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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 8:19 pm
Another bright red day
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Meneltarma wrote:
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
So what do the Vogons have to do with it? Hold on, I'll find the relevant passage. . . Okay, I found it.
Quote:
In the darkness of the bridge at the heart of the Vogon ship,
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz sat alone. Lights flared briefly across the
external vision screens that lined one wall. In the air above him
the discontinuities in the blue and green watery sausage shape
resolved themselves. Options collapsed, possibilities folded into
each other, and the whole at last resolved itself out of existence.
A very deep darkness descended. The Vogon captain sat
immersed in it for a few seconds.
`Light' he said.
There was no response. The bird, too, had crumpled out
of all possibility.
The Vogon turned on the light himself. He picked up the
piece of paper again and placed a little tick in the little box.
Well, that was done. His ship slunk off into the inky void.

In spite of having taken what he regarded as an extremely
positive piece of action, the Grebulon Leader ended up having
a very bad month after all. It was pretty much the same as all
the previous months except that there was now nothing on the
television any more. He put on a little light music instead.
I don't understand how these two passages fit together. It makes no sense. . .

I googled this passage because I was too lazy to type it up, and found the complete text of the HHG trilogy online. Weird stuff.

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halplm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 8:38 pm
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Well, the Vogon was ticking off the box he had been trying to tick off for about 5 books, and the grebulon was disappointed there was no TV... however not THAT disappointed, because the music was fine.

So, the Vogons managed to destroy the earth, and well... it didn't really matter...

A not so subtle commentary on the value of human existance...

One I disagree with ;)

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 8:46 pm
Living in hope
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Alatar, the names in "Liff" were mostly from the British Isles, but there were some from all over. There are many very silly-sounding place names in America. In fact I think he should have used more of them--just in my state and the neighboring one where I grew up we have Yakima, Puyallup, Cle Elum, Pe Ell, Twisp, Boring, Drain, Yachats, Walla Walla, Humptulips. . . .

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Rodia
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 9:00 pm
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Mmm... I read it last summer in one breath, up to Mostly Harmless. Which was horribly depressing. :P But I have to say I just adored 'So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.' Because when I think about how the first three books took us all over the Universe and touched on Grand Things like planets blowing up and the meaning of life and so on and so forth...and 'So Long...' is all about Arthur trying to get laid.

:banana:

Such a beautiful love story. I hated having it spoiled in Mostly Harmless.

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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 9:46 pm
Another bright red day
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halplm wrote:
Well, the Vogon was ticking off the box he had been trying to tick off for about 5 books, and the grebulon was disappointed there was no TV... however not THAT disappointed, because the music was fine.

So, the Vogons managed to destroy the earth, and well... it didn't really matter...
But. . . it sounds like the Grebulon blew up Earth, since he took "In spite of having taken what he regarded as an extremely
positive piece of action, the Grebulon Leader ended up having
a very bad month after all."

Am I the only one who doesn't get this? Maybe I'm just slow. :neutral:

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Pippin4242
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Posted: Thu 07 Apr , 2005 10:43 pm
Hasta la victoria, siempre
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Mossy, I think the 'action' was getting the Vogons to blow up Earth. :D

Prim, I live near Temple Cloud and all, but... Drain?!? :damnfunny

And I don't know how many books are covered in the film, but I don't recall seeing anything from The Restraunt at the end of the Universe in the trailer. :scratch

*~Pips~*

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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 1:31 am
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They got the Vogons to blow up Earth? Gods, I'm confused. :confused:

Just ignore me. I think this is just one of those things that I will never, ever understand. I wish Douglas Adams were still alive so I could write and ask him. . . and so that he could write more books. :(

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Pippin4242
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 1:54 pm
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Parallel universes... the Earths were like a string of sausages with some sausages missing, and the Vogons had to create a feasible reason to destroy each of those sausages- sorry, Earths- so that the Question would never be discovered in any universe. :)

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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 2:31 pm
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Okay, I get the Vogons. But really, what do the Grebulons have to do with it? And what's their relationship to the Vogons?

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Pippin4242
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 2:53 pm
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From what I can remember (and I lost my copy of Mostly Harmless a little while ago) the Vogons attacked the Grebulon ship so that they would lose their memories and become paranoid. This lead directly to their addiction to horoscopes, and they decided that the Earth would have to be destroyed. So they contacted the Vogons and their constructor fleet of yellow ships, and the Vogons destroyed that particular sausage. :)

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Meneltarma
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 3:35 pm
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The new guide caused the chain of events that led to the grebulons causing the Earth to be blown up. The Guide did this because the Vogons wanted the Earth blown up.


I think. :neutral:


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Pippin4242
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 3:40 pm
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That sounds more like it. Was it an asteroid that took out the Grebulon computers and erased their memories? :help:

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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 3:52 pm
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Okay, let me get this straight. The Vogons own the Guide. The Vogons make a Guide that can do reverse temporal engineering. The Vogons need to blow up Earth. The Reverse Temporal Engineering Guide makes it so that the Grebulons decide that they need to blow up Earth. The Guide then makes it possible for the Grebulons to blow up Earth. The Grebulons blow up Earth, possibilies collapse, the end. The Vogons have then accomplished getting the Earth blown up. Is it that it?[/list]

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Rodia
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 4:24 pm
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I never realised it was this complex. :Q


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halplm
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 4:30 pm
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I'm reading through the trilogy again, I'll try and sort it all out when I get there... Right now Marvin just lost his leg on the matress planet...

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Meneltarma
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 4:31 pm
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MaidenOfTheShieldarm wrote:
Okay, let me get this straight. The Vogons own the Guide. The Vogons make a Guide that can do reverse temporal engineering. The Vogons need to blow up Earth. The Reverse Temporal Engineering Guide makes it so that the Grebulons decide that they need to blow up Earth. The Guide then makes it possible for the Grebulons to blow up Earth. The Grebulons blow up Earth, possibilies collapse, the end. The Vogons have then accomplished getting the Earth blown up. Is it that it?[/list]
....and she's got it! :D

*thinks about how much easier things would have been if she'd said it all that concisely*


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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 5:46 pm
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Rodia, neither did I. I thought I was just being particularly std00pfid. Then again, maybe I was. :suspicious:
meneltarma wrote:
....and she's got it! :D
w00t! :D :D One of the mysteries of my life has finally been solved.
Quote:
*thinks about how much easier things would have been if she'd said it all that concisely*
Yeah, I'm slow. . . I need things spelled out. :roll:

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Meneltarma
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Posted: Fri 08 Apr , 2005 7:56 pm
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I meant ME! :D You explained it better once you'd got it than I did in my previous posts. :oops:


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MaidenOfTheShieldarm
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Posted: Sat 09 Apr , 2005 12:01 am
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No, it was probably me. I mean, I'm clearly the only one who didn't get it, so you probably explained it fine and I was just being slow. :P

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halplm
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Posted: Mon 11 Apr , 2005 5:12 pm
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Ok, finished So Long, and thanks for all the fish. I liked it much better this time than the other times I had read it.

Somehow I had never put together the whole "campaign to save the humans" message with how the Earth was actually existing again... which is what always bugged me about the book.

Also, the part where the woman on the plane recognizes Arthur and Fenchurch is one of the funniest moments I can remember in the series.

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