Zaphod the Nothingth - RatEotU

Jeff and Bryan discuss The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams' follow-up novel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

This has been a Froods for Thought production.

Transcript

Hey Brian how are you today I'm doing great Jeff how about yourself a lot of order out of order when did that happen like this episode it has most of the story of the radio series but someone put them in a different order yes that's true according to the record album I have this one goes episodes 7 8 9 10 11 12 56 so I guess it's really not that out of order but to me it seemed way more out of order than this was yes I can see that it's a challenge but I want to start this episode with something important that I noticed while doing this podcast that the mainstream scientists are keeping from us does that sound conspiracy theory enough I'm hoping it's really deep little piece that talks about the digital watches it mentions a little blue green Planet orbiting the on regarded yellow sun yes well in chronological order the radio show says 90 million miles the first editions of the book saying 92 million miles and the current editions of the book say 98 million miles okay and is drifting away from the Sun at an alarming rate but there is a bright side to the sun there's a bright side of the sun right there's a bright side to his son since the planet will be getting colder the farther it moves away from the sun we don't need to worry about cutting down on reducing greenhouse gases cuz we're going to need all of them to keep the planet warm it's okay all right until we're much closer to Mars before they launch that mission oh gosh all right well let's talk about the restaurant at the end of the universe all right let's part 1 the whole group is on the heart of gold and zaphod is hungry zaphod cannot work out the improbability factor needed to get to the restaurant at the end of the universe the Vogons on the orders of gag how front are attacking the Heart of Gold to eliminate the last two remaining humans Eddie the shipboard computer circuits are preoccupied trying to make tea so a seance is held in a flash of light the spirit of zaphod great-grandfather saves ship zaphod and Marvin are missing and Ford Arthur and trillion are stranded on a disabled Heart of Gold while searching for zaphod and Marv the discovery setting with 3 servings of very good tea they fought in Marvin turn up at the corporate headquarters of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy zaphod has an unexplained hunk of metal in his pocket without knowing why they fought is compelled to see a man named zarni whooped a friend named Brewster zaphod to get to czerny Wolf's office where an artificial Universe has been created they 5 sins Marvin to stop a giant frog star battle tank coming to get him Marvin succeeds by outwitting it using for Steve's the Frog starfighters captures they've thawed by taking half of the building the book starts out with the same opening passage as secondary phase but this time I heard it the audio version read by the author yes but in my opinion Peter Jones who narrated the radio series did it better I think he did do a terrific job but I wouldn't say that I have enough experience to say which one would be better I enjoyed the computer Jones version better I do like though that he eliminated that third part of the joke that I felt spoiled it third part yes about the whole thing about the universe changing into something more unexplainable was just made up by the editors of The Hitchhiker's Guide add pool part he eliminated from the books right right when we ended the last book it ends very abruptly with zaphod saying let's all go get something to eat at Restaurant at the End of the Universe and in my mind it was never referred to a The last book it ends very abruptly with J5 saying let's all go get something to eat at the restaurant at the end of the universe and in my mind it was never referred to again but I'm actually completely wrong because the story starts out with a heart of gold just Merrily on its way and zaphod is trying to get something to eat and that plays out through most of the book that's cracked it does so they're being followed by Vogons specifically prostetnic vogon jeltz and he has been charged with destroying the Heart of Gold to get rid of the last two remaining humans from Earth remember I was saying the whole thing with trillion not being there bug me the radio series something else he fixed in the book that it's not very obvious when it comes around that trillion is is included in that in the book where it's not in the radio show they start out again with this scene with the new traumatic and Arthur and the tea I'm not sure it was a better change because rather than trying to figure out why Arthur wants T the computer got jammed up with how to make tea and to me that's not a computer Jami question like the why question is and even though I'm not a fan of the change in the question I do really like that the answer was the production of a silver tea set with the best tea Arthur ever had yes that was very good I do like that part of it end and you are correct I was a little concerned about why they had removed that concept from it and it was just about making tea don't have an answer there wish I did but I do think it leaks a little bit the Vulcans are there to kill the Heart of Gold they've got the computer jams they can't go anywhere and forward with nothing else to do decided to count down the last minutes of their lives and it drove zaphod crazy and one of my favorite lines in the whole block this this year this is my first of my favorite show is if I tells him to stop counting and he said I will in 3 minutes and 35 seconds oh yeah but forward also has a great line dying for a cup of tea are we that's right fan of holding a seance to get the answer to how to make tea I still think it was kept in because he liked more than I do the joke of an accident with a time machine in a contraceptive because that's how they find explains how he's the first even though he's the youngest however I did like how the great grandfather called him the nothing and zaphod likes to be considered the first right exactly and they do say it this is interesting sequence and I think there's a kind of an answer coming forward but they do say that the subject of death was having in the air and that's why they thought perhaps that was the motivation for they fought to hold the Seance in the Seance in the book that I didn't really notice so much in the radio show but he's you sitting there in the dark and then all sudden gets frustrated flip the lights on and there's his great-great-grandfather in the dark waiting and he says I thought you never turn the lights of mention about his eyes being Diamond Cutters like he's the stronger individual than the zaphod is in that reference that they make exactly so the Saints works the grandfather makes the T for Arthur and they fight and Marvin were transported to the offices of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all right for dark and trillion we're stuck on the heart of gold with all the systems down correct they 5 has a mysterious lump in his pocket I like to think this was the inspiration for the info text Adventures game the thing in your pocket that your mother gave you that you don't know what it is but there's also another reference right here to this particular to the infocomm game which is better know if you caught on to it must not have well at the end there is a note stuck to the console or a note stuck to the tea set and Arthur picks it up and reads it and it says You know that that one comment within that section of the book I would agree there was the scene when they fight was sitting in the lobby of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and it mentioned that a couple of disheveled looking hitchhikers were complaining and that reminded me when we were discussing secondary phase you mentioned that it said zaphod was said to be hitchhiking the hard way right