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Vanna Bonta

Italian-American writer, poet, inventor, actress, voice artist (1958-2014)

Vanna Bonta (3 April 1958 – 8 July 2014) was an American novelist, poet and actress. She is the author of Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel and three collections of poems. Bonta makes a cameo appearance as the superhero's young mother, Zed's Queen, in the fantasy classic The Beastmaster. As a voice-actor, she played multiple roles in major films such as Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She is also the inventor of the 2suit, a garment for intimacy, work and thermal applications in the microgravity environments of space.

Quotes

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  • What goes up can continue.
    • Lyric from the song "What Goes Up". What Goes Up... Vanna Bonta film short, YouTube.
  • Innovation is strict common sense with wild imagination.
  • Sex in space is not just a good idea, it's survival.
  • Truth may sometimes hurt, but delusion harms.
  • We've been there on World Wars, it's time for World Party I.
    • Comment by Bonta on her blog, tweet about social media and World Party Day.[citation needed]
  • Gifts have ribbons, not strings.
    • Holiday advice from Bonta essay "Ribbons vs. Strings" adapted to Christmas audio Tale "It's the Gift That Counts" (Holiday Magic 2005 CD). Vanna Bonta Has Holiday Gift Advice WAlEG Celebrities; December 16, 2006
  • Penalty is different than punishment, because it offers something with which to regain honor.
  • God and I were nude.
    • to a randy reporter about modelling au naturel for Woman in "Ex Nihilo," the Creation sculpture by Frederick Hart that frames a portal arch of the Washington National Cathedral. The Things They Say Reporter7; July 6, 2006
  • Our neighborhood - this solar system, the cosmos, actually - is so much more vast and amazing than the paltry headlines, insanity, and politics crammed at us daily as so-called news. The beauty of the hood and discoveries that await us are deserving of our attention and mandatory to our survival as a species.

Space: What love's got to do with it - The Space Review (2004)

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Space: What love's got to do with it, by Vanna Bonta; The Space Review, October 25, 2004

  • We are the ancestors of those gardening the universe.
  • Our heartbeats pounding tomorrow into being...
  • I believe Love is the most courageous act of which a human being is capable. The word courage even stems from the root word “heart” (coeur). Scientifically speaking, it is quantifiable only by recognition of its quality.
  • Love consults itself.
  • The success of SpaceShipOne was Justice Day for dreamers and pioneers past, present and future.
  • When we love, we are courageous; and courage has nothing to do with being fearless, it’s about being willing to experience fear, even dread, to do what we must, without guarantee of outcome.
  • 'Impossible' is not a scientific term.
  • We saw Earth’s breath.
  • The stars are not the limit.

The Impact of Space Activities Upon Society (ESA Br) European Space Agency (2005)

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The Impact of Space Activities Upon Society ESA Publication; December 2005 The Impact of Space Activities Upon Society

  • Infinity is a territory toward which the inherent human impetus of conquest can be productively directed.
  • Space is as infinite as we can imagine, and expanding this perspective is what adjusts humankind’s focus onto conquering our true enemies, the formidable foes: ignorance and limitation.
  • The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.
  • Our true enemies are: ignorance and limitation.

Degrees: Thought Capsules and Micro Tales (1989)

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Degrees: Thought Capsules (Poems and Micro Tales on Life, Death, Man, Woman, & Art], Dora Books, September 1, 1989

