A website is a wonderful new invention that allows people you neither know nor care about to inform you what they had for breakfast this morning without all that tedious mocking about in the postal system.
When I first heard of the Hitchhiker-Movie (Hollywood Site, International site [recommended]), I had the impulse to re-read the 5 novels again. I have read Adams two Dirk Gently novels (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul) earlier this year, so I was in the right mood. So I just finished my re-read of the 5 Hitchhiker’s Guide novels
You know what – they were not funny anymore! I laughed only a handful of times, smirked a few times more, but I did not feel the same feeling of joy and pleasure which I felt the last times I read it. When I was a teenager, we had some crazy in-group-talk mixed and mangled with Hitchhiker’s Guide terms. We even gave us nicknames based on Hitchhiker-characters. One of my friends back then called himself Wowbagger, and I was hugely surprised when during my re-read I found out that Wowbagger has only two mentionings in the books, covering a few lines each. We were CRAZY for these books – in one I found an old letter from Bern who send me one of the books as a present during my military service. But in retrospect I guess a certain age, and probably a certain state-of-mind, is necessary to enjoy this books. Which does NOT mean that I was disgusted when I re-read them. I still liked them. But the magic was worn off…
I personally like the forth book most. The one with Fenchurch – who is in fact my favorite character in the books. Unfortunately my copy is missing some pages as well as the third one (always missed – probably that’s why they were so cheap). So if anybody can fill me in on what happens from the moment they land on Krikkit and get caught up to when the appear for the second time on Lord’s Cricket Ground (book 3) and from the moment Arthur takes a walk in the park with Fenchurch up until they are flying in mid-air some 20 pages later (book 4). Thanks, I really appreciate that.
As for the movie: I haven’t seen it yet, but the trailers look funny. I’m only disappointed that Zaphod doesn’t have a second head all the time but “hides” it beneath the first one. If you want to look the trailers, I would recommend to look both the UK and the US versions. I like the UK version better – the US version sounds too much like “Men in Black” which is probably on purpose since Adams is not so well known in the US.
Anybody seen it already? Like it?