47. Crazy cocktail of words

Reading this book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams (2/5) is like listening to disco music while watching the news about the war in Ukraine. Body parts spread around like musical notes.

This book, and the rest of the series, took over the world at some point, it was a big hit. I think I understand why, and still I kind of don’t. There are many science-fiction books out there, but this one in particular became a cultural landmark. 

It might be because 30 years ago the internet was not a constant presence in our lives and people had only a few options to escape the reality. These series, probably, became such an escape, a door toward the unknown. 

I’m not going to lie, I find it hard to read these books. I feel like I’m following the story line, for that line to be destroyed by some strange intergalactic event in the next sentence. 

What I like is the language and how the author is creating awkward situations, jokes that are rather “stupid” because of their simplicity. What I also find funny is the clash of perspectives. The characters are coming from very different…ah, galaxies, so the way they try to communicate is funny. 

I sense that the book is also a satirical representation of us humans. 

Maybe the author was hoping that by showing our hideous side, maybe we will learn something. 

Hm, I am not sure that this is working, or maybe it does, but at a subliminal level that takes time to come to fruitions.

A process that might take millions of years…