  • Fame is not the glory; virtue is the goal, and Fame only a messenger to bring more to the fold.
  • She listened to him all night and he found her fascinating.
  • Popularity is not an indication of quality.
  • I am, therefore I think.
  • People who worship only themselves get a slick, polished look -- like monuments. Too bad they had to go so soon.
  • When we love there is no reason why.
    • "Nothing Besides Itself"
  • Stella, I never knew you but here I am, in your room, a week after your death. … I thought of you, Stella, and wondered if you watched your moments, or if they all snuck by. I whispered your name into the day, carried on for you in reverence, and I felt you rest and continue the smile.
    • "Stella's Earrings"
  • The news is disease in disguise pretending to be information.
    • "Do I Have To?"
  • In her heart she harbors hatred for me, but it would ruin the game if we didn't have tea. The words slither out laced with venom so vile it would pucker my face but she says it and smiles.
    • "Do I Have To?"
  • Some things can never be explained. Like the summer Jim died and they called his name the next year in class and he didn't answer.
    • "Vacuum"
  • Love is the eternal first breath.
    • "Home"
  • Little did the artist know, who neglected his appearance in favor of his work, that the years would produce a breed that spent hours meticulously acquiring a neglected look to appear like an artist.
    • "Inversion"
  • Have you, with your work, made anyone glow? Erupted their sorrow? Evicted their woe? Have you been anyone's consolation through a night? Have you evoked unrehearsed emotion? Chiseled a crack in someone's encasement and watched them escape? Followed the muses wherever they led? Kept on creating when left for dead? Do not bother me with punctuation until you have earned your degree.
    • "To Some Critics"
  • Fear plants the whisper to beware but doesn't look to see who's there.
    • "The Enemy"
  • Harmony, rhythm, concision, concinnity are all elements that are epitomized in poetry. Cultivated in poetry, which is the nucleus of the creative impulse, these elemetns serve every art form: acting a character, writing a novel, creating music, dance, sculpture, painting."
  • Within me, and in others, what I seek to know is the darkness and the glory of all humanity. My vulnerability leads me to Truth, which is the ultimate defense."
  • The body knows no pain, not like the soul. At least a nerve has limits, a body part a name. But the soul … the soul … There is no bandage -- even crying is in vain.
    • "Only the Soul"
  • Evil's last voice croaked to me, "How did you know I was only bluffing?" Because he wept. Because he wept.

Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel (1995)

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June 1995 (Meridian House); ISBN 978-0-912339-10-8

  • Which came first — the observer or the particle?
    • Preface
  • Once, before Time...
    • Prologue
  • Our trust exchanged dependency.
    • Ch. 1
  • He was acting on a reason other than the avoidance of pain. The sentiment was loyalty, and it felt glorious.
    • Ch. 3
  • The door swung smoothly open, surprising her. A girl stood there. Barefoot. Dressed in a trash bag.
  • Her countenance was like a newborn's, just taking everything in without filter or defense.
    • Ch. 15
  • I'm not an intellectual, I'm just a writer.
    • Ch. 17
  • How amazingly genetic.
  • "Wake up!"
  • I suppose it would be a lot easier if a training manual were issued at puberty. Chapter One: what your body is feeling isn't necessarily you.
  • Is it a form of social play that underneath the words people say, there is a different conversation going on?
  • Life kissed her however it could.
    • Ch. 22
  • Gods were crucified, scientists and inventors tortured and persecuted, artists slandered.
    • Ch. 23
  • Sandra let her words fly on an arrow of certainty. "I know the whereabouts of a bona fide extra terrestrial."
    • Ch. 28
  • Viewers of television, for instance, aren't aware of their own physical vulnerabilities. They get used, manipulated by images of depersonalized sex.
    • Ch. 32
  • "Well, wouldn't that be the ultimate cure?" Aira concluded cheerfully. "The cure for death?"
    • Ch. 32
  • On Earth it was day in some places, night in others.
    • Ch. 44
  • It was a perfect summer night. So good, it was true.
    • Ch. 48
  • "I hated you because you reminded me of...how I once was...of what I lost."
  • "It hurts to care! It hurts so much to care!"
  • Love's not an emotion. It's a state of being, an ability.
  • There is no hospitality like understanding.
  • Leaders in all realms and activities of life knew that the power they had come to hold existed because they were responsible to serve the many, thus power was position of service.
    • Ch. 50
  • Those who had entrusted their leaders knew it was for a purpose, and the purpose should be maintained.
    • Ch. 50
  • The people knew what had made them human. It was not their shortcomings, but their hearts.
    • Ch. 60

Vanna Bonta Talks About Quantum fiction: Author Interview (2007)

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Laurel van der Linde interviews author Vanna Bonta about the emerging genre of quantum fiction (transcript at gather.com, audio at IMDB.com)

