The rich and successful merchants

NotACat

Active Member
I think that a sentence quoted on Slide 2 (The Guide on Magrathea) might have been overlooked in last night's discussion: the last sentence of the first paragraph. This, coupled with the use of the word "imagine" in the previous sentence, to my mind strongly suggests that the Narrator considers these men to be ridiculously picky and spoiled.
None of them was entirely satisfactory: either the climate wasn't quite right in the later part of the afternoon, or the day was half an hour too long, or the sea was exactly the wrong shade of pink.
Maybe it's because I'm hearing that with my British inner ear, but the sarcasm is simply dripping from every syllable and I am convinced that we are not supposed to be sympathetic to these niggles: even the use of that word is suggestive.
 
I'm trying to remember how the actor read those lines in the radio version. I think he played it completely straight, using the exact same tone as he did for all the other Guide entries. I think it's funnier that way, with no commentary on all these ridiculous events in either word or tone from the narrator, until the shot of elitism at the end (which is ridiculous in a different way).
 
I know that we are not supposed to be discussing the radio series now but this passage in the radio series appears at the beginning of Fit the Second and it is the narrator talking. It has been changed to an exerpt from the Guide for the book and I don't know why. To me it sits better being the narrator.
 
it is the narrator talking. It has been changed to an exerpt from the Guide for the book and I don't know why.
If I'm not mistaken, the narrator in the radio play IS the book. It's a talking book, of course, for the radio version. In the credits it says "...and Peter Jones as The Book" (you can actually hear the capital letters).
 
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