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It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

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Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#81

Post by Drdrdrq »

FourthProtocol wrote: post #73

I was 9 when he published Hitchhiker's guide. I'd just started reading and would go on to spend my teens reading ANYTHING I managed to lay my hands on. And throughout my teens everyone went on and on about Hitchhiker's Guide, and it just didn't... push me to read it. I eventually read it after being consrcipted. And it left me feeling as ambivalent as I felt before reading it. As the comments here evidence, people re…

Humour is what drew me to it the first time I read it. A friend pointed out that there are some hidden jokes that only make sense when you already know how it will end, so I read it again, and again... And kept discovering new layers. With years (I take it in my hands from time to time) these discoveries became a rare occurance, but I'm quite sure I still missed some of the gems. And it took some growing up to understand some of the messages.

Adams really was a master of observation. Especially if you consider that many things we take for granted today either didn't exist or were in very early stages (like Internet). Predicting basically "wikipedia on a phone" that far back is mindblowing. And of course, the exaggerared (but still believable) characters are a work of genius.

Maybe give it a second chance if you have spare time?

That said, I only read the last book twice because it makes me depressed. Ymmv of course.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#83

Post by 123pie123 »

codr7 wrote: post #49
sysadm1n wrote: post #40

Seen a few Ask HNs where people asked that question: `What is the meaning of life?`. Well one thing I believe is: `The meaning of life is to find meaning in life ` Another quote I live by is, by Bukowski: “Find what you love and let it kill you” – Charles Bukowski I mean it makes sense right? Many people just haven't found their passion and go round like headless chickens!

The older I get the more I feel that the point of living is experience, not meaning. The stories we make up inside our fish bowls most likely have very little to do with reality.

>The older I get the more I feel that the point of living is experience, not meaning.

the older I get the more I see the point of living as basically the same as everything in nature - propagate your genes as much possible and give them the best chance of them propagating their genes. Everything else is try and and fun and help humankind

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#84

Post by eevilspock »

sysadm1n wrote: post #40

Seen a few Ask HNs where people asked that question: `What is the meaning of life?`. Well one thing I believe is: `The meaning of life is to find meaning in life ` Another quote I live by is, by Bukowski: “Find what you love and let it kill you” – Charles Bukowski I mean it makes sense right? Many people just haven't found their passion and go round like headless chickens!

I recommend reading Viktor Frankl's take on life and meaning. A good intro is Maria Popova's "Viktor Frankl on the Human Search for Meaning", which I just added to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28899325

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#85

Post by rsynnott »

toyg wrote: post #36

After hitting my 42nd birthday this year, I thought for a while that Douglas Adams had layered the joke with a bit of truth: at 42, a man is more or less confident in his skin, having lived through enough to feel somewhat unflappable; he's probably raised kids, bought a home, got a decent job, and can pretty much choose what he wants to do for the rest of his life. Hence "the answer" - the answer is to be 42. ... Ala…

I mean, he wrote the radio play aged 25, so that would have been an odd basis for it.

Though, funnily enough, Adams' child was born when both he and his wife were 42! So you might be on to something.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#87

Post by ErrantX »

FourthProtocol wrote: post #73

I was 9 when he published Hitchhiker's guide. I'd just started reading and would go on to spend my teens reading ANYTHING I managed to lay my hands on. And throughout my teens everyone went on and on about Hitchhiker's Guide, and it just didn't... push me to read it. I eventually read it after being consrcipted. And it left me feeling as ambivalent as I felt before reading it. As the comments here evidence, people re…

I am a huge HGTG fan, but just driving by to say...

King Rat is a massively underrated masterpiece. Read it in my teens and regularly re-read. Astonishing book.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#88

Post by camexp »

"The book follows Englishman Arthur Dent as he wakes up to find that Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a space highway."

It was a hyperspace bypass. As far as I am aware that is neither "space" nor a "highway". I guess it is a "kind of space" but I just feel that this is a terrible way to describe it by the authors of the article.

However, I could be wrong, I have been multiple times in the past.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#89

Post by sideshowb »

FourthProtocol wrote: post #73

I was 9 when he published Hitchhiker's guide. I'd just started reading and would go on to spend my teens reading ANYTHING I managed to lay my hands on. And throughout my teens everyone went on and on about Hitchhiker's Guide, and it just didn't... push me to read it. I eventually read it after being consrcipted. And it left me feeling as ambivalent as I felt before reading it. As the comments here evidence, people re…

I think there is a lot of depth in HHGG. I read the whole 42 saga as a parable on society's tendency to trust computer outputs without understanding what they really mean. There's a lot of great social commentary in there, one example that springs to mind is a planet run by middle managers declaring leaves as fiat currency as that way money really does grow on trees. Eventually this leads to mass deforestation in an attempt to halt inflation. A good critique of the economic status quo about 20 years before such things were widespread.

Re: It's been 42 years since 'The Hitchhiker's Guide' answered the ultimate question

#90

Post by ErrantX »

camexp wrote: post #88

"The book follows Englishman Arthur Dent as he wakes up to find that Earth is about to be demolished to make way for a space highway." It was a hyperspace bypass. As far as I am aware that is neither "space" nor a "highway". I guess it is a "kind of space" but I just feel that this is a terrible way to describe it by the authors of the article. However, I could be wrong, I have been multiple times in the past.

I feel like the bypass reference is a very English joke, and therefore doesn't fully translate.
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