  • Quantum fiction is any story that witnesses life and the human experience on a subatomic level.
  • Quantum fiction is literature that embodies the new physical or quantum universe.
  • The genre is broad and includes life.
  • How do we define consciousness, or what has been called the human soul or the spirit, if it can't be quantified as matter or a particle? … it can be quantified or observed just by a process of elimination.
  • Through the process of elimination, the observer or some aspect of awareness is indirectly quantified.
  • In life, the way we perceive life and reality is often instrumental in how things can unfold.
  • Through characters, non-linear plot lines, or the involvement of multiple dimensions, it ultimately witnesses the physical world as inextricable from consciousness or the observer of that world.
  • Pythagorean thought was dominated by mathematics, but it was also profoundly mystical.
  • Pythagoras' idea of the transmigration of the soul is central.
  • It's closer to Platonic Idealism in the theory that substantive reality is only a reflection of some other non-quantified spirit, awareness, consciousness, whatever you want to call it.
  • Any literature, when it arrives at being good literature, transcends genre.
  • I followed my inspiration to an ending I couldn't yet see, and incorporated techniques of allegory and exposition, expository essay.
  • Various editors, senior editors at major houses who wanted the book said that they didn't quite know what genre it was.
  • I said, "...it is quantum fiction." The first line of the story is "Which came first, the observer or the particle?" - and it goes from there.
  • When we can build something like the Hubble telescope and fathom images of this vast cosmos of which we are a part, it really gives pause to wonder what and who we are within a larger framework than linear adventures at the shopping mall and taxes.
  • I certainly didn't write it to be popular.
  • The real plot in fiction parallels life in that it happens within the characters.
  • Events, time, forms, all propel the inner plot within each of us.
  • At the end of a person's life that's what they are looking at. What happened inside? How did that experience change me, and how did I change it?
  • In quantum fiction adventures, things like coincidences, synchronicity, telepathy, déjà vu, and an assortment of odd experiences that have been formerly the realm of the paranormal can now - at least theoretically - be explained by a new look at the physical world.
  • The realm of quanta is how I have intrinsically approached and viewed reality since I was born.
  • What appears to us solid is ultimately both a particle and a wavelength, and on that realm everything behaves as both a particle and a wave.
  • There are infinite possibilities.
  • People at large are becoming more aware that there is much more to reality and to themselves than what meets the eye.
  • As people become more aware of this universe as a quantum universe, it will embrace things like holographic entertainment experiences. Already, virtual reality and virtual interaction are an element of quantum fiction.
  • In Flight (a quantum fiction novel), essentially our protagonist is a writer who is writing a novel and then begins to see things from his novel occurring in the reality around him, and he questions "am I losing my mind?" or "am I somehow influencing reality around me?"
  • Essentially Flight is just an adventure of multiple realities.
  • Each character is an allegory for every aspect of human existence.

Haiku aboard NASA spaceship MAVEN, Mars mission (2013)

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NASA is Sending these poems to Mars TIME Magazine; August 09, 2013] Haiku Headed To Mars Aboard NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft Huffington Post; August 09, 2009

  • Thirty-six million / miles of whispering welcome. / Mars, you called us home.

Shades of the World (1985)

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  • The true poem rests between the words.
    • "Servants to Thought"
  • Love is a quality, not a quantity.
  • Thought has no gender.
    • p. 71
  • Your heart is the beacon, your heart is the storm. Dare to embrace it; you'll never be torn.
    • "Hearts"
  • Pay me for my work, but I don't do it for the money.
    • "Gratuitous"
  • Understanding precedes peace.
  • There is only now. And look! How rich we are in it!
    • "The Illusion"
  • Because I had goodwill for all, / I thought all were my friends. / And then I learned of treachery, / that some preferred my end. / It wasn't the goodwill I felt / that made someone a friend. / What handy day, the one I learned / the meaning of the word. / How good to know my enemies /(though their reasons are absurd!)
    • "Definition"
  • Everybody's got soul. It's a matter of what condition it's in.
  • What goes up can continue.
  • You are not going to find yourself anywhere except right where you are.
  • What I saw was the hoax: Immortals questioning mortality when they should have asked eternity.
    • "She's Dead?"

