ffs, couldn't they have added a 42nd language for the sake of this vid? Esperanto or some other useless thing that nobody would even fact check / learn anyhow!?
@1nvisibleAcropolis I have assumed the benefit of the doubt, and that it was a consensual relationship: it would be inappropriate (given the power dynamics), and adulterous, but not illegal.
Have you considered doing something about rats in popular culture, as a tribute to your deceased pets and reflecting the importance of plagues in Tolkien's works?
“In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very upset & has widely been regarded as a bad move.” I still love that book.
“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” This quote comes to mind whenever I see a politician or anyone else in a position of power. More often than not its narcissism that got them there. Those that crave power should not be the ones given it.
Adams used to drive his agent and publisher crazy, he once said something to the effect of "I love deadlines, I enjoy the whooshing sound when they go past" LOL
@@Jess_of_the_Shire He called up Terry Jones of Monty Python on short notice to write the novelization of his Starship Titanic game because he wasn't getting anywhere with it.
Oh he didn't say that, once, he said that at just about every convention he spoke at. And it was always a hit. Once he said that his publisher was so frustrated that he was locked into a hotel. Terry Pratchett was there and quipped "Yes, my publisher keeps locking me in hotels as well, but I keep breaking out and writing another book".
Hahaha, based! Can't rush art! He was such a smartass, but for him I think that's justified. I have seen one talk with the man. And from the books I had a feeling that guy was a smart man. The talk really confirmed that idea. Too bad he had to go relatively young (under 50 I think). Can't say a lot about the character since I didn't meet him (though I am pretty sure I'd like the guy), but for sure his creative output will be missed!
Was coming here to say this. I'm convinced Adams did that deliberately. Speaking of things that are crazy and make no sense. Where else can you speed up twice and wind up going slower than when you started?
The babelfish breaking down communication barriers between people and, as a consequence, causing more and bloodier wars than anything in history is the best (and most prophetic) metaphor for the internet I have ever heard.
But that's one of the crazy things about it, IT WAS NOT a metaphor for the internet, for the simple reason the internet did not exist yet! It was a prediction based on human nature which turned out to be true!
@@BanazirGalpsi1968yes, exactly. Extrapolating the unintended side effects of communication breakthroughs on human history, he surmised the negative impact that universal understanding would have, and also foreshadowed the negative aspects of the internet. This making humor out of the way that innovation gives with one hand and takes with another is one of the remarkably deep qualities of the series.
@@BanazirGalpsi1968 The internet certainly existed then. The first four nodes in the Arpanet went live in 1969. The name of the Arpanet was eventually changed to the Internet, but it's the same net.
One evening, back in 1980, having listened to an episode of HGTTG on the radio, I went out for a walk. It was clear, cool, starry night, and as I walked along I stopped to look in the window of an antique shop. There, on the wall, were a couple of digits carved from tree branches - the number "42". I was gobsmacked. I went cold. Eventually, I managed to pull myself together and continued my walk. The next shop along was number 40, then 38........
It's really hard to describe the love I have for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. On the one hand, it is everything my analytical over schooled mind would normally criticize: meandering plot, sloppy world building, characters with no growth. Yet, it is also everything I need to be moved: funny and recognizable. I'm not a person who rereads books, but I can't count how many times I have reread Hitchhiker's. Wherever Adams is, I hope he is enjoying a massive pan galactic gargle blaster, and cheering himself for making so many people happy
I love this series so much. One of my favourite jokes is a very simple and silly inversion of expectations quite early in the book, when Ford is describing to Arthur the process of being teleported, "It's unpleasantly like being drunk." "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?" "You ask a glass of water." This kind of sets the tone for every time Arthur thinks he's starting to get a handle on things, the universe flips on him.
That's Ford's description of the sensation of jumping into hyperspace. At this point, Arthur has already been through a matter transference beam (and lost some salt and protein), but not jumped into hyperspace.
I'm with you on the favourite joke - I am a clumsy fellow and when I was 20, I was cycling to work when a pick-up truck pulled out in front of me (I was in the US) and I came off the bike for the 2nd time that week (swerved to avoid a very wide-turning car and found myself upside down on the steep bank of a pond the first time around - I have funny accidents) & as I flew through the air I had one of those bizarrely peaceful moments as I thought "oh no, not again" & was genuinely distracted by remembering the bowl of petunias. Still hit the ground though, all good in the end but it adds a little extra flavour to the original joke now.
Anytime I didn't know the answer on a math test I would write 41. Sooner or later the instructor would notice and ask, and I'd say "Well, I almost had the answer. And that's almost the answer." Only one of them ever got it.
A math prof once asked, “Is this the answer or is this the answer?” To which I replied “This.” She didn’t catch on, nor did anyone else. I used it a few times thereafter.
@@surfinbird1238 ...that is the point of the original comment. They "almost had the answer", the keyword here being almost. Hence, the right answer is 42.
When the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy movie came out, I grabbed a towel and went to see it, but the showing was about an hour and a half after I bought the ticket. So I went to a coffee shop near the movie theater where I ran into a beautiful girl who was waiting for the same showing, and she had also brought her towel. So we decided to go see the movie together. It turns out she hated the film, and I loved it, and we never saw each other again.
He was writing the radio show on the fly; he'd write one week's show after the previous one aired. At one point he had written himself into a hole: he had Arthur and Ford ejected into space without suits, and had no idea how to rescue them. He had a week to come up with it. Everything he thought of, he rejected because it was infinitely improbable. He just needed something to generate infinite improbability. And a genius idea was born.
Not sure if this partly inspired him, but I think in an interview he likened the idea to that in matrial arts (sumo wrestling?) of using your opponents' weight against them (leap out of the way) when they try to tacle you - hence, as you rightly say, using the idea of the improbability of their survival to create the improbability drive?
@michael32A It was Judo. If you can manage to find a copy of the radio scripts, that we're published in book form, they contain a lot of footnotes on how Douglas came up with various characters & ideas. The Whale and Shooty & Bang Bang (the 'sensitive' cops on Magrathea) we're both inspired by watching American cop shows!
In a very direct sense, Douglas Adams - and THHGTTG in particular - Is responsible for my life as it is right now. As a teenager in The Netherlands, I was bored with Dutch literature and THHGTTG must have been the first English book I read of my own volition. It sparked my passion for British humor and eventually had me move to the UK to marry my (very British) wife. To celebrate this, for our wedding, my wife had a pocket watch engraved with "Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so." which I wore walking down the nave. (I've even become the pedant that knows it's not the aisle you walk down on your wedding...)
Yes, as Australian/with Scandinavian /ukrainian origin ,, i too grew up on the ~gateway show~monty python ., the goodies ,2 ronies ,,, & drwho.. so naturally,,realised that douglas addams was a 1980 bloger too. i used to fil up my university computer with so many entries , for past 42 years i finally gave up.. ah mostly cos my alien blog living amoubng humans is regarded as disinformation..,,
@@rikhuravidansker From the book. Praise for one of the lead characters "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."
@@rikhuravidansker sigh. as the book explains, a frood is 'a really amazingly together guy' and 'sass' means alternatively to know or have sex with, but its not necessary that you know this. its hippy shit talk. the book is all about not caring very much about anything. except fjords.
The man was a great author, it's a shame he died so young. I particularly liked the Dirk Gently series. I even used his holistic direction finding method once when my gps died somewhere in Los Angeles. I found someone who looked like they knew where they were going and followed them. It worked! It wouldn't be such a big deal if I were driving a car, but I was in a semi truck, and let me tell you, being lost is no joke in that situation.
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I've used that method too, although not with a semi 😅
@@thethegreenmachine Nope, no CB. Besides, I didn't even know what city I was in. I'm convinced if that truck driver I followed hadn't come along, I'd still be in LA, 10 years later 😁
@@mackdog3270 Nah, you'd have found a McDonald's or other place that gets truck deliveries and followed the next guy :P I thought all trucks had those radios.
My older sister read me tHGttG when I was in middle school, then I read all four books in the trilogy as an older teen, and read everything just a few years ago as an adult. I don't think I could pick out a favorite joke, but I 100% fell in love with the franchise the first time I heard the Vogon ships described as hanging in the air "in much the same way a brick doesn't.". It was so incredibly perfect to capture a clear image of impossibility in such an absurd way that it made me laugh and get the exact image at the same time. That's top tier writing.
My favorite joke was the explanation of the band Disaster Area. Where they come from, how loud they are, how their lead singer is dead for tax purposes, and their accountant proving that space-time isn't merely curved but in fact totally bent! I use to have the whole bit memorized because i loved it so much.
I love the line in the BBC series.. The buttons on disaster areas's shop are labelled black on a black background that light up black to let you know they're pressed.
I liked the AI trying to figure out what happened on the monitoring spaceship in the intro to Mostly Harmless myself. Either that or the ship that used bad news as propulsion.
Thank God I can stop thinking for 1 hour 10 minutes 13 seconds about the existential questions that assail me about life and the universe, relax, and enjoy an insightful video narrated by a charming and witty hostess.
Adams had a unique way with words. This was amplified in the radio play and the TV series and on the LPs by the late, great Peter Jones providing the voiceover for the book. Even now, whenever I read the books, I hear Jones's voice.
Douglas Adams was the script manager for a series of Dr Who and you could see him influence. At one point the Doctor was pinned and waiting for rescue and takes out a book to read to pass the time- Oofon Kalofid 's (sp?) beginning of the universe- leading the doctor to declare 'he got it wrong on the first page, he should have asked someone who was there. David Tennant's doctor, first appearing in a bathrobe commented he had sort of an arthur dent image going "It's unpleasantly like being drunk." "What's unpleasant about that?" "you ask a glass of water." in just that exchange he shows exactly how his mind was too off beat.
