I just read that book for the first time and I immediatly went out and bought the collection of all five books in the Hitchhiker trilogy(yes, 5 in a trilogy). But I have only finished the Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy. Hehe, I love that book!
“Are you not a greater computer than the Milliard Gargantubrain at Maximegalon which can count all the atoms in a star in a milisecond?”
“The Milliard Gargantubrain? A mere abacus- mention it not.”
“But are you not a more fiendish disputant than the Great Hyperbolic Omni-Cognate Nuetron Wrangler of Ciceronicus Twelve, the Magic and Indefatigable?”
“The Great Hyperbolic Omni-Cognate Nuetron Wrangler could talk all four legs off an Arcturan Mega-Donkey-but only I could pursuade it to walk afterward.”
“And are you not a greater analyst than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity which can calculate the Trajectory of every single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Sand Blizzard?”
“A five-week sand blizzard? You ask this of me who have contemplated the very vectors of atoms in the Big Bang itself? Molest me not with this pocket calculator stuff.”
“An answer for you? Yes I have.”
“There really is one?”
“There really is one.”
“To everything? To the Great question of life, the Universe, and Everything?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re ready to give it to us?”
“I am.”
“Now?”
“Now. Though I don’t think that you’re going to like it.”
“Doesn’t matter! We must know it! Now!”
“Now?”
“Yes, now!”
“All right, The Answer to the Great Question…”
“Yes…!”
“Of Life, the Universe, and Everything…”
“Yes…!”
“Is…”
“Yes…!”
“Is…”
“Yes…!!!..?”
“Fourty-two.”
“We’re going to be lynched, aren’t we?”
I love that.
i read it long before discoverin the SDMB, and i laughed my head off when i saw the doper Dentarthurdent.
“Late, as in the late Dentarthurdent”
lol!
i think the later books just go downhill from the RatEotG, though. eventually, it degenerated into gibberish (to me).
then again, i’d read those books in middle school. maybe the immature MS mentality has something to do with it, as i’ve never been able to find those books again (stupid taiwanese libraries).
Oh, and I agree with Cougarfang that So Long and Thanks For All the Fish and Mostly Harmless are the weakest of the “trilogy”.
-Beeblebrox
“I mean, here we are on the run and everything, we must have the police of half the Galaxy after us by now, and we stop to pick up hitch hikers. OK, so ten out of ten for style, but minus several million for good thinking, yeah?”
The books fluctuate between hilarious humor and strained dullness. They work much better on the radio and TV. Adams owes everything to Simon Jones, whose line readings turn the otherwise weak jokes (“We’re all going to die!”) into something quite funny.
Adams has little affinity for creating good funny names (though Ford Prefect is clever). He makes the usual error of stringing nonsense syllables, which comes across as strained.
There are some great funny moments in the book, but there’s too many long, dull stretches that don’t work on the printed page.
Those Dirk Gently books are sweet. I am a firm believer in the church of The Interconnectedness of All Things. Having trouble figuring something out? Ask a seemingly unrelated person. Everything is connected so it is impossible for them NOT to give you some info you need.
Well, of course it was bad. Anything I post with the “:D” emoticon will be bad. Anything bad I post without the aforementioned emoticon is a mere figment of your imagination.
Ummm… maybe I should throw a in all my posts for good measure.
Douglas Adams trivia (I’m sure there’s at least one person who doesn’t know this yet): he was a writer for Monty Python’s Flying Circus and a script editor for Doctor Who.
