n  Summaryn
n  n

Along with his friend, Arthur Dent escapes from Earth before it was demolished and goes for a hilarious yet intriguing trip through the galaxy.

n  Some fascinating facts related to this this book n
I thought that this was a book mainly for the younger audience, and I wouldn't enjoy it. Then I accidentally came across an interview of Elon Musk where he discussed his Hitchhiker’s-Guide-inspired Design Philosophy and told that it was this book that inspired him to make SpaceX. That, at last, convinced me to read this book. And it was an absolute joy to read.
n  n

n  Why are so many people obsessed with this book? How did it influence Elon Musk’s design philosophy?n
For knowing more about it. I am sharing the excerpts from Elon Musk's interview here.

n  Science Fiction to Realityn
Here Elon beautifully lays out the philosophical points from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which have shaped the way he thinks through tough engineering challenges.

n  Elon Musks’ Hitchhiker’s-Guide-inspired Design Philosophyn
1. "Question everything, including the question".
As Hitchhiker’s Guide teaches us, if you are given access to the Universe’s most powerful supercomputer—a system that can answer any question you throw at it—don’t waste its time with a question you haven’t properly thought through. The same goes for a beautiful human brain.
When approaching any challenge, first ask yourself, “Am I asking the right question?” Alternatively, “Am I being asked the right question?”

2. “Take ages to form your question.”
The climax of the first book in the series focuses on relaying this lesson to its readers: If you don’t understand the question in the first place, you won’t understand the answer it produces.

3. “Question your constraints.”
The world of rocket science comes with a load of constraints: Time, physical, budgetary, the list goes on. But, Elon warns, “Don’t design to your constraints without calling into question those constraints.”

4. “Don’t optimize a thing that shouldn’t exist.”
We all find ourselves in the midst of a task that suddenly seems silly. “Why am I doing this?” We are creatures of habit, and we are great at following orders. But, sometimes, we forget that orders come from creatures of habit. And, sometimes, habits must be broken in the name of efficiency and progress. SpaceX’s extremely fast-paced innovation makes it clear that they are great at putting this lesson into practice.

5. “The product errors reflect organizational errors.”
To be a great leader, you have to understand the trickle-down effect of your organizational errors. They will flow all the way down the chain, injecting themselves right into your products and services.
That goes for any level of organization, all the way up to whole societies. Starting on page 1, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy does a wonderful job poking fun at the absurdity of error-filled bureaucratic processes that trickle all the way down from a government body, forming persistent issues in the daily lives of its citizens.

n  My favourite lines from this book n

n  “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” n  
n  
n  "For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.” n  
n  
n  n    “Don’t panic.”n  n

n  Verdict n
4/5 This is one of the best Science Fiction classics out there that can make us laugh and think at the same time.

Don’t panic.

This is a wholly remarkable book.

For those of you who have NOT read Douglas Adams’ classic, drop what you’re doing right this very instant and go get a book. You can buy a copy at the bookstore, download it from Kindle, or check it out at the library.

No, seriously, literally stop what you’re doing and go get a copy and do nothing for the next three to four hours as you read this brilliant and hilarious book. Go ahead, leave work, duck out of school, cancel that appointment and just read and enjoy. Tell them Dr. Johnny Fever has prescribed this and it is necessary for your health.

Go on, it’s OK, we’ll wait for you.

(background music plays softly)

OK! You’re back! It was AMAZING! RIGHT?

Douglas Adams’ takeoff from this great start is something to read. SF? Sure. Fantasy? Probably. Adams humorous writing and good as pizza dialogue makes this GREAT. I’d call this a lovingly fun satire of 60s era weird SF, with some fun science of his own, but all tongue in cheek and entertaining.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

It's a sort of electronic book. It tells you eveything you need to know about anything. That's its job. [...] Which is exactly the sort of thing you need to know if you are an impoverished hitchhiker trying to see the marvels of the Universe for less than thirty Altairan dollars a day.

Anybody can have a brilliant idea for a good story, but it takes hard work and dedication to transform it into a magnum opus of satirical science-fiction. According to legend, Adams was lying on his back, pennyless and with a beer in his hand, somewhere down Innsbruck valley, gazing up at the starry night, thinking how great it would be to keep on hitchhiking all the way up there among the stars. The story may even be true, I don't give a hoot one way or another. I'm just grateful for the result of this flight of fancy that was first put together as a BBC radio show and later written down in a series of novels.