@@Jess_of_the_Shire The third book was actually Adams reusing an unused Doctor Who script. As were both of his non-H2G2 novels featuring Dirk Gently (though one of those two novels was abandoned halfway through shooting due to a strike).
@@Jess_of_the_Shire That third book was even developed from an unmade DW script Adams had written (as was the first Dirk Gently novel). Incidentally... have you ever considered covering Watership Down on your channel? I basically ask because I used to have the animated film of that, and the animated Lord of the RIngs, on the same video tape as a kid and it wasn't long before I noticed that Aragorn and Boromir were voiced by the same actors as Hazel and Bigwig... and kind of seemed to have the same relationship, too...
I recall reading in a Doctor Who history (of the first seven Doctors) that a lot of the staff and possibly fans were annoyed with Adams because everything was jokey and disconnected. But it definitely worked for the first two or three Hitchhiker books, and I think it worked even better for the Dirk Gently novel I've read (Teatime). Surrealism is helped by having *some* rules.
@@stephengray1344 pedantically, only the first Dirk Gently novel was based on Doctor Who (it combined elements of both Shada (the one left unfinished due to a strike) and City of Death). The second Dirk Gently novel was a wholly original story.
When they all get to The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe by time travel and discover that Marvin had to wait millennia for them is just a diamond moment. Q. What are you doing in the car park Marvin? A. Parking cars, sigh. Marvin is another hero without a cape.
*SPIOLERS FOR 'LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING'* The fact that he gets left again and has been on a planet were mattresses have grown sentient so he's just been talking to mattresses for 12 million years 🤣🤣🤣
More controversial than the trilogy of block busters, "Where God went wrong", "Some more of Gods greatest mistakes" and "Who is this God person anyway."
@@Krantzstone Ah yes, an Islamophobe, a buzzword meaning 'someone who has some critique of Islam'. Cause it was all fine and dandy when he critiqued Christianity, but poor, innocent, defenseless Islam whose followers never did anything wrong; in Greta Thunberg's voice: how dares he?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the best trilogy of 6 books I ever read. The dolphins, Oh! the dolphins. The Vogon poetry sessions, learning how to fly by throwing yourself at the ground and accidentally missing the ground and "WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE" God's last message to the the universe guarded by the Lajestic Vantrashell of Lob.
"Time is an illusion." "Lunchtime doubly so". I also like the encounter between Marvin and the tank. Marvin when they defeat the tank by depressing it: "Stupid robot".
Along with Terry Pratchett and Robert Rankin, Douglas Adams is probably my favourite writer. Thank you for covering his output; I enjoyed it thoroughly. There is a relentless painful evil in life, yes, but within these pages you can find comfort. There is absurdity, but it is so deep, so the meaninglessness of all may possibly (or probably) drive us to use it as a diversion, and pondering upon it becomes the meaning of life itself. Progress is turning short commas into longer fullstops, in the puncuation of life's natural state of affairs. Smart guy, that Mr. Adams! My favourite scene is probably the rain god/driver trope. It's tragic but, in a way, kind. If he knew why he was loved by clouds he'd probably snuff it, not keep trying to escape them.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is one of the greatest movies ever made. There is simply no words. I’ve watched it thousands of times as a teen. I still watch it. It is such a brilliant classic and the Maestro of film diversion. No comedy or scifi categorically is near it. Maybe, maybe Starship Troopers is the only near contender or Galaxy Quest. Such a legendary film. So unbelievable. Life long entertainment.
Well, that just goes to show, different strokes for different folks - I liked the radio play, know the books so well I could speak in tandem with huge chunks of Jess' script & really enjoyed the TV show when I was a kid. I'm not a fan of the film at all, but I'm glad you get so much from it.
@@brianhanna3128 Same here, practically everything I've read or read HGTTG has been amazing, particularly the BBC TC show. But as I was leaving the movie theater, I, my friends and everyone else around us was saying stuff like "what the heck was THAT?" I think it was not something that Hollywood was equipped to make, especially in a 90 minute movie.
The movie's great, but I think Galaxy Quest is better. Starship Troopers is so good that it's better than the book, which is something that I rarely say about a movie (or a book).
Douglas Adams said that each that each iteration (Radio play, Novels T.V. and films) are different .As an observer we see the universe changed ,because in every iteration because of the use total improbability changes the universe we observer . Or words to that effect.
So my friend who introduced me to this book found it by deciding to read the very first book in the Science Fiction section at the local library, Douglas Adams. This was in about 1980/1981 or so. Got to hear the radio series 2 years later. Note this was an Achievement in it's own right since it was California and no internet and well clunky tape recorders, but friends and I managed to get them on tape (via recording live from the radio) except for the 10th episode which I never heard it until was able to buy the tapes of the radio series, years later. I only mentioned this because the radio series is so good. It made a lasting impression and effected my whole life. So yea, important.
The only thing better than discovering Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy in the modern era is discovering the radio plays when they were new and different.
The radio play is, in my opinion, the absolute top tier of Adam's work. No matter how often I listen to it is never not funny. I will go out on a limb and say the book and UK TV show are equal in awesome. And I would rather forget the "movie" exists...
When I read the entire series in middle school, it radically changed my outlook on life. Until I became an angst teen. But it was rereading the books that pulled me out of the depression that came from lacking meaning. Marvin's reaction to God's message always brings a smile to my face and a chuckle to my throat
My favorite quote from the book has long been "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - mostly because it is so resonant with reality, but also because it accompanies a great scene in the book where Ford is stuck on the ledge of 42dn floor of the headquarters of the Guide outside windows that are made to be impervious to any and all attacks one could conceive of, but turn out not to be locked.
I am constantly surprised by how closely our tastes in literature align. Your analysis of HGTTG is wonderful. Constantly, as a teacher, I would tell my students "Don't Panic" when they would become overwhelmed with the struggles of being a teenager. I was always delighted when some of them understood the reference. You are truly the internet's literary sandwich maker. That is all. Now I have to go get my towels out of the dryer.
Hitchhikers lives on. May I tell a personal anecdote? About 10 years ago, I went on my first assignment as a social care worker. It was a respite visit, to take a man with learning difficulties away from his (by now rather elderly) parents for a few hours. I pretty much fluffed the assignment, through compete inexperience I got no more work for a few weeks, then mysteriously I was called back. I visited and got to know this family for several more years. The father (originally a farm worker from Norfolk) would say to me: "Don't panic"
Thank you Jess. Brought back many fond memories. One of my all time favourite quotes comes from Mr. Adams, though not from THHGTTG: “Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” ― Last Chance to See. Still find it hard to believe that we have been deprived of his unique style of humour for over twenty years now.
Gotta say that a big chunk what Adams did was find jokes in just subverting English grammar and language overall. He just turns it into a plaything that he could only play with it by loving it so much. The whole “there is a problem… to summarize the summary of the summary…” passage is grammatically correct but so tortured that the torture is half the joke. I learned so much about writing and language from Adams.
I can only describe HHGTTG as “ cosmic “ . The concepts are so lateral, and counter to all other literature. The detail is so exquisite - laying in front of a bulldozer, vogon poetry, not bothering to see the notice of the hyperspace bypass etc
Back in the day, my friend and I were very into the first book, and one night down the pub he decided to mix one of those things. Start with a pint of Jennings beer split between two pint glasses. Add a shot each of vodka, martini, possibly some white wine, some other stuff I forget after all these years, then drink. Carefully. Tasted like shit but before we'd finished them we were rat-arsed. A memorable night that I can't remember most of !
This was absolutely delightful, and I'm grateful to have been suggested it by the Almighty Algorithm! (I typed that moments before you referenced it in the same way... huh!) Favorite bit from the series -- it's been too long since I reread the books, but I still remember the creeping dread I felt as Arthur read the name on a matchbook. (If you know, you know. Don't want to be any more explicit...) Really loved "Last Chance To See" and the Dirk Gently novels, too! Some folks hear about a sofa being moved and think of Seinfeld's "PIVOT!" ...but my mind goes instead to a certain staircase and I start humming a little bit of classical music. Especially grateful for your deliberate connection between Camus and Adams' approach to absurdity; it's an apt comparison and an important lesson that I suspect could benefit a lot of folks. ❤
As a teen this program rolled out onto BBC Radio 4 at 11pm one evening, and I heard the first episode the time it was broadcast. Brilliant. My Mum was on a BBC panel at the time and the BBC only gave it a second series because, "most people didn't like it much, BUT the minority that liked it, LOVED it". This gem was so close to being a one series wonder it's scary.
So, it doesn't work on the small scale, but 'throwing yourself at the ground and missing' is a pretty good summary of how an orbit works, one which goes right back to Newton
I was lucky enough to catch the magic of the original Radio 4 series on a college friend's recommendation. The best-remembered jokes are the early one's: 'Beware of the Leopard' and 'Unpleasantly like being Drunk (ask a glass of water)'.
I know that dreaming of flying is common and everybody does it, but when I fly in my dreams I always do it specifically using Adams' method. It works perfectly every time and it makes so much sense and it feels very real, like, I'm thinking "no no no no, this is no dream."
Flying while dreaming is always lucid because no one would be so daft as to believe that they could really fly. Another characteristic of lucid dreams is that you control what happens. I have a feeling that there was some sort of metaphysical meaning behind Arthur flying. Perhaps the story was a lucid dream in the mind of Adams.
