# Time To Tell The Truth About HHGTTG (spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 3, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324 "2004-10-03T14:38:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/41 "2004-10-05T17:36:03Z")
I have to disagree with the sentiment of the thread. I loved the first four HH books. They weren’t great _stories_, but they were terribly fun to read and they were written with an intelligence that is tough to find in popular literature. In particular I loved the frequent interlocutory chapters describing all the weird and funny things going on in the galaxy. SLATFATF is a very different book than the first three but it was still funny, and when I read it as a nerdy 13-year-old I feel deeply in love with Fenchurch (good-looking cello-playing woman who likes dorks? Heck yeah). It 's true that the plot of Book 4 fizzled out at the end, but like I said, the plot wasn’t the important point. Mostly Harmless I disliked – there weren’t any of the interlocutory bits; instead, it was all plot and no jokes. (And no Fenchurch.) It seemed pretty clear to me that Adams wrote it out of spite for all the folks who wouldn’t let him alone about Arthur and Ford. In sum, the books were never more than a fun few hours bullshitting with a guy who likes to think about the world, but not too hard, but I’ve always thought that a pleasant way to spend a few hours. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/42 "2004-10-05T18:11:27Z")
I have to disagree as well. _Life, the Universe, and Everything_ was my favorite of the series … but I read the first four in junior high, which is my estimation of the perfect age for reading them. The fourth book was just bizarre, the first time I read it; I was more pleased with _Mostly Harmless_ when it came out. Having re-read the series since then, I found _So Long and Thanks for All the Fish_ a bit more readable, even with the urban legend thing about the cookies thrown in. On the other hand, I could never make heads or tails of the Dirk Gently books. Hmmm. Now I’m going to have to go get _Last Chance to See_ and see if it’s really as good as people have been saying. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/43 "2004-10-05T18:47:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think the implication is that, after the visit with Agrajag, Arthur was somehow due for death, and that the only thing keeping him alive was the fact that he had not yet made his predestined visit to Stavromula Beta. > > The books don’t have much in the way of cohesiveness or plot, it’s true, but then, they’re not really supposed to. I think they’re intended as a collage of silly jokes, and they certainly work that way. I agree; he was a marked man, and the only thing keeping death from pulling the trigger was the fact that he hadn’t been there. I’ll bet all you people who don’t like HHGTTG weren’t very happy with your digital watches either. I love many of the scenes in the books, but they lack a bit of coherency and flow as novels. Perhaps due to their being re-tooled radio dramas? The Dirk Gently books, on the other hand, are great books. Funny, clever, and coherent (in their own holistic way). ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/44 "2004-10-05T22:03:03Z")
I’m pretty much in the majority. I loved Hitchhikers, liked Restaurant and hated Life. I read about 10 pages of So Long and stopped. My problem with LIfe was that he took great throw away lines from Hitchhikers and explained them. I didn’t want them explained. “To fly, you throw yourself against the ground and miss.” Great line, only for the absurdity of it, when Arthur actually does it, it loses it’s edge. I read the first Dirk Gently, didn’t get into it, didn’t read the second. His best work, IMHO, is the Dr. Who episdoe he wrote with the multiple Mona Lisas. John Cleese’s cameo was hysterical. ---
**Author:** ![JDeMobray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@JDeMobray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JDeMobray)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/45 "2004-10-05T23:34:22Z")
> [@Cerri](#): > > I have yet to read a single Pratchett novel I didn’t enjoy, and that includes his series geared towards Young Adult readers (also based off Discworld). Haven’t gotten to Lords & Ladies yet, eh? 😉 I really enjoyed Douglas Adams books when I read them, but that was back in Jr. High and High School. I’m not sure how well they would hold up, but you know what? I don’t really care. I remember loving them and that’s good enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/46 "2004-10-06T07:05:20Z")
**Lords and Ladies** was _awesome._ Granny Weatherwax prods buttocks as she’s never prodded buttocks before. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/47 "2004-10-06T07:16:15Z")
> [@JDeMobray](#): > > Haven’t gotten to Lords & Ladies yet, eh? 😉 Are you kidding?!? That’s one of the best DiscWorld novels ever! There’s more wit, humor, and intelligence in the title page of that book than there is in Douglas Adams’ entire career. ---
**Author:** ![todd33rpm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@todd33rpm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/todd33rpm)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/48 "2004-10-06T13:44:12Z")
Yeah, I’m with the majority on this too. _Life, The Universe, And Everything_ was the first of the books I had to slog through, and eventually with repeated readings I got what Adams was shooting for in the last three books of the _Hitchhiker_ series. I never really go back to them for recreational reading, however. For me, what made them and the _Dirk Gently_ series somewhat easier to get through was reading alternating chapters…a trick I figured out after continuous stalling during a read of _So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish_. This removed the episodic nature of things and let me read the books as two distinct linear narratives before all the characters reconciled at the end. Having said that, I noticed that almost _all_ his fictional work, barring the original _Hitchhiker_, is written in that style, and it becomes formulaic. This doesn’t deny the sheer brilliance of some of the writing inside any given chapter, but (as an example) it is hard to appreciate the more subtle aspects of the first _Dirk Gently_ book when you’re getting thrown around through two different plotlines at once and can’t quite follow either one of them. Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say that the whole Coleridge thing went right by me in the first read, and I got nothing from the constant classical music references until much later…when I _did_ finally get it, it felt rewarding, but it took awhile. Of course, that could be a comment on my comprehension skills more than anything else… ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/49 "2004-10-06T15:27:40Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > **Lords and Ladies** was _awesome._ I copy that: [egregious miss-quote]Bite, kick, scratch. Only one queen in the hive. . . [/egregious miss-quote] DNA is often clever, often funny, sometimes clever and funny, But I don’t remember being moved by anything in H2G2. He doesn’t make me feel for the characters like PTerry does. **Last Chance to See** is a different matter. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/50 "2004-10-06T15:33:03Z")
> [@Small Clanger](#): > > I copy that: > > [egregious miss-quote]Bite, kick, scratch. Only one queen in the hive. . . [/egregious miss-quote] > > DNA is often clever, often funny, sometimes clever and funny, But I don’t remember being moved by anything in H2G2. He doesn’t make me feel for the characters like PTerry does. > > **Last Chance to See** is a different matter. Last Chance to See is indeed moving, and still riotously funny - his anthropomorphization of the gorillas, in particular, was both touching and hysterical. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324/51 "2004-10-06T15:45:36Z")
My friends raved about the series when it w3as first on the radio, then about the books. So I finally read the books (there were only one or two at the time). I was disappointed, and surprised. It seemed that he lifted a lot from a Robert Sheckley novel, **Dimension of Miracles**. I later found that other people thought so, too, and that Douglas Adams was an admitted fan of Sheckley’s. Adams’ stuff was interesting, and fun (I later did hear the radio serries on tape), and he seems to have given his own style and interpretation to the material, but I’ll swear it was Sheckley’s stuff at the heart of it. Sheckley’s own stuff has been adapted, but badly ( **Freejack** was based on “Immortality, Inc.”; **Condorman** on “The Game of X”, etc.), and a lot of people have apparently lifted from his work (I’ve said before that the bulk of the movie **Total Recall** seems to come from Sheckley’s “The Status Civilization”, rather than from any of Philip K. Dick’s stuff; Sheckley and Harlan Ellison think that Stephen King may have subconsciously gotten **The Running Man** from Sheckley’s “The Prize of Peril”.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-tell-the-truth-about-hhgttg-spoilers/267324.md?page=2)