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

Hey Peanut , yes, like kind of exploding them? Like, bursting the bag? heheh. (wicked grin)

just like that

just not on the Filton interchange if you don't mind, makes Mummy say a square word when she thinks a tyre has blown out

This conjures up a wild and wonderful hootoo style feast

It starts quietly enough with veggie chilli and fried chicken eaten with a , followed by Koeksisters and lemon meringue pie.

Then it gets more abandoned with guests licking rainbow crystals out of a bag and getting drunk on homemade sherry trifle.

And it ends with people bursting crisp packets and scattering bits on the floor.

And that's without the or or

And that's without the or or

after which comes the

and wurmholes

This sounds like a fine party. The prototype for the next hootoo meet, perhaps? ....

It's amazing, you know, sometimes ....

What is? What's amazing ....

Communities can be amazing. Take a handful of people from all over, from all walks of life, put them together in a shared context, presto! magic can happen. Doesn't always, but when it does, it does. And we all come from somewhere, which shapes us, but when we get together we make a new culture. I guess that's hootoo for you.

I am very coherent tonight. . I blame mvp's journal, she's got us creating characters, right now I have Uncle Ruben who has done a painting of some scots pines, who is he? and now I have all this psychedelic dialogue in my head, but Uncle Ruben is very sane.



Back to what I was saying. Perhaps that is the enduring appeal of the road movie, people thrown together by circumstance. Or I suppose we could all end up in outer space together, heheh. That would be good. I'd get to eat well. .

The trouble with the sort of movie where you get disparate characters getting together, is that they're usually about to get on the plane which is going to be hijacked by some nasty terrorists.

There'll be a great deal of screaming and the most unpleasant characters will get killed off, before the hero scrambles in from a fighter jet,and, with the help of the beautiful air stewardess, overpowers the terrorists. And everyone lands safely, if slightly dishevelled.

What?? . Well, I'm glad that had a happy ending.

I was more thinking of, say, Little Miss Sunshine, where this family is thrown together and have to travel across America in a VW camper that breaks down all the time, then the grandfather ODs in a motel, there's Uncle Frank a gay Proust scholar, there's the kid heading for a beauty contest, there's Dwayne the teenager who hasn't spoken for months...

This sounds just as weird ... ,and nothing like any of us, , ahem, but it has a great ending also. Great film.

I have had a breakthrough with my scots pine dialogue. What??? (having never heard of the Ents) . Seriously, I am writing dialogues. I am very happy about it.

I used to love The Lord of the Rings - I read it several times. It's a great mythic story, which is humanised by the hobbits- who are basically ordinary blokes caught up in something too big for them. But I wonder about the kind of society Tolkien appears to be yearning after.

Good luck with your dialogue. Perhaps you'll post it on hootoo when you're ready.

Morning all

I still can't figure out why I never read Lord of the Rings. Perhaps I am slow to understand fantasy literature. I never saw the films either.

I wonder how the films came across to hardcore Tolkien readers?

That's an interesting insight into the Hobbits. Thanks! I always wondered what the Hobbits were about. .

So now I have to find out who Tolkien was, so I can muse further on these matters.



Well, mvp, , I appreciate you sharing details of your writing course, and your writing process, over on your journal. I get inspired by it, then a breakthrough idea takes me by surprise and I run with it. Thanks!

I think there have been a lot of breakthrough ideas in me in the last few years, queueing up for my attention. . Most of them are offbeat, like a bunch of scruffy mongrels chewing at an old orange plastic football in a park just before dark. I have probably suppressed them over the years, because they never fitted in.

I'm never going to be a writer, this I know, but it's good to allow the inner dialogue, which could lead to characters. It's always been there.

Do we all have an inner dialogue between several voices? I think it's natural.



Idea: Ahem, you just called me a scruffy mongrel

Me: Yes, chewing at an old orange plastic football in a park just before dark

Idea: Do I feel hurt about this?

