If the real world is so deterministic and saddening, filled with imperfections, misinformation and limitations, does there exist a world for which these drawbacks are (even partially) mitigated? After all, it is natural for all to improve their lives, no matter how short it shall be. Even better, is there a perfect world beyond which we can perceive that immortalizes us? This is perhaps what a lot is searching for.
Enter the Internet, a series of layers and protocols encapsulating messages to be sent worldwide. The birth of this wonder has spawned an entirely new generation of humanity. Our lives are so radically changed by this invention that I find it hard to imagine what I used to do when I had no dial-up just about ten years ago. The Internet allowed people across oceans to reach in a heartbeat, for learning to be a few clicks away, for us to transcend what we can do within local communities and collaborate as an entirety, spawning giants of information and knowledge such as Wikipedia, or networks such as Facebook, Youtube. With this great phenomenon comes an urgent need for a radically new set of ethics and morality. How do we balance freedom of speech with an explosion of voices, some of which may be malicious? How do we trust what we see? How can we maintain our privacy? Can we assume what a person says on the Internet is what he really means?
More importantly, are we truly ourselves on the Internet?
The answer to this seems to be a no-brainer: Of course we are ourselves, or at least an extension of ourselves in the most direct way: We actively control what we say and what we share on this web of information through what buttons we click or not click. We also are not obligated to stare at the screen and can turn off the computer any time we want, though most do (read: I do). In the age of freedom, this basic ability to control what we do is clearly assumed and expected. At least this is what we believe, but is this really true?
This is quite precisely the concern for Serial Experiments Lain, the (rather infamously) impenetrably abstract animation dealing with, quite vaguely, the issues of technology and identity. In this show, an initially quite technologically inept Lain receives a message from her classmate Chisa, who ostensibly should have been dead. This prompted her to investigate into getting onto the "Wired" (or Internet). I don't claim to have understood most of the message behind, but it is interesting to see that the show splits Lain into not a duality but a trinity of personalities: The Lain in real life, being shy, withdrawn and introverted, the conscious Lain on the Wired, curious and determined to find out more about the unconscious Lain, who apparently commits crimes and controls a group of worshipers known as the Knights. The show interestingly uses the multiple representations of the Japanese language along with English to represent Lain in three different forms (玲音, レイン, Lain). What is emphasized here, though, is that though they are three distinct psyches, they are contained within the same person.
Lain is seen to repeatedly utter to herself, amidst the ambient electric wire noise, that "Lain is Lain." She is herself, and so should you be you, and I be, well, me. I believe that it is quite unnerving if one were to discover an alternate psyche that one cannot control, or simply is quite different from what we are in real life. We all suspend our questioning of whether we can control our actions, because it is quite blatantly obvious from what we do on a daily basis.
Of course, the split personalities of Lain is a gross exaggeration, but in my opinion it might not be far from truthful. After all, on the Internet, we are immersed in a totally different environment. Messaging allows us to think before we speak, and hide our expressions. We can even go without an identity, or impersonate another identity. In fact, this communication protocol allows us to do so much that some may find the real world lackluster, finding no meaning to live in the real world anymore (this is apparently the justification for Chisa's death). On the Internet, we might find a continuation, an extension of what we think our lives would have been, or a replacement of what we are. It is then quite unsurprising that the Internet has gained such popularity in the past decade.
At times, I feel that this is incredibly dangerous. The rate at which the Internet expands is unbelievable, and most certainly uncontrollable. It has become a vital part of our voice, and warrants freedom of speech, and with multiple confusing identities it is quite impossible to track who is who. Yet can we allow the Internet to expand without tether at all? Will truth be eclipsed in the face of lies fabricated by the uncontrollable explosion of information?
Even worse, psyches on the Internet might actually be the uncontrollable. In the show, Lain on the Wired can kill, yet after every time Lain kills someone, Lain in the real world has no idea. If uncontrollable personalities continue to proliferate on this alternate dimension, technological singularity is just around the corner, as the intelligence of the Internet grows to be larger than the real world. It could even create the case where not joining the Internet causes one to be so ostracized, that he/she might as well be dead as he does not "exist" anymore. The virtual world then eclipses the real world quite literally.
