#The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[shortace]

Like Ford Prefect, I do quite like humans, but also remain desperately worried about the number of things most of them don't know about.

#the hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy #the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy #ford prefect

[rhube]

Hey, who wants to see a fanzine?

Us oldies talk about them from time to time, but it occurs to me that many of you have probably never even see one.

I have a few saved. I even built a wooden box to store them in in CDT:

No, the camera does not lie. I got the dimensions quite wrong for storing an A4 magazine.

I think I should have at least 6. But for some reason, there were only 2 in the box. Possibly selected to take to university with me? I really hope the others are in my mum's attic or something.

But anyway, these are the two I have:

Covers and artwork throughout provided by fanartists, some of it pretty impressive. I found a penpal who was a professional artist (Darrel Bevan) through Mostly Harmless.

Mostly Harmless was the fanzine of ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha - the official fanclub for the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I signed up to it using a form in the back of the fifth novel, also called Mostly Harmless.

Here's some of the typical contents:

A Presitorial from the club's president and an editorial from the zine's editor. News about stuff like AGMs. Fanfiction. Interviews. A diary of meet-ups etc.

Before the Internet, stuff like this was often the only way to find other SFF geeks. SFF was regarded as a bit of a niche interest, and if you were a teenage girl in the UK in the 90s it was virtually impossible to find anyone who shared your interests (maybe some of you were luckier than me, but this was my experience - not one male friends of a similar age relate to, but the boys who liked SF in school would NEVER have talked to me about it).

So this was how you heard about meet-ups and conventions. I cannot stress this enough: there was no Internet. And people didn't put this stuff in your local newspaper.

Of course, I was too young to go to the meet-ups, but I did get my dad to take me to the convention, Lazlar Lyricon II. And through Pseud's Corner (at the back) I answered an ad for penpals and got myself 2.

Everyone had pseudonyms, like we have usernames now. I initially chose the name Spacehippy. But even though the club kept a record about pseudonyms AND HAD BOASTED ABOUT BEING ABLE TO IDENTIFY PEOPLE FROM THEM IN THE PREVIOUS ISSUE, I was mercilessly mocked for only including that when I submitted my first piece of fanfiction. This:

Here they are, being mean about it in the intro:

As a teenager, I was so embarrassed by this that I changed my pseud to Rubarb (note spelling) which they corrected :-/// to Rhubarb. One of my penpals shorten this to Rhube and I decided I liked it. The rest is history...

There was also this, Towel Corner, which is literally just people spotting the number 42 out and about and being nerdy about it:

Or this fun quiz on the back, which was actually an advert for a convention, but you can see I filled it out anyway. With a calligraphy pen, no less!

(I had not seen Father Ted at this point? Why did I circle A??)

Here's some more fanart:

I really wish I had the others! One of them had a poetry competition, which included one of my favourite poems ever:

Leaves in the Autumn Breeze

Leaves in the autumn breeze

Blow around.

Amazing. 25 years later I still have it memorised...

This was just... it was a lifeline of silliness and geekery to a lonely teenager. I would take these to school with me and excitedly read them on the bus and at break.

They were a connection to a wider world where loving SF - or just loving anything intensely - wasn't mocked, but embraced.

Imagine if you had to push ALL your Tumblr and AO3 fannishness into one quarterly magazine that arrived through the post.

That's what fanzines were.

#fanzines #mostly harmless #the hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy #douglas adams #zz9 plural z alpha #fan history #me

[knithacker]

Don't Panic! It's Just The 'Cosmic Cutie' From The HitchHiker's Guide To The Galaxy: 👉 https://buff.ly/2XqF0q2 P.S. Happy Towel Day! #TowelDay #HHGTTG #DontPanic

#DouglasAdams #HitchhikersGuide #HitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy

#Towel Day #HHGTTG #Dont Panic #Douglas Adams #Hitchhikers Guide #Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy

[hardly-a-p3rson]

I have to stop looking on the waterstone app because I keep getting excited about books and I want them but I need to prioritise poe and dostoyevsky and maybe lovecraft

#~vani #i saw a gogol collection and got hype but i need to buy other books before that that ive saved like the virgin suicides #and hitch hikers guide to the galaxy and so on #and also id quite like to read a botanical daughter

[jdsquared]