This here is a revisit, after almost thirty years, from my own hitchhiking youth to the current soft middle age comfortable armchair. I was afraid I would find the text silly, and there is enough inside that is chaotic and playful and improvisational, but there is also the "Heart of Gold" of the artist captured for eternity and beyond - the exuberant energy, the sense of wonder and the acid observations of human folly (making us understand we are not at the top of the evolution ladder is sort of the point if the exercise). In the introduction, Neil Gaiman refers to the author as : "tall, affable, smiling gently at a world that baffled and delighted him.", and it is this image that I see as I picture myself the hero of the journey, the Earthman Arthur Dent, who is send tumbling out into the universe one fine morning, as bulldozers gather around his modest home while up in the sky Vogonian spaceships are waiting to obliterate the Earth.

Arthur Dent finds himself marooned in space, with only an electronic guide book for wisdom and solace, but that is after all the human condition, and without a sense of humour we would have probably have slit our common throats before now. So listen to the words of wisdom printed on the good book, and get ready for the adventure of a lifetime:

... he also had a device that looked rather like a large electronic calculator. This had about a hundred tiny flat press buttons and a screen about four inches square on which any one of a million "pages" could be summoned at a moment's notice. It looked insanely complicated, and this was one of the reasons why the snug plastic cover it fitted into had the words DON'T PANIC printed on it in large friendly letters.

The plot is absurd and episodic, relying on word games, dramatic developments and wacky characters. The Brits have transformed this type of satire into an art form, starting with P G Wodehouse, who is cited as an influence by Adams, and continuing with Blackadder, Monty Python Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers and more recent shows like Red Dwarf. The Hitchhiker's Guide belongs in this Hall of Fame of intelligent and subversive entertainment, indeed it could be said to be one of the foundation stones of the whole edifice. Any attempt to explain and to describe the characters out of context is doomed for failure on my part, you simply have to be there to understand the importance of the towel in the career of Ford Perfect, the researcher-editor of the Guide; to be crushed by the ego of Zaphod Beeblebrox, president of the Galactic Council ("adventurer, ex-hippie, good-timer (crook? quite possibly), manic self-publisher, terrible bad at personal relationships, often thought to be completely out to lunch.") ; to design fjords with Slartibartfast or to sigh at the pointlessness of existence with Marvin the Paranoid Android:

Pardon me for breathing, which I never do anyway so I don't know why I bother to say it, oh God, I'm so depressed. Here's another of those self-satisfied doors. Life! Don't talk to me about life.

Suffice to say I had a great time revisiting the novel, and that I even found some interesting actual sci-fi concepts among the jokes and the satirical sketches. The Guide is very much like a smartphone with acces to Wikipedia, and The Infinite Probability Drive is a cool plot device, allowing the adveturers to travel from one corner of the universe to the other in a blink of an eye ("... we will be restoring normality just as soon as we are sure what is normal anyway."), but it was the description of motion detectors in entertainment devices that really rang a bell:

For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive - you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriantingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program.

The first book in the series ends on a cliffhanger, so I guess I have to hold on to the "a nicely chilled Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster in my hand." and hitchhike in the Heart of Gold to the next destination for Arthur Dent and his friends. Until we get to the Restaurant at the End of the Universe:

... we'll be saying a big hello to all intelligent life forms everywhere ... and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together, guys.

To look on the bright side, at least it's over.

بازخوانی چهارم هم تمام شد. هرچقدر از عشقم نسبت بهش بگم کم گفتم،
حتی بیشتر از سری‌های قبلی ازش لذت بردم و دوستش داشتم

What does Kim Jong-Il, a thong-wearing mechanic and this missing link furry fellow have to do with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
n  n
...you owe it to yourself and your family to find out.

With the plethora of wonderful reviews already written for this book by my fellow GRs, I decided instead to provide some helpful, practical advice on why reading this book might benefit my fellow goodreaders. Therefore, as both life management tool and a safety warning, I have compiled my:

Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
.
.
n  Number 5n: It’s a pleasant diversion to keep your mind occupied and pass the time while you are getting electrolysis to remove those areas patches blankets of unwanted hair:
n  n
…Yikes, somebody please get that man a Klondike Bar.

n  Number 4n: The book is smart, funny, well-written and full of wonderful commentary on the human condition and clever humor:

n   …The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

t… ‘You know,’ said Arthur, ‘it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.’tt
‘Why, what did she tell you?’tt
‘I don't know, I didn't listen.’

… Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindboggingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, ‘for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’ ‘But,’ says Man, ‘The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.’ ‘Oh dear,’ says God, ‘I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

t …For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons

t… ‘Ah,’ said Arthur, ‘this is obviously some strange usage of the word safe that I wasn't previously aware of.’n

Number 3: This gentleman DOES NOT appear in the book:

n  n

Seriously, isn’t the absence of thong-boy reason enough to give this book a chance?

