h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well Mateys,

Its that time of year again when school courses are starting up and large homework assignments are being handed out by english teachers all over Scotland. For the higher course these are called RPRs and they involve writing 1500 words on a book/shortstory/play/poem of literary aclaim. Seeing as I love the Hitch Hiker books I have chosen to write my essay about the first of the five part triology (does anyone understand that?)

Anyways, to cut to the chase now that i have explained a little of the background information. -- I am having a little trouble deciding which aspect of the book to write about, I mean, other than having fun does it have any underlying themes? the characters havent really progressed that much by the end of the first book? the glorius style of Douglas Adams' writing? Or something completely different?

I would appreciate any help that you absolutely stunningly kick ass people could dole out because i know that it will be a hard ship to take any time from your extremely busy schedules...

Your affectionatey

~ M (Oh, another question, what is the character limit on Nicknames?)

If you're very lucky, the Great God Adams might visit you himself with a revelation. Failing that, here's a thought.

I once read a reviewer's of a Terry Pratchett book that said he was "Less coarse than Tom Sharpe and less cynical than Douglas Adams". I'd have to agree. Hitchhiker's seems to me to have an underlying cynic.....cinycis..... sarcastic depression about it. The futility of life, the irrelevance of making any effort, the arbitrary nature of fate. If any one character sums up Mr Adam's attitude, its Marvin: "Life, Loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it". Spin this out a bit and you should have enough bovine scatology for an English Lit. essay.

To agree with Ploppy, cynicism is a good one to choose. Or you might like to try "Use of the Deus ex machina". This might be especially good cos you can spend some time explaining what a deus ex machina is and where they are usually to be found. Plus, foreign phrases always impress examiners, don't they?

I wrote my Masters dissertation on H2G2, as it happens. But that's probably not a great help to you, or indeed anyone, since my MA was in Translation and it was about the commercially-available Spanish translation of H2G2 and why it isn't very good. On the whole it wasn't very exciting, though I did manage to come up with quite a good Spanish adaptation of "What's so bad about being drunk/Ask a glass of water". Whether that was worth three months research is anyone's guess, really...

Or you could do it on the whole '42' aspect - there's a really good site (the link's on my page - "Deep Thought", right at the top) about all the occurances of the number 42 throughout history and in movies and books etc.

Just a thought!!

Well guys, thanks are flying at all of you who took the time to respond to my message... to those of you who didnt....

Thankies again

~ M

if this is still at all usefull i recently did a large scale author study on the man himself (Douglas Adams) i used words like thought provoking, truly bizarre, odly believable, deeply cynical, seems to rely mainly on the assumption that everyone in the universe is basically self obsessed, disilusioned and, unserprisingly, mad. This is probably not alot of use, but i did get an A

thank you Jenny- as always any help is greatly appreciatd

Well
Once again thanks are going out to you all. My final topic is--

'an exploration of the cynical nature of the text, 'A hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' by douglas adams'

Thanking you all kindly

~ M

sounds good. it's got potential and at least you're actually thinking it through- I never did with mine. but hey i never actually cared about it (and yet i'm not at uni doing english- bizarre)!
S.

hey, can we get to read that RPR when you're done with it??

to who ever asked if they could read my RPR when it is finished- the answer is yes, ill post it on my page when its done

~ M

can't wait

ditto

I'd love to hear it too.