Hitch - Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy (1 Viewer)

[Natto]

This was an awesome book, I loved it......At first I hated it cause it was a book that was compulsory to read for english but since then i have read it three times.....

Its a satirical look at the genre of space opera, Its really funny, because it pokes fun at humans and their emotion and everything about us really!.

If your not into space stuff its still pretty funny, But if you are into it you have to read it......

And there is like 5 books in the trilogy (I know - Trilog means "3" - But thats what it says)

Too bad Douglas Adams is dead

 

[Thomas_wow]

ive tried to read this book 3 times. his humor only works for me usually about 50pages. probably cause its too similar to my humor and i can see everything coming

 

[evilc]

yeah, I have read the first 2, my mum got me the boxed set of 5 (the trilogy) for christmas...well early christmas present, im going to read them in the near future. The box set is cheap, $25

 

[huck fenn]

I have the first 4 in one book.

I am always unsure where to place Douglas Adams' work. I never know whether to think of ti as truely meritous literature, or as cheap tricks to expose the fundamentalities of our condition. I much much prefer the former, but often his complete disregard for narrative pacing and subtle plot construction often makes the jokes, which are hilarious and interesting nonetheless, seem quite ... i don't know. the word i'm looking for is a mixture of clumsy, obvious, and repetative.

having had that semi rant, I gladly pledge my allegiance to the 'trilogy'. I read them when i was in year 8, and i had not read much 'adult' literature, and despite having been obsessed with space and cosmology and philosophy and humanity i had never been able to completly convince myself that an irrevent attitude to the implicit issues. What Adams does is make the reader throw up their hands in bewildered resignation at the sheer enormity and absurdity of the universe, and these are the most desired responses for any peice of work... i feel. but thats just my thing....

I think that while reading his work, i often got jealous of Adams; he was coming up with jokes and circumstances that i would have absolutly loved to play with as an author, yet had apparently wrung them dry. Didn't he kill off the characters so as to avoid being 'coerced' into writing another book?

Has anyone read anything by Kurt Vonnegurt? His style is very similar to Adams... but perhaps more related to the Beat writers. More drugs and sex and pokes at specific political/societal institutions.

 

[Alexander]

I read the first one and got it, but ended up giving up because it just went on and on, even though they're tiny books.
I think it's like monty python; unsustainable

 

[truly-in-bliss]

Originally posted by Alexander

I think it's like monty python; unsustainable

so true..

 

[Serpentia]

Ahh I've read the first 4 books in the trilogy and absolutely loved them. They're brilliant books!

Monty Python is legendary!

some of my favourite quotes from the first four books

"Ford, he said, youre turning into a penguin. Stop it.

Please relax, said the voice pleasantly, like a stewardess in an airliner with only one wing and two engines one of which is on fire, you are perfectly safe.

But thats not the point! raged Ford. The point is that I am now a perfectly safe penguin, and my colleague here is rapidly running out of limbs!"




"Look, said Zaphod, Im up to here with cool, OK? I am so amazingly cool you could keep a side of meat n me for a month. I am so hip I have difficulty seeing over my pelvis."



"Dinner! Zaphod exclaimed with passion. Listen, little green person, my stomach could take you home and cuddle you all night for the mere idea."



"Im afraid I cant comment on the name Rain God at this present time, and we are calling him an example of a Spontaneous Para-Casual Meteorological Phenomenon "

 

[Alexander]

lol. After my big rant guess what? my brother gave me Adam's latest book 'The Salmon of Doubt, Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time'. It was made after he died and is basically a bunch of short storys and letters that were on his PC. It's pretty entertaining and you dont have to like the other books to like this.

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Originally posted by Alexander
lol. After my big rant guess what? my brother gave me Adam's latest book 'The Salmon of Doubt, Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time'. It was made after he died and is basically a bunch of short storys and letters that were on his PC. It's pretty entertaining and you dont have to like the other books to like this.

