OK, so I know a lot of Douglas Adams’ humour is a little odd (like the subject of this thread). But most of the time I get it.
I recently found my old copy of The More than Complete Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I have just finished re-reading it (it had been about ten years). The collection contains the first book through to So Long and Thanks for all the Fish, and a bonus short story titled Young Zaphod Plays it Safe (Which I will abbreviate YZPIS).
The problem is that I just don’t get YZPIS. It’s about 4 pages long, and has Zaphod running a salvage company which comes across a ship filled with a large number of items which could destroy the universe. Then it ends.
Anyone read it and can explain to me what I’m missing? Is there some subtle humour I can’t see?
I had never heard of it before. Apparently, it is originally from The Utterly Utterly Merry Comic Relief Christmas Book. The full text of the story can be found here: http://kulichki-lat.rambler.ru/moshkow/ADAMS/dayz1_.txt
I had always just assumed that it was a fragment: an idea for a story that he was developing to make Zaphod (and not Arthur) the main character behind a story. It was little more than a literary doodle which he never developed beyond the initial stages, and which he simply threw in to make the “More Than Complete” guide more than complete… of course, he shortly thereafter published Mostly Harmless, which makes the more than complete guide somewhat less than complete now. I had always assumed it was never intended to be a complete story.
Jayron, that was my first thought as well. But that doesn’t make sense if he had it published elsewhere first. I don’t think (living) authors go around having rough storylines published. Also, it’s specifically called a short story in the introduction to the book, rather than an unfinished work, idea, or whatever. I think Adams would have mentioned something if that was the case.
Having just re-read the story I think that it serves to explain the real reason why the Earth was destroyed in the first place.
Galactic Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha is the location of the Earth in the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Originally we are told that the Earth is being destroyed to make room for a hyperspace bypass, later, it is revealed that the bypass was never built and the Earth was destroyed for other, murkier, reasons. Now we know.
I’ve got the Comic Relief book mentioned. It’s just a random collection of amusing articles, contributions coming from the usual bunch of writers for that kind of thing - Clive Anderson, Griff Rhys Jones, Ben Elton, Richard Curtis etc. Douglas Adams always contributes to this kind of thing, and if I remember correctly, may even have been the editor of this one. They fill the book up with any old ideas and get it in the shops in time for xmas.
Bibliography: NOT! 1982, The Alas Smith and Jones book, er… that’s it.