Number 2: North Korea's Kim Jong- il hates this book
n  n
...and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

And finally….

Number 1: Understanding the deep, nuanced meaning at the heart of this novel will help better prepare you should you ever find yourself in a situation like this:
n  n

Don’t wait until it’s too late…for yourself and your loved ones, read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy today.

If through sharing the above bit of meaningless nonsense wisdom, I have: (i) introduced someone to a worthwhile read, or (ii)provided a means of dealing with the agonizing pain of having chunks of fur ripped from their body, or (iii) shown people a picture of a man in a thong changing a tire, or (iv) pissed off a despotic assclown, or (v) simply provided a safety tip regarding avoiding unsolicited sexual advances in the guise of impromptu gift-giving, than I feel I have accomplished something.

I only did this because I had a collection of funny pics and couldn’t figure out what else to do with them so I bootstrapped them in to a review I care.

3.5 stars.

استفاده از رگه‌های طنز در آثار فانتزی یا علمی تخیلی، کار عجیبی نیست، ما در آثاری مثل «هری پاتر» یا «تلماسه» هم گاهی با شوخی‌های نویسنده مواجه شده‌ایم. اما کسی هری پاتر و تلماسه را اثر کمدی نمی‌داند.
حالا در مجموعه‌ی «راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌زن‌ها» تعداد این شوخی‌ها آنقدر زیاد است که رسما می‌‌توانیم کتاب را ترکیبی از ژانر علمی-تخیلی و ژانر کمدی بدانیم.
و ترکیب این دو ژانر، بهتر از چیزی که انتظار داشتم درآمده و از معدود نکات مثبت کتاب است.
داگلاس آدامز داستان را ابتدا به صورت بخش‌های نیم ساعته برای پخش در رادیو بی‌بی‌سی می‌نویسد، و بعد که کارش می‌گیرد و مشهور می‌شود، از سوی ناشران پیشنهادهایی برای چاپ داستانش در قالب رمان دریافت می‌کند و سرانجام، این مجموعه آنقدر معروف و محبوب می‌شود که از روی آن فیلم و سریال و بازی کامپیوتری هم ساخته می‌شود.
در مقدمه‌ی بامزه‌ی نویسنده در آغاز کتاب (این مقدمه در ترجمه‌ی فارسیِ کتاب وجود ندارد و من آن را از نسخه‌ی انگلیسی نقل به مضمون می‌کنم) داگلاس آدامز نوشته:
n  

در زمان نوشتن کتاب، از دنیا کمی اوقاتم تلخ شده بود و نتیجه این شد که در تمام طرح‌های ذهنم برای داستان، قرار بود کره‌ی زمین نابود شود.

n
بله! داستان از این قرار است که در همان ابتدای کتاب، نویسنده موقعیتِ کمیکی خلق می‌کند که کره‌ی زمین توسط آدم فضایی‌ها به منظور احداث بزرگراه فضایی، نابود می‌شود و «آرتور دنت» که یک انسان زمینیِ از همه‌جا بی‌خبر است، با کمک دوستش «فورد پریفکت» که یک موجود فضایی است که برای تحقیق به زمین آمده، موفق به فرار از زمین قبل از نابودی آن می‌شود. (نویسنده نام فورد پریفکت را انتخاب کرده تا نشان دهد این شخصیت از قوانین زمینی بی‌اطلاع بوده، چون فورد پریفکت در واقع نام یک مدل معروف خودروی فورد ساخت بریتانیا بوده)
خلاصه که داستان درباره‌ی سفرهای فضایی جناب آرتور دنت و ماجراهای اوست.
این مجموعه در شش جلد چاپ شده که در واقع پنج جلد اول را خودِ داگلاس آدامز نوشته و جلد ششم بعد از مرگ او بر اساس یادداشت‌هایش توسط نویسنده‌ی دیگری نوشته شده است.
به طور خلاصه نظرم در مورد کتاب -حداقل جلد اولش- این است که داستان، پر از ایده‌های بسیار خلاقانه است، اما این ایده‌ها به خوبی پرداخت و اجرا نشده‌اند. مثلا نویسنده توانسته تیپ شخصیت‌های بسیار جالب و بامزه‌ای خلق کند. از «زاپود بیبلبروکس» که برای دزدیدن سفینه، رئیس جمهور کهکشان شده تا رباتی که آنقدر اطلاعات زیادی دارد که افسرده شده یا رباتی دیگر که زیادی شاد و شنگول است. اما هیچ کدام از شخصیت‌ها عمق کافی ندارند و در واقع شخصیت‌پردازیِ کتاب خوب نیست.
به علاوه داستان، تعلیق و هیجان لازم را به عنوان یک اثر علمی تخیلی ندارد. بدتر از همه این که سؤالی که برای من در حین خواندن کتاب مرتب تکرار می‌شد این بود که «خب حالا که چی؟!». میخواهم بگویم کتاب پیام روشن و درون‌مایه‌ی آشکاری مثل بعضی از علمی تخیلی‌های معروف از جمله «تلماسه» ندارد. (گرچه مقایسه‌ی تلماسه با این مجموعه خیلی هم مقایسه‌ی درستی نیست)
به نظرم هیچ‌کدام از شوخی‌های کتاب آنقدر خنده‌دار نیست که خواننده قهقهه بزند، ولی انصافاً بعضی از شوخی‌ها پیچیده و عمیق هستند و به مسائل اجتماعی- سیاسی کنایه می‌زنند.
شاید بعدها یک جلد دیگر از این مجموعه را هم بخوانم تا ببینم داستان به جای جالبی می‌رسد یا نه.