and you wondered what that meant you thought that maybe it was without the electronic thumb yes they never talked about not having any gadgets but I think without the electronic thumb it would be more than the hard way that it would be like impossible it would be impossible hitchhiking the hard way mean okay and it's it's very simple okay and when you hear my answer you're going to know that even if I am not correct I should be okay I'm ready he was hitchhiking without a towel come on feel free to stand in apply well that I can see that but I still think it had to let more to do with the going from spaceship to spaceship without the sub ether they introduced the concept of the Peril sensitive sunglasses which I think is a brilliant brilliant idea so the sunglasses Peril sensitive sunglasses which turn black at the first sign of danger so that you will not have to see it coming right Z fighters in the lobby of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and he doesn't know how we got there but all of a sudden he knows that he has to go see this man named Arnie whoop and he goes up to the receptionist and has this uncomfortable conversations with the receptionist so just like in the radio series it is almost the same conversation with the same joke he uses the same line haven't you heard I come in six packs and that worked okay in the radio series but in this book they had the Seance scene where we just learned that there are four of them it really bothered me that I just learned there are four zaphod beeblebrox has and then he says he comes in six packs and that should be edited to 4 packs if they can make the Earth 98 Million Miles Away From the Sun they can change that to 4 packs all I want to say is a horse walks into a bar and the bartender says why the long face add leaves to go up to the elevators to go meets Arnie wu-wu Marvin goes to the receptionist to tell the receptionist that he's looking for zaphod then he says he's right over there and the receptionist has all upset that why did you didn't even come over I like when Marvin ask the receptionist why anybody would be kind or helpful to a robot that didn't have any gratitude circuits right and then he was asked if he had any gratitude circuits and he said I've never had an occasion to find out he starts out this book just as depressed as ever yep you're right that's the way his life is when we come to the scene where they fight sends Marvin to stop the battle robot and I like the way this scene plays out better because they've described The Hitchhiker's building as to 30 story Towers get connected by a bridge halfway up and Marvin meets the battle robot on the rich so before he was just in the office building and having the battle robot shoot out of floor he would have just fallen down 1 story which really wouldn't have ended a battle robot stop because they were on the bridge 15 stories up when the battle robot eventually shot out the floor then it's like he knows immediately what happened 15 stories dad of taking care of them right absolutely I don't want to say I didn't like this scene or this joke or what but it was a painful one Arthur and trillion they go back to them on the heart of gold and because everything is down there playing Scrabble on a rocking and swaying ship and our reports e x q u i n front of s i t e already on the board Seen or this joke or whatever but it was a painful one Arthur and trillion they go back to them on the heart of gold and because everything is down there playing Scrabble on a rocking and swaying ship and Arthur puts e x q u i n front of site already on the board and used a triple word score I played a lot of losing games of Scrabble against Denise and this felt way too familiar making your nervous is it it was just like all I've been that person that had that played out in front of them I only have three letters I can play I'm going to go site all right after her nest and then next to you I hear they are taking to the Frog star he's going to be fed into the total perspective Vortex okay but he had never heard of it right and he's heard of everything fun so he assumed that it was not fun yeah I did like that line and he's still obsessed at this point with with his hunger you know so he keeps asking if he's going to get fed on the way star are they going to feed me they're going to feed you all right into the total perspective Vortex and so they do take zaphod by actually taking one Tower Of The Hitchhiker's Guide building that he was in the bridge was cut so it's really easy just to take one Tower rather than both of them and he is on his way to the Frog star in The Hitchhiker's building part 2 on the Frog star rooster told a font to leave czerny whoops office by the window as he climbed down the exterior of the building he met a giant talking bird and a disembodied voice dark of our escort zaphod to the total perspective Vortex it is a mine destroy any device that shows a person a glimpse of the unimaginable entirety of creation and their relation to it the total perspective Vortex told him he is the most important person in the universe zaphod found a derelict trans Stellar Cruise liner in an abandoned Spaceport he meets Arnie Loop in the first-class cabin the unknown piece of metal and zaphod pocket is actually the Heart of Gold zarni whoop explains to zaphod about the artificial universe and restores the Heart of Gold to its proper size zaphod Russia's onboard reunites with his friends and tells the computer to take them to the nearest place to eat they end up at the restaurant at the end of the universe zaphod had met rooster who brought him to zarni Wolf's office and told him not to leave by the door. So against a five leaves through the window and he's climbing down the building and that's where he tells the bird to go away that's where he meets the humming disembodied voice follow the humming and one thing I found funny and I don't know what exactly it said but would have told me was that climbing down the building zaphod was so miserable it made Marvin seem cheerful that made Marvin seemed like he was a happy guy because that's how miserable zaphod writes right here is where they kept half the story the setting was kept and the big birds and the shoe Event Horizon was camped but without the archaeologists Lynn Tillis I am not sure what the reason for telling the story of the history of that planet I guess they wanted the Frog start of beat desolate lonely place but I think it could have been all that without all the bird in the shoe Event Horizon in all of that for whatever reason it didn't work in the book for me the way it did in the radio series when you when they introduce the bird He Flops on to the building and they fought turns you into this go away and he does Betty said that bird just talk to me and you know What about that stuff everybody has these Pearls of Wisdom that they think they're gloriously excited about so maybe he felt he had to keep some of that in the story because he was so excited about the way it played out in the radio show that could be and I've got a lot of things that I mentioned that he like this joke so much in the radio series he had to include it in the book but it really doesn't work in the book the way it did cuz it's not in the right place right right and it's hard for me because I don't know whether it's just the audio thing or what but I still put all of it back in you know I'm reading the book I'm noticing that the deficiencies but my brain just keeps putting them back in place where they belong telling the entire history of a culture without the archaeologists seems odd if there was a reason they were studying the planet and you were hearing about it now it was just let me tell you a story I really enjoyed the parts of the story where they were talking about gar gravar the disembodied voice when he was talking about he and his body and the problems that the two of them were having together he mentions that the right his first name has to happen to be piss pot Garden Grove bar and that in the divorce he's likely to lose his first