Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

Lawdie

Douglas Adams may be gone but not forgotten.

I hear there re making it into hollywood movie

Hope they combine all the highlights of the series and make one cracking movie.

I still thing about the ESP elavators sitting sulking the basement wanting to go another direction not up or down

Marvin rocks....

commuterised

have this at home, you've just inspired me to re read it!

Sarky

It was my first experience of stories that were actually funny. Douglas Adams was a genious. God (or whatever he happened to believe in) bless'im.

echomadman

If you read The Salmon of Doubt, you'll see that a movie has been "in the pipeline" for ages.
Now that ole Doug is sadly deceased, I shudder to think what they'll do to one of teh best series ever.

Woden

i enjoyed the hitchhiker series though i thought the later books lacked something, the first dirk gently book was good also, the second one only ok i though, the salmon of doubt was good though, adams' thoughts on just about everything are quite funny

Tree

tHHGTG is fab!!

54 ppl!! 54!!!

"Ford, stop turning into a penguin!"

yankinlk

thought it was 42

Tree

42 is 54 in base 13.

so hah!

mike65

...I liked the idea of an economy based entirely on shoe sales...

Mike.

Hey.

Hey yez, just wantd to make u all jealous. I'v an old video of the books made durin the 70s but its pretty crap so mayb no dont b jealous. My favourite part was that woman who found out God's message to humanity n then ends up gettin killed wen the earth explodes 2 secs later. V funny.:D

Sarky

They showed that on telly a good while ago. Very very cheesy, but in a good, Dr. Who kind of way. The actual Hitchiker's guide bits weere well done, particularly the big flashy diagram of "Dingo's kidneys".:)

Hey.

Yep i agree, definitely Dr Whooy! Cant remember Dingos kidneys part, must watch it again. Main memory of the film was the fake head stuck on the shoulder of wats-his-face Zaphod Beeblesumthin. Was a bit before Buffy n Angels style of make up so 10 points for effort. V stupid n funny. It lookd like the whole set was made by Blue Peter.

ykt0di9url7bc3

PISS OFF YOU YOU BIG HEAP OF MALADJUSTED METAL!

what a book......

funniest thing i have evar read

Lawdie

Can anyone remenber the secret of flying?????

mike65

Originally posted by Lawdie
Can anyone remenber the secret of flying?????

Proberly not looking down or remembering to bring your towel!

Mike.

feylya

Can anyone remenber the secret of flying?????

Fall towards the ground and miss :-)

public_enemy

Originally posted by Lawdie
Can anyone remenber the secret of flying?????

the secret was to fall and be distracted at the very last second before you hit the ground.

mike65

Found the whole definition!

http://www.dwave.net/~tony/Mars/hgttg2.htm

Flying

There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

Pick a nice day and try it.

All it requires is the ability to throw yourself forward with all your weight, and the willingness not to mind that it's going to hurt.

That is, it's going to hurt if you fail to miss the ground.

Most people fail to miss the ground, and if they are really trying properly, the likelihood is that they will fail to miss it fairly hard.

Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.

One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally. It's no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won't. You have to have your attention suddenly distracted by something else when you're halfway there, so that you are no longer thinking about falling, or about the ground, or about the how much it's going to hurt if you fail to miss it.

It is notoriously difficult to prize your attention away from these three things during the split second you have at your disposal. Hence most people's failure, and their eventual disillusionment with this exhilarating and spectacular sport.

If, however, you are lucky enough to have your attention momentarily distracted at the crucial moment by, say, a gorgeous pair of legs (tentacles, pseudopodia, according to phylum and/or personal inclination) or a bomb going off in your vicinity, or by suddenly spotting an extremely rare species of beetle crawling along a nearby twig, then in your astonishment you will miss the ground completely and remain bobbing just a few inches above it in what might seem to be a slightly foolish manner.

This is a moment for superb and delicate concentration.

Bob and float, float and bob.

Ignore all considerations of your own weight and simply let yourself waft higher.

Do not listen to what anybody says at this point because they are unlikely to say anything helpful. They are most likely to say something along the lines of "Good God, you can't possibly be flying!" It is vitally important not to believe them or they will suddenly be right.

Waft higher and higher.

Try a few swoops, gentle at first, then drift above the treetops breathing regularly.

DO NOT WAVE AT ANYBODY.

