I prefer my cultural saviness to be spoon fed to me.
It’s too much for one post.
Fair enough. I am thinking of going to see the film, though. Am I going to be completely lost, not catching on to any of these references?
You won’t really be lost by not knowing about anything we’re mentioning here. You will, however, be lost by not having read the books.
I thoroughly enjoyed the film, but it really is made for HHGTTG fans. If you’re not already familiar with the source material, odds are you’re not going to think it that great a flick.
That said, do yourself a favor – go to Barnes & Noble and pick it up. Every time I go there, I always see The More Than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide anthology on sale for like nine bucks. It’ll be some of the best cash you’ve ever spent.
I think bringing a Digital Watch would be a Pretty Neat Idea.
I’ve heard of The Hitchhiker’s Guide, but I’m not familiar with the content. I’ve heard it’s funny, and my curiosity is piqued. (In a similar vein, a friend of mine would always tell me about Buckaroo Banzai and how great it was. One night, it was on, and we started watching it. I turned my attention away for about 2 minutes, and he said “No point watching the rest of it. You missed too much.” HHG isn’t like that, I hope.)
Is *Hitchhiker’s Guide * a series? If I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is it the same as The More Than Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide?
Apologies, MacTech. I don’t mean to hijack the thread.
I thought about bringing a towel but chickened out at the last minute. I did bring along a cute brunette who laughed at the same parts as I did 
It hadn’t occurred to me to take a towel when I finally get to see this, but now I’m definitely gonna.
Casey1505, the Guide trilogy consists of 5 books (yes, I know):
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
So Long, And Thanks For All the Fish
Mostly Harmless
The first two are wonderful, the third is pretty good, the fourth is meh, and I checked the fifth one out of the library, read it, and congratulated myself that I hadn’t spent money on it. But I would highly recommend reading at least the first two, just for the scenes with Marvin the Paranoid Android. I love Marvin. Although I don’t think he really qualifies as paranoid - just very, very cynical.
But were they printed in large, friendly letters?
It is too much for 5 books, a radio serial, a TV mini-series, an LP and a movie. 
I don’t think that’s necessarily true, although I’d heard claims to that effect before going to see it.
There are certainly some inside jokes and quick references (like the Gag Halfrunt bit) that outsiders to the series won’t understand, but I think the main story as presented in the movie can be followed, even by the HGttG novice.
While I’m deeply familiar with the series, I went with a friend who’s pretty much a NON-sci-fi person, although I did talk her into reading the books years ago. However, she’s the type who can read a book, finish it, move on to another book, and a week later she’s already forgotten most everything from the first one. At the point of seeing the movie, she didn’t remember much of anything from the books. After it was over, she said to me, “I don’t see why they said that would be hard to follow…”
So I would say to the novice – you can follow the story, but there will be some inside jokes and references that you’ll miss, unless you read the books.
Indeed, they are.
Not true! My husband has never read it and he ejoyed it so much we’ve seen it twice and he’s actually reading the book! (He has had a stack of about 10 books that he’s been “reading” for about 5 years now so this is amazing. )
I do second the suggestion to get the Guide!
Hal, is that more than just all the books in one …um…book? I have one of the complete set but the title of yours would seem to indicate even more.
It also includes the short story Young Zaphod Plays It Safe. It’s been a lot of years since I’ve read it, but I remember my thought at the time was “meh”.
Oh.
Mine has that one too.
I thought maybe there was more. 
I love how in the introduction in the copy I have, it gives instructions on How to Leave the Planet. 
I don’t know, i found MH a wonderfly cynical version of the HHGTTG, not as wacky and offbeat as the other books in the trilogy, but even DNA admitted that it was, in his own words, “a rather bleak book”
i liked the sequences with Ford and the little security robot, Colin, the one he makes blissfully happy, and the description of the “Herring Sandwich” experiments at the MIFSPOTSO (Maximegalon Institute For Slowly Pointing Out The Surprisingly Obvious)
Here’s a snippet from the “Herring Sandwich” experiment in the 5th book in the HH trilogy, “Mostly Harmless”, it gives you an idea of the sheer lunacy and brilliance of Adams’ writing
Anything that thinks logically can be fooled by something else that thinks at least as logically as it does. The easiest way to fool a completely logical robot is to feed it with the same stimulus sequence over and over again so it gets locked in a loop. This was best demonstrated by the famous Herring Sandwich experiments conducted millennia ago at MISPWOSO (the MaxiMegalon Institute of Slowly and Painfully Working Out the Surprisingly Obvious).
A robot was programmed to believe that it liked herring sandwiches. This was actually the most difficult part of the whole experiment. Once the robot had been programmed to believe that it liked herring sandwiches, a herring sandwich was placed in front of it. Where upon the robot thought to itself, Ah! A herring sandwich! I like herring sandwiches.
It would then bend over and scoop up the herring sandwich in its herring sandwich scoop, and then straighten up again. Unfortunately for the robot, it was fashioned in such a way that the action of straightening up caused the herring sandwich to slip straight back off its herring sandwich scoop and fall on to the floor in front of the robot. Whereupon the robot thought to itself, Ah! A herring sandwich…etc., and repeated the same action over and over again. The only thing that prevented the herring sandwich from getting bored with the whole damn business and crawling off in search of other ways of passing the time was that the herring sandwich, being just a bit of dead fish between a couple of slices of bread, was marginally less alert to what was going on than was the robot.
I brought a dish towel (in my jacket pocket).
I wanted to bring my “Don’t Panic” button from the computer game, but couldn’t find it.
Brian
I took my son to see it yesterday. When we got into the theater there was only one other guy there, we selected a seat a row back and 4-5 seats over from him. In a quiet moment before the previews, I exclaimed to my son that I’d forgotten my towel - the other guy, a white-haired, mid-fiftyish mustachioed gentleman, turned his head sharply toward us and did the “heel-of-hand-to-forehead” gesture.
True fans bond
I wish I’d thought of the “DON’T PANIC” button thing; I think I’ve still got the game box and accessories all complete sitting in a box in the garage - including pocket fluff and peril-sensitive sunglasses.
In addition to my son and I wearing our towels, I brought my Tungsten T-3 PDA. I had taped a printed “Don’t Panic” logo on it.
When we went to see it opening night about 1/3 to 1/2 of the audience had brought their towels.
My wife thought we were crazy.