Skip to main content

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy | Book Review

 The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams


A relatively short book. Funny, humorous and quite easy to read. Which I first thought to be otherwise. I was so immersed in the book from the start that I completed it in one go. It took me around a half dozen hours, a relatively slow speed i suppose.

Anyway, it was interesting from the very first pages. There was some wicked dark humor. In very first couple of pages the Earth is destroyed by Vogons in order to a create a spatial bypass. These Vogons are also responsible and famous for reading out their puking and unbearable poetry to whomever who would listen and torturing them to death. 


On every other page we are on a completely different part of the universe, with the most quirkiest and memorable characters possibly imagined. Let it be our main protagonist Arthur Dent, his joyously nihilist and dark humoured friend Ford Perfect, the two headed narcissistic Zaphod or be it 'the paranoid' robot Marvin, who is chronically depressed because he is kept idle in spite of having heck of artificial intelligence, who is my personal favorite character in the book. And who would forget Frankie and Benjy, the mastermind rats. 

However with all its humorous tone, there are serious issues the author try to suggest in his satirical writing. Well I didnt get most of it, but no one really did. Meaning of life, as he suggests in book is, number '42'. Well it seems that the answer is quite absurd and dubious despite being certain, but in fact it is the very question of whether life has a meaning, is absurd than the answer itself. The author maybe humorously mocks our curiosity suggesting that how futile it is to ask such question, which we already know we would have no answer for. Also the authors mocks the today's obsession for scientific materialism with his wicked simple writing style. Maybe Marvin is representation of that here. And small this human species and Earth is compared to the grand vastness of the Universe. 

Its a great book. There are many sequels to the book, it was just, I think an introductory book for following sequels to come. Hoping to read them soon.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pyaasa | Movie Review

Pyaasa - 1957 Directed By : Guru Dutt One of the true pleasures of watching Pyaasa is Guru Dutt's face and his genuine expressions. It doesn't seem like he is playing a character; he is playing himself. Such is the power of those expressions. The genuineness of eyes, the horror in the same eyes when he is exposed to the dirty existence of social hypocrisies and selfishness. Or genuine delight over simplest of things. Or the childlike wonder about the world around him. Everything about that face felt so real and human.  Here is an actor who knows art of acting. While others are waving their hands obsessively, exaggerating expressions, speaking dramatically and mechanically, leaving no traces of subtlety; Dutt is subtle, hardly exaggerating or waving his hands or making faces. He is still. His every word leaves an impact, whether he is angry, sad, disappointed, horrified or happy. Every emotion is portrayed to its utmost perfection. Here is someone who is magical, mys...

#Day 66, An Old Man And His Precious Tapri Filled With Classic Books

As I was crossing a street in some part of Jalgaon, I came across a little book shop. It was a like a typical Indian tapri. To be clear it indeed was a  tapri . The old man, the owner of that shop, evidently had to sustain by selling cigarettes, paanmasalas ,  gutkas and similar stuff. Presumably he couldn't sustain himself by selling only the books. And the books too, which no one reads anymore. I stopped to have a look. English Classics interested me more than anything else. Sadly they were the most torn out pieces amongst the whole) entire bunch. My eyes smiled after detecting George Eliot, Henry James, Thackeray and alike. What suprised me the most however was the fact that how passionate the old man was while showing and talking about his books. Particularly when I said he had very good bunch of classic books. He grew more and more passionate as I was looking for everything in his little tapri . And he knew each and every book and could discern what each particular book ...

The White Tiger | Movie Review

The White Tiger - 2021 Directed By : Ramin Bahrani The White Tiger have many kind of problems, but they are not very stark. They are not significant, but still quite obstruct this film to be a lot better than what it is. This is awkward, lukewarm and confusing film throughout, but enjoying nonetheless. As an adaptation of Arvind Adiga's Booker Prize winning book, this film is somewhat accurate and faithful to its source material. The book was also quite lukewarm and confusing. And if I am allowed to be little more critical, it was gimmicky. And the film somewhat makes that gimmick much more obvious and visible here. There are instances where you have to join the universal opinion and question your own judgment because of it. When you read a book or watch a film, people are so crazed about that piece of work, but you don't see the greatness of the work which the people around you are referring to. And more often than not, you question your own judgement in that case ...