May 8
Good, but not that good
I went to watch Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy last night, based on the original book by Douglas Adams, and which has already been made into a highly acclaimed radio series and television show. I quite enjoyed it and it was reasonably faithful to the original without adding anything particularly brilliant or terrible. I can recommend it as a mildly diverting entertainment, but it is not a patch on some other SF film out there.
One observation: HGTG is a story written with a nod to the the bureacratic nightmare Britain of the 1970s. It is hard to believe that Adams did not have the regulatory state in mind when he mocked the process in which our modest anti-hero, Arthur Dent, wakes up to find that his house is about to be demolished by a bunch of stiff-necked Vogons determined to build an intergalatic superhighway. It is a nice sendup of compulsory purchase laws or what is known as the power of eminent domain in the United States. There are other sly digs against religion and creationism, not to mention the very idea of Man being at the centre of the universe.
It was a nice film but could have been so much better with so much more zest. Pity.
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Bonfire of the Vanities, week #97
Welcome to week #97 of the Bonfire, the Sith Edition. Many Dark Jedi have submitted their works of evil, attempting to become the next Lord of the Sith, along with their lame evil and twisted excuses.
The radio series came before the books. It’s all very confusing, but at least it’s certain that the HHGTTG was originally a radio series.