Are making theories an effective way to understand Lain?
Let me tell you a story first:
After I wrote up my theory on Lain and posted it on AnimeGrapevine, I watched Lain again. I believed that with this theory in my pocket I would be confirmed by the show rather than confused. But things went drastically wrong, and I am desperately revising my theory on several word documents to incorporate all the details that I have missed and tried put things under control.
My future brother-in-law, Richard said, "Bye Hau Heng (My Chinese given name). Get some sleep, don't work too hard on your Lain theory."
I mumbled, "Good night."
"How can I fit it all in one big grand theory? There must be a way!"
Type... Type... Ty..
I fell asleep in front of the computer monitor on my desk.
I was within something, totally dark. I cannot even see my hands!
"Where am I? What is this place? Am I dreaming? Did I watch too much Lain?"
A young girl appeared with a long strand of hair on her right.
"L...a...i...n...?! Are you Lain?"
"So you are the Baka who want to make a theory of me. Do you know how silly you are?"
"You think there are only three of me: Normal physical Lain, Lain of the Wired and the evil Lain. The normal physical Lain was timid and shy; Lain of the Wired was violent and ruthless; and the evil Lain was malicious in the heart."
"With this theory, show me how you can fit the Alien Gray Lain into either one of the three."
"If Lain of the Wired had no sympathy, who was the saddened digitized Lain when she saw the boy shooting the little girl in the Phantoma game? Why did she care when the KIDS experiment explode?"
"If you think that Lain of the Wired was violent, why can't you believe that I was responsible for the death of the MIB? I had called the Accela boy to commit suicide, why did I not dare to kill the one of MIBs too? I tell you a secret, I actually spared the other one because he loved me."
"I am confused. So who do you think you are?", I asked.
Another young girl appeared with a long strand of hair on her right beside the first girl and she replied,
"So who do I think I am?
I was there at the Shibuya intersection saying 'love me, love me' and trying to commit suicide.
I was the voice who asked JJ about Phantoma.
I was up there on a gigantic video screen.
I was further up in the sky and worshipped by many.
I was a legend, a heroine, a fairy tale in the Wired, but if you searched for me in the Wired, you would find 0 entry."
"Oh no! I can't understand it! Stop bending my mind!", I shouted.
"It is such good fun to talk about myself,
why do you want to stop?
I am both strong and weak.
I know everything and I know nothing.
I am everywhere and nowhere.
I am totally free and connected in the Wired but I have no freedom to relate to anyone.
And I am just an innocent girl ¡V I did nothing."
The first girl continued the conversation,
"You failed because you think the show is in chronological order. You failed because you think words and concepts have consistent meaning throughout. Theory is useful when there is an order, but it is useless when there is none. It is useless for human brains to analyse me. Human brain functions by ignoring most of the information, only to believe the bits that they think would make sense. You believe I am whom you think because you 'select' the bits that fit your taste, and so can others have their interpretations. Even all the scientists in one of the most advanced lab on earth, Tachibana Lab, could not figure out who I am, who do you think you are?"
"If you really try to fit me in a theory, try this:
Who was the 'real Lain'? The Lain who asked from Eiri's body or the Lain body that spoke the answer for Eiri?"
"Stop it! stop it! I don't care! I don't want to know!", I begged.
"Do you really don't want to know?"
"Do you really don't want to know?"
The two young girl gradually disappeared as their voice faded away, and the whole place resumed to darkness. Suddenly, the solid ground that I was standing dissolved into some jelly like substances. I could stand on nothing, absolute nothing!
"Ah! Help! Help!"
I am falling, I am fading, I am drowning
Help me to breathe
I am hurting, I have lost it all
I am losing
Help me to breathe
I was waken up Richard, and found myself fallen asleep on my desk. The sun was coming in from the window. "I've told you not to addict to Lain. Your research work is more important."
"What are you talking about? Who is Lain?", I said.
Story End
Ok, I now tell you the real story. I did watch Lain again and found some parts of my theory falling apart (Miraculously, some parts actually work, e.g. explanation on Knights). Then I asked a different question, "How did Lain make me confuse?" Therefore, I started picking out all the different "Lains" as they were with minimum generalisation.
This approach was also inspired by Chiaki Konaka from his comment on the Lain PSX game:
"In summary, when the PLAY STATION's game is started, it loads a virtual Operating System(OS) and it connects with a virtual Network. The game players draw out some information in the Network at random. Those information are about a girl named Lain. But they are very turbid and contradictory contents. Moreover, the correct answer route with flags, which is existed in the popular game, isn't existed in the game." Chiaki Konaka Interview
Since at the end of the series the director employed two Lains to present Lain's self conversation, I decided to hire them too, but both of them were Lain of the Wired.
To conclude, if Serial Experiments Lain was 'designed' to be fragmented and contradictory, should we still try to talk about theories? We better talk about where the contradictions and absurdities are.
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