The fact that the TH-cam Algorithm searched its ridiculously large database and spat out this video for my viewing pleasure may not be infinitely improbable, but it was certainly unexpected. However, I for one am glad it happened. What a joy to revisit the surreal genius of "Hitchhikers". Thank you Jess for providing a well thought out and well presented hour of happiness. P.S.I still live by the ethos of SEP - "if its someone else's problem then don't worry about it"😎
I did contract work for "The Lord of the Rings Musical" involving software to import/export the dynamic set's motion controls. Never had a chance to see the show. Now I see why.
I was first introduced to h2g2 in the summer or autumn of 1978 when I was bedridden for a couple of days with food poisoning. One of my flatmates had recorded the radio series earlier that year, and i listened to it in one go, in stereo, through headphones. It was groundbreaking in so many ways: the enormous soundscape that we'd never before encountered, the fourth wall-breaking, greek chorus that was "The Book" the amazing universe Douglas conjured up, I can honestly say it affected my whole life (don't talk to me about life)!
My father had a meticulously set-up stereo system and one thing about the radio plays that stays with me is that they take me back to these perfect evenings when we all listened to radio as H2G2 was broadcast for the first time and the room filled with the soundscape. It was wonderful.
One of the most lasting memories of the book series I have is Arthur's love interest - Fenchurch from 'So long and thanks for all the fish'. If I remember correctly she was the product of the computation of the ultimate question (the answer to which is 42) and there was something very special about her that no one ever noticed - her feet didn't reach the ground! Really going to have to read those books again they are so good.
The bit where Fenchurch shows Arthur that her feet never touches the ground is surprisingly intimate and strangely erotic. The fact that So Long and Thanks for all the Fish manages to be a genuinely effective and moving romance novel is downright confusing considering the absurd premise of this series.
Brilliant report, Jess - thank you for making me remember just how much I enjoyed that trilogy. Definitely worth living twice the entire age of the universe with all parts replaced except those diodes down the left side for.
I remember reading this for the 1st time and laughing so hard that the tears obscured my vision and I had to keep rereading it. Took me more than a day to get through the 1st 100 pages. 🤣🤣🤣 Funniest book I've ever read - funniest ANYTHING I've ever read.
I remember driving while listening to the radio plays and nearly crashed. I laughed so hard. I had to pull over in a lay by. I stopped listening to them in the car, in order to not die after that.
I've been a big fan of the radio versions since 79 and its been amazing how he describes the modern world of intelligent devices and the internet. To the point where sofiscation has made the devices more compilcated and more or less completely useless. Listneing to you describing the book I realise no one can describe HHGTTG without appearing to be totally mad! Good work thanks!
When I first read this, I was 14 years old. I started to realise how bullshit and wrong everything was with the world. It made me think “why would I want to live in, where I don’t matter?” I learned that, we are all going to die soon, people try to deal with the absurdity of life with even more absurd beliefs, violence is a part of our intrinsic nature, we won’t ever be satisfied with answers for our place in the universe and we can mathematically prove we don’t exist. But I am currently having a really lovely cup of tea, I have a job that allows me to live comfortably and I’m watching one of my favourite TH-camrs talk about my favourite book. That’s why Hitchhiker’s is so popular
THANK YOU. This is wonderfully affirming. I am a 56-year-old who was introduced to the HHGG radio series when it first was broadcast in the US. It's been one of my greatest life influences -- oddly, alongside some of the more conservative Christian Church teachings. I've never had the philosophy of HHGG explained to me in such a way that helped me to understand my own approach to life, especially the way I respond to productivity culture, life hacks, and personal optimization -- in spite of the fact that I am in fact a leadership coach by profession. I am so tempted to share this video as a way of saying "Listen, if you want to understand me, you have to understand this." I'm glad you discovered it when you did. I'm sorry the movie was your introduction. But, you've done well here. Thank you.
Favorite Jokes (both from _Life, the Universe, and Everything_ I should note): Ford: "I spent some time in Africa being cruel to animals. I won't disturb you with the details because they would." Arthurt: "Would what?" Ford: "Disturb you. Suffice it to say I am singularly responsible for the evolved shape of the creature you come to know as the giraffe." and: Ford: "You'll drive yourself crazy trying to stay sane. Why not... go mad? Save your sanity for later."
In my early 20s I was lucky enough to meet Adams twice, at book signings in Milwaukee. I have autographed copies of Mostly Harmless, a single book collection of the first four Hitchhiker books, and Last Chance to See. At the first meeting he seemed very distracted and actually looked at something else across the room when shaking my hand. To be fair he did these book signings all over the country so was probably pretty wiped out mentally. After that I read the Dirk Gently novels and discovered that Adams was a musician. I saw a picture of his studio in a magazine and noticed that he owned one of the same synthesizers I owned. At the next book signing, for Mostly Harmless, I mentioned his studio and our shared instrument and this caught his attention. He suddenly made eye contact and we spoke very briefly about computer music. I hope this was a nice break for him because he really did look bored spending hours signing book after book. I loved your video by the way. It was fun to hear your recap. I have always been a super fan of his books and the radio plays, and I am always so glad to see someone else that really enjoys these books as much as I do.
“The Vogon fleet hung in the sky like bricks don’t”. (Probably not exact line from the book). The opening parts of Hitchhiker’s is so great. One of the best of all time. Thank you for this video & the reminder of why I should dip into THGTTG again being in a period of feeling the pointlessness of it all just now. At least I’m not alone.
The spaceship hung there much in the same way as a brick doesn't. It's my favourite piece of writing.
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One of my favorite, if not *the* most favorite part in the book, the first, was the bit about Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. The whole idea of the big problem with time travel not time paradoxes, but grammar, and the examples he gave, and that in later editions, only the first couple dozen pages were printed, the others left empty (because no-one ever got that far :D). Just… DNA.
Easy for you to say. But then they examine your taste buds, do a spectroscopic analysis of your metabolism, send experimental signals down the neural pathways to your brains taste centres, and after all that they still produce for you a beverage that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea. Sorry, there I went again on another tangent about Hollywood storytelling.
I listened to the radio series as a kid on my local public station long before I read the books so that version is my favorite. I was so happy when the Tertiary Phase, Quandary Phase, and Quintessential Phase came out in the 2003 and 2004 after Adams' death to adapt the remaining novels. They featured most of the surviving cast members including Jonathan Pryce whose professional standing was much higher than it was in 1980.
@@BanazirGalpsi1968 That was back when NPR still believed in broadcasting radio drama. _HHGTTG, Star Wars,_ a credible version (well the BBC one, not the NPR one) of _The Lord of the Rings_ plus a lot of smaller adaptations and original works. Those days are long gone.
When the movie came out, we were on holidays and we old folk attended a regional movie theatre with our bright beach towels draped over our shoulders. The looks we got from the young folk were hysterical. There were many side eyes and levitating eyebrows. You could see the “crazy old folk” expressions amongst the trendy teens. As we left after the movie hubby and I got lots of “ahhh I get it now” “good one dude” “you must be old fans” (rude, but accurate 😂) and non stop high 5s from the local youth. It’s a great core memory.
To me, the original BBC radio plays were the best version. I bought them on CD years ago, ripped them, and they've been on my ipods/phones ever since. I usually listen to them a couple of times a year when on road trips by myself
Fun fact: The CDs are actually not the originally aired recordings but a re-recording with the same actors. They had used some copyrighted music for the radio recordings, which they couldn't use for the CDs for some reason, so they had to re-record everything. The original ones are out there, somewhere, in the deepest, dark corridors of the internet in dreadful audio quality, and they're glorious.
I love how what resonated with you about taking joy in ordinariness of little things in Douglas’s world (sandwich making to bring others joy) is also a super hobbity trait.
The salmon of doubt has a story about a couple of dogs that is very funny and charming and that is still one of my favorites You are missed Adams, so long and thank you for all the fish
Comedic philosophy - The idea that money is a shared illusion. If money were to disappear then humanity would be in trouble but if humanity was gone then Money would be irrelevant. So when leaves are declared as currency, there is instant hyperinflation, cured by burning all the trees. Starship Titanic was also fun - a whole PC game and then a book that sprang from a one line gag. The PC game was beautifully rendered (for the time) but madly infuriating to get through.
Money isn't an illusion as long as you live in a civilisation that accepts the Flanian Pobble Bead as currency. (I'm also two-thirds of the way to owning a Triganic Pu, but I don't want to brag.)
@@samtaholo So Close! - almost had a conversation about made up currencies on the web of all places. It's State backed illusion for me today but if you'd like to invest in my procrastination tokens....
I read the 1st book in an afternoon, in a vacation trip... specificaly, in a rainy day, locked in a small appartment at the beach. I was around 17 years old... And read again and again ever since, every time my sight finds the cover, all dusted and wrecked by time and use. And I'll read it again, at least one more time (repeating this same sentence every time I finish reading). I'll be honest: I already love your content, but this one video brought tears of joy and nostalgia to my eyes, especialy when you explained the nuances of the storytelling and it all made sence... Thank you for this one hour and ten of happiness in my life, Jess... and keep on keeping on with you extraordinary work!
I was in high school, and it was a Saturday evening around 7 o'clock. There must have been a hockey game on, meaning I had no access to the TV. I turned on the clock radio in my bedroom to NPR radio--not something that I listened to, like ever. So this was all very unlikely. And I tuned in just as the opening music for the first episode of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy played. I had no idea it existed, and here it was, delivered to me on a platter, from the beginning. I listened to every episode at 7pm on Saturday for the next 12 weeks, because there was literally no other way to get it. Fast forward a few decades. My 8 year old daughter is reading the book, sitting on the couch. Suddenly, I hear her shout, "WHAT!!!!!!" She had just found out that the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, was 42.