name you know I got a kick out of that and he said that one of his favorite things to do was sex and fishing and help the two of the the body and the mind arguing about this and they at one point tried to combine the two and add text Chris and there are books I did get a kick out of that and the fact that the body would retain custody of the four named I thought was a interesting little tidbit he is the mind is always working in the body is just out having a good time but right now I'm kind of jealous cuz I do like the line with the virus is his first being introduced to the building in which the vortexes house and these this small rectangular metal space and he says that doesn't says no that's the elevator zaphod gets fed into the total perspective Vortex learns that he's a really great guy in the most important person in the universe and then leaves and here here again we get to learn that he still hungry and all he wants to do is get something to eat and in describing the total perspective Vortex they do talk that it is hooked up or plugged into a piece of berry cake or angel food cake or whatever type of cake it is of what she immediately eats upon upon exiting that's correct. I love that I still get a kick out of that whole sequence cuz of course that's where that model that I had in my life for so long was not part of the discussion right I love where they talk about the fact that his wife kept yelling at him and kept telling him to have some sense of proportion that she kept telling him that 32 times a day if you have some sense of proportion of some sense of proportion so he invents this device and in the end he realizes the one thing that you cannot do is have a sensor see if I can see out of the vortex and he's going to this abandoned derelict Spaceport and here's something that he leaves up to the interpretation of the reader so he comes across this ship that appears to be on everything else is dead and decayed and he finds this one ship that seems to still be active and it's been delayed and zaphod experienced the chaos in the horror of the Reviving of the passengers of the delayed ship and told him it is not been a pleasant experience waiting for you and zaphod screamed not pleasant for you how do you think and Saturday will cut him off right so do you think that zaphod was going to mention the horror of the passengers which would be unlike zaphod or the things that he's been going through black eye Associated that arrest leave that he was referring to the things he had to do to his own brain the surgery that he went through do you know the flopping off of my of his memory etcetera so I'm thinking something along those lines Of his memory etcetera so I'm thinking something along those lines but I totally would not be with safe I don't know for me the way this all ends up is so much better than the radio series he had not figured it out then but he did a wonderful job fitting it into this version of the story The Right using the rules of his Universe it all works when zaphod is zap to the office has the heart of gold is miniaturized and put in his pocket as he leaves the office by the window remaining in the artificial universe that was the only way he could survive the total perspective Vortex because the universe was made for him if he was in the real Universe his brains would have been destroyed correct and in the radio theories it was figure out how the Heart of Gold got here and it was never ever alluded to but zaphod bringing it in his pocket was brilliant right it's here and it's Arnie whoop says I discovered the coordinates of the man who rules the Universe I found that interesting line at this particular point and then he goes into describe how the the coordinates are protected by the improbability field around the location I found that very interesting that it happens at this point and I think it's part of what you were saying about the inconsistencies in the radio show that allow that line to get stuck in here and make things work sequentially right yes but when you reread the book because the first time you read it it won't make any sense and it's not going to stick in your memory of all the special coordinates right and when you reread the book a second time you'll get to that and you like all we talked about it here I didn't even catch that so right right those don't bother me too much I do like enjoying those for re reading a book when they foreshadow something that totally went over your head right but this part of the book to me became kind of a cheat in the radio series they got to the restaurant at the end of the universe because a hyperspatial field generator exploded because shooting in bang bang were shooting at it he could not find a way to get them to the restaurant without an explosion so he just created one for no apparent reason right but I walked onto the bridge only to see four puffs of smoke so what exploded and send them there and they explode I have no idea what the explosion was necessary for yeah that's a good question I wrote the same kind of notes in mind I'm not sure what the field is of course but it's like an implosion really because they're already physically at their correct space so now it's just a matter of traveling to the correct time I don't know where we're looking at some strange event at that moment but I think they like you said I think it's just a an afterthought or a sequence of events that seem to fit in well right so Pi getting to the restaurant at the end of universe they have to travel forward in time to just before the universe ends so you're going forward and backward in time travel to get there and here is my second favorite joke because this is mind twisting to me when you start thinking about it and I guess it's because it would be absolutely true if time travel existed this way the major problem with time travel is grammar yeah there is a book of grammar called The Time Traveler's Handbook of 1000 and 1/10 formations however most readers get as far as the future semi conditionally modified some inverted play go past subjunctive intentional before giving up and in fact in later editions of the book all the pages Beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs so nobody has ever read farther than this in the book so they just refuse to print any of the other packages right and that's the other favorite line there for me is and they determined that futureperfect was eliminated as a verb tense since it was discovered not to be not to be part 3 at the restaurant at the end of the universe zaphod gets an unexpected phone call At the restaurant at the end of the universe zaphod gets an unexpected phone call from Marvin he has been in the car part for a considerable number of Millennia the group goes down to the car park and has Marvin help them steal a sleek black ship on the ship Marvin reveals he can read the ultimate question in Arthur's brain wave patterns but doesn't the ship they steal is a sun diving stunt ship heading for a son Marvin has to stay behind to use the partially operational emergency teleport system to save the other 4 Ford and Arthur end up on another spaceship and encounter joggers they discover they are on ship be of the golga frensham arc Fleet the goal differential has convinced a useless third of their population that their planet was doomed everybody was going to be evacuated on one of three arks the thinkers and ship a the workers and ship see and everybody else and ship be they sent ship be out first because it would be good for morale for the other ships to arrive on a planet where they could get a good haircut and a clean telephones so if you remember we did the radio series and the lp at the same time and there were two different versions yes the radio series had the quickly evolving species and the lp introduced a character named hotblack desiato who's the lead singer of a band called Disaster Area the book goes with the hot black desiato disaster area and he is here at the restaurant and he is dead for tax reasons for tax reasons a Ford me top black and has his Nan