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

I've figured out nearly every small joke, pun, and reference in every Douglas Adams book - quite a task, especially when you're not British - but I still don't quite get this one in "Life, the Universe, and Everything." At the end of the chapter in which Zapo Bibrok 5 * 10 to the 8th is being massaged by a Soolfinian girl from beyong the Cloudworlds of Yaga on the beaches of primeval Vod, Adams observes that a "magician wandered along the beach, but no one needed him." Is this connected to anything else in the novel, or does it refer to a political event in 1982 that I'm unaware of, since I was negative 2 at the time, or did that magician just happen to be there, and Adams felt it was prudent to chronicle his presence? Or am I just not British enough to get it?

Hey??? where did you find that??? That part seems to be missing from my book! What chapter is it? Which page???
HEEEELP!!!! I just thought I had read the whole book...

I didn't realize any of the little random things in the books were supposed to have secret meanings. Which ones do?

Well, everything in his books makes sense - to some degree. (Depends on your personal definition of "sense," I suppose - I guess mine is rather broad.) Well, actually, a lot of it doesn't makes sense, but it all means something. Example: bistromathics.

My interpretation is that the primeval surroundings were so astoundingly beautiful that they possessed their own unique "magic", thus rendering the parlour tricks of any prestidigitator redundant.

That's the way I saw it too, but this "secret meaning" stuff has made me think I'm missing something.

I thought that meant that Beeblebrox's fifty-thousand-greats grandfather and his young lady friend were making quite enough magic of their own...

Yep, that bit is definitely there. I've read all 5 of the books several times each, and I can tell you that it *is* there.

It's the last sentence of chapter 15 of 'Life, the Universe and Everything', but the page will depend on which edition of The Book you have. The one I have on my lap is the Trilogy in Four Parts (page 378).

Cheers!

Ah, thank you. Your conjecturing has put the issue at ease in my mind, if not rendered it completely clear. That was a rather obtuse statement, I think, but guess they can't ALL be perfect.