He was into computers and the numeral for the symbol * was 42.
The * here means variable or whatever you want. So the answer the computer Deep Thought came back with was in a baby computer talk just before he/it expired. This is the the actual answer to the question, and it has upset all those adherents to Bob ever since they first heard nonbelievers utter it.
Lol randumb humor taken seriously because it was in a book.
Random is also the name of the MCs daughter.
I think these stories are ready for rewrites for better comedy and character development. The salt it takes is unwarranted. It is Rick and Morty who pirate and bastardize HGttG
I don't think he was into computers at the level of caring about globbing and the ASCII table. I don't remember anything like that from his writing, except one off-hand mention of Prolog in Dirk Gently—but I believe that was going through an inexplicable mainstream hype cycle at the time. He was a consumer through and through: notice how all his robot and appliance jokes are about dogshit user experience and never about implementation.
The joke is that it's a number so it sounds like the answer to an arithmetic problem so it's funni
He was heavy into Macintosh home computers and at least read up on it extensively, if not tried his hand at programming. He never let on about that one final joke, and even said it was a random number. But he was pulling our leg. The answer is famously and not that cryptically that there is no inherent meaning to life. It’s all up to you on how to take it.
I suppose the natural reference point (given that we're talking about British redditoid comedy writers) would be Hex from Discworld. IMO the execution is only so-so, but it points very directly at experiences like "programming for the first time and getting cryptic errors" and "university lab at the dawn of the computer age". I never got anything like that from Adams. >The answer is famously and not that cryptically that there is no inherent meaning to life. It’s all up to you on how to take it.
That's a point of the broader storyline, sure, but in the moment of the scene I think he was just looking for a good gag that'd also steer the story in a useful direction. That's all the reason for 42.
11 months ago
Anonymous
>No no no. There was no joke made in this comedy series. He couldn't have been the slightest bit interested in computers enough to have made such a hidden joke, even if it does align perfectly with the point of the books subtext plot. Here, I shall say reddit again
NI
11 months ago
Anonymous
I'm saying there is a joke but it's just the obvious thing you laugh at rather than some insufferable Nabokovian cryptogram
11 months ago
Anonymous
Sometimes things align just so and you think there HAS to be intelligent intent behind it but no, it's just random happenstance
And sometime the author you don't like is witty and intelligent enough to write something like this. Move along, geez.
11 months ago
Anonymous
I like him too much to think he'd write this
11 months ago
Anonymous
>I like him too much to want to believe he'd write something this well.
What the frick is the matter with zoomers?
This is not what "death of the author" is for.
11 months ago
Anonymous
I like Douglas Adams. I think he was funny. I don't think this thing is funny, or very clever. It's not good. It's bad.
It wouldn't even be my first choice from the ASCII table to signify this message. I'd sooner pick the space (32), or the underscore (95) (as an empty cursor).
He insisted that no, frick off, it's just a random number, and I believe him. Isn't it much truer to the spirit of the thing for it to be a random number anyway?
He was into computers and the numeral for the symbol * was 42.
The * here means variable or whatever you want. So the answer the computer Deep Thought came back with was in a baby computer talk just before he/it expired. This is the the actual answer to the question, and it has upset all those adherents to Bob ever since they first heard nonbelievers utter it.
Actually in the last book they take a taxi to a bar. They call for taxi 42. The question is: What taxi should we take to the pub?
That’s a random coincidence
Random is also the name of the MCs daughter.
I think these stories are ready for rewrites for better comedy and character development. The salt it takes is unwarranted. It is Rick and Morty who pirate and bastardize HGttG
>I think these stories are ready for rewrites
They get rewritten with each adapation from radio series to novels to tv show to film.
>They get rewritten with each
The man’s been dead a while now.
I like drinking so it makes sense.
I don't think he was into computers at the level of caring about globbing and the ASCII table. I don't remember anything like that from his writing, except one off-hand mention of Prolog in Dirk Gently—but I believe that was going through an inexplicable mainstream hype cycle at the time. He was a consumer through and through: notice how all his robot and appliance jokes are about dogshit user experience and never about implementation.
The joke is that it's a number so it sounds like the answer to an arithmetic problem so it's funni
He was heavy into Macintosh home computers and at least read up on it extensively, if not tried his hand at programming. He never let on about that one final joke, and even said it was a random number. But he was pulling our leg. The answer is famously and not that cryptically that there is no inherent meaning to life. It’s all up to you on how to take it.
I suppose the natural reference point (given that we're talking about British redditoid comedy writers) would be Hex from Discworld. IMO the execution is only so-so, but it points very directly at experiences like "programming for the first time and getting cryptic errors" and "university lab at the dawn of the computer age". I never got anything like that from Adams.
>The answer is famously and not that cryptically that there is no inherent meaning to life. It’s all up to you on how to take it.
That's a point of the broader storyline, sure, but in the moment of the scene I think he was just looking for a good gag that'd also steer the story in a useful direction. That's all the reason for 42.
>No no no. There was no joke made in this comedy series. He couldn't have been the slightest bit interested in computers enough to have made such a hidden joke, even if it does align perfectly with the point of the books subtext plot. Here, I shall say reddit again
NI
I'm saying there is a joke but it's just the obvious thing you laugh at rather than some insufferable Nabokovian cryptogram
And sometime the author you don't like is witty and intelligent enough to write something like this. Move along, geez.
I like him too much to think he'd write this
>I like him too much to want to believe he'd write something this well.
What the frick is the matter with zoomers?
This is not what "death of the author" is for.
I like Douglas Adams. I think he was funny. I don't think this thing is funny, or very clever. It's not good. It's bad.
It wouldn't even be my first choice from the ASCII table to signify this message. I'd sooner pick the space (32), or the underscore (95) (as an empty cursor).
He insisted that no, frick off, it's just a random number, and I believe him. Isn't it much truer to the spirit of the thing for it to be a random number anyway?
Oh shit
Lol randumb humor taken seriously because it was in a book.
Sometimes things align just so and you think there HAS to be intelligent intent behind it but no, it's just random happenstance