conversation with him he goes back to the table and here's where they put in something I thought was absolutely wonderful that wasn't on the lp or the radio see well they would you like to meet the meat and then a large dairy animal this is as they described it comes over to the table and entices them to decide on which cuts of himself that they would like to enjoy very bizarre I still laugh because I've heard this kind of thing before about whether you're a vegetarian or you know what is omnivore what it whatever you happen to enjoy eating and they talk about how they can't eat something with a face right but it but it's freaky to remember that it's in the movie or the TV show this character TV made and it is it's disturbing you describing you know cuts of himself that would taste delicious okay after Arthur gets thoroughly disgusted by the concept of the meat he decides that he wants to green salad and tells the bovine animal animal that that's what he wanted and then there's a discussion about how vegetables don't enjoy being eaten either very funny that he doesn't want something that is asking him to eat it and see if I said that's better than eating an animal that doesn't want to be eating that's that's not the point and he thinks about it and he realizes what's a fight as saying makes perfect sense however he still horrified it is absolutely true that if you bred an animal that wants to be eating it's so much better but it makes it worse somehow right after the the animal Gets Ready takes the orders cuz I think it's day 5 is it or is it Forward he says give us for rare steaks and hurry up returns to Arthur and says oh no problem I'll just go off and kill myself and don't worry about it I'll be very Humane the whole dish of the day sequence I believe is outstanding and I really wish you would have thought of it for the album but we didn't talk about this when we talked about the album because I've tried to forget it this whole segment where this would be is filled with a full minute of a song by the band Mr rudge notify and his cataclysmic End listening to that was about the most painful 60 seconds I ever experience I'll do it again do it again please we want more but I still love that at the end there when they're all digging in their steaks and trillion you know takes a moment and before she takes a look again and she just dig right in and then Ford turns to Arthur and his hairs man what's eating you right he's those little Jabs oh man it's funny how forward is always looking for an opportunity to dig at Arthur absolutely yes 4 Words representation here in this sequence of events where he's actually digging at Arthur all the time is something that apparently was intentional with Adams I think he intended for that relationship to be different than it appears to be we're led to believe that they're the best of friends the best of buddies and he wouldn't be able to live without him as I read in some additional material that I was looking at that really isn't the relationship that Ford has with Arthur Arthur's relationship with Ford is a friendship one but for his relationship with Arthur was one of convenience what was mentioned in the supplemental material that I was reading is more in line with the way it's represented in the infocomm game because that game was directed if you will buy Adams and his group so he wanted it to be more representative what was discussed was that Ford wasn't really intending to go to find Arthur and get him off the Earth he was only intending to go there and return his towel yes before he left Earth and then based on what happened with Prosser Ford got pissed off at Prosser and said screw this I'm taking Arthur with me it just happened. Of circumstance exactly and I think that's where all those jokes about monkey man and you know 8 descended life-form and all that stuff comes from is cuz he really doesn't have a lot of respect for the guy he's just a friend you know yes so they still have the character Max who's the MC of the universe ending show and he's doing the group introductions and like in the radio series send the lp he introduced the group from Sirius B and they all bark yes and yes in the radio series there's no joke and on the lp he says we lay it all at your door of course and this is very poetic but I think it's intended meaning is lost it is in the book though he gets it right okay this time he says well this is all your fault you realize that right so the universe is ending and he's blaming it on the dog okay so alright I know I heard that I'm in the Book of Mormon, thinks so the universe is ending and he says this is now I see I admit that I mean I don't have to say no no no I think words were okay because I made a note about it why is it always the wise their fault what did they do and I didn't even dissociate the idea though there's a dog you always blame it on the dog now you've met you have educated me hello guys it's funny in the radio series and the Heart of Gold go the long way around to get to the restaurant at the end of the universe which is eventually to be built on the planet magrathea Marvin got a job as a valet I've wondered why the Heart of Gold was left all alone all that time yes I like in this book Dead safe I basically just gives the ship to Journey Wheel in the radio series The Heart of Gold has just been sitting on the planet magrathea and then the restaurant is built and he happens to be there it's like but why has the Heart of Gold not been discovered in all that time here the restaurant is on the Frog star it's not on magrathea and zef I just gave the ship to proof he went to the restaurant so I liked I'd like to in the book that the way this played out much more than I The ship is already Boop proof he went to the restaurant so I liked I liked in the book that the way this played out much more than I do in the radio show I agree it does seem more satisfying at the end of the universe has a cubicle type machine that sobers you up yes they mentioned in the radio series the penalties for operating a spacecraft Under the Influence so that solves the issue right it also removes the pre-programming of your return destination after the meal so it was real forward was all drunk as you got to read and zaphod sticks him in this machine and sober perfect we need one of those in every restaurant right and I think they kind of played off that Concept in the movie in a different way but they use it seemed kind of sobering up concept yes in the radio series they never explained why the Doom 2 stunt ship has a mostly working teleporter I like that the book goes into more detail and kind of explains the whole how it comes about that a ship that's only meant to crash into the sun has a partially working teleporter and I love the fact that it's an argument between the the staff that's building the ship and the for people that are paying for it yes yeah the contractors hint of people paying for it but it's on sale it absolutely killed me because I had a conversation once with a gentleman who is a plumber and he was talking about some Plumbing that work that he had done in Atlantic City he was responsible for working on the bathroom send the bathrooms in this particular hotel are chemical The Men's Rooms the urinal and I don't really know the plumbing requirements for a chemical urinal but the whole idea is that there's no water that's being used in the urinal but he was telling me that because of the Union laws and regulations every single urinal have to have water plumbed to it even though water was never an issue for all the pipes are there just every pipe is there every receipt is made and they don't even use them but they had to be there because that was the law if they're ever going to upgrade to regular flush urinals it'll be really easy well I guess that's down grade if you look at it from that perspective when the contractor and the accountant had a disagreement about the importance of the teleport he uses the term knuckle sandwich when is the last time you've ever heard the term knuckle sandwich it's been a long time