The Universe - Sex in Space (2008)

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History Channel The Universe television series, Season 3, Episode 4.

 
Bonta and mate in zero gravity testing the 2suit, September 2009.
  • Once someone I was working with said, 'You know, Vanna, some people think about what they're having for lunch tomorrow and you're thinking hundreds of years into the future.'
  • The 2suit is a utilitarian garment that functions by itself as a flight suit, and can unzip or attach with velcro and attach to a partner's suit with very lightweight fabric inside that can expand.
  • One impression I had was how zero zero gravity is.
  • We are progeny of not just the Earth, but of the cosmos. And as its progeny it is our duty use the best of our ability and continue that.
  • To paraphrase the great poet Dante, the heavens swirl above us and our eyes are still cast to the ground.

Zero Gravity interview (2006)

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Sex in Space, by Laura Woodmansee; Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc. (August 1, 2006)

  • Having personally kissed in zero gravity, I was initially amazed by the unexpected lack of attraction, from the sheer perspective of the mass magnetism.
    • p. 29
  • As our faces and bodies drew nearer, gravity was not helping us at all. It took minor struggle to come together, and we had to hold on in an effort to keep our lips aligned.
    • p. 29
  • On Earth, much of the wrenching discomfort of emesis, apart from the sensation of nausea itself, is from the coordination of many muscles it takes to counter gravity.
    • p. 31
  • Some animals on Earth regurgitate as opposed to vomit, i.e., stomach contents flow up into the esophagus without any forceful abdominal contractions. What I experienced in zero gravity was similar to this, expulsion without the heaves.
    • p. 31
  • Human forms are perpetuated through sex, and sex also perpetuates human consciousness.
    • p. 75
  • Space settlements would also contain biospheres replicating Earth conditions and atmosphere."
    • p. 75
  • If form follows function, as we know it does in this Universe, then consciousness will adapt to whatever form it requires in order to function. Hopefully, it will also develop its fundamental function; what that is may be debatable within many schools of thought, but it is indisputable that evolved thinking recognizes the universality of Life.
    • p. 75
  • It is indisputable that evolved thinking recognizes the universality of Life.
    • p. 76
  • It’s vital as we postulate and work toward exploration and human settlement beyond Earth. I like to think of the possibilities of sustaining humanity’s continuum, with preserved recorded history way beyond the life of our Sun.
    • Ch. 5
  • Human migration beyond Earth is our destiny, not as in something preordained, but in the sense of it being inevitable and necessary. The lot of humanity seems to be that of expanding consciousness into new territory.
  • People have been making love and having sex in space over the thousands of years that our ancestors lived and traveled in small hunting-and-gathering bands. Earth is in Space.
    • p. 90
  • Sex in space is not about going somewhere else to have sex; it's ultimately about expanding beyond our immediate neighborhood, into a Universe to which we belong.

The Cosmos as a Poem (2010)

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The Cosmos as a Poem, by Vanna Bonta; ASIN: B0086POUVQ - Essay

  • Poetry emulates the Cosmos perhaps because the Cosmos itself is the grandest conceivable example of rhythm, rhyme, harmony and concinnity.
  • It is interesting to note that poetry, a literary device whose very construct involves the use of words, is itself the word of choice by persons grasping to describe something so beautiful, it is marvelously ineffable.
  • Poetry is a subset of a Cosmos, which in itself, is a poem.
  • These elements — rhythm, rhyme, harmony and concinnity — can inevitably be identified within whatever is proclaimed 'poetry.'
  • All of life and the cosmos can be seen as concinnous (harmoniously congruous, neat, elegant) wholes with a whole, unless in chaos; and, even then, chaos occurs (or is avoided) within systems (whether minute or vast) that are themselves balanced, or concinnous.
  • Everything poetic exists as a subset of a whole, and within the authoritative system of Nature.
  • We call interconnected order beautiful. When interrupted, we call it chaos.
  • A phoneme, an utterance, could be said to be the beginning of poetry's evolutionary chain.
  • For literary purposes, the art of writing poetry can be simply defined as: A creative act using language as a medium refined to an art.
  • The forms [of poetry] are subsets of the principles that govern the cosmos itself which, by its very definition is: a complete, orderly, harmonious system.
  • The social value of a poem is proved not by marketing or reviews but by enduring resonance, a process that occurs as a response over time by humanity.
  • Poetry is a transfusion of the ephemeral blood that sustains the universal heartbeat within human society.
  • Poetry achieves its pinnacle when it is the perfection and mastery of expression (creation, perception) as Art (arrangement).
  • It’s of note that the word 'cosmetic' has its roots in the word 'cosmos.'
  • Pythagoras was the first person to call the universe Cosmos, describing it a kosmos. The Greek word means an equal presence of order and beauty.
  • To the degree it is efficient, a spaceship is elegant and beautiful.
  • A spaceship rhymes with all the dreams, nascent wonder, and hope of a humanity looking up in awe at an excruciatingly beautiful Cosmos, with

