The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Fits 1 & 2 (1 Point)

 Oh man this is so refreshing. It’s so nice to listen to something so fun and lighthearted in 2020 considering, well, everything. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy combines the imagination and adventure of classic science fiction with the goofy comedy and biting satire of 80s/90s era British sketch comedy like A Bit of Fry and Laurie. I love how Adams mines comedy from exposition, which can be dry and boring. As a matter of fact, Adams weaponizes the dryness of exposition; the way characters say such ridiculous things so matter-of-factly makes up a good amount of the humor. It never gets old because Adams seemingly has a bottomless hat to pull creative and hilarious ideas from. There’s a fun irony to Adams establishing that Earth isn’t special (mostly harmless) while also applying Earthly concepts to his expansive universe. For example, the reason Earth is destroyed is to make way for a byline, just like how Arthur’s house was to be demolished to make way for a byline. Does that make Earth more or less special? In universe it’s almost like a chicken or the egg scenario: did Earth come up with these ideas first or did other species? Of course, in reality the reason for this is for the irony, but I’m insane and I overthink these things sometimes.

 

            It’s interesting how much the audio element adds to the story. While I listened to a few audio books this semester, they didn’t have as much production as this. They only had the text and the narrator to work with which results in essentially one person reading a book to you, with maybe some music and the occasional sound effect here and there. While some audio books get full casts and soundtracks, they still can’t recreate magical moments like Ford and Arthur reacting to Vogon poetry. The voice actors are allowed to shape the characters more since they are far more involved in the process, leading to more realized characters. While it works great for a fast-paced story mainly based around dialogue and/or action, I wonder how well it would work for a more dramatic and introspective work. I feel at that point it’d basically be an audio book.

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