Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
05-02-01, 01:07 PM
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I am on the second book now (The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe). So far it's a great series, but I have heard people say they have laughed numerous times throughout the books. For me, I haven't laughed a whole lot while reading these books. Maybe it's not my type of humor?
05-02-01, 01:34 PM
#2
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Originally posted by aob505
I am on the second book now (The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe). So far it's a great series, but I have heard people say they have laughed numerous times throughout the books. For me, I haven't laughed a whole lot while reading these books. Maybe it's not my type of humor?
I am on the second book now (The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe). So far it's a great series, but I have heard people say they have laughed numerous times throughout the books. For me, I haven't laughed a whole lot while reading these books. Maybe it's not my type of humor?
05-02-01, 01:37 PM
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I was waiting for someone to start a thread on this series. It was only a matter of time.
I laughed a lot while reading those books. However, I laughed even more when I re-read them about 2 years ago and I got more of the jokes. I don't even think I knew what cricket was initially (about 12 years ago).
I suppose it could also be your type of humor, Adams is wry and dry for the most part. If you are enjoying them as is I wouldn't really worry about it, its not like you have to be rolling around on the floor giggling to thoroughly experience the Hitchhiker trilogy (4 books of course though).
I laughed a lot while reading those books. However, I laughed even more when I re-read them about 2 years ago and I got more of the jokes. I don't even think I knew what cricket was initially (about 12 years ago).
I suppose it could also be your type of humor, Adams is wry and dry for the most part. If you are enjoying them as is I wouldn't really worry about it, its not like you have to be rolling around on the floor giggling to thoroughly experience the Hitchhiker trilogy (4 books of course though).
05-02-01, 03:48 PM
#4
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I like the audio books that Adams reads himself. I find the Hitchicker and Dirk Gently books to be very funny in a silly Python kind of way. I highly enjoyed them all.
05-02-01, 05:02 PM
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Originally posted by darkside
I like the audio books that Adams reads himself. I find the Hitchicker and Dirk Gently books to be very funny in a silly Python kind of way. I highly enjoyed them all.
I like the audio books that Adams reads himself. I find the Hitchicker and Dirk Gently books to be very funny in a silly Python kind of way. I highly enjoyed them all.
05-02-01, 09:42 PM
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If you really like this type of humor and enjoy fantasy I would have to recommend Terry Pratchett and His Disc world series they are as tony the tiger might say grrrrrrrrreeeeeeeaaaaaatttttt. Also try Good Omes with Neil Gaiman also
05-02-01, 10:28 PM
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Originally posted by Avid Fan
I've heard about these books for years, but never got them. What are they about? I love sci-fi by the way.
I've heard about these books for years, but never got them. What are they about? I love sci-fi by the way.
05-03-01, 12:34 AM
#11
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Years and years after first reading the 5 books of the trilogy, I still catch myself thinking that something unlikely has a whelk's chance in a supernova.
05-03-01, 10:41 AM
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I remember laughing out loud while reading these back in HS before class would start. They are incredibly hilarious, in as much the same way CSPAN isn't.
05-05-01, 02:29 AM
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Oh, these have to be the funniest novels in the creation of writing. Very dry, typical British humour though. Lots of subtle nuances and things that are passed off as quite probable and not funny -- when in fact they are quite improbable and extremely funny.
A typical paragraph:
There's a black spaceship that's all black. The interior panels are black, the buttons are black, the labels are black, and when you push a button, a little black light comes on so you can tell you pushed it.
There's the peril sensitive sunglasses, which turn opaque at any sign of trouble, under the assumption that whatever you can't see won't alarm you -- even though it is precisely at that moment you should be alarmed.
Apparently you can learn to fly by throwing yourself at the ground and failing to hit it.
If you find these kinds of absurdities funny, it's for you. If not, don't waste your time, the book is full of them. At times, it's just a big run-on joke.
Oh, and there's five books in the ineptly named trilogy.
1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
3. Life, the Universe, and Everything
4. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
5. Mostly Harmless
and a short story -- Young Zaphod Plays It Safe.
A typical paragraph:
The great ships hung motionless in the sky, over every nation on Earth. Motionless they hung, huge, heavy, steady in the sky, a blasphemy against nature. Many people went straight into shock as their minds tried to encompass what they were looking at. The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.
