I had read The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy a long time ago in middle school. A friend of mine had suggested it for me to read since he noticed that my exposure to good literature was limited (I didn't read at all). I recall on my first read through of this book being very confused about what was happening. I had never read anything quite like it before and at the time I had no concept of fantasy or science fiction. I believe I liked it, mostly being entertained by the idea of a sperm whale impacting a planet. The rest of the book, I felt I should like it, but didn't understand if I did or not.
Now, many years later, after listening to all twelve episodes of the radio broadcast it makes more sense. The story is much funnier and sillier than I imagined. I feel like there was a lot lost in book translation for me, especially with how much character each of the voices had. It really reminded me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I suppose when I first read the book, I didn't know it was suppose to be a funny story full of sarcasm, I feel I must have read it very matter-of-fact like (as text in a history book).
Sarcasm really seems to be difficult in text form. I suppose a lot of how sarcasm is communicated is naturally through intonation and inflections in the voice, which makes this very sarcastic and colorful story perfect for radio.
I thought that it was a very clever commentary society (destroying Earth so that the ultimate question of the universe could not be discovered because it would put the last doctors, being psychologists, out of business) and had some fun bits relating to human psychology.
Overall, I enjoyed it immensely and I think I actually want to listen to the whole performance again.
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