Consider this the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Forum

MithLuin

MithLuin

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Staff member
Apologies for not having a new forum for the new class, but please, make yourselves at home here. Hopefully, we'll rename it shortly.

Towels in Hitchhiker's Guide are like pocket handkerchiefs in the Hobbit.
 
I'm a little disappointed there wasn't any discussion for Boethius. But I suppose it's a bit late now.

I'm finding the HGttG class somewhat odd, because although this is probably one of the easier books we've read, the discussions have been even more over-my-head than usual. The discussion is still enjoyable, but it's a little frustrating not being able to understand half of what's being talked about. Maybe I just need to listen to the class videos a few more times and see if I can pick up a bit more each time.
 
Anyone who wants to discuss Boethius can make a thread in the Past Topics forum and see if anyone bites. I'm not sure people knew about the messageboard while the class was going on, unfortunately.
 
Hooray! Now we can properly address all the hottest Hitchhiker's Guide- related topics, such as "What was the question again?" and "Just how bad was the movie, anyway?"
 
I started reading at chapter 1, and then went back to read the Prologue after listening to the first half of the first lecture. So my immediate thoughts are on the Prologue - since it's what I read most recently. But here's what struck me:
  • Referring to money as "small green pieces of paper" - this is specifically our American dollar, right? I don't recall ever seeing any British currency that could be characterized as "green"... So that's kind of an interesting choice for a British author, perhaps. It could be the most convenient currency to use for this purpose (well known and easily recognizable as money based on color), but perhaps also a dig at American-style capitalism? Something else?
  • The narrator's level of knowledge is curious here (doubtless for comic effect). He/she is privy to the unexpressed thoughts of the unnamed girl, to the extent that the narrator can assert that the girl "suddenly realized" what was wrong with the world and "she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place." And yet the narrator claims that, because the earth ended before the girl could get to a phone, "the idea was lost for ever." (Of course, the telephone call, if made, would have been to another person who would have died along with the girl.)
 
I don't know that I ever saw an answer to the question I asked last night. Is it normal to express probabilities exclusively as powers of two? If not, is there a significance to the narrator doing so?
 
I've never seen a probability expressed in powers of two; binary operates on powers of two, but I can't think how that would be relevant here. My wild guess is that phone numbers in that area in that era started with 2.
 
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