That's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I finally got round to reading nearly 30 years after it came out. It reads like something written by a Sixth Form physics student. Has anyone ever been more convinced of their "humour" with less justification? Perhaps only David Brent.
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18 comments:
Yes - opinion shared.
Have always been fascinated with the fact that Douglas Adams was an Apple computer spokesperson.
For me Apple-lovers and Hitchhiker-lovers somehow have quite a lot in common...
I have this book sitting on my bookshelf and it is dire.
I should have known how base the humour would be when I read the tagline: "The first book in the trilogy of four."
Do not even attempt to watch the film, you may just kill yourself.
I quite liked it really. The imagery was really particularly affective and the metaphysical prop…
It worked best on the radio (the original format). From there it went downhill a bit. And the film really wasn't up to much.
But there are a lot of interesting/amusing concepts hidden in amongst the sometimes rather schoolboy humour. I think you'll find that DNA regarded the humour simply as the delivery vehicle.
Agree with smog: it was an excellent radio show. Although I was a fourth form physics student when I heard it...
Troika,
I made the mistake of watching the film (two years ago).
It took me a couple of days to recover. The end was particularly confusing (as I had lost my mind by then).
Ciao!
I imagine that people who memorise the Rocky Horror Show and go along to the cinema to shout at the screen are the type of people who like this book.
I liked Zaphod Beeblebrox, but the other characters were pretty weak.
I disagree on that - Arthur Dent seems to me to be a pretty well observed Brit of certain sort.
(I've never seen Rocky Horror, for what it's worth.)
I think you have to look at HHGTTG in the context of when it was written and published. It was a radio show - modified it became the book, modified it became the TV show and finally the film - which I haven't seen yet and don't have any plans to.
When I first read the book I would have been in my mid teens I guess and I think for that age group it's wonderful - absurd, idiotic - but it uses comedy / sci fi to make some comments about humanity and it encouraged me to think 'What if....?'
Books like that encourage people to read and read more, which can't be bad.
LT
As the man said.
LT, mate, you need to get yourself one of these blog thingies...
If you think the first book was bad, the sequels are even worse--I only bothered with The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, The Universe and Everything.
You might notice that the sequels are all "pre-sold" in the first book, each of the titles--the other one was So Long and Thanks for All the Fish--appearing in the narrative. Very self-indulgent, but it was the late 70s/early 80s and he got away with it.
'Very self-indulgent, but it was the late 70s/early 80s and he got away with it.'
Up until that point HHGTTG hadn't existed and when it arrived the mix of absurdity, invention, humour & sci-fi liberally sprinkled with social comment and the questioning of the existence of god etc hadn't happened. This was written and presented in such as way that it went to cult status and yet invaded into the mainstream.
Now whilst HHGTTG may appear dated now it is because a lot of what's happened since has been done knowing what DA did before; it's had influence. One of the reasons I loved the book in my teens was that it got you thinking of bigger things but in a funny, easy to read and unpretentious way.
We can't all start off reading Братья Карамазовы in it's native language....
Can't say I noticed any "pre-selling", Nonnie 1.
Nonnie 2, it's not as if humour hadn't been done before - and so much better, whether ribald (Aristophanes), irony (Austen) or zany (Sterne), to name but three.
The way Adams flags his jokes reminds me of David Brent looking into the camera for approbation after doing some humour.
You do realise I will now by bombarded by dodgy Russian cybernauts?
'...ribald (Aristophanes), irony (Austen) or zany (Sterne), to name but three.'
OK - scenario - bloke walks into a book shop - a teenager - on the one hand a brightly coloured book promising fun and japes by a geezer he's heard of and his mates are talking about and on the other a dark covered classic hidden away in the dark corner of the book store by Aristophanes..... (if indeed he stood any chance of noticing such)
...now which book would he pick up first and which book might encourage him to keep reading?
LT
Ulie, are you sure that your opinion is not influenced by the fact that Adams was a prominent and eloquent spokesman for atheism, rather the opposite of your Mr. Chesterton?
Subconsciously perhaps, fumiegator, as I had no idea of Mr Adams's religious stance. Indeed, I had to scratch my head when the Russophone Nonnie wrote of the author's "questioning of the existence of god" in the book. Like the homour, I fear I missed that.
LT, I wonder if your modern day earthman ever considered blogs? I could do with a slightly younger market segment to counterbalance those fumie brings in.
The Babel fish and such..
I was the Russian typing bloke - I just forgot to add the...
LT
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