fervent anticipation of continuing encounter and discovery in an act that can be defined as coming home to ourselves.

  • Dreams are the food of human progress. Poetry, like all physics, ultimately quantifies the unquantifiable that is beyond all form.

Vanna Bonta Talks Sex in Space (Interview - Femail magazine)

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Vanna Bonta Talks Sex in Space Interview; Femail Magazine, 2009

  • Earth is in space, too, so really sex in space isn't anything new.
  • In lunar gravity, it was easy to do one-handed push ups and somersault effortlessly.
  • Any time a body goes outside the environmental conditions for which it developed it has to acclimate.
  • Earth gravity and a line of horizon is how we, as Earth humans, are accustomed to gauging spatial orientation.
  • It's an amazing and exhilarating thing to experience gravity lift away from around the body.
  • In z-g, fluids redistribute to the upper body.
  • Eventually space environments could be created to provide the best of both worlds, such as, for one example, settlements or habitats designed to create their own gravity, with chambers where reduced gravity or weightlessness can also be experienced optionally.
  • I was surprised and fascinated to experience the absolute lack of physical attraction, in terms of physical mass, in z-g.
  • Experiencing that in general was curiously amazing.
  • In zero gravity, [[w:space adaptation syndomre]|SAS]] aside, it's possible to perform amazing physical feats. Ironically, it's more like being there as a mind.
  • Unfamiliar environments heighten adrenalin, which might work for stimulating excitement or against totally relaxing into any kind of intimacy.
  • Imagine gazing at Earth or other space views.
  • The view from space is described as life-changing...seeing Earth, our home planet, the jewel it is, a mass, a rock suspended in its neighborhood, our neighborhood, the universe.
  • Sure, the sheer animal aspect of our physicality is an intrinsic component of what we are.
  • Sex is powerful, it's procreative, it's a force that drives salmon to swim up stream defying rocky obstacles to thrash new forms into existence and, physiologically, the human body is also rigged with that drive that ensures the human race will continue.
  • There is also something more [...] because as humans we possess, call it reason, spirit, consciousness, what ever, it's a numinous element beyond the perfunctory form following function.
  • Sex is communication and creation. In my novel, "Flight", two lovers have sex by becoming a forest and rain.
  • We are at the helm of not only our own physicality but our environment and other species, too, as sentient, conscious beings who can think of future and affect consequence, and create progeny with our minds as well as our bodies.
  • The etymological root of the word, sex, which originated around 1350 from the Middle English, sexus, means to divide.
  • Really, other one-pop variations of sex pale after it goes cosmic. And there is an abundance of fake or imitation sex around.
  • Isn't it ironic that the US has more porn and "sexy" advertising yet the biggest population of Viagra users?
  • It's not surprising that the disconnection from real sex becomes unfulfilling.
  • Eroticism means "caused by love." That is eroticism's meaning. (Erotic vs. porn) Real sex is erotic.
  • Sex is as personally unique to individuals as it is universal.
  • Romantically speaking, the idea of lovers experiencing the ultimate orgasmic rapture while floating in zero gravity is a metaphor.
  • When real intimacy occurs, any where, any how, it comes close to feeling we live forever, and we are not alone.
  • I mean, after a certain age you figure out just because a button works doesn't mean you have to push it.
  • As intelligent life that can impact a comet with total precision, send missions to Mars, and create beauty, art, dance, literature, and music, the greatest sex organ is the mind and my guess is there are orgasms awaiting us like none we have known before, provided we get there.