I read the HG2TU in 1980 and hated it. I was a Sci-fi junkie and it just didn't resonate with me. Well, here I am now a man of 60 years, retired, married, and a father of a grown man and I just realized that I embraced the main idea of the novel and made it a core of my personality. Everyone always asked why so few things, which would drive others into a panic, never seemed to cause me no more concern than any other minor problem? I never knew the answer to that question. I chaulked it up to easy going parents. Boy, was I wrong.
I really, really Loved this video. Being a huge Douglas Adams fan myself, I feel amazed about the insights you'd been offering me here and of which I didn't have a clue. So, just thank you
Kudos for the details you added to the video for ambience: music, visual effects, audio effects, makeup, the mug, even. Thanks for pouring your magic in the world once more.
I fondly remember the final of the BBC's Big Read in 2003 where we Tolkien Society members and those from ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha (with some people belonging to both) supported each other and drew negative attention from the Jane Austen people for daring to have fun! We didn't mind "Pride and Prejudice" coming 2nd to "The Lord of the Rings", but it was a shame that HHGTTG got pushed into 4th by Philip Pullman...
Thank you for such a loving re-investigation of one of my favorite authors of all time. Douglas was a genius for his spectacular failures and his human understanding and connection tied to his way of communicating. I teared up thinking about how much his collective works have influenced my life, my thoughts, my personality and even the smallest parts of my sense of humor. I would say this, to you an to anyone else who reads this: if you enjoy HHGTTG, you would be doing yourself a disservice not to read last chance to see. It was something he was more passionate about than any other works, and has as much humor with grounded real life issues of animal conservation. Douglas said in an interview that it was his most proud pieces, so please everyone read it. I know where my towel is, and I hope you all do as well.
I read Hitchhikers as a preteen in the early 80s, and has, in my more lucid periods of life, been the basis of what I consider to be my own personal philosophical underpinnings. Thanks for the reminder. Gonna click on the movie now, and order the books for a well deserved re-read.
If you liked Douglas Adams, I can recommend Terry Pratchett, especially his Discworld novels, of which he wrote 41. (Didn't quite make it to 42, unfortunately.) The books in the series get better as it progresses, which is actually quite uncommon. The books are both funny and profound. They are fantasy, but they very much reflect the real world. Pratchett was often compared to Douglas Adams, but I think he was actually a better writer, especially when it comes to stories, characters and plots.
I adore Terry Pratchett! In terms of actual quality of book I think he blows Adams out of the water. Definitely a full video on him coming someday (when I have enough time to invest in it)
@@Jess_of_the_Shire Would it be fair to say that Pratchett's humor was more dry than Adams'? Hitchhiker's had me giggling and laughing out loud, whereas the Discworld books that I've read have occasionally made me chuckle.
@sebastianevangelista4921 I think it's less about being dry as grounded. Adams would happily stop the entire flow of a book for a joke, but Pratchett after the first two books at least, focused on story first and then weaved in the jokes. That said Pratchett gets more from rereading. There's layers of jokes which you only get from a second or third reading
I discovered these entirely on my own as teenager in the early 2000s just from the internet. I was already downloading/torrenting things like british comedies, Fry and Laurie, Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant radio show (pre-podcast), and naturally the HHGTTG just came up in the mix of all of that! I felt like it discovered it and no one else I knew ever heard of it! I must've listened to the radio shows, read the books, and the best of both world - audiobooks (well produced), dozens of times over the years, but I admit it has been a long time, but it had gotten so engrained in me. I dont know about jokes, but certain phrases have just become part of my stock phrases, like "life, dont talk to me about life", I talk about who will be up against the wall when the revolution comes. In my field as as social worker, I work very closely with mental health, and not every one is always hip to me referring to therapists and psychiatrists as "personal brain care specialists" in a professional setting
I deconstructed from both my faith and what I believed was my calling around my early 30s. Refinding Hitchhiker's and so many other things helped me really remind myself to be happy and work on it every day, to accept that we are only here for a tiny bit, and to be silly... really really silly. Thank you for the videos!
There are so many reasons I’m now following you. You’re deep understanding of Douglas Adams, my daughter’s love of his work, and she was born in the US. Brilliant.
Was touched by this thoughtful commentary far more than i would've guessed. I found this book series at the library as a teen (the cover strange green circle with a tongue hanging out is attention grabbing...). TH-cam algo, send this video zipping across the site like an infinite improbability drive!
My favorite joke must be to fall and miss the ground, as that is pretty much the way orbital mechanics work. Have read, listened to and watched - never played though. Thanks for a great philosophical video.
Discovered it when I was fourteen and a friend told me at what time I should listen on Radio 4. Unfortunately at dinner time, requiring parental dispensation to leave the table. It was the start of the second series. I was hooked: the Lintillas, the shoe event horizon, the Nutrimatic machine and the Cup suspended by Art, and Peter Jones’ mildly amused voicing of the Book - not to mention the Eagles’ oh so fitting “title track”. Read the book, then books, and caught the first series on rerun, read the book and saw the BBC TV adaptation on first release. You’ve brought it all back to me! Thank you!
Go to mondly.app/jessoftheshire to get 96% off of lifetime access to 41 languages and start learning today!
ffs, couldn't they have added a 42nd language for the sake of this vid? Esperanto or some other useless thing that nobody would even fact check / learn anyhow!?
It is a re-write of the hunting of the snark, you want proof? 42
I love your eyeliner and lipstick 💄!! I also really enjoy your videos too !!!
@1nvisibleAcropolis I have assumed the benefit of the doubt, and that it was a consensual relationship: it would be inappropriate (given the power dynamics), and adulterous, but not illegal.
Have you considered doing something about rats in popular culture, as a tribute to your deceased pets and reflecting the importance of plagues in Tolkien's works?
“In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very upset & has widely been regarded as a bad move.” I still love that book.
A classic line
@@Jess_of_the_Shire 100%
“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
This quote comes to mind whenever I see a politician or anyone else in a position of power. More often than not its narcissism that got them there. Those that crave power should not be the ones given it.
@@mrhed0nist
*Kamala crazy laugh intensifies*
@@mrhed0nist absolute power corrupts absolutely
First time I think I ever giggled out loud at something I’d read: The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.
It's such a perfectly concise line
There are so many books that had me LoL. Brandon’s Bike scene in Librarian is one of the easiest to recall.
Marvin's battle with the military droid made me belly laugh... what a depressingly stupid robot
A perfectly stupid asimile
"For a brick, he flew pretty good." - SgtMaj Avery Johnson, Halo 2
Adams used to drive his agent and publisher crazy, he once said something to the effect of "I love deadlines, I enjoy the whooshing sound when they go past" LOL
That sounds about right haha
He wrote some of the scripts to the original radio episodes in a taxi to the recording studio, I believe.
@@Jess_of_the_Shire He called up Terry Jones of Monty Python on short notice to write the novelization of his Starship Titanic game because he wasn't getting anywhere with it.
Oh he didn't say that, once, he said that at just about every convention he spoke at. And it was always a hit.
Once he said that his publisher was so frustrated that he was locked into a hotel.
Terry Pratchett was there and quipped "Yes, my publisher keeps locking me in hotels as well, but I keep breaking out and writing another book".
Hahaha, based! Can't rush art! He was such a smartass, but for him I think that's justified.
I have seen one talk with the man. And from the books I had a feeling that guy was a smart man. The talk really confirmed that idea. Too bad he had to go relatively young (under 50 I think). Can't say a lot about the character since I didn't meet him (though I am pretty sure I'd like the guy), but for sure his creative output will be missed!
The fun thing is, "throw yourself at the ground and miss" is pretty much the base-level explanation of orbital mechanics.
Was coming here to say this. I'm convinced Adams did that deliberately.
Speaking of things that are crazy and make no sense. Where else can you speed up twice and wind up going slower than when you started?
Just have to make sure the ground has gotten out of the way by the time you get to it
I'd say it's more like throwing yourself past the ground so fast that it gets out of the way.
@@JonathanRossRogers That's the in-depth explanation of HOW you miss.
@@DeliveryMcGee Thanks Obi-Wan. Now, try it in Kerbal Space Program.
The babelfish breaking down communication barriers between people and, as a consequence, causing more and bloodier wars than anything in history is the best (and most prophetic) metaphor for the internet I have ever heard.
But that's one of the crazy things about it, IT WAS NOT a metaphor for the internet, for the simple reason the internet did not exist yet! It was a prediction based on human nature which turned out to be true!
@@BanazirGalpsi1968yes, exactly. Extrapolating the unintended side effects of communication breakthroughs on human history, he surmised the negative impact that universal understanding would have, and also foreshadowed the negative aspects of the internet. This making humor out of the way that innovation gives with one hand and takes with another is one of the remarkably deep qualities of the series.
Yes! There are so many fundamental truths that he breaks down in such a strikingly accurate way
@@Jess_of_the_Shire The internet has made us all depressed!
@@BanazirGalpsi1968 The internet certainly existed then. The first four nodes in the Arpanet went live in 1969. The name of the Arpanet was eventually changed to the Internet, but it's the same net.
The engraving in our wedding rings reads "DON'T PANIC!" in large and friendly letters.
In lieu of changing the number of thumbs up from 42, I add this response to say how great I think that choice was.
You need another set of rings that says, "Panic Now"
@@IanM-id8or one of us will get such a ring after the other has died. Life as a widower seems like a good reason to panic to me.
LOL
How about an LoTR wedding band? "Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg bimbatul, ash nazg thrakatuluk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul."