Knowledge and technology go hand in hand in one direction only: growth. There is no denying that the Internet is an inevitable creation as humans yearn for social connections due to their tendencies as social animals. Eventually, the world will be covered with the Internet that it would be possible to track every single person's location, appearance and even thoughts with machines. In fact, the show illustrates this through the quest of two "men in black" ordered by their client to try to stop the Wired from taking over the world by contacting Lain, and when they eventually killed off the Knights, their work was "finished." When their client pays them, telling them to disappear into where the Wired is not reachable to avoid danger, they find themselves helpless. Thus, the Internet, in my opinion, is the strongest weapon ever invented. Then, it is not a possibility, but a necessity and an inevitability, that we move ourselves and our intelligence to the Internet, and flourish in this alternative world. All these hypotheses seem quite daunting, but I believe that in this deterministic world, it would be impossible for humans, as a selfish group as a whole, not to attempt to harness this unbounded power promised by the Internet, and be the next Knights united to leach off power from the almighty Lain of the Wired.
"Arisu?"
Saturday, 25 July 2015
Wednesday, 15 July 2015
The Missing Beat (On "Sound! Euphonium")
When I first heard of this anime, I did not have high expectations, with the reason being that it could turn into the biggest stereotypical moeblob extremely easily. After all, the premise is set so perfectly for this to happen: High-school, club activities, slice of life style etc. It is almost screaming the cliches I already had in mind at my face. What I got instead was a pleasant surprise, a production that not only succeeded in technicalities but also engaged my emotions very well.
Sound! Euphonium does not beat around the bush. It throws the viewer right into the fray, right into the high school band left in quite a dissociated state with a change of advisor and a mediocre performance in the past. The plot is narrated from, for the majority, the point of view of Oumae Kumiko, who I would say has nothing extraordinary to start with. Under the influence of the enthusiasm of the newcomers, especially Reina Kousaka, the club's desire to get into the national competition is rekindled. The development of Kumiko as a character parallels the club's growing spirit to endure through hardships and challenges to realize the collective dream.
As I mentioned above, the best thing about this show is how it succeeds in avoiding cliches. Reina could have easily been the twin sister of Rei Ayanami, or the epitome of tsundere; Taki could have been devil's spawn and strict in every way; Instead, all these characters were given depth and an alternate side to their personality, making them resemble real people. This is probably the reason why the plot, despite not involving matter of life and death, being simply the experience of a typical high school club, managed to grip me tightly throughout its runtime.
In this show, I see the concepts of realism and idealism being challenged. The angst of motivating a group of people to pursue a dream that has never been achieved before, of struggling to achieve more than any other can do. To others (and perhaps to me), music is but a vessel of emotions or ideas. To this band, we see music being the goal, the hallmark of hard work and improvement and realization of their dreams. As the band members improve over time, what was once mere talk transforms to reality. This transformation, too, is presented very well throughout the series.
It might be quite strange for me to talk about this feeling of actualization, since if I were one of the characters in the show, I would be Saitou Aoi, a rather insufficient player who cannot take the constant pressure to play difficult parts because of an innate lack of skills. Eventually, she chose to focus on academics and left the band, just as I did five years ago. Indeed, I was filled with cynicism and disdain to those who were more skilled in the trade. They probably put more effort into practicing, and had a greater skillset. I was overwhelmed with something probably akin to jealousy, and, under the pressure of constantly having to skip lessons, I quit without looking back.
I would not say that I was totally blinded by this cynicism towards teamwork and idealism though, as I still hold to some of these views, yet after viewing this show I reconsidered whether the decision to leave the orchestra for me was wise. It was quite clear that I did not have the dexterity and hand-eye coordination, as I still struggle with some basic techniques (I picked up erhu when I was 9 or so, so it's been like 10 years now). Of course this is mostly due to a severe lack of practice and motivation. What this show made me do, perhaps, was to reconsider whether it would have been worth it to push further with this art, to practice until my fingers hurt, to not be daunted with natural disabilities. Even if eventually I were not good enough, as in Katou Hazuki's case, I would have stuck to the orchestra, and witnessed their achievements as the sidekick. Perhaps some of the excitement of actualization and achievement would have spilled over to me as I pretend to have been a part of their efforts, and I would not have been such a cynic.