Me: I think its a compliment.

Orange Plastic Football: I was once loved. I scored the winning goal. Now look at me, all chewed up and broken

Me: You're not supposed to speak.

Idea: Who's writing the script around here?



So great to see the announcements, to see that hootoo is thriving. People have worked sooo hard to keep hootoo alive, I appreciate them.

I still sometimes go all inadequate when I see the announcements, like I haven't given enough to the community, or that I'm not clever enough. Sort of like .... notice me! notice me! followed by several hours of attention seeking behaviour. . . It's a school thing, I can deal with it. .

Idea: Here have a coffee

Me: Good idea.

oh lord s, and staggers in with bunches of and , you know you are fab-u-lous dahlink, shall we celebrate that with and slow gin

seriously don't make me clout you one , you are very much part of h2g2 for what you contribute and who you are

and this thread is legend as the teenagers would say

My view on fantasy is that it needs some roots in reality.

I'd thought Tolkein had lived a sheltered life in academia, but, when I discovered he'd fought in the First World War, it put 'The Lord of the Rings' into a different perspective. There are scenes where Frodo and Sam cross the Dead Marshes that have echoes of the Somme or Paschendale.

I hadn't realised how camp the male elves were until I watched the film!


As for ideas like a "bunch of scruffy mongrels chewing at an old orange plastic football in a park just before dark"? That's about right.

Ideas don't need to be highly educated, sophisticated, cultured. They can be the thoughts of ordinary people doing ordinary things. You can have your ideas while washing up, or sitting in the .

And ideas often need to be chewed, thrown around, rejected and rescued from the rubbish. Then you have to take them home and try to turn them into or

ahh Peanut luvvy, you do make me smile, and feel warmhearted and thankyou. I am a dafty sometimes, I need to rest I think, put me feet up, consider the petunias.

petunias smiley??? I love it.

I am a bit tired right now, a couple of things in RL catching up with me, this too will pass.

That's so interesting, mvp, about Tolkien, thankyou, and for thoughts on fantasy. Funny about the elves ...

Fighting in the First World War, these poor young guys, I can't imagine how they kept their sanity at all. I remember studying the war poems of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, that was intense, poor guys, incredible expression.

That's it! About the ideas! You get it! Thanks for reminding me what I'm talking about.

(plans multidimensional travelogue (director's cut)) (with dialogue) (after a rest) (considering the petunias)

I hope you are feeling more rested CC, sounds like you could do with Maria's orange blossom , she has really comfy cushions and you can hear the fountain outside

mmmm nice.

A fountain of slow gin and a good movie.

I am resting nicely, eyes swivelling in my head like a burned out iguana. haha. I rather fancy being a burned out iguana, although burnout for real isn't much fun, I know too well. hmm

Baked bean with that?

and a blanket for your, er, tail?

a baked bean???

That is not generous is it, although I am not sure how many an iguana should have, but at least more than one...

wonders how many beans would make and iguana

Yes please! A blanket for my tail and four warm woolly socks for all my lizard paws. Feet. What do lizards have? Ahhhh this is the life.

Oh, and a baked bean and a daydream about other baked beans. ....

I'm thinking an iguana would love heated feet pads on which to rest their feet on a day like this

* offers blanket and baked bean*

heat pads or wooly socks, take you pick or both

Both! All! Every! Oh, and some huge headphones please, for my ipod, burned out iguanas need burned out iguana music played loud. hehehI I am sure your H can provide ....

Mind you, all the music I listen to sounds like burned out iguana music. ....

(eats baked bean)

Tell me about it, weather like this, sheesh! is the West Country about to go underwater for ever? Floods everywhere. We will be building the ark, I know we will.

And the slugs went in two by two, and the woodlice went in two by two ... and the reclusive howlybeeste went in alone because it didn't like anyone, and it got seasick on arks. What? What's a howleybeeste? I don't know, it just came to me ....