One evening, back in 1980, having listened to an episode of HGTTG on the radio, I went out for a walk. It was clear, cool, starry night, and as I walked along I stopped to look in the window of an antique shop. There, on the wall, were a couple of digits carved from tree branches - the number "42". I was gobsmacked. I went cold. Eventually, I managed to pull myself together and continued my walk. The next shop along was number 40, then 38........
Haha that's awesome
@@Jess_of_the_Shirethat's a known joke :)
And believe it or not I just clicked the thumbs up for your 42nd like on this comment.😅
@@biovmr Many thanks from all the diodes down my left side!
It's really hard to describe the love I have for Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. On the one hand, it is everything my analytical over schooled mind would normally criticize: meandering plot, sloppy world building, characters with no growth. Yet, it is also everything I need to be moved: funny and recognizable. I'm not a person who rereads books, but I can't count how many times I have reread Hitchhiker's. Wherever Adams is, I hope he is enjoying a massive pan galactic gargle blaster, and cheering himself for making so many people happy
Eccentrica Gallumbits has to be the least-developed character ever, apart from Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of course.
Never meet your heroes. Or in my case, end up their personal slave for a week.
I love this series so much. One of my favourite jokes is a very simple and silly inversion of expectations quite early in the book, when Ford is describing to Arthur the process of being teleported,
"It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
"What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"You ask a glass of water."
This kind of sets the tone for every time Arthur thinks he's starting to get a handle on things, the universe flips on him.
Great observation!
That's Ford's description of the sensation of jumping into hyperspace.
At this point, Arthur has already been through a matter transference beam (and lost some salt and protein), but not jumped into hyperspace.
I'm with you on the favourite joke - I am a clumsy fellow and when I was 20, I was cycling to work when a pick-up truck pulled out in front of me (I was in the US) and I came off the bike for the 2nd time that week (swerved to avoid a very wide-turning car and found myself upside down on the steep bank of a pond the first time around - I have funny accidents) & as I flew through the air I had one of those bizarrely peaceful moments as I thought "oh no, not again" & was genuinely distracted by remembering the bowl of petunias. Still hit the ground though, all good in the end but it adds a little extra flavour to the original joke now.
I'm so sorry about the accident but wow! What a moment!
Anytime I didn't know the answer on a math test I would write 41. Sooner or later the instructor would notice and ask, and I'd say "Well, I almost had the answer. And that's almost the answer." Only one of them ever got it.
A math prof once asked, “Is this the answer or is this the answer?” To which I replied “This.” She didn’t catch on, nor did anyone else. I used it a few times thereafter.
42. the number from the book was 42, not 41.
@@surfinbird1238
...that is the point of the original comment. They "almost had the answer", the keyword here being almost. Hence, the right answer is 42.
@@surfinbird1238 Well, yeah. Hence 41 ALMOST being the answer.
@@surfinbird1238 As Ken said in his comment, "only one of them ever got it." That one certainly wasn't you.
When the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy movie came out, I grabbed a towel and went to see it, but the showing was about an hour and a half after I bought the ticket. So I went to a coffee shop near the movie theater where I ran into a beautiful girl who was waiting for the same showing, and she had also brought her towel. So we decided to go see the movie together. It turns out she hated the film, and I loved it, and we never saw each other again.
Did she leave with an unusual chap? 😅
she apparently had better taste than you
Did she realise while she was sitting in the coffee shop how it would be if everyone was just nice to each other for a change?
To be fair, for those of us who loved the radio series, it's a terrible movie.
Now that is a story for the ages. :)
He was writing the radio show on the fly; he'd write one week's show after the previous one aired. At one point he had written himself into a hole: he had Arthur and Ford ejected into space without suits, and had no idea how to rescue them. He had a week to come up with it. Everything he thought of, he rejected because it was infinitely improbable. He just needed something to generate infinite improbability. And a genius idea was born.
Not sure if this partly inspired him, but I think in an interview he likened the idea to that in matrial arts (sumo wrestling?) of using your opponents' weight against them (leap out of the way) when they try to tacle you - hence, as you rightly say, using the idea of the improbability of their survival to create the improbability drive?
@michael32A It was Judo. If you can manage to find a copy of the radio scripts, that we're published in book form, they contain a lot of footnotes on how Douglas came up with various characters & ideas. The Whale and Shooty & Bang Bang (the 'sensitive' cops on Magrathea) we're both inspired by watching American cop shows!
In a very direct sense, Douglas Adams - and THHGTTG in particular - Is responsible for my life as it is right now. As a teenager in The Netherlands, I was bored with Dutch literature and THHGTTG must have been the first English book I read of my own volition. It sparked my passion for British humor and eventually had me move to the UK to marry my (very British) wife. To celebrate this, for our wedding, my wife had a pocket watch engraved with "Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so." which I wore walking down the nave. (I've even become the pedant that knows it's not the aisle you walk down on your wedding...)
I could imagine a supermarket wedding.
Yes, as Australian/with Scandinavian /ukrainian origin ,, i too grew up on the ~gateway show~monty python ., the goodies ,2 ronies ,,, & drwho.. so naturally,,realised that douglas addams was a 1980 bloger too. i used to fil up my university computer with so many entries , for past 42 years i finally gave up.. ah mostly cos my alien blog living amoubng humans is regarded as disinformation..,,
Same here (also Dutchman)
Aha, I see you have your towel with you.
I always have it. Very useful in a tricky spot, that
@@Jess_of_the_Shire You hoopty frood!
I noticed that too :)
I always know where my towel is.
Well you never know when you might run into a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Jess of the Shire is one hoopy frood whom always knows where her towel is. Stay mostly harmless, cheers.
A hoopy hobbit?
What is a hoopy frood?
@@rikhuravidansker From the book. Praise for one of the lead characters "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is."
@@hughfisher9820 So "froopy" and "hood?"
@@rikhuravidansker sigh. as the book explains, a frood is 'a really amazingly together guy' and 'sass' means alternatively to know or have sex with, but its not necessary that you know this. its hippy shit talk. the book is all about not caring very much about anything. except fjords.
The man was a great author, it's a shame he died so young. I particularly liked the Dirk Gently series. I even used his holistic direction finding method once when my gps died somewhere in Los Angeles. I found someone who looked like they knew where they were going and followed them. It worked! It wouldn't be such a big deal if I were driving a car, but I was in a semi truck, and let me tell you, being lost is no joke in that situation.
I've used that method too, although not with a semi 😅
No one on the radio was helpful?
I always got paranoid when I noticed people following me.
Obviously I had nothing to worry about. They were just lost.
@@thethegreenmachine Nope, no CB. Besides, I didn't even know what city I was in. I'm convinced if that truck driver I followed hadn't come along, I'd still be in LA, 10 years later 😁
@@mackdog3270
Nah, you'd have found a McDonald's or other place that gets truck deliveries and followed the next guy :P
I thought all trucks had those radios.
My older sister read me tHGttG when I was in middle school, then I read all four books in the trilogy as an older teen, and read everything just a few years ago as an adult. I don't think I could pick out a favorite joke, but I 100% fell in love with the franchise the first time I heard the Vogon ships described as hanging in the air "in much the same way a brick doesn't.". It was so incredibly perfect to capture a clear image of impossibility in such an absurd way that it made me laugh and get the exact image at the same time. That's top tier writing.
Marvin the depressed robot is a seriously under-appreciated character, especially the movie version. Alan Rickman was so good ...
He was good, but he was no Stephen Moore.🤖
“Arthur Dent and Bilbo Baggins; the British Everyman”
So the Everyman is Martin Freeman?
Also his character in the UK version of The Office…
I guess Dr. Watson does also fit in that row.
It all adds up.
Pretty much yeah
My favorite joke was the explanation of the band Disaster Area. Where they come from, how loud they are, how their lead singer is dead for tax purposes, and their accountant proving that space-time isn't merely curved but in fact totally bent! I use to have the whole bit memorized because i loved it so much.
I love the line in the BBC series..
The buttons on disaster areas's shop are labelled black on a black background that light up black to let you know they're pressed.
I liked the AI trying to figure out what happened on the monitoring spaceship in the intro to Mostly Harmless myself. Either that or the ship that used bad news as propulsion.
Thank God I can stop thinking for 1 hour 10 minutes 13 seconds about the existential questions that assail me about life and the universe, relax, and enjoy an insightful video narrated by a charming and witty hostess.
It really should have been edited down to 42 minutes… :)
On my first reading of the series, my favorite chapter by far was where you find out the reason for that "Oh no, not again"
Yes! This moment made me actually scream
That reveal was next level of crazy
@@Jess_of_the_Shire Same here.
And you covered it.
Poor and unfortunate Agrajag. LOL
Adams had a unique way with words.
This was amplified in the radio play and the TV series and on the LPs by the late, great Peter Jones providing the voiceover for the book.
Even now, whenever I read the books, I hear Jones's voice.
Douglas Adams was the script manager for a series of Dr Who and you could see him influence. At one point the Doctor was pinned and waiting for rescue and takes out a book to read to pass the time- Oofon Kalofid 's (sp?) beginning of the universe- leading the doctor to declare 'he got it wrong on the first page, he should have asked someone who was there. David Tennant's doctor, first appearing in a bathrobe commented he had sort of an arthur dent image going
"It's unpleasantly like being drunk." "What's unpleasant about that?" "you ask a glass of water." in just that exchange he shows exactly how his mind was too off beat.
Yes! So many moments in the later books feel like an episode of Who. And I had forgotten about the 10th doctor bathrobe moment. That's excellent
@@Jess_of_the_Shire The third book was actually Adams reusing an unused Doctor Who script. As were both of his non-H2G2 novels featuring Dirk Gently (though one of those two novels was abandoned halfway through shooting due to a strike).
