[EVA] Concurrency tangent (WAS: Alternate Rei on DVD cover)

[Gwern Branwen]

On Tue, Feb 2, 2010 at 12:18 PM, Peter Svensson <sun1jack at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> But as I said last time, they *don't* have the same reactions or even
>> the same words.
>
> It's close enough that the message of "We've lost our individuality" is sent. Heck, just the fact that we have dead characters there, smiling and congratulating Shinji as they float in an empty blue void between Earth and Moon should be enough evidence that it's not meant to be a return to reality.
>
> I understand the "It's a metaphor for returning to the real world" argument. I just don't think it's as compelling or that there's enough evidence supporting it.
>
> Peter Svensson

My view is that Shinji's turnabout leading up to it sets the context.
I mean, if he's being congratulated for deciding to reject pain &
suffering & life and for merging with everyone else, why is Pen-Pen
rawk-rawking there? (And again, why would Gainax/Anno go to the
trouble of making everyone move & speak differently, separately, at
the ending - rather than a single unified statement _en masse_?)
Instrumentality is for humans, not animals. It is, even back in the
Cordwainer Smith stories, the 'Instrumentality of *Mankind*'.

On the other hand, if we take seriously the 'I want to go back because
our feelings were real!' lines as a reason for going back to the real
world & rejecting Instrumentality, his presence makes sense: one of
the brightest spots in Shinji's life was his home life with Misato,
Asuka, and - Pen-Pen.

I find myself wondering whether we aren't making a mistake by loosely
using 'Instrumentality' and 'Complementation' interchangeably. The
scripts are very vague; in one place, it implies that one must be
complemented to be part of the instrumentality, and in another, that
one undergoes instrumentality in order to be complemented!

Perhaps one term means just the thorough self-analysis and
understanding, and the second refers to choosing, after that analysis,
to no longer be an individual. If we say the first is
'complementation' and the second is 'instrumentality', then that
neatly explains much.

-- 
gwern