There's the peril sensitive sunglasses, which turn opaque at any sign of trouble, under the assumption that whatever you can't see won't alarm you -- even though it is precisely at that moment you should be alarmed.
Apparently you can learn to fly by throwing yourself at the ground and failing to hit it.
If you find these kinds of absurdities funny, it's for you. If not, don't waste your time, the book is full of them. At times, it's just a big run-on joke.
Oh, and there's five books in the ineptly named trilogy.
1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
3. Life, the Universe, and Everything
4. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
5. Mostly Harmless
and a short story -- Young Zaphod Plays It Safe.
05-06-01, 11:00 PM
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HGTTG is my favourite series of books of all time (I mean, where else does one get a trilogy in five parts 
here's a sample of quotes...
"In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people unhappy and been generally regarded as a bad move."
HGTTG
"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around.
Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."
(So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish!)
and finally
Important facts from Galactic History, number two:
(reproduced from the Siderial Daily Mentioner's Book of Popular Galactic History.)
Since this Galaxy began, vast civilizations have arisen and fallen, risen and fallen, risen and fallen so often that it's quite tempting to think that life in the Galaxy must be:
(a) something akin to seasick - space-sick, time sick history sick or some such thing, and
(b) stupid.
(Life, the universe and everything)
(Mostly harmless)
to (mis)quote the esteemed goons, "where else can you find such original jokes..? or, if you disagree, such unoriginal jokes..."
Hemulen
here's a sample of quotes...
"In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people unhappy and been generally regarded as a bad move."
HGTTG
"Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc...and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around.
Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons."
(So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish!)
and finally
Important facts from Galactic History, number two:
(reproduced from the Siderial Daily Mentioner's Book of Popular Galactic History.)
Since this Galaxy began, vast civilizations have arisen and fallen, risen and fallen, risen and fallen so often that it's quite tempting to think that life in the Galaxy must be:
(a) something akin to seasick - space-sick, time sick history sick or some such thing, and
(b) stupid.
(Life, the universe and everything)
(Mostly harmless)
to (mis)quote the esteemed goons, "where else can you find such original jokes..? or, if you disagree, such unoriginal jokes..."
Hemulen
05-07-01, 10:57 AM
#15
Banned
I suggest anyone who's a big fan pick up the collected volume, because there's the short story "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe" that doesn't appear anywhere else.
05-08-01, 03:12 PM
#16
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Originally posted by KnightSkywalker
If you liked the book get your hands on the radio drama, funniest stuff you will ever hear, wonderful voice acting.
If you liked the book get your hands on the radio drama, funniest stuff you will ever hear, wonderful voice acting.
Reading the books is okay, but they didn't make me laugh much either -- the humor is largely verbal, which is also why the books-on-tape version is better also...
05-13-01, 10:26 PM
#21
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Yeah. Somebody start a John Grisham thread.
And a Jackie Collins thread.
Oh. And a Danielle Steele thread.
Since Jewel has only written one bad book thus far, she can get off with a warning.
And a Jackie Collins thread.
Oh. And a Danielle Steele thread.
Since Jewel has only written one bad book thus far, she can get off with a warning.
04-26-03, 03:13 PM
#22
DVD Talk Legend
Douglas Adams, THHGTTG, and 42
I was reading a book on King Tut when I came across something interesting:
I wonder if this is where Adams got the idea from or if it's just a coincidence.
The Papyrus tells a tale of magic -- how a magician or wise man is summoned to the King, who asks him where the ultimate wisdom of the universe, the scrolls written at the beginning of time by the god Thoth, were to be found. These forty-two texts, if found, would give humanity the answers to every question they would ever need to ask.
04-28-03, 11:22 AM
#24
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Many people have asked whether the choice of forty two as the Ultimate Answer came from Lewis Carroll or perhaps from an ancient Tibetan mystical cult where it is the symbol of truth. "In fact, it was simply chosen because it was a completely ordinary number, a number not just divisible by two but also by six and seven. In fact it's the sort of number that you could, without any fear, introduce to your parents." (DA)
-- The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts
-- The Original Hitchhiker Radio Scripts
Last edited by Nick Danger; 04-28-03 at 11:24 AM.
04-28-03, 02:29 PM
#25
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Originally posted by goLUCKY
yep it's always 42.
What book are you reading?
yep it's always 42.
What book are you reading?
It's for school. When I read that line though, I instantly thought of THHGTTG.