in the shell

I think I understand the general reasoning behind the quote on the laughing man logo, which is, and correct me if I am wrong, that Aoi himself seemed to think he started a chain of events that led to something so complex he could do nothing but watch on as a "deaf mute".

What I don't get, though, is why did he use this quote originally, as in 6 years before the series begins? What was his motive of using this logo with the quote when he first kidnapped Serano and had the spontaneous outbreak on TV?

Well, The Laughing Man is actually the name short of a story made by J.D Salinger, the man who wrote Catcher In The Rye. He appears to be a fan of Salinger's work and can probably relate to Holden (main character of Catcher in the Rye) fairly well. The quote "I thought what I'd do is pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes." comes from Catcher in the Rye. Holden is a teenager who is fed up with the world and all the people in it and at one point he says "I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody. If anybody wanted to tell me something, they'd have to write it on a piece of paper and shove it over to me. They'd get bored as hell doing that after a while, and then I'd be through with having conversations for the rest of my life." Aoi probably felt the same way. He most likely used the quote in his logo to show his utter disgust for the people he was up against. Hope this helped. =]

If I'm not mistaken, at least some of the laughing man imagery was super-imposed onto the newscast afterwards by copycats/fans of the Laughing Man. But it's been a while since I watched season 1, so I'm not 100% sure.

It was.

In one episode the Major goes over to a friends place and looks and some uncontaminated archival footage.

Only Aoi's face is hidden by the LM logo in the original video.

Makes you wonder who was hacking the public archives and why her friends would have had an archive that must be copying EVERYTHING in order to have grabbed that one random event.

Oiy. There's a lot to the Laughing Man.

I knew a man just like him. In fact it was creepy when that little boy called him "Chief." Since that was what we called this particular man.

And just like Aoi (is that correct?) The guy was a huge fan of Catcher in the Rye.

I don't think the man ever saw Ghost in the Shell though. I'm curious as to what he'd think.

I'd ask him, but he pulled a Aoi/Holden himself and "disappeared."

I gotta be honest. I kinda flipped at all the similarities between Aoi and this guy. They're even both hackers! Or so that this particular guy claimed. Never seen him do it, myself, but I trust the guy. Or should that be trusted.

Either way it was a real trip.

It's funny how things just work out that way, huh?

I was never a particular fan of Salinger's works, but I saw the message behind it.

It's interesting because to be such a big fan of Ghost in the Shell, I almost have to admit my appreciation for the character of Holden.

But the underlying truth is, I pity the guy. To be so dissatisfied with everything? That's not the right way to go about things, I think.

I'd argue you have to open your eyes wider. Take a chance being an listening-jabbermouth. See how the two pan out in contrast to each other before you resolve yourself to something so absolute.

I tried out a couple of the popular media interpretations of Catcher in the Rye on people in my parents gernation who read it but have had no exposure to some of the recent movies.

Universaily declared the concepts to be bumpkuss.

I wonder how much is modern interpretation and how much is just crap filler for dialogue?

The Salinger angle,
lets take it.

So Catcher in the Rye became somewhat notorious after its initial publication
for starters it has been consistently banned in libraries across the world for a myriad of reasons
the usual justification is the profanity
It has also been connected to at least three assassination attempts, two of them the successful -Ronald Reagan, Rebecca Scaffaer, and John Lennon
(to me the whole Lennon thing bears a bit of bittersweet irony, since as far as pop stars go - the guy was pretty damn sincere)
Salinger himself was fairly notorious - quite ironically for being such a recluse, and for specifically not publishing things
Similar in a way to Aoi who only really partook in that one event
The Catcher in the Rye phenomenon is used to illustrate the concept of the Stand Alone Complex
Mark David Chapman, Robert John Bardo, John Hinckley, Jr. may have had a sincere affection for the book but it seems a bit of a stretch to me at least to reasonably connect it with their actions
They were, in effect, copies with no original