo's translated script, layer:13 "EGO").
Interpretation:
Near the end of the series, the entity that appears as Lain's "father" says this to Lain. Madeleines are a kind of French cake. Marcel Proust, the famous French author, used the madeleine soaked in tea as a metaphor for memory, often hidden but involuntarily triggered by objects. At the beginning of Swann's Way, the experience of eating a madeleine triggers Proust's memory, which he then recounts for the rest of the book.
Homunculus
Eiri Masami calls Lain a "homunculus by artificial ribosome"--(quoted from Shindo's translated script, layer:10 "LOVE").
Interpretation:
"a miniature adult that in the theory of preformation is held to inhabit the germ cell and to produce a mature individual merely by an increase in size."--(quoted from Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online).
Eiri Masami calls Lain a homunculus to suggest to her that he created her. In ancient alchemy, a homunculus is an artificial human created by the alchemist using only his own sperm. The creation of a homunculus is considered a great alchemical secret, but the "secret" method of creating a homunculus might be a cover-up of the true secret. The actual secret may be that it's impossible to create a human with only sperm, and the egg of a female is also necessary (not a fantastic notion nowadays, but reproductive science has not always been so well-informed). Thus, the female role in reproduction was deemphasized (which would be the cover-up) as would be befitting the times, and the actual secret of alchemy was that a male and female is necessary to produce a human.
According to some, Frankenstein's monster was a homunculus he created. So in the context of serial experiments lain, Eiri Masami is calling Lain a "monster" he created.
Iwakura Lain
The main character (^_^)
Interpretation:
Possibly a product of Protocol 7, or rather, "Awakened" by Protocol 7. Her origins are unclear, but she seems to represent the female side to balance/oppose the male. She is the Goddess (Eris?) or Her manifestation who will put the false God in his place, but it takes time for her to find out and accept who she is (and discover her powers). She also represents the Jesus figure (or Joan of Arc, perhaps?), in that she sacrifices her Real World existence for everyone else. Since Protocol 7 utilizes Earth's natural resonance, perhaps Lain represents the Global-Brain/Gaia, the pagan Goddess that is Earth itself (the biosphere, and the collective unconscious) who is/was omnipresent but was "awakened" and given a new form (teenage girl) when Eiri (the magus turned false God) connected the Wired/collective unconscious to Real World using Protocol 7. Upon his ascension to "Godhood" (circuit 7 consciousness?), perhaps Eiri discovered the newly-awakened Lain/Gaia and arranged the fake family in order to control her before she got too powerful, pretending to be her equal and to have created her, but Lain eventually discovers that Eiri is only a false God. This would explain why Lain has no apparent memory of her past with her "family" (such a past doesn't exist). On at least one level, then, serial experiments lain might be described as the story of the Goddess discovering who she is (hence, the multiple-personality Lain motif).