@@Jess_of_the_Shire That third book was even developed from an unmade DW script Adams had written (as was the first Dirk Gently novel). Incidentally... have you ever considered covering Watership Down on your channel? I basically ask because I used to have the animated film of that, and the animated Lord of the RIngs, on the same video tape as a kid and it wasn't long before I noticed that Aragorn and Boromir were voiced by the same actors as Hazel and Bigwig... and kind of seemed to have the same relationship, too...
I recall reading in a Doctor Who history (of the first seven Doctors) that a lot of the staff and possibly fans were annoyed with Adams because everything was jokey and disconnected. But it definitely worked for the first two or three Hitchhiker books, and I think it worked even better for the Dirk Gently novel I've read (Teatime). Surrealism is helped by having *some* rules.
@@stephengray1344 pedantically, only the first Dirk Gently novel was based on Doctor Who (it combined elements of both Shada (the one left unfinished due to a strike) and City of Death). The second Dirk Gently novel was a wholly original story.
When they all get to The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe by time travel and discover that Marvin had to wait millennia for them is just a diamond moment.
Q. What are you doing in the car park Marvin?
A. Parking cars, sigh.
Marvin is another hero without a cape.
Paranoid android is truly his anthem
*SPIOLERS FOR 'LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING'*
The fact that he gets left again and has been on a planet were mattresses have grown sentient so he's just been talking to mattresses for 12 million years 🤣🤣🤣
Arthur: What's he doing in a car park?
Zaphod: Parking cars what else dumb-dumb😄
"the first million years were the worst"
"Oh, well, um..."
"The second million, they were the worst, too"
@@sulljoh1 "The third million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."
More controversial than the trilogy of block busters, "Where God went wrong", "Some more of Gods greatest mistakes" and "Who is this God person anyway."
Nowadays it would be listicles. "God's top 10 mistakes, #4 killed 30 trillion beings!"
But the babelfish is a dead giveaway, isn't it?
Followed up by "Well, That about Wraps It Up for God"
All written by Douglas Adams' friend Richard Dawkins, no doubt. Well, before Dawkins turned into a willfully ignorant Islamophobe.
@@Krantzstone Ah yes, an Islamophobe, a buzzword meaning 'someone who has some critique of Islam'. Cause it was all fine and dandy when he critiqued Christianity, but poor, innocent, defenseless Islam whose followers never did anything wrong; in Greta Thunberg's voice: how dares he?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the best trilogy of 6 books I ever read. The dolphins, Oh! the dolphins. The Vogon poetry sessions, learning how to fly by throwing yourself at the ground and accidentally missing the ground and "WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE" God's last message to the the universe guarded by the Lajestic Vantrashell of Lob.
"Time is an illusion." "Lunchtime doubly so".
I also like the encounter between Marvin and the tank.
Marvin when they defeat the tank by depressing it: "Stupid robot".
"What a depressingly stupid machine."
@@manjackson2772 Thank you. I couldn't remember the exact line. 🤖
Along with Terry Pratchett and Robert Rankin, Douglas Adams is probably my favourite writer. Thank you for covering his output; I enjoyed it thoroughly.
There is a relentless painful evil in life, yes, but within these pages you can find comfort. There is absurdity, but it is so deep, so the meaninglessness of all may possibly (or probably) drive us to use it as a diversion, and pondering upon it becomes the meaning of life itself. Progress is turning short commas into longer fullstops, in the puncuation of life's natural state of affairs. Smart guy, that Mr. Adams!
My favourite scene is probably the rain god/driver trope. It's tragic but, in a way, kind. If he knew why he was loved by clouds he'd probably snuff it, not keep trying to escape them.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is one of the greatest movies ever made.
There is simply no words. I’ve watched it thousands of times as a teen. I still watch it. It is such a brilliant classic and the Maestro of film diversion.
No comedy or scifi categorically is near it. Maybe, maybe Starship Troopers is the only near contender or Galaxy Quest.
Such a legendary film. So unbelievable. Life long entertainment.
"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is one of the greatest movies ever made."
Said no sane person, ever. It's absolute trash. WTFFFFFFuckkkk.
It's such a fun film!
Well, that just goes to show, different strokes for different folks - I liked the radio play, know the books so well I could speak in tandem with huge chunks of Jess' script & really enjoyed the TV show when I was a kid. I'm not a fan of the film at all, but I'm glad you get so much from it.
@@brianhanna3128 Same here, practically everything I've read or read HGTTG has been amazing, particularly the BBC TC show. But as I was leaving the movie theater, I, my friends and everyone else around us was saying stuff like "what the heck was THAT?"
I think it was not something that Hollywood was equipped to make, especially in a 90 minute movie.
The movie's great, but I think Galaxy Quest is better. Starship Troopers is so good that it's better than the book, which is something that I rarely say about a movie (or a book).
Douglas Adams said that each that each iteration (Radio play, Novels T.V. and films) are different .As an observer we see the universe changed ,because in every iteration because of the use total improbability changes the universe we observer . Or words to that effect.
So my friend who introduced me to this book found it by deciding to read the very first book in the Science Fiction section at the local library, Douglas Adams. This was in about 1980/1981 or so. Got to hear the radio series 2 years later. Note this was an Achievement in it's own right since it was California and no internet and well clunky tape recorders, but friends and I managed to get them on tape (via recording live from the radio) except for the 10th episode which I never heard it until was able to buy the tapes of the radio series, years later.
I only mentioned this because the radio series is so good. It made a lasting impression and effected my whole life. So yea, important.
'Affected'...
The only thing better than discovering Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy in the modern era is discovering the radio plays when they were new and different.
The radio play is, in my opinion, the absolute top tier of Adam's work. No matter how often I listen to it is never not funny. I will go out on a limb and say the book and UK TV show are equal in awesome. And I would rather forget the "movie" exists...
When I read the entire series in middle school, it radically changed my outlook on life. Until I became an angst teen. But it was rereading the books that pulled me out of the depression that came from lacking meaning.
Marvin's reaction to God's message always brings a smile to my face and a chuckle to my throat
Yeah, that was really sweet :)
My favorite quote from the book has long been "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - mostly because it is so resonant with reality, but also because it accompanies a great scene in the book where Ford is stuck on the ledge of 42dn floor of the headquarters of the Guide outside windows that are made to be impervious to any and all attacks one could conceive of, but turn out not to be locked.
I am constantly surprised by how closely our tastes in literature align. Your analysis of HGTTG is wonderful. Constantly, as a teacher, I would tell my students "Don't Panic" when they would become overwhelmed with the struggles of being a teenager. I was always delighted when some of them understood the reference. You are truly the internet's literary sandwich maker. That is all. Now I have to go get my towels out of the dryer.
Hitchhikers lives on. May I tell a personal anecdote? About 10 years ago, I went on my first assignment as a social care worker. It was a respite visit, to take a man with learning difficulties away from his (by now rather elderly) parents for a few hours. I pretty much fluffed the assignment, through compete inexperience
I got no more work for a few weeks, then mysteriously I was called back. I visited and got to know this family for several more years. The father (originally a farm worker from Norfolk) would say to me:
"Don't panic"
To reply to myself, "Don't panic" was a catchphrase from the earlier TV series "Dad's Army". Said by Corporal Jones if I recall
Haha that's great
Thank you Jess. Brought back many fond memories.
One of my all time favourite quotes comes from Mr. Adams, though not from THHGTTG:
“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” ― Last Chance to See.
Still find it hard to believe that we have been deprived of his unique style of humour for over twenty years now.
Gotta say that a big chunk what Adams did was find jokes in just subverting English grammar and language overall. He just turns it into a plaything that he could only play with it by loving it so much.
The whole “there is a problem… to summarize the summary of the summary…” passage is grammatically correct but so tortured that the torture is half the joke. I learned so much about writing and language from Adams.
It was very much the British humor of the time. Monty Python did a lot of wordplay jokes as well.
“Pelutho-a South American ball game in which the balls are whacked against a brick wall until the prisoner confesses” [the Meaning of Liff]
"We are getting dangerously close to Vogon poetry here, boss." (not quite) Raul Tejada
I can only describe HHGTTG as “ cosmic “ . The concepts are so lateral, and counter to all other literature. The detail is so exquisite - laying in front of a bulldozer, vogon poetry, not bothering to see the notice of the hyperspace bypass etc
No glass of wine this week, so poured myself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster to drink. :D
Be careful! I hear that thing hits like a solid gold brick wrapped in a wedge of lemon
@@Jess_of_the_Shire You know your stuff, Jess!
Back in the day, my friend and I were very into the first book, and one night down the pub he decided to mix one of those things. Start with a pint of Jennings beer split between two pint glasses. Add a shot each of vodka, martini, possibly some white wine, some other stuff I forget after all these years, then drink. Carefully.
Tasted like shit but before we'd finished them we were rat-arsed. A memorable night that I can't remember most of !
I’ve called the writing style “non-sensicle logic”. I loved every minute of it.
This was absolutely delightful, and I'm grateful to have been suggested it by the Almighty Algorithm! (I typed that moments before you referenced it in the same way... huh!)
Favorite bit from the series -- it's been too long since I reread the books, but I still remember the creeping dread I felt as Arthur read the name on a matchbook. (If you know, you know. Don't want to be any more explicit...)
Really loved "Last Chance To See" and the Dirk Gently novels, too! Some folks hear about a sofa being moved and think of Seinfeld's "PIVOT!" ...but my mind goes instead to a certain staircase and I start humming a little bit of classical music.