Good book. I especially enjoyed 'The Private Life Of Ghengis Khan'. The image of the feared Mongol conquerer really desiring people to just ask him about his day, after all the bloodshed and pillaging, cracks me up.

As for The Hitchhiker's Guide itself, its a great series, even if the third-fifth books in the trilogy aren't quite as funny as The Hitchhiker's Guide (and The Resturant At The End Of The Universe).. Two of my favourite quotes;

'So this is it,' said Arthur, 'we are going to die.'
'Yes,' said Ford, 'except...no! Wait a minute!' He suddenly lunged across the chamber at something behind Arthur's line of vision. 'Whats this switch?" he cried.
'What? Where?' cried Arthur, twisting round.
'No, I was only fooling,' said Ford, 'we are going to die after all.' (Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, p.65.)

The story so far;
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely considered a bad move (Resturant At The End Of The Universe, p.1.)

Zapp Branigan on Futurama always reminds me of Zaphod Beetlebrox, even without the second head.

 

[chelloveck]

Serpentia, i liked:

"the spaceships hung in the air in much the same way that bricks don't"

i loved the penquin one too

 

[Alexander]

After reading the salmon of doubt i think im an athiest. It includes the most compelling and convincing account against religion that left me breathless, no joke. See 'interview with American athiests' and "An Aritificial God' within it and you'll know what i mean.
Life changing.

 

[Serpentia]

Originally posted by chelloveck
Serpentia, i liked:

"the spaceships hung in the air in much the same way that bricks don't"

i loved the penquin one too

Oh that's a good one too

there are so many

Douglas Adams has another book, I remember reading the first couple of lines and they were great

I'm making my sister read Hitch Hikers Guide, and dammit, she'll like it

Has anyone read the little story by Zaphod - Playing it safe? that was cute

 

[chelloveck]

anything that radiohead thinks is cool enogh to write a song about is cool enough for me (awesome song as well!)

 

[smegger_em]

Originally posted by Thomas_wow
ive tried to read this book 3 times. his humor only works for me usually about 50pages. probably cause its too similar to my humor and i can see everything coming

You saw cricket actually being the subconscience rememberence of the worlds most horrific wars comming?

You saw white mice being the most advanced beings on the planet comming?

You saw towels being the most useful item in the universe comming?

Doglas Adams was a comedic genius. He deserves admiration, respect and possibly the ritual sacrifice of my first born child. I can't even comprehend the idea of anyone who has listened to Hitchhikers finding it un-amusing (p.s. listen to it in its original form, the radioplay. its even better then the books)

 

[Serpentia]

^^^^^ perfectly summed up how I feel

 

[McLake]

The 5 part trilogy are great books

So are the two Dirk Gently books and the unfinshied work titled "The Salmon of Doubt"

 

[sweetcherry]

that book was alright - tad too sci-fi for me... but excellent writing there... i read it back in grade 5

 

[ssssonicyouth]

Originally posted by huck fenn
I never know whether to think of ti as truely meritous literature, or as cheap tricks to expose the fundamentalities of our condition. I much much prefer the former, but often his complete disregard for narrative pacing and subtle plot construction often makes the jokes, which are hilarious and interesting nonetheless, seem quite ... i don't know.

lmao what the fuck are you raving about?!

mr adams would spit on you if was still alive...

sifnt lack of towel -_-

 

[Serpentia]

^^ he he he he he he he

 

[huck fenn]

kudos to the avatar, sonicyouth! did you see them? holy crap, i lost my self at least 6 times in the curling of their solos....

as for what i was saying: i oscilate between thinking that the books are really clever and well constructed, and that they are nothing but wit and cheap tricks with poor plot pacing and character development and all of those other things one normally associates with literature. but then, maybe thats the flaw in my thinking; maybe i shouldn't even try to evalute it along 'normal' terms.

i do know that the first 3 books were the absolute most hilarious books i have ever read, even funnier than ben Elton books.