tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11758224.post4579925304248696111..comments2023-09-28T07:23:51.376-07:00Comments on ProjectPerko: Good and Bad ScifiCraig Perkohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13173752470581218239noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11758224.post-33033744279142555172014-09-04T05:11:55.030-07:002014-09-04T05:11:55.030-07:00Dragging up an old post. But just wanted to say I ...Dragging up an old post. But just wanted to say I agree with you on the secrets/mystery part. Never really liked that they fleshed it out so much in the star wars prequels, and the expanded universe.<br /><br />It seems a powerful thrope, having secrets, that not enough SF uses.<br /><br />Also read a lot of SF as a kid. Was pretty awesome.Soyweiserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07530201773972687532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11758224.post-30670140960263214912014-08-21T07:10:03.734-07:002014-08-21T07:10:03.734-07:00There's lots of stuff on that tier, but nobody...There's lots of stuff on that tier, but nobody ever reads it because people are drowning in shlock.Craig Perkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13173752470581218239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11758224.post-37814762636295667182014-08-21T06:38:25.886-07:002014-08-21T06:38:25.886-07:00The Forever War by Joe Haldeman did exactly what y...The Forever War by Joe Haldeman did exactly what you describe with a strangle hold on me for months afterwards!<br /><br />I'm not a great sci-fi reader, probably fitting into the action sci-fi enjoying group of society more than anything else, but I keep going back to that book time and again.nockieboynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11758224.post-10293336427810069652014-08-06T04:19:16.606-07:002014-08-06T04:19:16.606-07:00Well, people can take different things away from d...Well, people can take different things away from different fiction.<br /><br />All I got out of Serial Experiments Lain is that they reaaaaally wanted you to not understand what was going on, but at the same time nothing confusing was going on.Craig Perkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13173752470581218239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11758224.post-29225149131194265422014-08-06T01:35:39.938-07:002014-08-06T01:35:39.938-07:00Sorry to double post, but I'd like to elaborat...Sorry to double post, but I'd like to elaborate.<br /><br />Important figures are the parents.<br /><br />Lain's mother is a stand-in for Japanese culture - she is distant, reserved, cold, uncaring. When Lain talks of the girl that killed herself her mother doesn't even react.<br />Her father is a stand-in for the "invading" western culture. He is warmer and he listens, but the way he listens is superficial and he seems incapable of really connecting to Lain. He is easily distracted, he has his own stuff going on, as can be seen in the first scene he shows up in (if I remember that right), where he sits in front of his Computer while talking to Lain, starting to laugh about something on the Wired directly after Lain said something where laughing definitely didn't fit (I cannot remember it clearly, it has been quite some time).<br /><br />When the parents are actually once tender with each other it's so very jarring that one immediately knows there is something wrong and how worried they both must be about Lain.Antsanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16993116520760182498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11758224.post-82637439381886138082014-08-06T01:27:33.825-07:002014-08-06T01:27:33.825-07:00Why is Serial Experiments Lain up there?
"Wh...Why is Serial Experiments Lain up there?<br /><br />"When you're done reading/watching/consuming good scifi, you can still feel its fingers around your neck for hours."<br /><br />I've felt it around my neck for <i>months</i>.<br /><br />"The only way that can work is if the audience is so inexperienced that they can't recognize the simple shape of a stumbling transhumanist singularity (Lain)"<br />Ah, so that's your gripe.<br />I dare say that this big mystery is not why I like the series - rather I like how it is depicted. The kind of problems Lain faces are far more interesting then the "big reveal".<br /><br />"Lain, Prometheus, and Infinite not only have dull reveals, they aren't about anything."<br />On thing to understand about SEL is that it is not meant as a story about a stumbling singularity and not meant as a "what if" scenario but rather a depiction of the problems arising from the clash between western and Japanese culture. Lain is crushed in that conflict.<br />SEL is certainly about something but rather something that is kind of hard to understand for us westerners. It's not like we shut off from the world for most of our history and are now confronted with a world whose culture is so wholly different from ours.<br /><br />It's sad that you think SEL isn't about anything.Antsanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16993116520760182498noreply@blogger.com