H2G2

A lot of people don't realize exactly how important that book is to some people. Although not my first, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was one of the first actual novels I ever read. I think the first was the Hobbit, but hhg was much more important. My copy has a copyright of 1984, which means I was 9. $3.95. Those were the days. This book was my first sci-fi-humor book but more than that, it was the first time I seen Brittish wit written down. Jeff and I were already fans of Doctor Who, Monty Python, and what ever else channel six showed late on saturday, and early on sunday, so to actually see it written down made me understand what creativity meant a little more. I was pretty creative, but I didn't really get it the way i do now. Things just came to me. Now I have to "think of something" and I hate it sometimes. I read all of the books as fast as my meager allowance would muster, and then read them again. Soon after that we were amazed to see the brittish TV version, which seems so cheap now, but we didn't care. Jeff ordered the tapes of the radio drama all the way from England, and they seemed so special, beacuse we had no idea where it was. We only knew that it was very far away and full of people who seemed so much smarter and more exciting than the people we saw every day. Later we learned that this was not the case, and they just had something called "wit" and we had "reckless abandon" and should just leave it. Jeff and I listened to those tapes over and over and over. Then we reread the books. Then we listened to the tapes again. We quoted it the way people quote Napoleon Dynamite do now. We drew that grinning planet on every notebook, trapper keeper, or sheet of paper we ever owned. When our family finally got a computer, Jeff got the Text Game and i was really jealous because by that time, we were living with different parents, and I couldn't play with it. This soon went away when Neither Jeff nor any of his friends no anyone we ever heard of could get past the dog in front of the pub.

enter pub
YOU CANNOT ENTER PUB
why
A DOG BLOCKS YOUR WAY
move dog
YOU CANNOT MOVE DOG

And so forth. I really hated that game. When they collected the series into a single volume, and had a signing at the Tattered Cover, holy crap, we lost it. partially because we could meet Douglas Adams, but also beacuse there was a story called "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" included. We followed his career through out Dirk Gently, Starship Titanic, and what ever else he was doing. I remember being truely saddened when I heard of his death on NPR one day in may car. I still remember it. Jeff was the first person I called, and there was this sad sense that something ended and we wouldn't get any more of the material that we loved so much. That is, until jeff sent me an email with a pic of Mos Def holding a book with "Don't Panic" written on the front. I hadn't been this excited about a movie since Episode I. Luckily, I was not robbed of a pay off this time. I re-read the book last night, surprizing my self that I could still read a whole book in one night with out drugs. Then I went and saw the movie today. I have to say I was very very pleased. The problem with Star Wars for people of my gen is that it didn't grow up with us. They are exactly the same thing as before, but we all grew up. "Gosh, they don't seem as sophistocated or cool as they did when I was 8". Ask any 8 year old, and they can't tell the difference between the two. Hitchhiker's did it. It grew at exactly the same pace as we did. Our visual expectations grew and our attention spans shrank. The movie had more than enough of the story and style of old to keep a dork like me not only satisfied, but riveted. It had enough new twists and turns to make me think I was seeing something entirely new. The plot changes onlyt improved the dramatic nature of the whole story. The cast were awesome. Hhaving larger parts for the Vogons, and adding a villan made it more of an adventure and less just a bunch of odd things happening that the characters then had to deal with. I am sure I did not catch all of the cameos, but the ones that I did catch had my eyes popping out of my head (Especiallythe old Marvin). Yes, some of my favorite lines were missing: "You know, its times like these when I'm trapped inside a Vogon air lock with a man from Beetleguese 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!"But that's OK. I might have done without the singing dolphins, beacuse the close up of the book was a cooler opening anyway. All in all, Adams gave this world something really really cool, and he would be happy that nobody has fucked it up.