And Another Thing

"And Another Thing…" is a Hitchhiker's, alright.

Yet again, it's a book which sings the blues of people's nature, nature's nature, profits, prophets, and even some gods. Don't forget the apoxalyptic coincidences, of course. And Douglas Adams's school uniform (sans the short trousers¹). The book is equipped with an almost-Adamsian wit and a lot of fascinating footnotes, sidenotes and subetherlinks.

I have promised myself that I shall get back to the longer reviews, with me quite liberally sharing the link to my bookwyrm profile with friends, family and the literally-inclined women I talk to on the dating apps². You know, to look substantial. Not that anyone will actually read these reviews, so I should amend it to "to feel substantial". So here are my outtakes.

Eoin (pronounced "Owen"), the author of this book, manages to predict quite well the war fatigue we have observing in the West by describing people being shocked by exploding planets, the first couple of times it was televised. But then it just became a TV routine.

There's also the notion of selling stuff to people. The author is giving a fair treatment to the unfair, but very precise science of scams and confidence tricks and suffests salespeople to first and foremost ensure the comfort of selees.

Then this whole thing with endings and middles in chapter 12 is something deeper than just a hedge for book seven. Which, let's be real, won't happen unless Disney buys the Hitchhiker Guide. But then, as a citizen of Earth, I would get worried because it would be not unlike how the book six has started. And we all know how it middled. On the other hand, as a citizen of Earth, I probably should be worried about other things, which, just like Hitchhiker's books, have that nasty property of ending exponentially fast. So yes, the way that beginnings and endings are treated in this final chapter, reminding us that the endings are just a optic illusion sometimes, regretfully, caused by the beholder ceasing to be able to behold.

¹ — When we say "sans short trousers", what we mean is that the trousers are quite proper here, not that there will be some nudity involved. Sorry for bringing your hopes up, if I have aroused your imagination. ² — So far, none of them is from Reading, but neither am I at the end of my dating, merely in the middle.

Non mi era mai stato così difficile aprire la prima pagina di un libro. Se siete qua, sicuramente avrete letto i precedenti 5 capitoli della Saga più geniale che mente umana abbia mai concepito. La Guida Galattica è più di un libro. E' un Formaggio. I più svegli di voi si saranno sicuramente accorti che il buon vecchio Douglas ci ha abbandonati un po' di anni fa.

E questo nuovo capitolo!? E' stato affidato a Eoin Colfer. Non avevo la più pallida idea di chi fosse, ma una volta che ho saputo di questo nuovo capitolo, l'enorme peso delle mie aspettative si è andato ad aggiungere a quelli già presenti sulla sua penna.

Può la Guida andare avanti senza Adams? Assolutamente no. Infatti Adams non è morto. Neanche Gesù ha lasciato prove così evidenti della sua resurrezione. Adams è resuscitato, si è seduto accanto ad Eoin e insieme hanno scritto questo capitolo. Non so se è il migliore della saga, ma non vi tradisce. E' la Guida. E' li! Non è un surrogato o un compromesso.

Pericolo scampato!