October 07 Book Club Meeting
"Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"
By Douglas Adams
| Photos |
Greetings, fellow humanists. It's Fall once gain (barely), which means it'll soon be time for the October Classic. Not the World Series, but a book that's been on the best-seller list since it's publication in 1979 - Douglas Adams legendary The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This literary/humanistic classic has never lost its appeal as a witty, brilliant tour-de-force. Space travel was never so entertaining. Here are a couple of reviews from Amazon.com.
| By | Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) |
No matter how many times I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I've read it quite a few times already, it never fails to thrill me and induce bouts of almost uncontrollably hearty laughter. With this novel, Douglas Adams gave life to a phenomenon that will long outlive his tragically short life, delighting millions of readers for untold years to come. I'm not sure if science fiction had ever seen anything like this before 1979. This is science fiction made to laugh at itself while honoring its rich tradition, but it is much more than that. Adams' peculiarly dead-on humor also draws deeply from the well of sociology, philosophy, and of course science. Whenever Adams encountered a sacred cow of any sort, he milked it dry before moving on. Beneath the surface of utter hilarity, Adams actually used his sarcasm and wit to make some rather poignant statements about this silly thing called life and the manner in which we are going about living it. This is one reason the book is so well-suited for multiple readings-a high level of enjoyment is guaranteed each time around, and there are always new insights to be gained from Adams' underlying, oftentimes subtle, ideas and approach.
A Work of Genius, | By | mao_soup |
I just reread this book after ten years. The first time I read it was in the summer after 8th grade. I wanted to see if this was as good as I remember it and I can honestly say that I was surprised that this book is just as funny to me now as it was then. I don't think a book exists with funnier asides and narration in the entire corpus of the written word. This book is not about characterization --if you are looking for that go read Orson Scott Card. This book is about blatant and unabashed mind-boggling creativity that would amaze even the most creative among us. Adams is truly a master at taking seemingly minute and trivial plot details and working them back into the novel in meaningful and hilarious ways. That is why I like this--it is random, but not for the sake of being random, something I overlooked when I first read it. He works all teh asides and funny Guide entries right back into the novel so that seemingly pointless details come back around to guide the entire course of the novel.
When: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 at 1:30
Where:
Art and Elaine Brody
1125 Camino del Rio
(off Cathedral Oaks, between Tuckers Grove and Highway 154)
692-8898
Marty Shapiro
249 Savona Ave
Goleta CA 93117
(805) 968-0478
martinshapiro@cox.net