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LITHIUM_FLOWER
December 19, 2009
I saw some confused chatter on an
old web message board about the song
lyrics at the close of "Ghost in the
Shell: Standalone Complex"; I didn't And the net, being what
find them that mysterious, myself, it is these days, it's
and I'm in a mood to explain... not at all clear *where*
this should be said,
so I say it here.
"Lithium Flower", lyrics by Jim Jensen,
Quoted from James Wong's "Yoko Kanno Project":
[ref]
she's so cold and human
it's something humans do
she stays so golden solo It could be "cold in soul",
she's so number nine rather than "golden solo".
she's incredible math
just incredible math (If this wasn't written
in rocker english it'd
how is she when she doesn't surf? be easier to translate.)
I wonder what she does when she wakes up?
when she wakes up
and is she really human?
she's just so something new
a waking lithium flower
just about to bloom
I smell lithium now
smelling lithium now
"The Ghost in the Shell" series depicts a
world where humans are adding technical
modifications to their bodies, gradually This is all probably the
becoming cyborgs; and also where androids best that's been done
are steadily improving, and becoming more with the anime form, but
human-like. The human spirit (the "ghost") like all anime it seems
is recognized as an information phenomena, both creative and
data that can be swapped into different derivative, depending on
bodies ("shells"), or even, as with the your point of view.
close of the original movie "Ghost in the
Shell", uploaded into the net, abandoning Much of this just seems
physical bodies entirely. like early 80s William
Gibson "cyberpunk"... but
The human and the they suceed in keeping
machine are moving There's a touch it fresh: they give you
together. The of romanticism some sense of what it
question "what is about "ghosts": might feel like to be
human?" is not an dubs of them living up against the ramp
abstract philosophical aren't as good. of this curve.
problem. No substitute for
the "real" thing. It's a corner we
The motif of the are going to be
doll: empty shells, NEUROMANCER squeezed into
and yet we're eventually, one
capable of lavishing way or another.
affection on them.
The "Stand Alone Complex" show uses
the cop show format, it's a prequel
to what we've seen in the film
"The Ghost in the Shell", focusing
on "Public Security Section 9".
The main character is Major Motoko
Kusanagi or just "The Major".
She's apparently lived in cyborg
bodies much of her life -- there's It has apparently a common
an incident when she was younger, medical practice for very
when she inhabited an early, clumsy sickly children to be
model: she accidently crushed a given artificial bodies.
doll in her hands, leaving her in
tears -- a traumatic event she
still dreams about.
Now, she inhabits a very
slick, top-of-the-line
cyborg body, and leads a She prances around in a black
team for the elite, nearly leather jacket over a lavender
legendary Section 9. bikini, an outfit that would only
seem normal in an anime universe.
"she's so cold and human
it's something humans do (Or -- sometimes --
she stays so golden solo in San Francisco.)
she's so number nine"
There's no obvious human affection
in her life, just the ghost of old
ones, like the crushed doll that
made her cry. She's a member of
a professional group -- for now -- But here: being
and she's certainly friendly with "cold" isn't
her co-workers (in particular, Batou) dismissed as "inhuman".
but fundamentally she "stands alone". "It's something
humans do"
Far from being crippled by
being alone, it's how she
stays good at what she does:
she's "golden solo" -- Solo, and yet of Section 9:
she's slick and elite, There's an individual vs.
she's the very epitome of group identity theme going:
"Section 9": "Stand Alone Complex"
"she's so number 9".
Why say "number 9"
and not "section 9"? There are other possibilities.
The obvious reason is Note that "Revolution Number 9"
to tie it in to the was for many people their first
next thought about exposure to audio sample art.
"incredible math"...
A cut-up, stuck together
"she's incredible math collage of bits of information...
just incredible math"
Well, there's the sense that she moves
with mathematical precision...
But more to the point, what "she" is, is
very much a matter of information, data,
i.e. "math". We can infer that a
naturally developed personality such as
The Major is better that any consciously
designed program or that's what they
would be using. The human spirit might
indeed be indistinguishable from a
computer program on some level, but in
the world we're shown at least, the
natural (but augmented) still trumps the
entirely artificial. In theory, she's We have long since
"just" a mathematical construct, but gotten over the notion
she's not just math, she's "incredible that deterministic math
math". always yields simple,
dull, clock-work.
"how is she when she doesn't surf?"
(Actually, I'm not convinced
Okay: "surf"? In the original that the word sung is really
movie, we see her indulging her "surf". Might if be "suffer"?)
hobby of scuba diving -- and
Batou suggests there's a touch Another version of
of death wish about someone the lyrics has it
with a heavier-than-water body begin "when she
going swimming. doesn't say", and
close with "when
she doesn't suffer".
We don't see her
"surfing", but there's It could be they
no huge stretch in this use all three:
metaphor -- she rides And there's the say, surf & suffer.
waves flawlessly, and all-too-common
never wipes out. phrase "web surfing":
how is she when But in the year
she's not connected? 2030, they call
it "net diving"...
"I wonder what she does
when she wakes up?
when she wakes up" At the beginning of each
episode, we see her wake
from the nightmare of
the crushed doll, in a (It could be
coffin-like japanese these don't
"capsule" hotel. suggest coffins
to the Japanese:
they favor
cremation.)
"and is she really human?
she's just so something new Not, sub-human, or non-human,
a waking lithium flower but something beyond human.
just about to bloom"
The song points in the direction
that we know this character is Series fiction has
going -- she's going to "wake up", this capability, to
and undergo a major change, she's build up a back story,
a flower "about to bloom". a repository of shared
premises and associations
that can be worked with,
referred to, built upon.
"I smell lithium now
smelling lithium now" To someone who
hasn't followed
Why "lithium"? Were along, it's difficult
they thinking about to explain all the
"lithium batteries"? associations,
let alone get a sense
Could they have been thinking of of the feeling of
"lithium" the mood control medication mythical resonance.
(now somwhat out-of-fashion)?
A controlled, icy,
emotionally remote If you're walking the
character... line between spirit
and matter, drugs are
a subject that can't
be ignored.
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