When you have done this a few times you will find the moment of distraction rapidly becomes easier and easier to achieve.

You will then learn all sorts of things about how to control your flight, your speed, your maneuverability, and the trick usually lies in not thinking too hard about whatever you want to do, but just allowing it to happen as if it were going to anyway.

You will also learn how to land properly, which is something you will almost certainly screw up, and screw up badly, on your first attempt.

There are private flying clubs you can join which help you achieve the all-important moment of distraction. They hire people with surprising bodies or opinions to leap out from behind bushes and exhibit and/or explain them at the critical moments. Few genuine hitchhikers will be able to afford to join these clubs, but some may be able to get temporary employment at them.

Lawdie

Great site

I always enjoy the simple answer

thanks Lawdie

Capt'n Midnight

hard to believe it all started out as a stage play !

special effects on the radio were fab - the TV series was fairly good.

Hate to think what the bods in hollywood would do to it in the interests of dumbing it down for the mass market.

Eddie the computer would probably survive - but I fear that ohter characters would be unfavourable treated - and lots of jokes would "loose something" ..

halenger

My absolute favouritist books of all time!!! I love everything by Douglas Adams. It's just so readable!!!

I dunno about the other books lacking. I thought all of Ford Prefect's parts in Mostly Harmless were hilarious!!! I laughed my ass of reading how Ford tried to keep the element of surprise as he was in the HHGTTG Offices. Brilliant stuff...

I took a look on IMDB (Internet Movie Database) and much to my disappointment "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" was not there anymore!! That was the name of the film as it was in progress. :-/ I would also have loved to see a Dirk Gently Movie. They were great books.

Goodshape

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe" ?? ...do they not have galaxies in america or somat? ..silly yanks.

I'd fear the worst from a Hollywood version of the story.. but at the same time, I'd love to see a film done right (maybe with Terry Gilliam at the helm... would be interesting anyway).

I've got the entire radioplay (12 epps) on my MP3 player.. great stuff for those long bus journeys

halenger

You've reminded me of my other point... Marvin Rocks!!!

But I was very disappointed to hear the voice of Marvin that was used for the radio. It didn't compare in the least to Marvin from the TV Series who was absolutely fantastic. You could feel the pain and agony in his voice!!!! :-p

simu

I recently bought the "trilogy of five" in a box-set. I stayed up till 5 am last night reading the HHGttG - it is brilliant! I had to get a pencil to underline the bits that made me laugh the most so that I'll be able to find them again quickly.

I think it would be quite hard to carry off a film version however - this is a book that just can't be dumbed down, there are so many interesting bits that would be hard to convey in a visual medium.

GuanYin

I have the DVD collection of the original BBC series.

Its brilliant, captures the book perfectly.

Not looking forward to US film version though.

mike65

Originally posted by Goodshape

I'd fear the worst from a Hollywood version of the story.. but at the same time, I'd love to see a film done right (maybe with Terry Gilliam at the helm... would be interesting anyway).

Gilliam would spend 250 million and then have the film taken away from him by the executive producer who would re-cut it and add a laugh track and a happy ending. El Tel would then take out a hit on him (plus full page ads in the Hollywood Reporter condeming the treatment of his "flawed masterpiece" it would be flawed cos all Gilliams films are! ). The film would proberly be directed by Chris Columbus! :eek:

Mike.

Sarky

Ah, Marvin, the Paranoid Android! He was my hero. Jeebus, the unbelievably crippling MISERY he managed to wallow in was just hilarious and endearing. "Brain the size of a planet, and they have me picking up pieces of paper."

Something struck me though. If Marvin's brain was the size of a planet, couldn't he have worked out The Great Question without the earth having to go poof?

Capt'n Midnight

Even though he's much older than the universe they still haven't changed the diodes on his left side...

"life , don't talk to me about life , lothe it or ignore it you can't like it"

underdog

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
hard to believe it all started out as a stage play !

em,it started out as a radio play

and the directors are attched to the movie,
see here

and I found the scripts to the radio play in easons, so now all i need is the illustrated hitch-hikers guide and I have everything he's published. Ever.

halenger

WOOO HOOOO!!!!!

That's excellent news. No american director to come in a ruin it and change it from english into american!!!!

Thanks for the fantastic news!! :-p

I've a few books yet to get but I've got quite a large majority of his works. All excellent...

ella minnow pea

i've heard Last Chance To See was DA's best work, even by his own admission, can anyone confirm this?

