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Topic: Science Fiction Fan? (Read 8402 times)
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Defender
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could some one please enlighten me, what is "hitchikers guilde to the galaxy" all about? i remeber long ago seeing this book at my school. could someone give me a run down of what its about. dont worry about spoilers, i dont mind. thanks ~DEFIANT
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guesst
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Ancient Shofixti Warrior
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book.
It looks rather like a largish electronic calculator. It has about a hundred tiny flat press buttons and a screen about four inches square on which any one of a million "pages" could be summoned at a moment's notice. It looks insanely complicated, and this is one of the reasons why the snug plastic cover it fitted into has the words Don't Panic printed on it in large friendly letters. The other reason was that this device is in fact that most remarkable of all books ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor. The reason why it was published in the form of a micro sub meson electronic component is that if it were printed in normal book form, an interstellar hitch hiker would require several inconveniently large buildings to carry it around in.
It is not an Earth book, and has never been published on Earth.
In fact it was probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor.
Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one-more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway?
In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.
First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.
(text taken from http://hhgproject.org/)
In the story by Douglas Adams, a rather unsuspecting human, Arthur Dent, who is in every way everything that an alien race could ever some to expect from humans, in other words he is a not entirely but a mostly useless twit, is unexpectedly taken from earth by a long time aquaintance of his, Ford Prefect. As it turns out, Ford is not human as he had claimed to be but was from a planet near Betelgeuse and has spent the last 15 years stuck on earth looking for a chance to leave it. He got that chance when a Vogon construction fleet arrived to destroy the earth. Ford hitched a ride with the Vogons, taking Arthur with him for the ride, and on a ride they go.
Their journey is helped by Zaphod Bebelbrox, the two headed three armed president of the galaxy on the run from the police for stealing the remarkable ship, the "heart of gold, Trillian, another human who escaped earth some months earlier, and Marvin, the paranoid Android.
All in all, this book is required reading for any fan of science fiction/comedy.
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Defender
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i cant believe i missed out on that...  sounds rather interesting. ill go to my local libiary and see if its there. oh by the way, thanks  i guess your not so bad after all  ~DEFIANT
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AnonomouSpathi
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Spathi? What spathi? You're imagining, hunam.
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After reading it, be sure to pick Up it's sequels, 'The restaurant at the end of the universe', and 'Life the universe and everything'.
So long and thanks for all the fish wasn't quite as good, imho. the last one I never got to read, unfortunately.
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guesst
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Ancient Shofixti Warrior
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After reading it, be sure to pick Up it's sequels, 'The restaurant at the end of the universe', and 'Life the universe and everything'.
So long and thanks for all the fish wasn't quite as good, imho. the last one I never got to read, unfortunately.
You're forgetting the saving grace for the series, "Mostly Harmless", the 5th book in the increasingly misnamed Hitchiker's Guide Trillogy. "Mostly Harmless" succeeds on every level that "Thanks for all the Fish" failed. If you haven't read it, you must. Best in the series, hands down.
Plus, there was a short story, "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe," that came with the others in a bound volume.
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Defender
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now wait a minute. you guys arent trying to bullsh*t me, are you? you know make fun of the stupid guy thats never heard of such wonderous and amazing things? out of all that you've said, its still "hgttg" the only book ive heard of. oh well. ignorance is bliss... ~DEFIANT
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AnonomouSpathi
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Spathi? What spathi? You're imagining, hunam.
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Ah, I couldn't remember the name of last last one, but "Mostly harmless" it was. I'll have to read it, if it's that much better then so long. Assuming I can find a copy somewhere.
Young Zaphod was a strange story...it was in the leatherbound volume with the first three, I remember.
That series has so many of the best lines in it. The bit about the ravenous bugbladder beast of Traal is classic. And marvins little poem was funny too.
Now I lay me down to bed,
Darkness won't engulf my head,
I can see by infrared,
How I hate the night.
classic.
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guesst
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Ancient Shofixti Warrior
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Personally, I rather hate Mostly Harmless. It manages to excise Fenchurch (my favorite character) from the story, and without spoiling too much, it also manages to pretty much draw a death curtain over the entire cast.
I prefer to pretend it's not part of the series.
The whole Fenchurch thing was a notoriously unpopular part of the series and I believe even Douglas Adams said that she just didn't "fit" so he wrote her out.
And concerning everyone being dead, DA again said that wasn't the end of the series. That just meant that he knew where everyone was.
Besides, when the book started it was an extension of an idea he had for a series where, at the end of ever skit, earth would be destroyed. He called was going to call it "The Ends of the Earth." That idea evolved into HHG, so it's only fitting that at the end Earth is destroyed. Again. (IMO, anytime I see a story where earth gets destroyed, I have to love it. Like Titan AE. Destroyed earth in the first 15 minutes. Pow.)
I still hold that Mostly Harmless was the best HHG book in the trillogy.
My favorate DA line, I don't remember if it HHGttG or one of the Dirk Gently books that described a man who died by overdose of brick wall while under the influence of a porche. Brillilant stuff.
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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**SPOILER**
Well, the cataclysm that happens at the end shuts down television broadcasting, but it doesn't stop the radio stations. SO something really odd and not quite yet-explicable is going on. I figure that the blackbird collapsed the universes but then the aliens on Rupert blew up the vogon/HHGttG fleet, and Earth was harmed but not eliminated.
Either that or Earth was destroyed and immediately replaced by a third copy fresh from Magrathea, and this time they decided not to implement TV because it did more harm than good. Since the main characters had a spaceship on hand they could have survived, OR been killed and rebuilt along with the rest of the planet.
As far as Fenchurch is concerned, eh, well... I'm of mixed opinion. She certainly wasn't Trillian. On the other hand, Trillian didn't end up being Trillian either, so... *sigh*
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Death 999
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We did. You did. Yes we can. No.
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Trillian had the great benefit of patience with people who did not understand celestial mechanics and how to calculate infinite improbability coordinates and how to set task priorities on the computer and all sorts of basic information. Useful, since so few of the characters had a clue.
(reminds me: "Aah... competency... my greatest enemy" - megaman (Bob and George May 5, 2003))
Fenchurch had the greater benefit that she had only the skill set that Arthur had - in fact, she was unaware of what he was missing. Much more familiar. Very interesting personality.
My favorite scene with her is when the two of them are talking to the doctor outside the asylum, and she draws herself and ... Arthur (I wanted to say Torg)... in the clouds to gently remind him that the doc isn't necessarily loony.
I am curious as to why she got one of the fishbowls though - never adequately explained, IMO.
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Sudo_Nym
Frungy champion
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I have powers... Political Powers!
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I'll say one thing about HHGttG and move on. Mostly Harmless sucks. It sucks almost as much as the end of Resteraunt at the End of the Universe.
Moving on, I just finished reading Vernor Vinge's Fire upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky. This is probably the greatest science fiction I have ever read in my life. The worst part of it was that 7 years seperated the completion of both works, and Deepness was written in '99(God give me the strength to stand the wait).
Sherkaner Underhill Lives!
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« Last Edit: May 30, 2003, 06:42:17 pm by Sudo_Nym »
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