The Folly of Men (short story): Difference between revisions

* Jenny is in contact with a “very special person in the book trade” calling himself Mr Fell, who owns a bookshop in {{w|Soho|Soho}}. This is transparently [[Aziraphale]], the [[angel]]-turned-used-bookshop-owner, from {{w|Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman}} and {{w|Terry Pratchett|Terry Pratchett}}'s 1990 novel ''[[Good Omens (series)|Good Omens]]''. Jenny describes him as “very polite, handsome, well dressed, and gay as a tree full of monkeys”, paraphrasing the first description of Aziraphale in the novel: “Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide”. Aziraphale made a personal collection of books of prophecy and other similar tomes, among which the ''[[Plasmanomicon]]'' presumably fits right in. The book ''[[Biggles Goes to Mars]]'', not a part of the real-world ''{{w|Biggles|Bigges}}'' series, was brought into Aziraphale's possession at the end of the novel by [[Adam Young]] when he recreated Aziraphale's bookshop with a few touches of his own. This latter plot point introduces a minor discrepancy in the 1960s setting of ''The Folly of Men'', as ''Good Omens'' quite clearly took place around time of publication, some decades later, and Aziraphale makes it clear he did not have a copy of ''Biggles Goes to Mars'' beforehand, with the implication that no such book even existed.

* The “giant atomic monster” which rises out of the [[Sea of Japan]], described as “something that at first glance could be mistaken for an actor in a silly rubber monster suit”, is evidently [[Godzilla]], as featured in a {{w|Godzilla (franchise)|long-running Japanese film series}} from 1958 onwards. One of the men at the emergency meeting mentions that, unlike the rest of the world, the Japanese already had a contingency plan in place for an event of this kind, nodding towards the character's Japanese origins, although this plot point does not fit the actual continuity of the film series, where Godzilla's first rampages were clearly known to the rest of the world, being too massive to conceal.

* Jenny tells Captain Stewart “If anyone asks where I came from, you can tell them that one day I escaped from my pram in [[Kensington Gardens]] and ran for it. Never looked back”. This is an allusion to the backstory of {{w|Peter Pan|Peter Pan}}.