but I did make that note I thought it was so funny coming from his left is a knuckle sandwich I just love when they go into the little ditty about teleporting and they talk about how disquieting it is I want comfortable it is and how their songs have been written about the how difficult teleporting is but I love this little one they said that that after they were Pete the long one with many many verses he said it but there is a shortened version of people really enjoy and it's I'll try to repeat it here it says I teleported home one night with Ron and Sid and Meg run stalled Mickey's Hardaway and I got Sydney's leg they really stress the point that the group in the stunt ship is going back in time 2 million years farther than they should zaphod sees it on a control on the ship but my favorite forced funny reference was hot black bodyguard talking about the concert he was about to perform being 576000 + 2 million years ago this is a very good example of the literary device that can make reading a book the second time or unique experience it is great when they can put in things that do not mean anything at all when you read the book the first time but have meaning and importance the second time through right in an end to that point when I was listening to this particular chapter I picked up on something that I haven't really heard red before and they go down to the Spaceport where all the ships are and I think it's 4 to remarks to zaphod well what about the personal time teleports Thing that I haven't really heard red before and they go down to the Spaceport where all the ships are and I think it's 42 remarks to zaphod well what about the personal time teleports why do we use those he sexually is saying and then they fight Cesaro that'll take me back to the Heart of Gold and he doesn't want to go there but I think it's interesting because here we are at the restaurant The End of the Universe and what I guess he's implying is that there again is some kind of boxer device you step into a little personally transport you back to your own time but they don't choose to use that right so the concert and it's not the sun diving ship and they say it's going to cause earthquakes title waves hurricanes irreparable damage to the atmosphere and all the usual things that environmentalists go on about that made me laugh so hard they said that done check your food in the planet that was hosting the concert became a paradise a year later so it all worked out correct and then they do mention even then that when they look back into how this event occurred they find vestiges of an improbability field one of the things I've noticed in the second book that he wrote is that there are certain phrases or jokes that he seems to like so much that he'll actually repeat that when he wrote his first book he like that whole part about stating the obvious so much that he wanted to make sure he included it in his first book because he doesn't know if he's going to get a second book right when forward and Arthur first got on board the Vulcan ship he does this whole thing about stating the obvious but the stating the obvious came from the disaster area concert and the telepathic race and all of that and now he's in the second book where that story is being told rather than leaving it out he writes it's worth repeating at this point the theories that 4 did come up with on his first encounter with the human beings and he tells the whole story again I really like this joke it doesn't belong in the first book so I'm going to stick it in the first book and now that I'm writing the second book this is where it belongs but I've already told the story so I'm going to tell the story again but I'm just going to start out with it's worth repeating like you really love that joke so much that you had to make sure you got it in there again you got it of course now is when Arthur and four go into the teleporter individually and they get sent to the galga frensham ship yes many funny interactions with number one and number two do mostly with number two I think but what I really kind of liked about the sequences the reference to joggers and I think you made reference who wants to last podcast something that is relevant to the time when this book was written jogging was the thing I mean it was just like way up there everybody was into the jogging and the jogging clothes in the sweat bands and all that kind of stuff so I kind of got a kick out of the pounding feet and then all the sudden you here he says joggers of course eventually number to takes them up to the captain's area the main part of the ship one of the line that I like you're talking about before where Adam is his sense of location in a sense of environment is really what pick was being but they really tickles me when he says to him that it's made from something that only appears to be white marble price and I just thought that was great what I liked is that there's the part about the gin and tonics and how something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy have a drink with the name using the same phonetics so it's pronounced gin and tonics but spelled all kinds of different ways and has brakes you know gin and tonics and all kinds of other things they also mentioned that all the drinks were named before any of the Worlds made contact with any other worlds so they They also mentioned that all the drinks were named before any of the Worlds made contact with any other worlds so this fact has caused a lot of turmoil with academics right that scenario is like watching any episode of Ancient Aliens Ancient Aliens is Spawn from the theories put forth in the book Chariots of the Gods written in 1968 by Erich von daniken there was a movie of the same name that came out in the 70s there was a very large following all through the 70s due to the book in the movie and I am not sure if those are a real inspiration for this passage or not but it would be fresh in people's minds in 1980 when this book was written where the book Chariots of the Gods looks at there's a pyramid here in a pyramid here in a pyramid here and they're all so old and none of them could have known about each other he did the same thing with gin and tonic yeah and then what I think was funny in and this is where the approach that I've been trying to take more recently in reviewing these things is what you miss in the listening is that when he first mentioned it on the ship the gin and tonics it's actually spelled j a y n m a n t o n n y x so the author and the readers both say gin and tonics so you're thinking that is the regular j.j. intonation I see which we say absolutely love but then they go into this whole thing about the structural Linguistics and and how everybody's trying to decipher how this possibly happened to the young structural Linguistics argue this point in the old structural Linguistics just give up and drown their sorrows in whiskey and soda again what's funny is when you look at it's oah is ghim Zod AHS and looking at that whiskey inside whenever help me read myself whiskey and soda but I thought that was hysterical and he missed that joke you listen like you and I do that it's a whiskey and soda thing and that comes back of course because when they make a comment that later on that up after Arthur drinks his drink he says it taste like whiskey when when the spelling of the words is part of the joke you lose it in the audio version gentle to the story but I just get the biggest kick out of number to the character and I know you've talked about it before cuz he's always barking his orders at them you know a b Douglas Adams goes on to describe him as if after he's being sort of dismissed by the captain he says he goes back into the corner and practices his eye darting movements something that actually made me laugh out loud listening to it while I was driving which I forgot totally about so we talked about number two eyes narrowing and becoming what are known in the shouting and killing people trade as cold slits the idea presumably being to give your opponent the impression that you