Saturday, April 30, 2011

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adam's, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is a wonderfully fun book, and a must-read for anybody who enjoys sarcasm, satire, SciFi, and just good nonsensical fun.  I practically grew up hearing about this book and laughing when my dad and brothers would quote from it at the dinner table; when I finally read it, I was not disappointed.  Adams is a great writer, and a technophile whose imagined gadgets are actually becoming more of a reality than most people probably imagined when it was published in 1979.  I have chosen to take this hilarious book and to look at it and write about it this semester while I explore the potentials of writing about literature online.

What? There is a movie and an old BBC TV series done on this book?  I know.  Adams also adapted it for radio at one point.  That doesn't matter.  They are all good, but not all things are equal between radio, print, and film.  The book captures something that other productions just can't.  You simply can't get the same saturation of Adam's zany characters and crazy world without the inside look at the characters offered in the book.  Trust me on this one, you will not regret it.  Or, if you would like, there is an audio version which is read by Douglas Adams himself that is really quite good.  The good thing about this is that Adams, being the author, knows just how to say everything and really gives life to his own characters.

I want to have fun with this project.  During my career at BYU, I have written about many classics: The Scarlett Letter, Moby Dick, Wuthering Heights, and Measure for Measure to name a few.  I have even written on more recently published books like Toni Morrison's Paradise or Cormac McCarthy's The Crossing, but this time I want to do something that is both good and fun for me.  My hope is that it will also be fun for anybody reading what I have to say about it.  So, follow along as I learn and write about Douglas Adams and his wonderful book A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  All of my posts about this book will be tagged under "Hitchhiker's Guide."

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