Mostly Harmless

The idea is to write more entries, but make a point to make them shorter entries. Less commitment means more committing. Though there's no guarantee that I'll continue liking the idea. Besides, if this interface continues to bug me, I might lose even that much interest.

I just now finished the complete Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, including all five volumes of the story. The style of the humour at times was a little too zany for my tastes, but some of the issues approached were dealt with in entertaining ways. Basically, it sort of makes light of the Universe, and in some cases I resent that, but in others, I respect it, because it's almost like a warning to people who take things too seriously to lighten up and relax and just enjoy the world the way it is. Or something like that. I also liked how seeds were planted for certain developments that were revisited in their maturity later on, like the whole Stavromula Beta thing.

Of the five volumes, I think I enjoyed So Long And Thanks For All The Fish the best. Ironically, it's the one that spends most of its time on the Earth. Though I think the reason I liked it more than the other volumes has more to do with the sort of love story aspect it included. Gee, that sounds so sappy. Ah well, I think Fenchurch was particularly charming, and it's kind of a shame what ultimately happened to her...

I also liked best the ending to that volume. Marvin was probably my favorite character in the series, with his darkly realistic view of the Universe, and I thought he had a most fitting end. I never understood why they call him the Paranoid Android though, as he just seems to be terminally depressed, and not especially paranoid, except in a general sense.

What also interested me was how the danger in each volume seemed to escalate, from the doom of Earth, to the doom of the whole Universe, from inconsistencies in time, to inconsistencies in probability/parallel Universes. And I liked how the end of the final volume tied right back into how the first volume started. Nothing like a job good and done.