HHGttG

Okay so I've been rereading Restaurant at the End of the Universe and of course ford and Arthur are trying to puzzle out the ultimate question. Marvin says its imprinted in arthur's brainwaves, but since arthur is descended from the Golgafrinchans (telephone sanitizers, hairdressers, etc) and not the original neanderthals, Ford says it was probably a distorted form of the Question.

So why, when they do the mess with the Scrabble, do they not consider that the 'nine' is a distortion of 'seven'? Or do they and i need to reread life, the universe, and everything as well? (problematic because I don't have a copyxD )

You need to reread Life, the Universe and Everything because it's even funnier than the first two. :choc2:

I'm up for a reread of the series myself, but I find the biggest issue in your post the fact that you don't have a copy of Life, the Universe and Everything Except the Oxford Comma and I know it's a bad joke, but I'm sticking with it.

Also, since Douglas Adams said that people were really just thinking too much about it when they discovered that it really is 42 in base 13, I'm going to say the same applies here.

They don't address the Scrabble thing again in the later books, but obviously you should read them again anyway. I guess Adams has them not dwell too much on the Scrabble tiles because the question isn't supposed to be answered, and the great thing about writing a genius comedy sci-fi series is that you can have your characters act in inhuman or irrational ways. Besides, it's a lot more fun to let your audience argue about it. :p

but how come all these other guide nerds haven't hit upon this little thing? Or have they?

I only have the books I've found second hand, so that is Restaurant, So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, and Mostly Harmless, which suited me fine at the time because the latter two were my favorite.
*looks on bookmooch*
[edit- they have like 20 copies of it there. anyone else want one ?xD]

Yeah, you need to read Life, the Universe, and Everything. It all will be explained. At lost some of it. Kind of.

The latter two books are the worst in the series. The original trilogy is still great, though.

I always interpreted it the same way you did. I didn't care very much that Ford and Arthur didn't dwell on it because if they started thinking about The Question instead of chasing after Chesterfield sofas then Life, The Universe And Everything wouldn't have happened, and that might be my favourite book in the series. I'd definitely look into the other H2G2 books, as well as Adams' other stuff (Dirk Gently!) if you've got the time.

-.- I read all of those seven years ago :p (including long lost teatime of the soul), it's just a matter of remembering everything xD

*Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

What I don't understand is how the mice never noticed their computer had been corrupted. That being said, I don't put too much deep thought* into these books.



*Can bad jokes get one banned?

Kes: I should hope not or else I'm on incredibly thin ice.

I always thought that So Long and Thanks for All the Fish paled by comparison to the first three myself and that the first book was the best of the lot, but I definitely need to give the series a read again. I've still not actually read Mostly Harmless but have been warned by numerous people that it's pretty bad by comparison. The Dirk Gently books are something different, but well worth a read. Slightly odd and not quite as funny as HHG, but still books I really enjoy. Dirk is a fantastic character.

Everyone here should also read The Salmon of Doubt which is basically a collection of Adams's writings found on his computer after he died. It has some pretty entertaining stuff in it, including, if I'm remembering correctly, a draft of what Adams wrote for a new Dirk Gently novel which Adams had thought about turning into a sixth HHG book.

Also check out Last Chance to See, his nonfiction book about endangered species. Surpisingly funny about a serious subject.