درباره‌ی ترجمه
از ترجمه به چند دلیل راضی نیستم:
• تمام کتاب به زبان محاوره یا به اصطلاح، فارسی شکسته ترجمه شده است و من از توضیحات مترجم در مقدمه‌ی کتاب در این باره قانع نشدم. شاید داستان در رادیو طور دیگری خوانده می‌شده یا شاید زبان محاوره با فضای داستان تضادی نداشته باشد، ولی ربطی به زبان اصلی کتاب ندارد.
• علاوه بر تعداد انگشت شماری غلط واضح در ترجمه‌ی کتاب، تعدادی از اصطلاحات داستان هم ترجمه‌ی دقیق یا باکیفیتی ندارند مثلا Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster ترجمه شده به مشروب الکلی رعد پان کهکشانی. در مورد اصطلاح «اتواستاپ‌زن» که ترجمه‌ی کلمه‌ی «hitchhiker» است هم، توضیحات مترجم در مقدمه برایم قانع کننده نیست. نمی‌دانم، شاید فقط منم که کلمه‌ی اتواستاپ‌زن را نشنیده‌ام و این کلمه برایم ناآشنا و وصله‌ی ناجور به زبان فارسی است. (شما تا حالا این کلمه را شنیده بودید؟) برای من «مسافر بین‌راهی» با این که می‌دانم ترجمه‌ی صددرصد دقیقی برای hitchhiker نیست، ترجمه‌ی قابل قبول‌تری است.
• بعضی قسمت‌های داستان سانسور شده‌اند مثل طرز تهیه‌ی همان مشروب الکلی رعد پان کهکشانی!
یک نکته‌ی جالب هم این که ناشر و مترجم متوجه شده‌اند اگر کلمه‌ی god را به جای «خدا» به «ایزد» ترجمه کنند، می‌توانند حداقل در مورد بحث‌های آتئیستیِ کتاب، از چنگ سانسور وزارت ارشاد بگریزند. این هم از عجایبی است که در کمتر جایی از زمین، و حتی کهکشان‌ها پیدا می‌شود!

