Re: Douglas Adams, was RE: Fruitcakes was Re: Kentum/satem

 --- Keith Gaughan wrote:

> From: Maarten van Beek [mailto:dungeonmaster@ALMARAN.NET]
>
> > > ... "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy by Douglas Adams.
> > > It's a book every geek in the US and UK has read.)
> >
> > And in The Netherlands too... I know people who printed the whole damns
> > series off of the internet on the university computers (even though it
> > can be purchased, both in English and Dutch, at every decent bookstore
> > in the country).
... Though I wouldn't recommend the Dutch translation. It admit, that the
book is almost intranslatable, but this is really a classical example of
how it should not be done: translating not only the story, but also the
names and even the locations (Tricia McMillan becomes Trees Jansma, Ford
Prefect becomes Amro Bank, London becomes Amsterdam, cricket becomes hockey,
etc. This translation makes it look like an extraordinary silly book,
missing the point that it tries to catch by translating everything.

> Which reminds me - has anybody got the new book? I saw it in
> a display in Waterstones on the way to work this morning. Must
> get it myself.
You mean the fifth part of what was originally "A trilogy in four parts",
called "Mostly Harmless"? I finished reading it a few weeks ago.

Douglas Adams is always nice. But where the first two books are really
great in every respect, the third book is IMO much less interesting and
the fourth book sometimes even difficult to get through. The fifth book
has more or less the same level as the fourth, or worse. It doesn't add
anything new to the story; it is rather a continuation (not to use the
word repetition) of the preceding stories, with one big difference: almost
every unresolved question of the earlier parts is solved at the end. Where
almost every preceding book has sort of an open end, this is definitely
the end of everything.
I got a strong impression that Adams had fallen out of love with his
characters when he wrote this book; he doesn't succeed at all in bringing
them to life.
But I repeat: Douglas Adams is always nice, and "Mostly harmless" surely
contains some really nice bits. It really a pity that he died (last year,
IIRC).

Jan




=====
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought,
wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that
happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great
comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." --- J.
Michael Straczynski

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