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        riddles >> general problem-solving / chatting / whatever >> The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
        
(Message started by: Ajax on May 27^th, 2005, 4:36am)

Title: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Ajax on May 27^th, 2005, 4:36am

I guess some of you already know what the title is all about.
I've read the books several years ago and I recently found out that a film is soon to be in the cinemas in my country. Has anybody seen it already? Any comments?
I really loved the text and laughed so much. I wouldn't like to see a mediocre adaptation.

P.S. Has anybody finally figured out which great question gives the answer 42?

Ohh and pleeease don't panic...

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by rmsgrey on May 27^th, 2005, 7:24am

on 05/27/05 at 04:36:12, Ajax wrote:

I haven't seen it myself, but have heard very mixed reviews.

The original radio series (including the recent third series) are quite good.

I forget which book it was in - either late Restaurant or early Life - but while Ford and Arthur are on pre-historic Earth, they figure out how to extract the question from Arthur's last-generation subconscious, though it's widely accepted that the question they got suffered from the Golgafrincham B Ark's replacement of part of the Earth's hardware.

Marvin also claims at one point to have read it from Arthur's mind.

Fenchurch (the girl sitting in a small cafe in Islington two thousand years after a man had been nailed to a tree for saying how nice it would be if people were nice to each other for a change) did know something briefly, but forgot it when the Earth was (probably) destroyed.

For that matter, the mice came up with a question to use for the talk show circuit, which has absolutely no further credentials whatsoever.

There's speculation that Marvin actually asks the ultimate question in Life, but, depressingly, is given an incorrect answer

And research on h2g2 turns up an interesting factoid: apparently Ford Prefect answers a question "42" near the end of Mostly Harmless... It also fails to turn up any article that actually collects the various hypothesised questions.

It's worth noting that, since Prak told the whole truth, unless he forgot one before reaching the other, he knew both the Question and the Answer simultaneously, which, according to some theories, should result in the entire universe being taken away and replaced by something infinitely more complex.

Still, no sense panicking about it!

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Three Hands on May 27^th, 2005, 7:50am

Having seen the film, I would say that it is a decent film, but they have avoided going for a direct adaptation. A lot of the scenes will be familiar (destruction of the Earth, being flushed out into space, and finding Magrathea, and similar), but there are various new parts to the story, and some fairly major shifts in emphasis - they play up the relationship between Trillian and Arthur a lot more.

Basically, they seem to have gone with keeping enough similar to the radio/TV series and books, but sufficiently different that it is not just a direct (and what would probably be seen as inferior) copy of what has already been done. It's still quite worth seeing, although there are some parts I felt were less good than they could have been (Zaphod's heads, and issues relating to them), but some new parts which were done well.

As for guesses as to what the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is, "Why?" is generally considered wrong, "What do you get if you multiply 6 by 9?" is a wrong guess, assumed to be a product of the corrupted programming on Earth, and the only other one I know of is Marvin, having compensated for the corruption in the Earth program when reading Arthur's brain, coming up with "Pick a number, any number."

::)

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Grimbal on May 27^th, 2005, 9:08am

6*9 is 42 in base 13.

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by rmsgrey on May 27^th, 2005, 11:08am

on 05/27/05 at 09:08:06, Grimbal wrote:

6*9 is 42 in base 13.

that's lucky!

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Ajax on May 27^th, 2005, 11:08am

Two submarines meet in the middle of the desert, the hatches open and there is a small dialog between the captains:
- How much?
- 42
- What "42"? ???
- What "How much"? ???

(A great meaningless joke we have in our country, may be also in yours too... ;D )

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by towr on May 27^th, 2005, 1:50pm

I'm not too worried about the movie. Each incarnation of the hitchhikers' guide is different and inconsistent with the others. If the movie would be true to either the book, the radio show or the tv show, it wouldn't be true to the tradition. ;D

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Icarus on May 27^th, 2005, 3:39pm

I found the movie somewhat disappointing. It goes in different, and to me less funny, directions than the previous incarnations. In particular, it not only "plays up" the relationship between Arthur and Trillian, it actually creates a relationship that is not present in the earlier versions. The earlier versions state that Arthur completely strikes out with Trillian. But the major theme of the movie is Trillian discovering that Arthur really is the man for her. The love story is intended to be appealing to a broader audience, I suppose, but strikes me as ruining an essential quality in Arthur's character.

Of all the incarnations of HGG, I found the movie to be the least appealing. But dispite this, it was still worth watching.

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Grimbal on May 30^th, 2005, 6:59pm

Usually, when a movie is made from a book, it can not match the complexity of the story and will pick up a few elements from the story and show some action.
It is bound to be disappointing unless you consider the movie as just an illustration complementing the book.

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Grimbal on May 30^th, 2005, 7:00pm

PS: and to me, 42 is "tea for two". But what was the question?

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Noke Lieu on Jun 22^nd, 2005, 6:54pm

and for me, 42 is "Figuring out recondite things you thought were obvious"

Title: Re: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Post by Grimbal on Jun 23^rd, 2005, 12:35am

I just remember I am born in 1962.

Damn! I am 42.

I am the answer to the Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.

8)