>>2736
>What inspired you to start your archive? Connect with the show/VN? Think Lain is an important cultural symbol? Just think Lain is cute?all of the above, and also that a lot of ideas from the show have really resonated with me. i came around to understand that everyone gets his own thing from it, mine is that i believe that the interconnected world can no longer be clearly divided between "virtual" and "real". it was never virtual in the first place, ever since the first ever computer communication some decades ago - everything has an impact on the world, no matter the significance - and SE:L perfectly portrays that.
also, i do think that the concept of network spirituality has a place in this world, which is also shown. your presence in the net is more than just your account and things you post, it's part of your personality and soul that is now forever engraved onto countless hard drives in segments and is available to anyone who's willing to dig deep enough. in that sense, it makes the internet some sort of ephemeral, all-knowing and omnipresent being, akin to a god.
there are many ways you can look at it, love it, hate it, accept it, deny it, understand it or remain ignorant, but it still exists and you have to face it every day, since all of our lives are now online to various extent. and Lain is a symbol of that - it exists, regardless of whether you acknowledge her or not, because there will be at least someone in the world that remembers of her existence, even if that is not a person but a machine. she is long immortalized in this deus ex machina that the internet has become, in all senses - from an anime character to a theological concept.
i'll understand if it doesn't make much sense or my answer is not as coherent as both of us would like, that's just what's been on my mind for a while now and i'm still in the process of fully figuring all this out, not even sure if it's really feasible. also, some of the stuff was possibly influenced by the shit i've seen at my job, i can elaborate if you wish.