Woden

yes and are the meaning of liff books any good?

underdog

well worth getting the deeper meaning of liff (it contains the first book, it just adds twice as many words :-)) It is absolutely brilliant. many a Adams convert have I made from random samplings of that book.

(of course I have both the maening of liff, and the deeper meaning of liff, purely for the collection you understand :-D)

halenger

Last Chance to See is excellent. It's so readable and just so Doughlas Adams. I loved it!!

Very real, quite funny at times too!!

Woden

Originally posted by underdog
well worth getting the deeper meaning of liff (it contains the first book, it just adds twice as many words :-)) It is absolutely brilliant. many a Adams convert have I made from random samplings of that book.

(of course I have both the maening of liff, and the deeper meaning of liff, purely for the collection you understand :-D)

ah thank you i thought they where two seperate books, the second one just containing the new stuff.

avatar

HHGttG is brilliant.... but does anyone else think that the last book (Mostly Harmless) just wasn't as good as the others? I mean, it was GOOD, but it wasn't AS good.

neGev

Douglas Adams = God

That is all.

sci0x

Originally posted by Para||eL
Douglas Adams = God

That is all.

Amen

halenger

Originally posted by avatar
but does anyone else think that the last book (Mostly Harmless) just wasn't as good as the others? I mean, it was GOOD, but it wasn't AS good.

Well I thought that the Ford Prefect parts of that book were some of the funniest things I have ever read.

I will admit to having been racing through the other bits just to see what Ford would do next!!

Zaphod B

I've just started reading my big hardback HHGTTG collection. For the third time. To be fair its been a whole year since the last time I read it :P

Hopefully the film's in good hands. Much as I love Gilliam's work I'm not sure he would have been right for HHGTTG, it would end up as too Gilliamesque and as Mike said it would no doubt be a Flawed Masterpiece(tm) I think it would be nice for the other ex-Pythons to turn up somewhere as minor characters or in cameos though, maybe Michael Palin as the Captain in the bath or Terry Jones under vast quantities of prosthetics as the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

simu

HHGttG is brilliant.... but does anyone else think that the last book (Mostly Harmless) just wasn't as good as the others? I mean, it was GOOD, but it wasn't AS good.

Having just finished reading the whole set of Hitchhiker books, I agree that there's something missing in Mostly Harmless. It is *very* funny in parts but the plot seems a bit hastily pulled together at times and the end, frankly is just depressing. I heard that DA claimed to have been having a hard time in his own life when he wrote it and that he had considered writing a 6th Hitchhiker book that would be somewhat more cheerful.

avatar

How could he write a sixth book? as I recall, they all died at the end...

sci0x

Originally posted by avatar
How could he write a sixth book? as I recall, they all died at the end...

Although I heard he was actually working on a sixth book, so it might be published.

feylya

Did Douglas Adams not die a while back?

sci0x

Originally posted by feylya
Did Douglas Adams not die a while back?

Yeah, but he was working on the 6th book before he died.

feylya

Ah. Who's finishing it so? It would be cool. I have the hard back copy. Might start reading it again. I'm listening to the audio tape at the moment.

halenger

He was working on a 3rd Dirk Gently book before he died.

That was The Salmon of Doubt.

He had been finding it hard to do any writing for a while. Writers block etc. Read the Salmon of Doubt. It has a lot of short stories, articles, interviews with him and a few chapters of The Salmon of Doubt-being the 3rd Dirk Gently.

I had thought it was to be a 6th HHGTTG but nope it wasn't.

simu

How could he write a sixth book? as I recall, they all died at the end...

Well, given the prominence of time travel and parallel universes in the books, it wouldn't be that hard to find a way to bring them back to life. After the first book, it seemed as if the earth had dispappeared forever, but it hadn't...

shock

Yeah, the Magratheans could just build another exact copy with all the people there, exactly like it was when before, or a sixth book could have been based around zaphod, cause he didnt die.

Capt'n Midnight

well they have one ready to go... (except there are fjords in france) but it wouldn't be the same without the golgafringans

halenger

Well they never finished it... And they stopped work on it cause the project was too long. and of course they just wanted Arthur's brain instead!

But it's pointless thinking up different ways it could be done. We are without Doughlas. He's the only one who could've done it justice...