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

Hi,

great to meet you on Saturday -- for some reason my main machine's connection is, um, peculiar today, but in any case:

A784280

It is only in its very early stages at this point, but your gracious assistance, that would be a favour I would accept gratefully.

Until soon, I hope:

Andrew

Many thanks for this and likewise, it was great to meet you too Andrew.

I'll have a look at it as soon as I've got a spare minute and I'll get straight back to you.

Ah, most excellent.

And, by the way, do you need a bass player?

Ah, Andrew, wonderful! No sooner had I started, on your recommendation, At Swim Two Birds, do you post me this most pithy critique after the style of the drunken auld scribbler himself. Excellent stuff - I very much enjoyed it.


Now, if you're after getting this into the *Edited* Guide, you're going to have to do a bit of extra work on it, namely, you're going to have to explain the in-joke, as it were, to the initiated. I know what you're on about because I'm reading At Swim as we speak, and I'm familiar with author, great bloody fool of a man so he was! But to those not familiar with the work or the man (and his personas) you'd need to really explain yourself a bit more. You know, that he had lots of writing personas, and that they were Flan, Brian, Myles etc...

Maybe explain that you are actually writing the critique in the style of the book itself. This kind of thing. Lovely writing style, mind. Great stuff. And I'm alright for a bass player at the moment, thanks, but I'll holler loudly if ever I need one!

Cheers.

Glad you enjoyed this -- it is in the VERY early stages.

As for making it clear to New Readers what is going on, I had intended to do this also in the style of the drunk geezer himself. I hadn't worked out how to but your message, for some reason, has inspired me, and I intend to do a section FOR NEW READERS being a summary of what has gone before ... (if this doesn't make sense I shall say no more but let you get there by yourself).

Thanks for the advice!

Andrew

Excellent, excellent, I jolly well look forward to it! I'm enjoying At Swim, too - thank you once again for the recommendation. Now, when you're ready, get the Beckett Trilogy - you'll love it, by jove, and if you don't, then you'll hate it.

Regards.

Just bought two by Douglas Coupland, actually -- will try and get the Beckett trilogy from the library.

Am going to the prom tonight! Yea the Prom season etc.

See y'around

'Girlfriend in a Coma' is excellent.

One of the two I bought today. I love Generation X, too, especially the ending -- your Li Po story reminded me of that (with the fish, and the bird grazing the character, the slightly strange, almost miraculous character the story took on).

Ever read any Kurt Vonnegut?

No, but it's always being recommended to me. Any you think are worth it? Actually!! I think I may have read one of his books, come to think of it. Damn! I can't quite remember. It'll come to me.

The one I like best (so far) is Breakfast of Champions, partly because of its apparent inanity (it is anything but) and partly for its childish illustrations but mostly because of the "Indivisible Band Of Light" moment (you'll see) which is one of those light-switched-on-suddenly moments that can make you weep. The whole book has been described as a crystal seed around which the story forms in your own mind, and I find this to be true.

For more on what a crystal seed is and a very sinister but beautiful picture of the world, Cat's Cradle is one of his more conventionally written books but one of the best.

His most highly-regarded one (possibly because of subject matter) is Slaughterhouse 5, which is about his experiences in the bombing of Dresden. Mostly.

Bluebeard is one I am trying to get my hands on ... whenever.

Very entertaining (but disappointingly short) is God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian. I have to tell you the premise because it's so delightful. Dr. Jack Kevorkian assists the suicide of Kurt Vonnegut, and then resuscitates him, in order that Kurt Vonnegut may have near-death experiences, visit the afterlife and talk to -- and (this is the fabric of the book) interview -- the deceased, in particular asking them about their reactions to modern events on earth, opinions on being dead, etc.

I read Girlfriend In A Coma last night, and it was un-put-downable, as I know to my sleep-deprived cost. Another light-switched-on-suddenly moment, one to re-read. In the dark. I slept after but feel as though instead I have spent the whole night producing a high-pitched electronic keening. Don't ask me what that means. My subconscious feeds me descriptions and mostly they are accurate, if opaque.