have lost your glasses or are having difficulty keeping awake oh yeah I just love that now when I watch a Clint Eastwood movie I just wonder if he lost his glasses and he goes on to describe how the bugblatter Beast of trial and his menacing multi tooth grin was far more deadly than the straight line of someone's paste part 4 the golden friendship ship was designed to crash-land the people would survive but it would cripple the ship Beyond repair they fought in trillion end up back on the Heart of Gold was Ernie whoop their on their way to meet the man who rules the universe the man who rules the universe is a solitary old man who lives with his cat he is protected by an improv Rows that universe is a solitary old man who lives with his cat he is protected by an in probability field after meeting with the man who rules the universe zaphod in trillion leave in the Heart of Gold abandoning zarni whooped Arthur and 4 discover slartibartfast signature in a glacier they are on prehistoric Earth and the native population is dying out using a Scrabble board Arthur is trying to help them evolve he cannot imagine a world populated by the inept voga friendships Ford reminds him that he does not have to imagine it because he is already seen it after one of the natives spelled out 42 forward and Arthur came up with a method of extracting the question buried somewhere in Arthur's brain Arthur put letters out of the bag and put them on the board the question they got was what do you get when you multiply six by nine Ford and Arthur decided that they must make the most of their situation they met a couple of girls and decided to go to a party Arthur through his copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy into a river thinking he would not be wanting it anymore go forward in Arthur crash with the golga French Hens at their destination and zaphod and trillion appear back on the heart of gold and go off to meet the man who rules the Universe I always thought it was interesting that go car friction is what they call the people with an N but Goga French um with an m is the name of the planet I guess it would follow naming rules that we have here but it just seemed odd because I want to call him Coco Fringe um's yet no I says well I thought it was interesting how he did that so I want to start out with zaphod and trillion going to meet the man who ruled the universe with Zara they talk more about elections and people getting to govern and presidents and those capable of getting themselves made President should I no account be allowed to do the job all of that was in the first book but he has a little part that I really like that he adds and that starts out the major problem one of the major problems for there are several one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them so I guess I've never really thought about when I elect somebody I'm letting them do something to me but that really is exactly what you're doing so directly after that and I do appreciate that line very very much he summarizes and then he summarizes the summary and then he finally comes to the conclusion that the summary of the summary should be people are a problem and I do like that summaries correct that just gets right down to the truth of it so what I liked in the book as opposed to how the secondary phase end secondary phase ends with Lyn Tilla and Arthur getting on the heart of gold and leaving for J5 and zarni will with the man who ruled the universe but this time Zara will below was the one that was abandoned at the shack and then he got locked outside in the rain yes for at least a week which I really do love at least a week because it says just after zarni move exits and starts trying to come back in and starts banging on the door it's mentioned that the ruler of the universe takes that time to learn to talk to his table and he spends the next week talking to his table and ignoring what he thought he might be hearing noises outside garden loop is locked outside for at least a week and we have no idea how much longer but that's a back up a little tiny bit I do want to talk about a couple of things that I really liked about the interaction between zarni with mostly and the man who rules the universe but I still love the the fact that he says that all evidence is circumstantial and then he he goes on to say how can I tell if the past is in a fiction designed to account for the discrepancy between my immediate physical Sensations and my state of mind and I just love that that just blows me away I did I just think that's an incredible statement and I love the fact That that just blows me away I just I just think that's an incredible statement and I love the fact that this is Adams is understanding or at least Adams his conception of the man who should rule is he correct correct but this one question that I don't think we've ever asked why does he have a lock on this door no not bad describing his experience that's a little strange because he mentions the 6 black ships that he sees in the sky how he commonly season 6 Black Ships and occasionally sees the large white one now I originally assumed that that was the Heart of Gold but it isn't I don't think and he also mentioned seeing 6 green ones correct and we're not ever given any information about what those green 1 who the green ones are from or even the right one necessarily I have always thought that the white one was the only white one he has ever seen which is the Heart of Gold and he usually sees 6 Black Ships but sometimes he sees 6 green chips that's how I remembered it as in other galaxies or whatever are coming to let him rule them whatever Galaxy they are Milky Way I guess it has to be because the Earth was in it he rules the universe of the Galaxy when the 6 Black Ships come from our galaxy to go see him they ask him questions and he rules it and I think green ones come from a different galaxy or different part of the universe sounds good to me we don't know but sounds good I like that answer I will say that the confusion can come up with the way it is written I think I saw another ship in the sky today a big white one I've never seen a big white one cell in your listening and reading you put I think I saw add another white ship in the sky today but there is no white in there it's just he saw another ship least he thinks he did but how could he know why isn't just passed just right all right but here I have a disconnect the ruler of the universe seems to live in the now and in his Universe correct that is reinforced by his actions when he was alone with his cat he did not change his behavior for the visitors which would make sense that that's how he is and I believe that's how he is I think the first part of him talking to his cat and playing with the pencil wasn't just him getting into character after he saw the ship does that make sense it does it does bring this up because planning and scheming don't fit into that character trait previous point and I will I will say this it does specifically say when he's playing with the pencil and the paper that his process of putting the paper on the pencil and then sing the pencil on the paper and put in a big end and the little end and then drift discovering he can make a mark with it it says as he has done every day so it's like there's a really set in his mind or in his personality that allows him to reset a position and live through it again there's a term goldfish brain are you swim around the Bold Castle that is how I expect him to be he hears the ship starting up outside but so he started talking louder so sorry we couldn't hear it and that's a lot of forethought and planning and understanding sequence of events he knew exactly what he was doing when he started to drown out the sound of the ship with his voice after he saw the other two leave that then he then denied wherever they're right and here's where again is conflating all these different things that we've listened to him and talked about because it's not here in the book where they talk about some of his answers and some of the responses