In any case, I will let the past be what it is: The past, the unchangeable and clearly written history. Again, for a show probably not intended to be densely packed with feels, it does an excellent (rather creepily excellent in fact) job of inciting so many thoughts in my mind. My only criticism would be it short length impairing the development of some key plot elements. Otherwise, this show easily beats most I have seen and deserves the highest praise.
I admit I am a fanatic of OPs and EDs. Also sorry for 1999.
Sound! Euphonium does not beat around the bush. It throws the viewer right into the fray, right into the high school band left in quite a dissociated state with a change of advisor and a mediocre performance in the past. The plot is narrated from, for the majority, the point of view of Oumae Kumiko, who I would say has nothing extraordinary to start with. Under the influence of the enthusiasm of the newcomers, especially Reina Kousaka, the club's desire to get into the national competition is rekindled. The development of Kumiko as a character parallels the club's growing spirit to endure through hardships and challenges to realize the collective dream.
As I mentioned above, the best thing about this show is how it succeeds in avoiding cliches. Reina could have easily been the twin sister of Rei Ayanami, or the epitome of tsundere; Taki could have been devil's spawn and strict in every way; Instead, all these characters were given depth and an alternate side to their personality, making them resemble real people. This is probably the reason why the plot, despite not involving matter of life and death, being simply the experience of a typical high school club, managed to grip me tightly throughout its runtime.
In this show, I see the concepts of realism and idealism being challenged. The angst of motivating a group of people to pursue a dream that has never been achieved before, of struggling to achieve more than any other can do. To others (and perhaps to me), music is but a vessel of emotions or ideas. To this band, we see music being the goal, the hallmark of hard work and improvement and realization of their dreams. As the band members improve over time, what was once mere talk transforms to reality. This transformation, too, is presented very well throughout the series.
It might be quite strange for me to talk about this feeling of actualization, since if I were one of the characters in the show, I would be Saitou Aoi, a rather insufficient player who cannot take the constant pressure to play difficult parts because of an innate lack of skills. Eventually, she chose to focus on academics and left the band, just as I did five years ago. Indeed, I was filled with cynicism and disdain to those who were more skilled in the trade. They probably put more effort into practicing, and had a greater skillset. I was overwhelmed with something probably akin to jealousy, and, under the pressure of constantly having to skip lessons, I quit without looking back.
I would not say that I was totally blinded by this cynicism towards teamwork and idealism though, as I still hold to some of these views, yet after viewing this show I reconsidered whether the decision to leave the orchestra for me was wise. It was quite clear that I did not have the dexterity and hand-eye coordination, as I still struggle with some basic techniques (I picked up erhu when I was 9 or so, so it's been like 10 years now). Of course this is mostly due to a severe lack of practice and motivation. What this show made me do, perhaps, was to reconsider whether it would have been worth it to push further with this art, to practice until my fingers hurt, to not be daunted with natural disabilities. Even if eventually I were not good enough, as in Katou Hazuki's case, I would have stuck to the orchestra, and witnessed their achievements as the sidekick. Perhaps some of the excitement of actualization and achievement would have spilled over to me as I pretend to have been a part of their efforts, and I would not have been such a cynic.
In any case, I will let the past be what it is: The past, the unchangeable and clearly written history. Again, for a show probably not intended to be densely packed with feels, it does an excellent (rather creepily excellent in fact) job of inciting so many thoughts in my mind. My only criticism would be it short length impairing the development of some key plot elements. Otherwise, this show easily beats most I have seen and deserves the highest praise.
I admit I am a fanatic of OPs and EDs. Also sorry for 1999.
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