Especially grateful for your deliberate connection between Camus and Adams' approach to absurdity; it's an apt comparison and an important lesson that I suspect could benefit a lot of folks. ❤
As a teen this program rolled out onto BBC Radio 4 at 11pm one evening, and I heard the first episode the time it was broadcast. Brilliant. My Mum was on a BBC panel at the time and the BBC only gave it a second series because, "most people didn't like it much, BUT the minority that liked it, LOVED it".
This gem was so close to being a one series wonder it's scary.
So, it doesn't work on the small scale, but 'throwing yourself at the ground and missing' is a pretty good summary of how an orbit works, one which goes right back to Newton
I was lucky enough to catch the magic of the original Radio 4 series on a college friend's recommendation.
The best-remembered jokes are the early one's: 'Beware of the Leopard' and 'Unpleasantly like being Drunk (ask a glass of water)'.
I know that dreaming of flying is common and everybody does it, but when I fly in my dreams I always do it specifically using Adams' method. It works perfectly every time and it makes so much sense and it feels very real, like, I'm thinking "no no no no, this is no dream."
Flying while dreaming is always lucid because no one would be so daft as to believe that they could really fly. Another characteristic of lucid dreams is that you control what happens. I have a feeling that there was some sort of metaphysical meaning behind Arthur flying. Perhaps the story was a lucid dream in the mind of Adams.
The fact that the TH-cam Algorithm searched its ridiculously large database and spat out this video for my viewing pleasure may not be infinitely improbable, but it was certainly unexpected. However, I for one am glad it happened. What a joy to revisit the surreal genius of "Hitchhikers". Thank you Jess for providing a well thought out and well presented hour of happiness.
P.S.I still live by the ethos of SEP - "if its someone else's problem then don't worry about it"😎
I did contract work for "The Lord of the Rings Musical" involving software to import/export the dynamic set's motion controls. Never had a chance to see the show. Now I see why.
I was first introduced to h2g2 in the summer or autumn of 1978 when I was bedridden for a couple of days with food poisoning. One of my flatmates had recorded the radio series earlier that year, and i listened to it in one go, in stereo, through headphones.
It was groundbreaking in so many ways: the enormous soundscape that we'd never before encountered, the fourth wall-breaking, greek chorus that was "The Book"
the amazing universe Douglas conjured up, I can honestly say it affected my whole life (don't talk to me about life)!
My father had a meticulously set-up stereo system and one thing about the radio plays that stays with me is that they take me back to these perfect evenings when we all listened to radio as H2G2 was broadcast for the first time and the room filled with the soundscape. It was wonderful.
One of the most lasting memories of the book series I have is Arthur's love interest - Fenchurch from 'So long and thanks for all the fish'. If I remember correctly she was the product of the computation of the ultimate question (the answer to which is 42) and there was something very special about her that no one ever noticed - her feet didn't reach the ground!
Really going to have to read those books again they are so good.
The bit where Fenchurch shows Arthur that her feet never touches the ground is surprisingly intimate and strangely erotic. The fact that So Long and Thanks for all the Fish manages to be a genuinely effective and moving romance novel is downright confusing considering the absurd premise of this series.
@@GepardenK Oh yeah, now I remember. she gets him to examine her very closely to try and figure out her secret. It was quite horney!
Brilliant report, Jess - thank you for making me remember just how much I enjoyed that trilogy. Definitely worth living twice the entire age of the universe with all parts replaced except those diodes down the left side for.
I remember reading this for the 1st time and laughing so hard that the tears obscured my vision and I had to keep rereading it. Took me more than a day to get through the 1st 100 pages. 🤣🤣🤣 Funniest book I've ever read - funniest ANYTHING I've ever read.
That's totally respectable. It got numerous actual laugh out loud moments from me.
I remember driving while listening to the radio plays and nearly crashed. I laughed so hard. I had to pull over in a lay by. I stopped listening to them in the car, in order to not die after that.
Wow! I watched an hour+ long TH-cam video. Read Hitchhikers Guide (all!) many years ago and as the new ones emerged! Thank you, Jess!
That’s one frood who really knows where his towel is.
A Hoopy Frood!
I've been a big fan of the radio versions since 79 and its been amazing how he describes the modern world of intelligent devices and the internet. To the point where sofiscation has made the devices more compilcated and more or less completely useless. Listneing to you describing the book I realise no one can describe HHGTTG without appearing to be totally mad!
Good work thanks!
When I first read this, I was 14 years old. I started to realise how bullshit and wrong everything was with the world. It made me think “why would I want to live in, where I don’t matter?”
I learned that, we are all going to die soon, people try to deal with the absurdity of life with even more absurd beliefs, violence is a part of our intrinsic nature, we won’t ever be satisfied with answers for our place in the universe and we can mathematically prove we don’t exist. But I am currently having a really lovely cup of tea, I have a job that allows me to live comfortably and I’m watching one of my favourite TH-camrs talk about my favourite book.
That’s why Hitchhiker’s is so popular
THANK YOU. This is wonderfully affirming. I am a 56-year-old who was introduced to the HHGG radio series when it first was broadcast in the US. It's been one of my greatest life influences -- oddly, alongside some of the more conservative Christian Church teachings. I've never had the philosophy of HHGG explained to me in such a way that helped me to understand my own approach to life, especially the way I respond to productivity culture, life hacks, and personal optimization -- in spite of the fact that I am in fact a leadership coach by profession. I am so tempted to share this video as a way of saying "Listen, if you want to understand me, you have to understand this." I'm glad you discovered it when you did. I'm sorry the movie was your introduction. But, you've done well here. Thank you.
Also, how hard did you lobby "Babbel" to be your sponsor? I think maybe not hard enough?
Favorite Jokes (both from _Life, the Universe, and Everything_ I should note):
Ford: "I spent some time in Africa being cruel to animals. I won't disturb you with the details because they would."
Arthurt: "Would what?"
Ford: "Disturb you. Suffice it to say I am singularly responsible for the evolved shape of the creature you come to know as the giraffe."
and:
Ford: "You'll drive yourself crazy trying to stay sane. Why not... go mad? Save your sanity for later."
Ford was the bane of Arthur's existence.
Ford:"Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so!"
Ford: "It's unpleasantly like being drunk."
Arthur: "What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
Ford: "Ask a glass of water."
In my early 20s I was lucky enough to meet Adams twice, at book signings in Milwaukee. I have autographed copies of Mostly Harmless, a single book collection of the first four Hitchhiker books, and Last Chance to See. At the first meeting he seemed very distracted and actually looked at something else across the room when shaking my hand. To be fair he did these book signings all over the country so was probably pretty wiped out mentally. After that I read the Dirk Gently novels and discovered that Adams was a musician. I saw a picture of his studio in a magazine and noticed that he owned one of the same synthesizers I owned. At the next book signing, for Mostly Harmless, I mentioned his studio and our shared instrument and this caught his attention. He suddenly made eye contact and we spoke very briefly about computer music. I hope this was a nice break for him because he really did look bored spending hours signing book after book.
I loved your video by the way. It was fun to hear your recap. I have always been a super fan of his books and the radio plays, and I am always so glad to see someone else that really enjoys these books as much as I do.
“The Vogon fleet hung in the sky like bricks don’t”. (Probably not exact line from the book).
The opening parts of Hitchhiker’s is so great. One of the best of all time.
Thank you for this video & the reminder of why I should dip into THGTTG again being in a period of feeling the pointlessness of it all just now. At least I’m not alone.
I like how the crew chief for the demolition crew is related to Genghis Khan!!!
The people destroying Arthur Dent's home!!!!
The spaceship hung there much in the same way as a brick doesn't. It's my favourite piece of writing.
One of my favorite, if not *the* most favorite part in the book, the first, was the bit about Dr. Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. The whole idea of the big problem with time travel not time paradoxes, but grammar, and the examples he gave, and that in later editions, only the first couple dozen pages were printed, the others left empty (because no-one ever got that far :D). Just… DNA.
Every good story starts with a really good cup of tea.
Sometimes it's wired into a finite improbability generator.
Easy for you to say. But then they examine your taste buds, do a spectroscopic analysis of your metabolism, send experimental signals down the neural pathways to your brains taste centres, and after all that they still produce for you a beverage that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
Sorry, there I went again on another tangent about Hollywood storytelling.
This series is one of my all-time favourite things. I have a very well-loved compendium of all the books. Thank u very much for this!
I listened to the radio series as a kid on my local public station long before I read the books so that version is my favorite. I was so happy when the Tertiary Phase, Quandary Phase, and Quintessential Phase came out in the 2003 and 2004 after Adams' death to adapt the remaining novels. They featured most of the surviving cast members including Jonathan Pryce whose professional standing was much higher than it was in 1980.
Me too. We got to listen to an episode ofthe NPR Star wars before an episode of hitchhikers every sat morning in the 80s. So much fun!
@@BanazirGalpsi1968 That was back when NPR still believed in broadcasting radio drama. _HHGTTG, Star Wars,_ a credible version (well the BBC one, not the NPR one) of _The Lord of the Rings_ plus a lot of smaller adaptations and original works. Those days are long gone.
I remember as a child watching the tv series from the BCC when I grew up in Canada
@@markp8214 I watched the series in the early 90s I think. The budget and effects were sadly insufficient to do the story justice.
@@dlxmarks just like the original Doctor Who which I used to watch with my father
When the movie came out, we were on holidays and we old folk attended a regional movie theatre with our bright beach towels draped over our shoulders. The looks we got from the young folk were hysterical. There were many side eyes and levitating eyebrows. You could see the “crazy old folk” expressions amongst the trendy teens.