that he gives to the other people that come to visit him in the book They Don't Really discuss that part of it but in The Other Stories the radio show whatever they talked a great deal more about so he is capable of much farther complex Converse Some of his answers and some of the responses that he gives to the other people that come to visit him in the book They Don't Really discuss that part of it but in The Other Stories the radio show whatever they talked a great deal more about that so he is capable of much farther complex conversations and information and he decides when and where he's going to use that capability so I'm not like you say I don't see him so much as a goldfish brain although he chooses to use that when he can or will or wants to but he has a capacity far beyond what we imagine and it's not evidence there's no answer to it here you know but you're right it does seem inconsistent in the book where he contrives to make this noise so that they 5 + trillion can escape so that's Arnie whoop is stuck on the planet with him so now we want to talk about forward and Arthur on prehistoric Earth that they eventually Discover it is and when I had to talk about the radio series I didn't want to call him caveman but that's what they were called all the time but I like in the book even though that some say caveman Ford correct them and ask them do they live in caves know and then the term natives then they alternate Lee change from just using the term natives or eight men right well yeah and it's funny because we know now that indigenous population dies off I guess as a result of the gold gray Frenchman's landing on the planet in providing extra diseases that they hadn't prepared for us so the joke has always been that these are 8 descended life forms on Earth and now we know from this series of events that they are not in fact descended from apes they're descended from the golden go go French end but we we we make it to the Assumption because of the evolution that we know existed on the planet of Earth but we don't know what the gold go French in evolution was the French come from his discussion of the wandering poets that there were far more beautiful monsters and far more ravening princesses that is correct so it's a different evolutionary cycle I would say yes I like tell the Babel Fish was rendered mostly ineffective without a formal language in the minds of the prehistoric population that fit perfectly with your explanation in the other question forward was at least able to glean some vague ideas and Concepts but they said that's from his experience being all over and all these other cultures so that kept everybody at ease when he walked around the campsite or the The Village site I really enjoyed that sequence thumb and I do like how they refer to it as it seems like the Garden of Eden it's just like the Garden of Eden and then they have that discussion about eating the fruit and 4 you saying after they've decided for it keeps telling Arthur eat the fruit eat the fruit and then Arthur says that sounds like the card to me oh my gosh I just got a kick out of that another place that I mentioned one of his favorite phrases when you're listening to a book and reading a book I think it's different things jump out at you when I hear the same exact phraseology used it stands out I don't know if I notice it when I'm reading but when I'm listening to it being red I hear it so when forward and Arthur Came Upon that small village in the clearing that they eventually walked around he found a way to work in a phrase he must really like which is nothing continued to happen remember that I didn't but it it fits so well with the with the everything that we know about the info con game you know right in the first book if you remember when they were being shot at and then the cops died and all the shooting stopped he uses for a moment nothing happened then after a second or so nothing continue to happen it so we don't miss used that exact same phrase walking around the campsite and it just jumped out He uses for a moment nothing happened then after a second or so nothing continue to happen it's a week almost used that exact same phrase walking around the campsite and it just jumped out at me if I didn't catch the parallel but I love when they do that another thing that they said about the fruits in the berries that I really liked is that when you are on a planet with fruits and berries they're either going to save you or they're going to kill you so you don't eat them until you're going to die anyway soundlogic to me then you said the secret is to surviving as hitchhiker was to just eat junk food right they talked about Ford's hunting technique I'll of that sequence that he learned from a couple of product monks yes the pro light monks so forward hunt by standing and smiling long as the animal clothes with a feeling of peace and then he break his neck yeah I love that I mean it's it's just really funny because of course he says that the end of that to Arthur he says it's all about generator in the right smell it's all pheromones so the book goes on to say that this mind control is so great that an extraordinary number of people sign on to be monks but they leave the order just after they have finished their devotional training and acquired all these abilities and just before they take their final vows to stay locked in a small metal box for the rest of their lives so they sign on they learned all of this stuff and then they are banned in the order then they abandon the order as soon as they they have all this skill they finally decide that they're just going to leave the go go 4 inch rims and go out and explore and they have confirmation of their suspicions of where they are because sorry Bart fast being a little full of himself cuz he didn't just sign the glacier in 3 feet high letters but he made sure there was a giant portrait of his face in the ice okay so I'm not sure that it was slow aarti who did that I kind of approach that in a slightly different angle, I sort of thought that that was a reflection of the award in perspex that he 1 so wasn't actually started creating that in the in the fjords but it was an honorarium created by the magazines to sorry for what he had done in these creations rather than him just signing it and putting his face in it it was because he won an award for these fjords that's the award stuffed in the glacier but it's all about the interpretation isn't it it's all about the interpretation yes so forward and Arthur make their way back to the galga French onions and we get to see how they are faring on this new planet basically all they've done is formed committees I guess there's music to cuz there were bagpipes I love that about the bagpipes cuz that's so funny he's talking about the captain and now the captain is listening to the bagpipes and that he's really excited because at any moment they'll stop I just find it hysterical that the first instrument that they invent is the bagpipes I'm not even sure if they invented the bagpipes because you could go on to say that they in fact all bagpipers are a useless bastard yep they are they don't have any other instruments but they do have bagpipe yes so the captains hideously ornate bath was lost in the swamp yes and he says that they scooped out a Halo in a large Rock to make a new one that seems like a skill set the go Goga French films would not possess yeah I wondered about that too but then I remembered the kill a zap gun start a war base yep that's why they're blowing up trees on the other continent so for those who had not listened to the radio series before reading the book  Make a new one that seems like a skillset the Go-Go friendships would not possess but then I remembered that kill a zap gun all that's that's true they could just blast it start a war yep that's why they're blowing up trees on the other continent so for those who had not listened to the radio series before reading the book The reveal of the leaf being legal tender was really well done I would believe that with their limited skills