Bava Metzia 6b

#talmud #daf yomi #bava metzia #judaism #jumblr #hitch hikers guide to the galaxy #the ​restaurant at the end of the universe #baths #Harod’s #great way to relax

[hauntswitch]

One ironic thing that I love about the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy is that Douglas Adams apparently was determined to write and create a sci-fi story that showed the future positively, to avoid it being like the depressive prediction of the future that blade runner portrayed. That being said, the first hitchhiker book starts with the main character's house being bulldozed to build a bypass by the council, then immediately after this happens, the entire earth is also destroyed for a space bypass by an intergalactic council

#post-capitalism and distain for another being's livlihood strikes again i guess #the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy #hitchhikers guide to the galaxy #hhgttg #h2g2 #the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy #god DAMN the millions of variations of the title which ones are the popular tags?!?!?!

[quasar1967]

Fantastic Films #28

April 1982

#the day the earth stood still #return of the jedi #time bandits #deadly spawn #swamp thing #doctor who #peter davison #hitch hikers guide to the galaxy

[bewildered-gh0st]

I just finished reading the Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Arthur and Ford threw the Guide away??? No no no, I do not like this, they better get it back in the next one

#hhgttg #h2g2 #hitch hikers guide to the galaxy #comedy #scifi #books #memes #ford prefect #arthur dent

[dhamaka]

21 towel related travel hacks for Towel Day

21 towel related travel hacks for Towel Day

UK Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy cover “A towel, [Douglas Adams’ Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy says] is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have” so, to celebrate the 21st anniversary of Towel Day here is a list of 21 travel hacks using towels. Dry yourself with it, or dry almost anything else Pat or rub yourself, your children or pets dry. Dry your…

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#Don&039;t panic #fun #geeky #Hitch-hikers #Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy #lifestyle #literature #towels towel day #travel hacks #travel towel

[denbo66]

Happy 60th Birthday to BBC 2 or BBC TWO. Whichever.

#bbc 2 #bbc two #late night line up #civilisation #kenneth clarke #the forsyte saga #john galsworthy #the pallisers #anthony trollope #the ascent of man #dr jacob bronowski #jacob bronowski #one man and his dog #pot black #ii #i claudius #robert graves #life on earth #david attenborough #our mutual friend #charles dickens #tinker tailor soldier spy #john le carre #alec guinness #not the nine o'clock news #the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy #douglas adams #smiley's people #the barchester chronicles #bleak house

[shortace]

I have a handbag made to look like a copy of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. And I love that it looks like a book. But I also love the way it frequently reminds me of another book. People say things like "Oh, I thought your bag was a book," or, "Did you know your handbag looks like a book?" And I always think of Ford Prefect and his theories on why humans always state the obvious.

#edgar allan poe #the raven #the hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy #douglas adams #ford prefect

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

What do you get if you multiply 6 by 9?

I left it to late too go out today. And there they were. The DFLs had all crawled out of the woodwork for the weekend. It really breaks my heart… all the fake, posey, people pretending that they live in some hip village rather than, a blighted, poverty stricken town on the south coast. I walked down one road where I used to by my groceries where you now have to dodge past a bunch of Parisian…

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#42 #b ark #dfl #douglas adams #gentrification #golgafrinchian #housing #the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy #the restaurant at the end of the universe

[spectator-ion]

QOTD: What one thing would you want everyone in the world to know?

Flying is just falling when you fall to hit the ground

#lame smp #ion void talk #asks #hitch hikers guide to the galaxy

[ecoeconomicepochs]

Background clip on the Qube / "Scientist Supreme" LoL: @21 https://youtu.be/Ad3an48aVCE?t=21

#cosmic cube #sum of 3 cubes #the question #life #the universe #everything #the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy #hitch hikers guide

[jdsquared]

On Sotah 42b, no less!

#daf yomi #talmud #judaism #jumblr #hitch hikers guide to the galaxy #forty two #42 #life the universe and everything #the ultimate answer #Rav Yochanan really knows where his towel is

[changingpathsresources]

Memories

Changing Paths challenge day 29—memories. One of my earliest memories is looking up at the constellation of Orion. I’ve always loved it. This amazing photo of Orion is from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. In the early days of the internet I used to visit this site every day. I should get back into the habit! The significance of this memory is that looking up at the stars makes you realize…

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#changing direction #Changing paths #Changing Paths blogging challenge 2023 #Douglas Adams #escaping fundamentalism #Hitch-hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy #memories