اولین بار بود که تو ژانر پست مدرن، کتابی نیمه فانتزی نیمه علمی تخیل�� می‌خوندم، اونم با چاشنی طنز!
کتاب راهنمای کهکشان برای اتواستاپ‌زن‌ها با استفاده از طنز موقعیت و گاه اغراق‌های قابل توجه، به انتقاد و زیر سوال بردن مسائل عادی انسانی می‌پردازه.
بعضی بخش‌های کتاب رو واقعا دوست داشتم، طنزش به دل می‌نشست و آدم رو به فکر فرو می‌برد. با این حال بعضی جاها هم برام خسته‌کننده می‌شد.
تصویرسازی و شخصیت‌پردازی متوسط و گاه دم دستی بود. خلاقیت نویسنده ستودنی به نظر می‌رسید و همین‌طور فکر می‌کنم اگر کتاب رو زبان اصلی می‌خوندم بیشتر با طنزش ارتباط برقرار می‌کردم.
کتاب پایان‌بندی نداره و به جلد بعدیش وصله. یعنی انتهای کتاب وصل می‌شه به ابتدای جلد بعد که خب نظر دادن در موردش رو سخت می‌کنه. فصل‌بندی‌هاشم برای من عجیب بود چون اگر شماره‌ی فصل‌ها رو برمی‌داشتیم کل کتاب به هم متصل بود و لزوم شماره زدن رو متوجه نشدم.
من ترجمه‌ی آرش سرکوهی رو خوندم ولی گویا ترجمه فرزاد فربد بهتره.
----------
بخش‌های ماندگار کتاب:
آقای پروسر آرزو می‌کرد که الان در نقطه‌ی ت می‌بود. نقطه‌ی ت جای خاصی نبود فقط جایی بود که از نقطه‌های الف و ب و پ خیلی دور بود.
...
یکی از خصوصیات آدم‌ها که فورد هیچ وقت از اون سر در نیاورده بود، عادت عجیب و غریب اون‌ها بود به اینکه چیزهای پیش پا افتاده و بدیهیات مثل روز روشن رو دوباره و دوباره تکرار کنند.
...
اگر آدم‌ها بدون توقف، زبون و لب‌هاشون رو تکون ندن، مغزشون شروع می‌کنه به کار کردن.
...
زمان فقط یه توهمه.
...
میشه فقط برای یه لحظه هم که شده تو مهمترین چیز دنیا نباشی؟
...
دقیقا همون موقعی که آدم فکر می‌کنه زندگی از این بدتر نمی‌شه، یک اتفاقی می‌افته و آدم می‌بینه که خیلی بدتر از این هم هست.
...
خیلی دوست داشت بدونه که این چیه که تمام وقت سعی می‌کنه بهش فکر نکنه.

If you want to know the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything, this is the place to go!

Douglas Adams has been writing radio scripts for the BBC in the same vein as the Monthy Python's Flying Circus, or Rowan Atkinson's sitcom Blackadder, or even Mel Brook's Spaceballs. This cult novel is no different and quite obviously a surreal parody of the space-opera science-fiction genre. It mostly juggles with logic and wordplays, like Lewis Carroll, and quite a few episodes seem to be inspired by Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

On the whole, many dialogues include hilarious schoolboy pranks and punchlines, and the plot (the zany adventures of the last surviving human and his bizarre sidekicks across the galaxy) is quite dizzying. Not much else to take away from all that though, except that the answer to said Ultimate Question is indeed probably  forty-two .

I honestly fail to understand the appeal of this book. Can't bear to listen to it any more...

It's not you, it's me... well maybe it's also you.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. Some of the humor I liked but it was too absurd for me and it was too slow to really start.

I wish I had liked it as much as everyone else but it definitely didn't make it to my "favorite books of all time" list!

UPDATE: I finally figured out what was my issue with this book. There's a French movie called "Rrrrrrr" (similar humour to Monty Pyton) and I've had way more fun using the jokes out of context with friends than I did actually watching the movie. Recommending it was always a bit weird because it's just an okay movie but... the jokes are funny afterwards.

This summarizes exactly how I feel about this book!

طنز کتاب را خیلی درک نکردم و با خود کتاب هم آن‌چنان ارتباط برقرار نکردم.

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تاریخ تکامل هر تمدن مهمی تو کهکشان از سه مرحله مشخص و مجزا می‌گذره: زنده موندن، دانش اندوختن و تکمیل کردن دانش. به این مراحل می‌گن مراحل «چه‌جوری، چرا و کجا». برای مثال مهم‌ترین سؤال مرحله‌ی اول اینه «چه‌جوری غذا پیدا کنیم که از گشنگی نمیریم؟» مهم‌ترین سؤال مرحله‌ی دوم، «چرا غذا می‌خوریم؟» و مهم‌ترین سؤال مرحله‌ی سوم، «خوشمزه‌ترین کباب رو از کجا می‌شه خرید؟»
شاید بتوان گفت که غرب در نیمه دوم قرن بیستم درحال گذار از مرحله دوم به مرحله سوم است. مسائل و پرسش‌های مهم فلسفی و سیاسی اهمیت خود را برای اغلب مردم از دست داده‌اند، چرا که پاسخی برای آن‌ها یافت نشده و کوشش‌ها به‌جایی نرسیده یا آدمی را به‌جایی نرسانده‌اند. در غیبت این پرسش‌ها لذت یا همان مرحله سوم آدامز «خوشمزه‌ترین کباب رو از کجا می‌شه خرید؟» به دغدغه اصلی بدل شده ‌است. پیش‌گفتار مترجم- صفحات ۹- ۱۰ کتاب
واقعاً عجیبه. دقیقاً همون موقعی که آدم فکر می‌کنه زندگی از این بدتر نمی‌شه، یه اتفاقی می‌افته و آدم می‌بینه که خیلی بدتر از این هم هست. صفحه‌ی ۱۰۶ کتاب