for making warm clothing stuffing their tracksuits full of leaves for insulation against the coming winter was very feasible yes it made sense and discovering that they were just hoarding leaves because they were still tender makes even more sense knowing who they are I guess the New Colony on the planet. Go go friendship was a pretty silly name so they renamed their colony potential wood Wicks yeah that comes out of I just something he threw out well I'm sure they had it in committee for a few months before they decided the Platypus is a elephant designed by committee absolutely useless so Arthur being bored is trying to teach one of the prehistoric man how to play Scrabble and make him evolve and he mentions the letter q and the triple word score do you think he did the Exquisite play again like he did 1 trillion no doubt well in this show the odds are always with you yeah that's right they do like that part about the Q where he gets angry at the at the last and he throws the letter Q out into the privet Bush that I can't remember you scared as a rabbit rabbit gets eaten by a fox in the fox dies pollutes a pool of water which later of water and then she dies but all those people with the lesson that could be low yes the lesson that can be learned never throw a letter Q into a privet bush but we get to see all those characters again the rabbit and the fox here's something that I know what he was trying to do but not really happy about the way he chose to do it there might be a way of bringing the unconscious pattern in his brain forward introducing some random element that can be shaped by that pattern to write pulling Scrabble letters out of a bag blindfolded when he picked up the s in the H and he said I'm down by the eye in the tea his subconscious was used his eyes could see the letters but he was not deliberately choosing the letters correct his conscious mind was elsewhere and that allowed his subconscious to take over right pulling letters out of a bag blindfolded maybe a way to tap into the computer Matrix but it is not through Arthur's subconscious because it's unconscious there's nothing subconscious that knows where the letters are it would be totally random if they were all up and he was doing something but his peripheral vision could see letters that would be one thing but I don't like that he attributed to his subconscious mind when it's a blind pull out of a bag I can see that all right so I'll give them one little caveat that might change that to slightly remember the tiles are made by Arthur and the letters are scratched out on two little pieces of rock form and they could be felt by his fingers I'll give you that I will say that if he handmade the Scrabble tiles everyone is going to be different if he scratched the name his subconscious would know every time and every letter and there is no way his conscious mind could ever pull out that information so I will take that as a as a possibility cuz it was really bugging me that they kept saying his subconscious mind right and he's doing a blind bag That if this moment were being given an answer here but when they can come out of what do you get when you multiply 6 by 9 it's an interesting response and it's seems to have some potential parallels but I don't know because like he said in the beginning if you know the answer and the question at the same time the universe will invert himself there is a theory that if anybody ever finds out what the universe is 4 it will cease to exist and be replaced by something more bizarrely inexplicable right yes I kind of like and I we know we've repeated this number of times and addresses of approach to humor the the parallel nature of the things that he does so right here at the end of the book I'm not convinced that what we're given from this pile pole is the brainwave pattern response and the intended question for the answer that we already know as 42 I just have a little bit of trouble with that you know it but I know we're going to have a big discussion later on about the answer and therefore we're going to talk about the question and that we're going to have other discussions where we kind of Define what those things mean here at the end I think we're just playing back to what atoms has sky the beginning that should he have been able to pull out the actual answer then he may have caused this universe to disappear and be replaced by something even if the actual answer was pulled out and then poof it's gone but end and on top of that we've already to find that you've talked about it before that because we know go look a friendship memes are French in this rather are on the planet and replace the indigenous people that the process of getting the correct answer has been messed up so we're not even sure that the brain pattern that Marvin sees in Arthur's brain is the actual answer when you multiply 6 by 9 they go into fits of laughter and two girls and Mela come upon them and they think they're rioting in pain but then they discover that there were just laughing yes I love that and that's excellent sequence and when I read this part of the book and I got to the end and heat you know Arthur stalking the Mela that Mel is so glad that she doesn't have to be looking at moodily lit tubes of toothpaste because of course Just laughing yes I love that and that's excellent sequence and when I read this part of the book and I got to the end and heat you know Arthur stalking the Mela that Mel is so glad that she doesn't have to be looking at moodily lipped tubes of toothpaste because of course executive I think this was her previous she was in advertising advertising right which is again another parallel because we learned from the very first book in the very beginning most of Arthur's friends were an advertising correct so it's funny and that it's lovely the way they kind of wrap it up and I almost feel like when I get to the end of this book unlike the last book it feels like an end right and hear something I'll toss in there I don't think that Mela truly belong on the bjark know now you're right even though she was in advertising she didn't like her job that's correct so she belongs somewhere else and she may not have actually been useless bloody Looney and from everything that we have heard her say in this book leads me to believe that she didn't belong on the BR she just ended up there by circumstance yep we all have jobs we just go to everyday and then just to make sure that it was mentioned Arthur explains to Mela about The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and how he threw it into the river because he didn't think he'd be needing it anymore again and that's kind of a satisfying ending isn't it I think it is yes it but it's the How can there be another book because it's gone yeah I wonder and we don't I don't know I haven't researched it did he assume that there was going to be another book and like any author I think he would just agree to do as many books as they would let him right I don't know if the trilogy was so commonplace back then though like right now you don't you don't write a book you write a Trilogy it's just you don't start with 1 it's automatically this series yet exactly exactly well after our episode on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy we did a bonus episode where we try to answer as many of the questions that I had a reading it summer start of serious but most were just for fun so we plan to do the question-and-answer bonus episode after every block so I'm interested in hearing some of the questions you all have after reading the books so if you have a question about any of the books email or message me and I'll include it in the appropriate podcast bonus episode fantastic well I'm looking forward to our next full episode where we will be discussing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie that was released in 2005 so say goodbye Brian all right Jeff it's so hard to say goodbye but the sweet goodbye to you all all sing a song next time if that's good to you I don't hold you to it all right song from the movie