The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

It was immediately apparent why this book is a classic and how it captures the heart of most. I knew that I was not going to get entirely captured by the language style, as the absurdity and deliberate games felt false to me. I wonder if my overly exercised foreign language muscle is the cause or perhaps my very under-exercised absurd humor and science fiction muscles. Still the commentary on the absurdity of the human experience and our extremely self-centered points of view sit well with me. It may have even influenced the easy name for this blog, to not take myself too seriously, to remember the sheer number of things I don’t know or understand, even as I actively partake in dedicated efforts to try and know them. At the dog park, I catch myself enthusiastically participating with the other dog parents discussing the behavior of dogs. Every now and again I catch myself reminding the group that, if dogs begin their interactions with nose to butt, then as well as we think we may be doing, there is too much that we don’t understand. I feel this is a similar insight to the idea that mice commissioned and paid for the two earths and that they are the ones experimenting on us. I love the idea that 42 as an answer can only be understood once the question is understood, and that only the next generation computer can produce the question, and that the most advanced computer itself can only design the next generation. What beautiful, poetic commentary on the human condition and the benefits of forward evolution. The tone was so familiar that I stopped reading to read the book jacket. I cannot fathom how much Monty Python and that group have influenced modern thought and humor. It felt good to enjoy a book that was not entirely made for me, and to still glean so much value from it. 

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