State of the Art (2000)

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State of the Art, by Vanna Bonta; ASIN: B0086PAIXK - Essay

  • There is direct correlation between a society lacking in artistic vision to lack of social conscience, i.e., crime, poverty, and senseless, violent atrocities, materialism.
  • The ability to do, to make, to generate and contribute is the essence of a human being.
  • When confidence in the power to create is obscured, greed sets in, for greed is nothing but the loss of confidence in one’s own ability to create.
  • People, when cognizant, influence their personal growth and their environment by their will.
  • Creativity, no matter how elementally miniscule or broad in scope, is what differentiates human beings as superior to any material value, and also empowers the achievement of excellence beyond personal flaws.
  • Money is a human invention.
  • A poet's first contract is with truth.
  • Recognition of one’s fellows is distorted when money is prioritized as value itself.
  • When the personal worth of individuals is calculated only in money, sense of self becomes confused with financial net worth.
  • Working to get money is in fact backwards and has been twisted from the healthy human dynamic; one works toward a purpose of contribution and exchange and personal fulfillment.
  • Fame factories develop and promote hip icons who exude superior airs.
  • The masses once dined on opera and Shakespeare.
  • Pushing fear and sex buttons is a poor substitute for aesthetic elation, transcendental euphoria and quintessential stimulation.
  • As a global society, befriending one another in the interchange of what we each have to offer will support a renascence of our humanity.
  • There is no greater poverty than oblivion to self and others.
  • As technology puts the God-wand into the hands of mankind, new ethical issues never before facing us pose harrowing decisions.
  • The pending direction of society rests more than any time in recorded history on the fulcrum of a human finger.
  • I see the Internet as society’s approach to graduation into the ultimate meaning of Conscience, i.e., "with knowing.”

Rewards of Passion (Sheer Poetry) (1981)

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  • The beauty you see in me is a reflection of you.
    • "The Beauty"
  • Inspiration always arrives unannounced.
  • Why have a cake if I can't eat it?
  • Always is no Time at all.
  • You won't feel under-dressed when with your naked heart you come to me, for mine is past the point to dress for company.
    • "Eeeeeee"
  • I wished to dub as Masters: Love, Truth, Serenity. They'd feed and house and teach me with total sovereignty.
    • "On the Avenue"
  • Flaws like roadmaps I see. They are detours to you that I don't take.
    • "Reach"
  • I am in prayer. I am one hand, this Universe the other.
    • "Reflection"
  • Pure at heart: to be like a flower that blooms as gloriously, brilliantly in a secluded wild wood, not seen and praised.
  • You never read about the real pain. It lives where no word can travel.
    • "Where No Word Can Travel"
  • I gave my smile its liberty, with no curfew nor bounds.
    • "I Gave My Smile"
  • Life is my lover.
  • Truth is too big a price to pay for the luxury of avoiding pain now and then.
  • I wanted you to know me.
  • Your kisses are thieves which leave me wanting nothing.
    • "Your Kisses Are Thieves"
  • If you were the sky, I would unfurl myself in you, as a rainbow of colors yet unseen. I would become oceans of stars in your night.
    • "Love Beyond Time"
  • Joy and Sorrow have as source the very soul who planned their course.

Quotes about Bonta

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  • Vanna's 2Suit is just one small step toward humankind colonizing the universe.
  • Now this is a writer.
  • I was inexpressibly struck, overtaken by chills, the likes of which I have not felt since the time I studied Sylvia Plath. Vanna Bonta is an important discovery.
    • Margherita Guidacci. Degrees, Thoughts Capsules (Poems) and Micro Tales] Margherita Guidacci review
  • Ready to test that law [physics] and go where no man and woman have gone before is Vanna Bonta.
  • I think the concept of the 2suit is perfect. But I also think just the philosophy of thinking, thinking beyond normal into creating a suit for two people is wonderful.
    • John Spencer, President and Founder, Space Tourism Society, [History Channel, The Universe TV series], History Channel The Universe, Episode 36; December 2008
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