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So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

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Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#31

Post by sooperserieous »

RGX9 wrote: post #11
stevage wrote: post #10

I always kind of wish HHGttG was as good as the geekdom's fondness of it suggests. I read it, I enjoyed it, but really, it is such a depressing series. And there is very little that's particularly funny or interesting after the first book and a half. So many dull and drawn out scenes of characters in miserable situations. And that whole tortured Krikkit gag trying to explain the origins of cricket. Sigh.

I completely agree, it's one of those works where the pop culture lens filters a lot of things. I think Adam Douglas himself mentions in an interview that the later HHGttG books reflect his personal depression, and the enormous time pressure they were written in. Probably the whole series should have been one book, but it also makes it feel a bit human - here's this really smart guy with a lot of brilliant ideas, he…

"I love deadlines. I love the WHOOSHING sound they make as they go be." -- DA

Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#32

Post by JKCalhoun »

stevage wrote: post #10

I always kind of wish HHGttG was as good as the geekdom's fondness of it suggests. I read it, I enjoyed it, but really, it is such a depressing series. And there is very little that's particularly funny or interesting after the first book and a half. So many dull and drawn out scenes of characters in miserable situations. And that whole tortured Krikkit gag trying to explain the origins of cricket. Sigh.

I haven't re-read. Perhaps I was lucky then to have read it when it was not yet a "cultural" touchstone. "42" was not yet a meme, for example.

Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#33

Post by Aeolun »

t-3 wrote: post #26
stevage wrote: post #10

I always kind of wish HHGttG was as good as the geekdom's fondness of it suggests. I read it, I enjoyed it, but really, it is such a depressing series. And there is very little that's particularly funny or interesting after the first book and a half. So many dull and drawn out scenes of characters in miserable situations. And that whole tortured Krikkit gag trying to explain the origins of cricket. Sigh.

It's a great middle school book, but it doesn't really hold up all that well afterwards. I've tried to reread the series a few times as an adult and couldn't even get through the first book.

Isn’t that more because you re-read it? I read it first as an adult, and it was still funny.

Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#34

Post by cptnapalm »

wrboyce wrote: post #27
mykowebhn wrote: post #24

In my senior year of high school, it was midterms and I had to study. I had a horrible problem with procrastination. So there I was in the library about to start studying when I happened upon the first book of his "trilogy". I finished it without stopping to study. And then I found the next two books in the trilogy and devoured those too. I loved those books and luckily I passed my exams. It was stressful at the time…

In case you are unaware, the hhgttg “trilogy” is actually 5 (or 6, depending on your view) books long. “So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish” and “Mostly Harmless” are definitely worth a read!

I remember there being a collection of the first 3 called the Complete Hitchhiker's Guide. In typical Adam's fashion, after the 4th book was released a new compendium was released called the More than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide. That titling should have continued, so we'd have gotten the Even More than Complete Hitchiker's Guide and, finally, the Completest Complete Hitchiker's Guide.

Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#35

Post by t-3 »

Aeolun wrote: post #33
t-3 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a great middle school book, but it doesn't really hold up all that well afterwards. I've tried to reread the series a few times as an adult and couldn't even get through the first book.

Isn’t that more because you re-read it? I read it first as an adult, and it was still funny.

Being enjoyable the first time is just meeting the standard. To rise above mediocrity the book needs to be able to be read more than once. Great books get better the more times you read them.

Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#36

Post by pnm45678 »

cptnapalm wrote: post #34
wrboyce wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you are unaware, the hhgttg “trilogy” is actually 5 (or 6, depending on your view) books long. “So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish” and “Mostly Harmless” are definitely worth a read!

I remember there being a collection of the first 3 called the Complete Hitchhiker's Guide. In typical Adam's fashion, after the 4th book was released a new compendium was released called the More than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide. That titling should have continued, so we'd have gotten the Even More than Complete Hitchiker's Guide and, finally, the Completest Complete Hitchiker's Guide.

Hah, yes.

"Mostly Harmless" did have this on the front:

"The fifth book in the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers Trilogy".

Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#37

Post by lukan »

thom wrote: post #14
stevage wrote: post #10

I always kind of wish HHGttG was as good as the geekdom's fondness of it suggests. I read it, I enjoyed it, but really, it is such a depressing series. And there is very little that's particularly funny or interesting after the first book and a half. So many dull and drawn out scenes of characters in miserable situations. And that whole tortured Krikkit gag trying to explain the origins of cricket. Sigh.

I consider myself an enormous Douglas Adam’s fan, but I only really enjoy the original radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so I don’t think I can get too uppity about your comment. I’m not sure I’d call it depressing though, if anything it’s absurd in the tradition of Camus, and lit up my world during some bleak periods in my youth. The cultural impact of those early works is still enormous, at leas…

"I still find the end of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish quite moving."

Moving, but maybe still depressing?

So warning of spoilers, but Arthurs sole mission is to find the place he is supposed to visit, before he can finally die. (His only wish because his girlfriend vanished from existence)

And in the end he finds the place, which is not what anyone expected and they indeed all die, including his daughter.

After they concluded, there is no other place, no other home, because, every other place is also falling apart. Pretty dark ending in my opinion.

Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#39

Post by cypherpunks01 »

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”

Re: So Long and Thanks for All the Words: A Toast to Douglas Adams

#40

Post by beardyw »

I remember tuning in to the first episode on BBC Radio 4, having heard about it the previous evening. It was so absolutely tuned into my way of thinking it could have been written just for me. Even now, as they say, the pictures are better on radio. Other adaptations have always disappointed me, apart from the subsequent books, for the same reason.

Douglas Adams was a great loss when he died, but what we had from him was the best.

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