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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)

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Start date: July 1, 2022

Finish date: August 31, 2022

Discussion: BOTMs

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What Members Thought

Oct 30, 2020 Sameer Brohi rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Nah, not at all good. The humor was kinda vague and too immature. And the story ufffff bad at peak. I don’t know why I felt so heavy about this book? Only the cover was appealing and the rest was like so bad. The plot and each and everything didn’t seem to make up. It felt I was reading some 5th grade school storybook.

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Oct 24, 2021 Lucy Carter rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, good-contemporary-novels, eloquent-and-palpable-lessons, comedy-satire, science-fiction

An interesting reintroduction of the science fiction genre.

After extraterrestrial life forms known as Vogon destroyed Earth to create a freeway through Earth, Ford Prefect, a researcher who helped revise The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, saved his friend Arthur Dent by entering a Vogon ship. Throughout their journey, Arthur and readers are introduced to several concepts in the galaxy, such as the multiples uses of a towel, the dreads of listening to poetry read by a Vogon, the Babbel Fish's An interesting reintroduction of the science fiction genre.

After extraterrestrial life forms known as Vogon destroyed Earth to create a freeway through Earth, Ford Prefect, a researcher who helped revise The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, saved his friend Arthur Dent by entering a Vogon ship. Throughout their journey, Arthur and readers are introduced to several concepts in the galaxy, such as the multiples uses of a towel, the dreads of listening to poetry read by a Vogon, the Babbel Fish's ability to translate foreign languages and its history about its discovery, how the Improbability Drive determines how improbable an event is, and stuff such as the meaning of life (42), the question for the answer "42," what happened to a planet that used to produce other planets and the purpose of one major planet it produced (Earth), and humanity's limitations in comprehending certain things, such as the intelligence of dolphins and how their double summersaults represent something other than a source of entertainment.

From what I understand, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy was meant to be more comedical and absurd than insightful and scientific, so even though some people on "Quora" say that it is as wise as some books that directly discuss the essence of wisdom, I do admit to struggling with the comedy's role in the philosophical aspects of the book; the philosophical aspects seemed to have only been intended to support comedy, but they didn't act as the profound, independent entities I thought they would act as. If Adams intended to create a balance between philosophy and humor, then I would have recommended that he try to add more satire than comedy. There was definitely some satirical parts in his book, but many parts were so ridiculous that it was simply destined to be perceived as comedy instead of satire. (I would think that Vogon poetry would be more comedical than satirical.)

Still, one could appreciate the comedy as an individual portion of the book and the philosophy when it was perfectly paired with satire.

The comedical portions of the book were executed quite creatively. The combination of the science fiction in galactic navigation and humor was eloquently cohesive, especially the humorous portions introduced in the guide. The contrast between the formal, Wikipedia-like writing of the guide and the absurd and ridiculous things it discusses makes it more amusing. Some notable comedical quotes in this book includes:
"Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe. The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" four of his audience died of internal haemorrhaging and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Grunthos was reported to have been "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his 12-book epic entitled "My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles" when his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save humanity, leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain. The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, in the destruction of the planet Earth. Vogon poetry is mild by comparison.

"'You know,' said Arthur, 'it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.'
'Why, what did she tell you?'
'I don't know, I didn't listen.'"

"'A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.'"

The philosophy also intellectualizes the travels throughout the galaxy and symbolically alludes to humanity's ambitions. For example, after the Deep Thought computer came up with the answer to the universe, which was 42, Deep Thought believed that another machine would have to surpass it to find the question to the universe for people to be able to understand the answer, and the machine that was supposed to be made to develop the question was called "Earth." I found this to make perfect sense, because humanity has some limitations to its understanding, which makes sense for it to have to develop a question. Philosophy is pretty much another way to address ambiguity in my perspective, which is why there are blogs with 200+ philosophical questions. There are many scientific truths beyond our reach, such as how time started when there was no time for it to start, and evolutionism and the Big Bang theory are, well, theories. They are widely accepted, but you can't depend on it as a fact. In some ways (not in all), Earth is a world of uncertainty and oversimplification, so I thought Adams made a good choice when he decided that Earth would be the machine that was supposed to come up with the question. Some philsophical quotes in this book include:
"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now."

"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons."

"One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious."

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

"Well, I mean, yes idealism, yes the dignity of pure research, yes the pursuit of truth in all its forms, but there comes a point I'm afraid where you begin to suspect that the entire multidimensional infinity of the Universe is almost certainly being run by a bunch of maniacs."

I might try to read the sequels in the Hitchiker's Guide Series. ...more

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Aug 14, 2021 Troy Lake rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This book is, in one word, amazing. It's easily the funniest book I've ever read, it's very short and feels like the perfect length, and is the best laid back sci-fi book I've ever read. As I said before, it's very short, and I finished it in a little more than 2 and a half hours, so if you ever have a free afternoon and want to read something that doesn't require too much of your attention and certainly isn't serious, I couldn't recommend this book more. This book is the perfect example that a ...more

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Dec 18, 2019 Nadia | Mon Vàng Vàng rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-vietnamese, fiction, science-fiction

Thật ra mình đã khá kì vọng vào cuốn sách này sau những dòng giới thiệu ở phía sau bìa sách, thật sự là rất háo hức ấy. Nhưng đến khi có thể đọc được cuốn sách thì có thể nói là khá thất vọng về hầu như tất cả mọi thứ. Tình tiết hay cách kể chuyện đều không khiến mình có hứng thú, kết vì thuộc một series nên có thể hiểu được, nhưng nếu đánh giá trên việc là nếu người đọc chỉ đọc phần này thì nói thật là mình không có hứng thú với phần tiếp theo luôn.

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Mar 20, 2023 phifer :) rated it liked it · review of another edition

in my head at least, books in a series are like episodes in a show. this book felt really unfinished, i know its so the next book will continue the story, but i really hate feeling obligated to read the next book for closure. likr parable of the sower by octavia butler was nice because even though it was a series it still felt complete on its own, and i wish i had that for this book. but it was really funny. i probably still will read the second book.

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