About this deal
Oh, ho!” snorted Whitcomb. “The Vatican! No discussion, no exchange of opinion—oh, no, just ship it off to the Vatican where it can be hidden in some secret dungeon with any other evidence of God’s divine favor—”
The Ide senses the emotions of the people onboard the Ideon and the Solo Ship and, for most of the time, acts to protect them. It responds more strongly to young people, becoming especially active when the baby Piper Lou is in danger - a concept similar to pilot synchronization in Evangelion. When the Ide "awakens", its offensive and defensive power increase drastically and its superweapons become usable. In extreme cases the Ideon can go berserk and act entirely independently, with devastating results. Both the Ideon and the Solo Ship can also project a protective energy barrier, the strength of which depends on the "mood" of the Ide: again, Evangelion recycled this feature in the form of A.T. Fields. On his feet, he glanced around him, his blue eyes moving steadily from one to another, and when he did not find what he sought, he walked to the great sliding doors of Hangar F and spread them open with a single motion. To the snapping of steel regulators and the grinding of stripped gears, the doors parted—revealing to the crowd outside, newsmen, officers, soldiers, and civilians, the mighty, twenty-foot-high, shining form of the angel. The Vision of Milty Boil” - 2.5 - A ridiculous story with too much focus on the main character’s past: A short man builds his wealth by developing high rise apartments. He becomes famous for fitting more apartments in a single building by shortening the height of each floor. Officials find this preposterous until they decide there is money here and shortness must be made desirable. A marketing campaign ensues and humanity changes forever.
Penance is your field, gentlemen,” said General Drummond. “I have the problem of a war, the press, and this body.” He was born in Bussum, near Amsterdam, and was educated at State Drawing School of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. The Ideon's berserker behavior is simply the Ide protecting itself and those it deems pure of heart. Having witnessed the warlike nature of both the humans and the Buff Clan, it now intends to pass judgement on both of the races. At the end of the dream sequence, Bes tells the Ide he's going to oppose its plans, announcing "I am not a part of you! I am me, I am myself!"; this is paralleled in Evangelion when Shinji chooses to reject Instrumentality and reaffirm his individuality. At that moment the angel sat up, and the men around him leaped away to widen the circle. Several drew their sidearms; others whispered whatever prayers they could remember. The angel, whose eyes were as blue as the skies over Viet Nam when the monsoon is gone and the sun shines through the washed air, paid almost no attention to them at first. He opened one wing and then the other, and his great wings almost filled the hangar. He exed one arm and then the other, and then he stood up.
The Interval” - 3 - A story with an interesting concept and weak execution: A man visits the home that he is attempting to sell. He is in a transitional state. Upon looking out the window, he sees that the landscape is literally being rolled up like a carpet and the world is transitioning as well. He drives to the city, seeing the same thing everywhere. He finds a group of people and they experience the transition together. This body, as you call it,” said Father O’Malley, “obviously should be sent to the Vatican—immediately, if you ask me.” Wistful and elegaic, "The Interval" hits differently now that I'm somewhat over fifty years of age and getting so much closer to my own final act. Get these two mothers the hell out of here, and when you assign a detail to me, I want men, not wet-nosed kids. Then he surveyed the angel, and even he was impressed. There is something tragic and inexplicable about the passage of time, and its relentless forward momentum. Both my grandparents are firmly planted in the earth never to exist again on this mortal plane. There are some things we don’t know how to love until they’re far in the rear view.
Both 2001 and Evangelion offer ideas surrounding evolution and the advancement of the human species. In 2001, the mysterious monoliths appear at the dawn of man, and later invites man to Jupiter for the next stage in evolution, the Starchild. Their role can be compared to Evangelion's First Ancestral Race and the Secret Dead Sea Scrolls, which guides Seele toward their goal of Human Instrumentality, the next stage in human evolution. When Electric Lit asked me to write an introduction to my grandfather’s story “The General Zapped an Angel” I was thrilled. I had long fantasized about a day when I would be able to sit down at the computer and write an introduction to a work by either my feminist mother [Erica Jong] or my communist grandfather but it turns out writing these introductions is a lot harder than it looks when one gets into a weird and horrible meditation on the past. I loved my grandfather and hated him, loved his work and felt it took him away from us. I was in awe of his talent and enraged towards it, too. It has a body—a very substantial body. In fact, it’s as large as a young elephant, twenty feet tall. It’s lying in Hangar F, under guard.” A story that I thought among the best was called "The Mouse". There are not a lot of stories here, just nine, but among them are some very good ones, with unexpectedly strong moral and social commentary elements. Amongst the satire and farce is a bit of silliness that may not have aged so well, but there is thought provoking bits as well. These are by no means "great" stories but I was happy to get in the time machine and go visit 1969-1970 sensibilities briefly. I don't think Fast was really trying to write Fantasy or science fiction stories to stand up to much scrutiny - he was trying to write stories to make you look at the world from a different angle, and think about things. Molly Jong-Fast is the author of Normal Girl, Girl [Maladjusted], and The Social Climber’s Handbook. She has written for many newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, W Magazine, Cosmo, The Times (UK), and Marie Claire. She lives in Manhattan. She is married to a recovering academic. They have three very small children, all of whom like to talk to her when she is on the phone.