social.noyu.me

When we named shin‌.noyu‌.me originally, the intended meaning was 「新」, a noun prefix that means “new”. But of course, being connected to a domain name read as 「の夢」, that doesn't sound quite right. So it's tempting to consider it as actually having been 「真」 from 「真実」

If shin‌.noyu‌.me was the 「真」 from 「真実」, then perhaps gen‌.noyu‌.me is the 「現」from 「現実」. Both are quite similar-feeling names. But we will leave it deliberately ambiguous, because there are a truly delightful number of words in Japanese with the reading “gen”.

If you read it that way, then we're moving from a server named after “truth; reality; absolute truth”, to a server named after “reality; actuality; hard fact”. It looks very sane and straightforward. The nouns mean almost the same thing, you might think.

But this is delusion.

We chose “shin” because it could, in the wrong context, mean “new”. And we choose “gen” because, well, yes, it does appear in 「現実」, sure, but we are far more attached to meanings like 「幻」 (the gen in Gensoukyou), 「弦」 (guitar string), 「玄」 (Urobuchi Gen's name).

So are we wandering into reality or irreality, or just sentimentality? That, dear reader, is up to you.

All narratives are false, but they can be quite pretty things.