As we left after the movie hubby and I got lots of “ahhh I get it now” “good one dude” “you must be old fans” (rude, but accurate 😂) and non stop high 5s from the local youth. It’s a great core memory.
My favorite joke from the series is: "We haven't invented fire yet, but we do have a committee meeting to discuss fire..."
I haven’t read Hitchhiker Guide in such a long time, thank you Jess for inspiring me to reread the book.
To me, the original BBC radio plays were the best version. I bought them on CD years ago, ripped them, and they've been on my ipods/phones ever since. I usually listen to them a couple of times a year when on road trips by myself
They're such a great use of the format
Yup. I listened to them live as they came out week by week on BBC radio 4. Loved the theme the very first time I heard it
Fun fact: The CDs are actually not the originally aired recordings but a re-recording with the same actors. They had used some copyrighted music for the radio recordings, which they couldn't use for the CDs for some reason, so they had to re-record everything. The original ones are out there, somewhere, in the deepest, dark corridors of the internet in dreadful audio quality, and they're glorious.
I love how what resonated with you about taking joy in ordinariness of little things in Douglas’s world (sandwich making to bring others joy) is also a super hobbity trait.
Jess, you'd make a good Trillian.
The salmon of doubt has a story about a couple of dogs that is very funny and charming and that is still one of my favorites
You are missed Adams, so long and thank you for all the fish
Comedic philosophy - The idea that money is a shared illusion. If money were to disappear then humanity would be in trouble but if humanity was gone then Money would be irrelevant. So when leaves are declared as currency, there is instant hyperinflation, cured by burning all the trees.
Starship Titanic was also fun - a whole PC game and then a book that sprang from a one line gag. The PC game was beautifully rendered (for the time) but madly infuriating to get through.
Money isn't an illusion as long as you live in a civilisation that accepts the Flanian Pobble Bead as currency. (I'm also two-thirds of the way to owning a Triganic Pu, but I don't want to brag.)
@@samtaholo So Close! - almost had a conversation about made up currencies on the web of all places. It's State backed illusion for me today but if you'd like to invest in my procrastination tokens....
I read the 1st book in an afternoon, in a vacation trip... specificaly, in a rainy day, locked in a small appartment at the beach. I was around 17 years old... And read again and again ever since, every time my sight finds the cover, all dusted and wrecked by time and use. And I'll read it again, at least one more time (repeating this same sentence every time I finish reading).
I'll be honest: I already love your content, but this one video brought tears of joy and nostalgia to my eyes, especialy when you explained the nuances of the storytelling and it all made sence...
Thank you for this one hour and ten of happiness in my life, Jess... and keep on keeping on with you extraordinary work!
Books have a truly magical way of preserving moments from the past. Thank you so much for your kind words!
It isn't a very long book. Paperback is only 215 pages. Always felt like it was 600+ just cause of how much is in it.
I don't remember word for word, but "hanging the air exactly as bricks don't". To me it just sums it all up.
I was in high school, and it was a Saturday evening around 7 o'clock. There must have been a hockey game on, meaning I had no access to the TV. I turned on the clock radio in my bedroom to NPR radio--not something that I listened to, like ever. So this was all very unlikely. And I tuned in just as the opening music for the first episode of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy played. I had no idea it existed, and here it was, delivered to me on a platter, from the beginning. I listened to every episode at 7pm on Saturday for the next 12 weeks, because there was literally no other way to get it.
Fast forward a few decades. My 8 year old daughter is reading the book, sitting on the couch. Suddenly, I hear her shout, "WHAT!!!!!!" She had just found out that the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, was 42.
I read the HG2TU in 1980 and hated it. I was a Sci-fi junkie and it just didn't resonate with me. Well, here I am now a man of 60 years, retired, married, and a father of a grown man and I just realized that I embraced the main idea of the novel and made it a core of my personality.
Everyone always asked why so few things, which would drive others into a panic, never seemed to cause me no more concern than any other minor problem? I never knew the answer to that question. I chaulked it up to easy going parents. Boy, was I wrong.
I really, really Loved this video. Being a huge Douglas Adams fan myself, I feel amazed about the insights you'd been offering me here and of which I didn't have a clue.
So, just thank you
I love that trilogy of books, all 5 of them. Agrajag is one of my favorite characters
Disavowing the one written after his death by the lesser author?
@@PeteOtton i read all of them up to and including Mostly Harmless. Haven't heard of any other book in the trilogy
"The increasingly inaccurately named trilogy."
Kudos for the details you added to the video for ambience: music, visual effects, audio effects, makeup, the mug, even. Thanks for pouring your magic in the world once more.
Whoa! Another great trilogy to cover!!
edit: oh, right, you make that joke a minute in as well 😅
Never could read the entire book. I do best hearing other peoples summaries. This one was most excellent. Thank you Jess.
I fondly remember the final of the BBC's Big Read in 2003 where we Tolkien Society members and those from ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha (with some people belonging to both) supported each other and drew negative attention from the Jane Austen people for daring to have fun! We didn't mind "Pride and Prejudice" coming 2nd to "The Lord of the Rings", but it was a shame that HHGTTG got pushed into 4th by Philip Pullman...
Thank you for such a loving re-investigation of one of my favorite authors of all time. Douglas was a genius for his spectacular failures and his human understanding and connection tied to his way of communicating. I teared up thinking about how much his collective works have influenced my life, my thoughts, my personality and even the smallest parts of my sense of humor. I would say this, to you an to anyone else who reads this: if you enjoy HHGTTG, you would be doing yourself a disservice not to read last chance to see. It was something he was more passionate about than any other works, and has as much humor with grounded real life issues of animal conservation. Douglas said in an interview that it was his most proud pieces, so please everyone read it. I know where my towel is, and I hope you all do as well.
Her full name is Random Frequent Flier Dent. Arthur had realized that genetic material would get him space ship tickets.
I read Hitchhikers as a preteen in the early 80s, and has, in my more lucid periods of life, been the basis of what I consider to be my own personal philosophical underpinnings. Thanks for the reminder. Gonna click on the movie now, and order the books for a well deserved re-read.
If you liked Douglas Adams, I can recommend Terry Pratchett, especially his Discworld novels, of which he wrote 41. (Didn't quite make it to 42, unfortunately.) The books in the series get better as it progresses, which is actually quite uncommon. The books are both funny and profound. They are fantasy, but they very much reflect the real world. Pratchett was often compared to Douglas Adams, but I think he was actually a better writer, especially when it comes to stories, characters and plots.
I adore Terry Pratchett! In terms of actual quality of book I think he blows Adams out of the water. Definitely a full video on him coming someday (when I have enough time to invest in it)
@@Jess_of_the_Shire Would it be fair to say that Pratchett's humor was more dry than Adams'? Hitchhiker's had me giggling and laughing out loud, whereas the Discworld books that I've read have occasionally made me chuckle.
seems like it, I liked Adams's humour better@@sebastianevangelista4921
@sebastianevangelista4921 I think it's less about being dry as grounded. Adams would happily stop the entire flow of a book for a joke, but Pratchett after the first two books at least, focused on story first and then weaved in the jokes.
That said Pratchett gets more from rereading. There's layers of jokes which you only get from a second or third reading
@@scollyb That checks out, thanks for the insight!
I discovered these entirely on my own as teenager in the early 2000s just from the internet. I was already downloading/torrenting things like british comedies, Fry and Laurie, Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant radio show (pre-podcast), and naturally the HHGTTG just came up in the mix of all of that! I felt like it discovered it and no one else I knew ever heard of it!
I must've listened to the radio shows, read the books, and the best of both world - audiobooks (well produced), dozens of times over the years, but I admit it has been a long time, but it had gotten so engrained in me.
I dont know about jokes, but certain phrases have just become part of my stock phrases, like "life, dont talk to me about life", I talk about who will be up against the wall when the revolution comes. In my field as as social worker, I work very closely with mental health, and not every one is always hip to me referring to therapists and psychiatrists as "personal brain care specialists" in a professional setting
I deconstructed from both my faith and what I believed was my calling around my early 30s. Refinding Hitchhiker's and so many other things helped me really remind myself to be happy and work on it every day, to accept that we are only here for a tiny bit, and to be silly... really really silly. Thank you for the videos!
42, or bust.
There are so many reasons I’m now following you. You’re deep understanding of Douglas Adams, my daughter’s love of his work, and she was born in the US. Brilliant.
It's just a children's book for adults.
Was touched by this thoughtful commentary far more than i would've guessed. I found this book series at the library as a teen (the cover strange green circle with a tongue hanging out is attention grabbing...).
TH-cam algo, send this video zipping across the site like an infinite improbability drive!
Last time I was this early, the Death Star was still a thing...😂
That sure was a long, long time ago.
My favorite joke must be to fall and miss the ground, as that is pretty much the way orbital mechanics work.
Have read, listened to and watched - never played though.
Thanks for a great philosophical video.
In 1984 I was 14. In Catholic school. That year read LOTR, The Silmarillion, 2001, 1984 and Hitchhiker's then said, 'goodbye' to the gods.
JRR should have used more jokes 😂
Discovered it when I was fourteen and a friend told me at what time I should listen on Radio 4. Unfortunately at dinner time, requiring parental dispensation to leave the table. It was the start of the second series. I was hooked: the Lintillas, the shoe event horizon, the Nutrimatic machine and the Cup suspended by Art, and Peter Jones’ mildly amused voicing of the Book - not to mention the Eagles’ oh so fitting “title track”. Read the book, then books, and caught the first series on rerun, read the book and saw the BBC TV adaptation on first release.
You’ve brought it all back to me! Thank you!