Commentaires client les plus utiles
|
|
2 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
5.0étoiles sur 5
Be ready to meet the mice ;), Janv. 10 2007
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is a thoroughly strange book, that at the same time is oddly charming. It starts in a really weird way, with the demolition of Earth (yes, our planet) in order to build a interestellar highway. Only one man survives the end of our world: an Englishman, Arthur Dent. Arthur is saved from sure death by one of his friends, Ford Prefect, that also happened to be an alien doing some research for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (an electronic book that "tells you everything you need to know about anything", and that specially highlights the need for a towel).
Ford got a lift for them with a Vogon spaceship, where they would soon be subjected to a danger worse than death: Vogon poetry. Anyway, as nothing bad last forever, there were soon ejected into space to suffer certain and painful death, only to be rescued again just in time to begin their adventures.
Both Ford and Arthur are interesting characters, but I found Arthur's whining particularly funny. For example, and in his own words to Ford: "you are talking about a positive mental attitude and you haven't even had your planet demolished today. I woke up this morning and thought I'd have a nice relaxed day, do a bit of reading, brush the dog... It is now just after four in the afternoon and I am already being thrown out of an alien spaceship six light-years from the smoking remains of the Earth!".
There are other characters and things you will find interesting, like an eternally depressed robot (life, "loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it"), Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the Babel fish (capable of translating any language in the galaxy if you put them in your ear). There are also some scenes that appear out of the blue, but that are quite enchanting. For instance "Arthur blinked at the screens and felt he was missing something important. Suddenly he realized what it was. - Is there any tea on this spaceship?-he said".
On the whole, I highly recommend this book. Its premise is extremely original, and you will have lots of fun reading it. If you can, buy it know, and be ready to meet the mice * :)
Belen Alcat (* = you will understand that phrase only after reading this book!!!)
|
|
|
5.0étoiles sur 5
Watch out for Vogons..., Mai 12 2008
The Guide explains that it is the exception which proves the rule. It goes on to give this example.
Long ago, the Gloops of Alpha Nucleii, sited on the far side of the Galacticus Quadrant, were in thrall to the Thargs of the Grand Imperial Empire of Maxorphius. On the last evening of every bi-millennium cycle of the two Suns of Antiochus, which was, The Guide explained, the equivalent of two standard solar system weeks, Thargs from the Empire would arrive to tax the poor Gloops of all wealth produced since their last raid.
This left the Gloops permanently overdrawn at Grimgolds, the Galactic Bank, and the Gloops were pretty fed up about it.
`What can we do?' wailed the Gloops to each other after the most recent raid. `We have tried resistance, we have tried reason, we have tried running away, nothing works. `The Thargs are a zillion times stronger than us, will no more listen to reason than the putrefying sponges of Planetoid Desolatoria, and win all the running Golds in the Pan Galactic Olympics. They can never be defeated. The Thargs rule us; the Thargs rule everyone. The Thargs shall rule us for evermore.'
And so, the tyrannical reign of the Thargs continued.
The Guide flicked to the next screen and continued the tale.
Eventually, having exhausted all possible ideas for freeing themselves from the ravenous Thargs, the Gloops turned to the lawyers.
`You see,' explained the Gloops, `the Thargs are all powerful and shall rule us and everyone for evermore. What can we do?'
`Pay us in advance,' the senior lawyer demanded. The Gloops were ready for this, and had booked their lawyers' appointment the day before the Thargs were due, so as to have the necessary legal fees. These, they handed over.
The lawyers retired and deliberated. In due course they emerged from their chambers.
`Can you help us?' pleaded the Gloops. The lawyers turned to each other and nodded knowingly.
`Yes, we can.'
The Gloops were overjoyed, but a little cautious, for the Thargs were all powerful.
`How can you help us? The Thargs rule us; the Thargs rule everyone, the Thargs shall rule us for evermore.'
The lawyers looked down at the Gloops and explained.
`The Thargs rule, you say. They rule everyone. They are stronger, deafer and faster than you. It follows that if you refuse to be ruled by them you will be the exception.'
`Go on...' encouraged the Gloops.
`...And it is forewritten in all the Good Books that it is the exception which proves the rule.'
`...er...'
`So when the Thargs turn up tomorrow to tax your wealth once more, you must defy them.'
The Gloops shivered.
`Defy them? They will turn on us with their all-powerful whirlyblaagblasters, and eviscerate us to extinction.'
The lawyers smiled the smile of those who chose the right career.
`No they won't. You see, it is written that it is the exception which proves the rule, so by defying them as no one else would dare, you are the exception which proves they rule. If they continue to rule over you they will no longer have an exception to prove their rule, and will consequently no longer rule over anyone.' The lawyers beamed. `You've got them, see?'
The Gloops did not see, but they trusted the lawyers. Next day, when the Thargs arrived with their taxing ledgers, the Gloops defied them.
`We've got you,' the Gloops exulted. `We are the exception which proves that you rule. If you attempt to rule us we will no longer be the exception and your rule will not be proven.'
The Thargs turned on the Gloops with their all-powerful whirlyblaagblasters and eviscerated them.
What the lawyers had forgotten, the Guide concluded, was that if it is the exception which proves the rule, there must be an exception to this.
The only exception, states the Guide, to the rule that it is the exception which proves the rule, is that the lawyers always get their fees up front.
|
|
|
4.0étoiles sur 5
Don't Panic, Janv. 26 2007
Written by Douglas Adams, "The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" was first published in 1979 and is the first instalment of his legendary five-part trilogy. (Adams apparently attributed this to a poor grasp of arithmetic). The series started life as a radio show, before becoming a book, a television series, a play and a bath towel. After years of trying, it was finally adapted for the big screen in 2005. Douglas Adams was born in Cambridge in 1952 and died in May 2001, while working on the film's screenplay.
Arthur Dent wakes up on a Thursday morning with a raging hangover. Having left London about three years before the book opens, he now lives in England's West Country. That, however, is about to change : the local council has decided to knock down his house to make way for a bypass. Although their plans had officially been place for around nine months, they had somehow 'forgotten' to mention it to Arthur until the previous day - hence, the raging hangover. In a very bad start to the day, his hangover is interrupted by a bulldozer trundling up the garden path.
Things aren't about to get any better, either. Arthur's one-man protest is disturbed by Ford Prefect - a very good friend who drags him off to "The Horse and Groom", with the express intention of drinking several pints of bitter. The pair have been friends for around five or six years. So far as Arthur knows, Ford is an out-of-work actor from Guildford. In fact, he comes from a small planet near Betelgeuse, is a roving reporter from "The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" (imagine an interstellar Rough Guide) and has been marooned on Earth for about fifteen years. Unfortunately, it's come to his attention that the world is about to end : the Vogons, on behalf of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council, need to demolish Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Fortunately, Ford has a way out and he plans to bring Arthur with him.
After surviving the demolition and some Vogon poetry, the pair are picked up by Zaphod Beeblebrox - the two-headed, three-armed, renegade President of the Imperial Galactic Government and an old friend of Ford's. Beeblebrox has managed to 'acquire' a very stylish spaceship called 'The Heart of Gold' - a ship with a very improbable fuel source. The ship's crew is completed by Trillian, a human female, and Marvin, a paranoid android.
This is an exceptionally enjoyable, extremely funny and very easily read book - Terry Pratchett fans, in particular, should enjoy this.
|
|
|
Commentaires client les plus récents
|
de Douglas Adams
