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halplm
Post subject: Douglas Adams
Posted: Wed 06 Apr , 2005 8:21 pm
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In light of the upcoming movie, this trilogy should be discussed.

So...

42

Discuss.

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Wed 06 Apr , 2005 8:29 pm
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My favorite line from a review (of the fifth book): "After all, where is it written in stone that a trilogy must be limited to four books?"

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laureanna
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Posted: Wed 06 Apr , 2005 8:30 pm
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6x8=? :scratch :D

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Pippin4242
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Posted: Wed 06 Apr , 2005 9:14 pm
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Arthur felt happy. He was terribly pleased that the day was for once working out so much according to plan. Only twenty minutes ago he had decided he would go mad, and now here he was already chasing a Chesterfield sofa across the fields of prehistoric Earth.

*~Pips~*

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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 3:13 am
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Pips, that is one of my very favourite passages. I had it in my sig for a while. Not very long, a day perhaps. Maybe I should put it back. . .

"Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it." :D

Okay, I have a question. Can someone please explain the ending of "Mostly Harmless" to me? I've read that book at least five times, and I *still* don't get. :help:

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Meneltarma
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 5:12 am
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:Q
The Vogons eliminate this version of Earth as well, with Ford, Arthur, Trillian, and all those other troublemaker types on it.


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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 11:10 am
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Time is relative, and Lunchtime doubly so!

I enjoyed the books when I was a teenager but I find them very unevenm reading as an adult. I much prefer the original radio plays and these get a regular hearing. I also have the original TV series on DVD and enjoy it for it's kitsch value.

I am really looking forward to the new movie despite an American Ford Prefect.

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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 1:43 pm
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Meneltarma wrote:
:Q
The Vogons eliminate this version of Earth as well, with Ford, Arthur, Trillian, and all those other troublemaker types on it.
Yes, I got that. . . but then there's some weird bit about Grebulons. . . or something. :suspicious:

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Pippin4242
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 1:57 pm
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I love the TV version. It looked really bad; that's what was so great about it! :D I'm not sure if I could ever enjoy the shiny new movie as much as I love those battered old VHS tapes. :P

Mossy, that's what reminded me of the sofa quote. :D I was annoyed because I remember thinking on my last reading that it would be perfect for a sig, and then you were using it; worse than going to a part weaing the same top as another girl. :P

The end of Mostly Harmless: Arthur realises that the Stavromula Beta to which Agrajag refered was not a planet as he had always assumed, but a night club. Stavro Mueller (BETA). Arthur's daughter shoots Agrajag.

Can't remember the rest of the end. What were Grebulons? :suspicious:

*~Pips~*

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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 2:23 pm
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Okay, now I'm confusing everyone else. . . When I get home, I'll post the bit that confused me.

Pips, :P :D

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halplm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 2:47 pm
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I was always a bit confused as well. I thought the story kind of went downhill after the third book... but it's been a while, maybe I'll get it better this time through... just wish I wasn't so busy... haven't had time to read recently...

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Meneltarma
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 3:39 pm
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The Grebulons were the aliens with amnesia who were observing the earth, weren't they?

What I got out of it was, the new Guide (scary bird thing) was working for the Vogons. Scary Bird Thing was able to alter the universe to its owner's satisfaction like how it got Random a scaceship when she needed one). The Vogons needed to demolish the Earth all along its line of probability (as opposed to only certain points on it) and so it created a situation where the Grebulons lost their memory, spent years observing Earth, and finally decided (based on astrology) to destroy it.

:Q

I don't know...I reather like the gloominess of the last book, despite the criticism it usually gets.

One thing I've always wondered - do US readers really find the Krikkit stuff funny in the 3rd book? I'd have thought it was a cultural allusion that you wouldn't really be very familiar with.


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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 3:50 pm
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Out of curiosity, does anyone know how much of the series is covered in the new film? I would assume it's the events of the first two books, but I'm guessing.

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halplm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 4:00 pm
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Meneltarma wrote:

I don't know...I reather like the gloominess of the last book, despite the criticism it usually gets.

One thing I've always wondered - do US readers really find the Krikkit stuff funny in the 3rd book? I'd have thought it was a cultural allusion that you wouldn't really be very familiar with.
It's certainly difficult. When I first read it, all I could get was "Oh, Krikkit...Cricket, got it." I'm sure I missed something there :)

As for the gloominess, yeah, that was probably why I didn't much like it. However, rereading them recently, they're pretty gloomy from the start :D

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Pippin4242
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 4:13 pm
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DA was quite environmetally aware, wasn't he? :) That might explain why the moral of his books appears to be 'the Earth is fucked'. :P

Has anybody ever read any of his other books?
Quote:
She passed the time quietly in a world of her own in which
she was surrounded as far as the eye could see with old cabin
trunks full of past memories in which she rummaged with great
curiosity, and sometimes bewilderment. Or, at least, about a
tenth of the cabin trunks were full of vivid, and often painful
or uncomfortable memories of her past life; the other
nine-tenths were full of penguins, which surprised her. Insofar
as she recognised at all that she was dreaming, she realised
that she must be exploring her own subconscious mind. She had
heard it said that humans are supposed only to use about a
tenth of their brains, and that no one was very clear what the
other nine-tenths were for, but she had certainly never heard
it suggested that they were used for storing penguins.
*~Pips~*

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 4:43 pm
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A silly one, but a favorite of mine, is The Meaning of Liff, which he wrote with someone else (and wouldn't you know, my copy is buried somewhere in my half-rearranged office). I've been meaning to start using bits of it in my sig.

Basically, Adams and his co-author took obscure and silly place names from all over the world--useless words--and matched them up with definitions that have always needed words, such as the false step you take at the top of the stairs in the dark when you think there's one more riser, or the moment at a party when everyone falls silent by chance just as you are saying something embarrassing in a raised voice.

A friend brought me my copy from England years ago, but there's been an American edition, slightly altered I understand.

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ToshoftheWuffingas
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 4:53 pm
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Yeah, I live near a town that means belly button fluff. A nearby town, Beccles, is the word for the little collar studs that grocers insert into slices of bacon.
Worth having. You never knew there were so many things we needed words for.


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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 5:03 pm
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Oo, I'm definitely going to order a copy of "The Meaning of Liff." :D

the only other books of his I've read are the Dirk Gently books.

Meneltarma, does that mean that the Grebulons are the Vogons? :scratch :help:

I find the Krikkit stuff amusing. Especially Brockian Ultra Cricket. However, I still don't understand the Earth version of Cricket. I'm going to play at college next year so I can finally figure it out. :D

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Meneltarma
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 5:48 pm
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We need a Cricket thread!




...or possibly not. As far as I can tell, Griff and I are the only people who would post in it.

No, the Grebulons are just an innocent group of people who got sucked into the whole "blow up the earth" thing by Scary Bird Thing. :D


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Alatar
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 8:03 pm
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I'm pretty sure the original Meaning of Liff only had placenames from the British Isles. Some of my favourites were the words used to describe the problems caused by spotting someone you recognise at the end of a long corridor and the techniques that must be practised to avoid the embarassment of "recognising them" all the way down the corridor. I'll look it up when I get the chance!

Anybody know tha answer to my question about what the new Movie will cover?

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