Above left: The classic Taoist Taijitsu, the symbol for the Chinese yin yang. Many natural dualities — e.g. dark and light, female and male, low and high, cold and hot — are thought of as manifestations of yin and yang (respectively). Yin is also associated with night-time, and yang with daytime. [Image from the Wikipedia 'Yin and yang' page, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.] Above right: In Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace and Vincent Vega are shown doing the twist at the Jack Rabbit Slim's restaurant and club. Note the black and white theme of their clothing - Mia and Vincent represent the complementarity of yin and yang, as explained in part 7 of the Pulp Fiction analysis on the Can Analyze blog.
Top left: HAL's view of Frank Poole through the EVA pod window, while Poole and Bowman are discussing HAL's recent behavior. Top right: The audience of Pulp Fiction is shown this view of Mia in profile, while she's using her home intercom system. The similarity of this profile view to that of Poole at left, is a hint from Tarantino that Mia represents Poole, in turn indicating that Poole represents yin in A Space Odyssey. Above left: Bowman at the beginning of the stargate sequence. Above right: Pulp Fiction's Vincent Vega has just injected himself with some heroin, and now has a serene facial expression resembling that of Bowman at left, as he drives to Mia's house. Vincent here represents Bowman, indicating that Bowman represents yang.
Top left: Later in Pulp Fiction, Vincent is shown injecting Mia with adrenaline, in order to revive her after she has become unconscious due to accidentally inhaling heroin. Top right: A short while later Mia seems to be revived, but her 'ghostly' complexion indicates that she has not been completely saved. As explained in the analysis of Pulp Fiction (on the Can Analyze blog), this ultimately represents Vincent's failure to 'save' the feminine within himself. Above left: Bowman waits in the EVA pod at the entrance to the pod bay of Discovery One, after retrieving Poole's body from space. Above right: After HAL refuses to open the pod bay doors, Bowman is forced to let Poole's body go, to drift in space forever. In accordance with the Pulp Fiction hints, and since Poole represents yin, this represents Bowman's failure to 'save' the feminine.
