“The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—” – Douglas Adams, ‘The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe’
Two things I said I wanted to read more of this year: sci-fi and series(es). If January is when I read the things that I want to sort of hover over everything else I do in the year, then yes. Starting with The Book of Delights and Anarcho-Indigenism then transitioning into a sci-fi series that is both my favorite sci-fi series and Elon Musk’s is how I want to start the year.
Let’s see if I can read all five books in the trilogy in three weeks, huh?
What I’ve Been Reading This Week:
The two that I really remember most. When I made an honest go of reading all five books in the trilogy in high school, I think I fizzled out after Life, The Universe, and Everything (book three). I watch the excellent 2005 movie1 quite often, so I feel like I know the first book really well. Hey, speaking of high school, I had no idea who Neil Gaiman was then. A scant year ago, I would’ve been stoked to learn he’d written the introduction to the edition on my shelves. Now, it’s like, “ahhhh unwanted Gaiman!” which, turns out, a lot of people have said. Let’s move on, sans Gaiman, and get into the adventures of Arthur and Ford and Trillian and Zaphod and Marvin.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams: if it seems like a lot of what I’m saying about this book today and last Wednesday is backhanded, I want to make clear that this is my favorite sci-fi book ever, with Vonnegut’s Galapagos and Sirens Of Titan and Chloe N. Clark’s Patterns Of Orbit giving it a run for its money. That said, now that I am not in high school, I don’t really see Hitchhiker’s Guide as THE TEXT that I used to think it is. It’s incredibly funny, and I think that being this funny with prose is a real gift. Douglas Adams has A View on the world. While that view is hilarious and smart and Arthur Dent is The Common Man I was talking about wanting to see, I can see why the most smug people you can imagine gravitate towards this book. It feels like, at this stage in my life, this is a novel I can read for pure enjoyment—I did tremendously enjoy it this time around—but it doesn’t make me want to go write. Maybe I’m afraid of imitating it too much/too poorly. Maybe I’ve outgrown that part of my writing. Still. If you haven’t read Hitchhiker’s Guide, go read Hitchhiker’s Guide.
The Restaurant At The End of The Universe by Douglas Adams: far more of a horror novel than I remembered! There are the spaceship passengers unwittingly exiled from their home planet to crash land somewhere distant. There is more revealed about the plot to cauterize parts of Zaphod’s brain. Arthur, barely escaped from the mice who want to harvest his brain, nearly gets everyone he knows killed because he asks for a cup of tea (the ship’s AI, because all AI is garbage), always spits out an undrinkable “…liquid that [is] almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.” We see the universe end! After meeting a guy who’s spending a year dead for tax reasons! The ending, with the implied fate of the Golgafrinchans and the fate of Arthur and Ford left tenuous, is both horrifying and satisfying in a “well, that’s life, huh” kind of way. Two books in, I’m really glad I’m finally reading all five books in the trilogy.
LINKS!
Something to listen to while you browse? Seems only right with kick off Hitchhiker’s Guide month with “So Long And Thanks For All The Fish,” a song that had me wild-eyed and slack-jawed in awe sitting in the theatre, but one I now tend to skip because I’ve seen the movie a million times.
I am forever trying to make these shorter, so almost every link will be bereft of commentary. Just know that if I include a piece here, it means I really dig it.
“Sleeping Beauty and the Restless Realm” by in Lightspeed.
“Flying Still Matters” by Mac Crane in Brevity Mag.
“Two Undergraduates Sharing a Twin Bed” by fellow Middle Tennessee Madman, Alex Miller, in Bright Flash Literary Review.
Melanie Dusseau in Inside Higher Ed on why resistance to AI is not futile, no matter what the Vogons say.
Loved reading my dear friend Dr. Han VanderHart on the anti-fascism of love poems and the vulnerability of revision in their new newsletter (p.s. – moving off of Substack is still a goal of mine for this year).
Speaking of love poems, here’s a BONUS SIXTH LINK, because I got a poem published! Here’s “VISIT FROM MY PARENTS CHRISTMAS 2023” in Passionfruit Review.
What’re you still doing here? Can’t believe it’s taken so long to introduce this, but Brendan’s got a new sketch show! MICAH & BRENDAN HAVE A TELEVISION features Brendan and the talented Micah Mabey. New sketches drop every Wednesday. Follow them on Instagram!
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this weekend. May none of your customers be spending the year dead for tax purposes, may none of your customers get as drunk as Ford Prefect, may none of your customers be Zaphod Beeblebrox.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris
you don’t have to think that the 2005 adaptation is excellent, but you do have to keep that opinion to yourself. I love that movie. There are some changes I disagree with, but it’s perfectly casted and nearly perfectly poured into five-act structure movie mold.