2023.06.29
Random thoughts:
* Word is Douglas Adams was depressed when writing this and it kind of shows.
* Also now I can see how Dr. Who-ish so much of his vibe was
* Also you see how heavily he leans on some tropes: seeking out oracle-types, running into the burnt out survivor of contact with some kind of cosmic horror etc.
* twice he uses "busk" in the sense of "improvise", not sure if I remembered that sense of the term.
Everybody [loses a whole other life]. Every moment of every day. Every single decision we make, every breath we draw, opens some doors and closes many others. Most of them we don't notice. Some we do. Sounds like you noticed one.
Now logic is a wonderful thing but it has, as the processes of evolution discovered, certain drawbacks. Anything that thinks logically can be fooled by something else that thinks at least as logically as it does.
There were so many different ways in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life could easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone, never mind the deeper existential problems of trying to function as a coherent consciousness in an epistemologically ambiguous physical universe.(think about this one every time you get irked by a 2FA app... but mostly I realized the "epistemologically ambiguous" really stuck with me.)
Ford even began to whistle, which was probably his mistake. Nobody likes a whistler, particularly not the divinity that shapes our ends.
[on 'Advice for a Traveler'] Get a beach house [...] A beach house doesn't even have to be on the beach. Though the best ones are. We all like to congregate at boundary conditions. [...] Where land meets water. Where earth meets air. Where body meets mind. Where space meets time. We like to be on one side, and look at the other.This is right before Arthur goes to the planet Bartledan (I deeply suspect Adams had a friend named Dan Bartle or some such), where the population just ... doesn't wish for anything. Just like "The Ruler of the Universe" (who doubts absolutely everything that's not right in front of him, and even then his senses or interpretations may be playing tricks) was a commentary on philosophical skepticism, this is DNA teasing the implications of Buddhist non-desire/non-attachment.
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.
He had had a nasty feeling that that might be an idiotic thing to do, but he did it anyway, and sure enough it had turned out to be an idiotic thing to do. You live and learn. At any rate, you live.Damn it, I was wondering where I got that line from.
"At this point I was very worried. And, I think, semiconcussed. I was down on my knees and bleeding profusely, so I did the only thing I could think of, which was to beg. I said please, for Zark's sake, don't take my ship. And don't leave me stranded in the middle of some primitive zarking forest with no medical help and a head injury. I could be in serious trouble and so could she."
"What did she say?"
"She hit me on the head with the rock again."
"I think I can confirm that that was my daughter."
"Sweet kid."
"You have to get to know her," said Arthur.
"She eases up, does she?"
"No," said Arthur, "but you get a better sense of when to duck."
"The first time I managed to save myself by the most astonishing and--I say this in all modesty--fabulous piece of ingenious quick thinking, agility, fancy footwork and self-sacrifice."
"What was the self-sacrifice?"
"I jettisoned half of a much-loved and I think irreplaceable pair of shoes."
"Why was that self-sacrifice?"
"Because they were mine!" said Ford, crossly.
"I think we have different value systems."
"Well, mine's better."