MobileRead Discussion: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy By Douglas Adams

[pilotbob]

Join us in a discussion of the Mobile Read Book Clubs January selection.

You better start talking about this book, or I will have to start reciting Vogon poetry.

BOb

[WT Sharpe]

And go easy on the Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters.

[BenBanned]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

And go easy on the Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters.

I'm on my third.
Just started re-reading this the other day. I keep getting this horrible feeling like Im missing a third of the satire.
Anyways I found my self overly amused at all the philosophy involved with the sperm whale falling from the sky.
And for some reason Marvin is becoming my favorite character where as last time I just found him annoying.

Hello Ground!

[DixieGal]

After reading it, I wondered why I avoided it for 35 years. I saw the movie, and it sucked. Thankfully, the book has no resemblance to that movie!

Now I get the "42" joke.

[twowheels]

It's been years since I read it, and I've loaned my copy out to my daughter. I should probably re-read it one of these days... it's in my list of favorites.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by twowheels

It's been years since I read it, and I've loaned my copy out to my daughter. I should probably re-read it one of these days... it's in my list of favorites.

You still time to read it for the club.

[Hatgirl]

Originally Posted by BenBanned

I'm on my third.
Just started re-reading this the other day. I keep getting this horrible feeling like Im missing a third of the satire.
[/URL]

Well, the Ford Prefect joke is a bit obscure now

Spoiler:

From Wikipedia:
Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth society, he had "skimped a bit on his preparatory research," and thought that the name "Ford Prefect" would be "nicely inconspicuous." Adams later clarified in an interview that Ford "had simply mistaken the dominant life form." The Ford Prefect was, in fact, a British car manufactured from 1938 to 1961
..... Nowadays, the joke is largely lost on younger audiences in Britain as well, since the Ford Prefect is now a rare sight on British roads.

....Prior art for Adams' satirical point – that humans attach such importance to their automobiles that a visiting extraterrestrial might reasonably mistake them for the planet's dominant life form – can be found in a widely reprinted article from The Rockefeller Institute Review titled Life on Earth (by a Martian) by Paul Weiss

[WT Sharpe]

Everyone has their favorite passage from the book. Mine comes from the entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide on the Babel Fish (chapter 6).

Spoiler:

"The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.
....."Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God.
....."The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'
....." 'But,' says Man, 'the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'
....." 'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic."

[BenBanned]

Originally Posted by Hatgirl

Well, the Ford Prefect joke is a bit obscure now

Spoiler:

From Wikipedia:
Although Ford had taken great care to blend into Earth society, he had "skimped a bit on his preparatory research," and thought that the name "Ford Prefect" would be "nicely inconspicuous." Adams later clarified in an interview that Ford "had simply mistaken the dominant life form." The Ford Prefect was, in fact, a British car manufactured from 1938 to 1961
..... Nowadays, the joke is largely lost on younger audiences in Britain as well, since the Ford Prefect is now a rare sight on British roads.

....Prior art for Adams' satirical point – that humans attach such importance to their automobiles that a visiting extraterrestrial might reasonably mistake them for the planet's dominant life form – can be found in a widely reprinted article from The Rockefeller Institute Review titled Life on Earth (by a Martian) by Paul Weiss

My father actually clued me in on that one the first time I read HHGTTG, otherwise that would fly right over.

Im going to finish reading it tonight so I'll get "_____" to show the type of things I think are going over my head.... maybe Im just paranoid.

[David Munch]

Book 1 was good.. The rest was just a repeat of the first book IMO..

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

You better start talking about this book, or I will have to start reciting Vogon poetry.

Just so long as you don't hit us with the works of Paul Neil Milne Johnston (no, not Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings — that was just put in to avoid the lawyers).

If you enjoyed the book, I do urge you to seek out the original radio series, available on BBC CDs, or even the original scripts. Otherwise you'll miss the rather wonderful Haggunenons.

And as for the book,

"Actually I quite liked it."

[dworth]

Life... Don't talk to me about life...

[lila55]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Now I get the "42" joke.

That was an enlightenment to me as well - I had heard and read it so many times and never knew what it meant or where it came from.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

After reading it, I wondered why I avoided it for 35 years. I saw the movie, and it sucked. Thankfully, the book has no resemblance to that movie!

Now I get the "42" joke.

Originally Posted by lila55

That was an enlightenment to me as well - I had heard and read it so many times and never knew what it meant or where it came from.

Although Adams always said it was just a coincidence (he didn't intend it to work out that way and was unaware it did until it was pointed out to him long after the book was written), when you do the math using a base-13 system, 6 x 9 does indeed = 42.

[arkietech]

A real page turner...then it ended....too quickly.

I said to my self. Self, I must read it again slower and think about it. How scary!